Language

Communication, Speech, and Language

Dr. Hazel Blythehazel.blythe@northumbria.ac.uk

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

• Define concepts of speech, language, and communication with clear examples.

• Outline major developmental milestones in the areas of speech, language, and communication, including age ranges for each milestone.

• Explain supporting experimental evidence, including seminal studies that have shaped our understanding of language development.

• Compare nativist and experiential theoretical views of language development, discussing key proponents of each theory and their implications.

Content Overview

Nonverbal Communication

• Gaze: Involves looking at certain stimuli to communicate attention and intent. Key for initiating interactions and conveying emotions.

• Turn-taking: A fundamental aspect of communication, allowing participants to exchange ideas and maintain a conversation effectively.

• Gesture: Includes physical movements such as waving or pointing that complement or replace verbal communication.

Language

• Linguistic Universals: Identify properties shared across all human languages, supporting theories of innate language capability.

Development of Speech

• First Words: Typically emerge around 12 months, marking a significant milestone in communication.

• Vocabulary Spurt: An accelerated increase in word acquisition, often seen between 16 and 24 months.

• Words to Sentences: Transitioning from single words to two-word phrases occurs around age 2, paving the way for complex sentence structures.

Nativist vs. Experiential Theories

• Nativist Theories advocate that language ability is hardwired into humans, suggesting a biological predisposition for grammar and vocabulary acquisition.

• Experiential Theories argue that language is learned through interaction with the environment and structured teaching, emphasizing the importance of social context.

Sharing Thoughts

Communication

Definition: The act of sharing or exchanging information through various channels, including spoken language, writing, and non-verbal cues.

• Other mediums: body language, facial expressions, gestures, and even silence can convey meaning.

Language

Definition: A structured system of symbols and signals, with agreed meanings, utilized for communication (e.g., spoken sounds, sign languages, written symbols).

• Characteristics: Language is extendable and modifiable, adapting to cultural shifts and personal expression.

Speech

Definition: The expression of thoughts, feelings, or ideas verbally through articulate words.

• Properties: Involves the vocal mechanism and physiological aspects like breath control and articulatory precision.

Nonverbal Communication

• Focuses on how information is shared without spoken words, playing a crucial role in understanding and contextualizing verbal communication.

Gaze and Attention

• Developmental Order of Gaze:

  • Initially, gaze follows sounds, illustrating the importance of maternal interaction (Collis & Schaffer, 1975).

  • Infants can follow gaze starting at 2 months, with improvement as they age (Scaife & Bruner, 1975).

  • Joint attention is identified as vital for language development, enabling infants to learn from social interactions (Tomasello, 1995).

Key Findings from Gaze Research

• Joint Attention:

  • Defined as the coordinated visual attention between a child and an adult on a shared element, crucial for language acquisition.

• Attention Switching: Infants are found to label objects based on the gaze direction, highlighting its importance in vocabulary development (Dunham et al., 1993).

Turn Taking

• Early Instances:

  • Includes gaze coupling in interactions, showcasing children's developing social skills (Pan & Snow, 1999).

  • Conversational modeling observed in feeding sessions enhances children's ability to engage in dialogue (Snow, 1977).

• Importance of establishing expectations for child responses to foster social and linguistic growth.

Gesture Development

• Gestures serve as significant communicative tools; their understanding is essential for joint attention and vocabulary enhancement.

• Importance of Pointing:

  • Provides cues for joint focus and is critical for vocabulary acquisition (Harris et al., 1995).

• Variations in Gestures:

  • Some gestures, like waving, are near-universal, while others can carry different meanings depending on the cultural context.

Language and Linguistic Universals

Characteristics of Language

• All cultures utilize a language form, and all typically developing individuals will acquire it given appropriate exposure.

• Includes varied non-spoken forms such as sign languages that can effectively communicate complex ideas.

Four Linguistic Universals

1. Semanticity: The principle that sounds carry meaning, with every language having words linked to concepts.

2. Arbitrariness: No intrinsic connection between linguistic signs and their meanings.

3. Displacement: The ability to talk about absent or future events, allowing for complex conversation beyond immediate context.

4. Productivity: The capacity to create an infinite number of phrases using a limited set of grammatical rules, showcasing human creativity in language use.

Understanding Language Development

• Language acquisition evolves through comprehension (understanding) and production (speaking), involving multiple components:

  • Phonology: Sounds and their components.

  • Semantics: Meaning of words and sentences.

  • Grammar: Structure and rules governing language use.

  • Pragmatics: The context and social rules governing language.

• It's been discovered that children begin processing sounds in utero, illustrating the early nature of language engagement (DeCasper & Spence, 1986).

Facilitating Language Development

Strategies

• Child-Directed Speech: Utilizes exaggerated expressions, repetition, proximity, and a higher-pitched voice to engage infants.

• Non-verbal games (e.g., pat-a-cake) promote social interaction.

• Providing dynamic opportunities for vocalizing through mother-infant interactions to simulate turn-taking, enhancing linguistic skills.

Sensitive Periods

• The notion of sensitive periods suggests a specific timeframe during which language acquisition is most effective. Age of exposure significantly influences language learning success (Johnson & Newport, 1989).

Stages of Speech Development

• 0 months: Cooing—infants start producing vowel-like sounds.

• 6 months: Reduplicated babbling—infants produce repetitive consonant-vowel combinations.

• 12 months: First words emerge, marking the beginning of meaningful speech.

• 2-5 years: Transition from two-word combinations to more complex multi-word utterances, with increasing syntactical complexity.

First Words and Vocabulary Acquisition

• Infants can learn the meanings of familiar words as early as 6-9 months (Bergelson & Swingley, 2012).

• Receptive language develops before expressive language, as children begin to understand spoken language long before they are capable of verbal communication themselves.

• The vocabulary spurt, which can occur between 16 and 24 months, signifies an essential transition in language capability.

• Children often utilize holophrases, where a single word conveys an entire idea or phrase.

From Words to Sentences

• The growth of vocabulary accelerates during the toddler years, leading to telegraphic speech (two-word utterances) around age 2.

• As children mature, they develop intricate sentence structures, relying heavily on their expanding vocabulary and understanding of grammatical constructs (Fenson et al., 1994).

Theories of Language Development

Nativist Perspective

• Claims that language acquisition is an inherent ability, suggesting children are born with a natural capacity for language (Pinker, 1994).

• Emphasizes that linguistic skills develop efficiently, even when language input is incomplete or imperfect (Saffran et al., 1996).

Experiential Perspective

• Proposes that language is acquired through environmental exposure and structured learning.

• Highlights that children learn regularities in language through their interactions and experiences, denoting the role of social context in language development.

Discussion Point

• Evaluation Question: How easy is it for children to learn language? Discuss factors affecting language acquisition and the varying degrees of challenges faced by children in diverse environments.