Child Language Acquisition Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for reviewing child language acquisition concepts.

Spontaneous speech

Unplanned speech, such as a conversation.

Discourse

Any spoken or written language that is longer than a sentence.

Utterance

An uninterrupted chain of spoken or written language.

Turn taking

Yielding the floor by prolonging a pause or glancing at the next speaker.

Adjacency pairs

Dialogue that follows a set pattern of an utterance from one speaker and a response from another.

Conversational floor

The person who is currently speaking.

Yielding the conversational floor

Relinquishing one’s turn to allow another person to speak.

Status

The perceived position of a person’s authority and influence in relation to those around them.

Topic shift

The point at which speakers move from one topic to another.

Opening greeting

Standard forms to help ease participants into conversations.

Adjacency pairs

The statement and response that form the basis of a conversation.

Holding the conversational floor

When someone is about to finish his or her turn, we use strategies to determine or signal who will take over.

Clashing

When two people start to speak at the same time, and one participant must stop talking while the other continues.

Repairing

Correcting oneself when an error has been made.

Paralinguistic features

Unspoken elements of communication, such as body language, gestures, and facial expressions.

Non-fluency Features

Fillers which give us time to think and/or to announce that we are going to say something when the sound is extended.

Elision

The omission of sounds or syllables which are present in the word.

Ellipsis

The omission of a word or words in speech or writing, though the sense is still evident through the context.

Adverbs

Words or phrases which modify or add to adjectives both in written language and in speech.

Hedges and vague language

Often used to soften the force of what is said and are useful when we want to negotiate a point of view.

Discourse markers

Words or phrases which mark boundaries between one bit of conversation and another, where the speaker wishes to change the subject.

Contractions

A word or words shortened by placing an apostrophe where letters have been omitted.

Repetition

Deliberately repeat words for emphasis or unintentionally to gain thinking time in order to continue the conversation.

Vague expressions

Vague expressions can soften authoritative requests and maintain greater engagement between speakers.

Modality

Often used in conjunction with hedges, and allows us to introduce different options and compromises for negotiation between participants.

Fixed expressions

Help us to maintain a shared understanding of the culture around us.

Deixis

Refers to words in the context of the conversation, which a non-participant would not be able to make sense of.

Non-standard English

Errors in standard English and are commonly used when a speaker struggles to phrase utterances.

Prosodic features

Add to the meaning of the total discourse, even if the speakers are not consciously aware of them.

Tone

Relates to the emotion associated with the utterance.

Pitch

Whether the voice is high or low.

Speed

Relates to the pace we speak.

Volume

Loudness or softness in voice.

Pauses

Meaningful in any conversation, sometimes indicating unease and tension as well as simply when someone is thinking about what to say.

Stress

The emphasis placed on certain syllables or words.

Feedback

Signals that the listener is following the conversation.

Verbal response

‘sure’, ‘absolutely’, ‘really’, ‘I know’

Non-verbal

Facial expressions and body language- for example, smiling and hand gestures to reinforce what is being said.

Vocal expressions

For example, giggling, sighing, tutting, oohing, and aahing suggest meaning too.

Back-channeling

Giving feedback in words and sounds which lets the speaker know you are listening (e.g. ‘agreed’, ‘yeah’, ‘right’, ‘really’ ‘mmm’, ‘oh’, ‘uh huh’)