Test 1 - The Critical Period & Language Development I (3)

what are the key predictors of production abilities?

• Age

• Clinical Factors

• Speech Input

What is the difference between critical vs sensitive period?

critical period: biologically determined period during which language acquisition MUST occur in order for language to be learned fully and correctly

sensitive period: biologically determined period during which learning must occur for development to happen correctly, but development can still occur partially after this period

Answer: sensitive period is more forgiving.

How can we test if a period is truly “critical”?

• Idea 1: Let’s deprive children of all linguistic input

  • unethical + conclusion was that there are external factors that contribute to stunted speech development than JUST no speech input

• Idea 2: Let’s test deaf & hard of hearing children

• Idea 3: Let’s study people learning a second language

  • language can be learned well

What are the key arguments of the nativist account?

• Imperfect input

  • speech that is heard by children is full of ERRORS

• Limited input

  • not enough exposure to language to determine grammar rules

• Lack of negative evidence/feedback

  • grammatically defective sentences are not consistently labelled as defective

What is the language acquisition device (LAD) (and what is it not)? How do LAD and linguistic universals jointly explain language acquisition? (explain parameter)

• LAD: theoretical component in the human brain which enables humans to acquire and produce language

  • NOT referring to an actual region

  • operates during critical period

  • key idea: children come with idea of how languages can work (NO SPECIFIC OF LANGUAGE)

• Linguistic universals: refer to features found in most languages

  • It is argued that the similarities between languages are substantial, while differences are superficial.

• Language Acquisition through Parameters

  • 1) Parameters are part of the mental framework you’re born with, and exposure to a particular language sets the parameters.

  • 2) Parameter setting is robust.

  • 3) Setting one parameter also sets the others.

What is the difference between competence and performance?

• Competence: abstract knowledge of language, judgements if we had sufficient time and memory

• Performance: sentences that we actually produce or are exposed to

Compare and contrast the nativist account with the distributional account.

• Distributional account

  • argues that learning environment is much richer than the nativists suppose (vs poverty of stimulus)

  • there is sufficient information in the input for children to be able to learn language (vs insufficient examples)

  • negative evidence/feedback can be implicit

What are the methodological challenges in conducting experiments on young children?

They can’t speak yet so researchers have to take advantage of other things they can measure

• Contingent sucking rate paradigms

• Conditioned head turn technique

• Preferential-looking technique