Chapter 9 PDF

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Chapter 9- Language development DEFINING LANGUAGE - Language is a form of communication---whether spoken, written, or signed---that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them - Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules. Rules describe the way language works. LANGUAGE’S RULE SYSTEMS - Phonology - Sound system of the language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be combined - Provides a basis for constructing a large and expandable set of words out of two or three dozen phonemes (basic unit of sound in a language) → smallest unit of sound that affects meaning -

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Morphology - Refers to the units of meaning involved in word formation (morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning; it is a word or a part of a word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts) - Ex. help vs. help-er (the one who helps) - Rules of morphology describe the way meaningful units (morphemes) can be combined in words - Have many jobs in grammar, such as marking tense (she walks vs. she walked) and number (she walks vs. they walk) Syntax - Involves the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences Semantics - Refers to the meaning of words and sentences. Every word has a set of semantic features, which are required attributes related to meaning Pragmatics - Appropriate use of language in different contexts - When u take turns in speaking in a discussion or use a question to convey a command, when u use polite language in appropriate situations or tell stories that are interesting, jokes that are funny, and lies that are convincing. In each of these cases, you are demonstrating that u understand the rules of ur culture for adjusting language to suit the context

INFANCY - Babbling and other vocalizations - Produce a # of vocalizations: to practice making sounds, to communicate, and to attract attention - Babies go through the following sequence during the 1st yr: - Crying. Crying can signal distress, but may signal diff things

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Cooing. 2-4 months. Gurgling sounds that are made in the back of the throat usually express pleasure during interaction with the caregiver Babbling. Produce strings of consonant-vowel combinations, such as ba,ba,ba,ba

Gestures - Showing and pointing, at abt 8 to 12 months of age - Some early gestures are symbolic, as when an infant smacks her lips to indicate food or drink - Pointing is considered by language experts to be an important index of the social aspects of language, and it follows a specific developmental sequence: from pointing without checking on adult gaze to pointing while looking back and forth bw an object and the adult - Lack of pointing is a significant indicator of problems in the infant’s communication system - A key aspect of the development of joint attention and an important index of the social aspects of language - Failure to engage in pointing also characterizes many autistic children - One study found that parents in families with high socioeconomic status (SES) were more likely to use gestures when communicating with their 14-month old infants - Further, the infants’ use of gestures at 14 months of age in high-SES families was linked to a larger vocabulary at 54 months of age Recognizing language sounds - Phonemes from languages all over the world are piped through a speaker for infants to hear. A box with a toy bear in its placed where the infant can see it. A string of identical syllables is played, and then the syllables are changed. - If the infant turns its head when the syllables change, the box lights up and the bear dances and drums, rewarding the infant for noticing the change - Demonstrated that from birth to abt 6 months of age, infants are “citizens of the world”: they recognize when sounds change most of the time, no matter what language the syllables come from. - But over the next 6 months, infants get even better at perceiving the changes in sounds from their “own” language, the one their parents speak, and they gradually lose the ability to recognize differences that are not important in their own language - Begin to detect word boundaries by 8 months of age First words - Bw abt 5-12 months, infants often indicate their first understanding of words - 10-15 months of age: 1st word and at an avg age of abt 13 months (understand abt 50 words but they can’t say that many words until abt 18 months) - Thus, in infancy receptive vocabulary (words the child understands) considerably exceeds spoken vocabulary (words the child uses) - The infant’s spoken vocabulary rapidly increases once the first word is spoken. The

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avg 18-month can speak abt 50 words, but by the age of 2, can spk abt 200 words → vocabulary spurt Overextension: tendency to apply a word to objects that are inappropriate for the word’s meaning (ex. Dada not only to father but to other men, strangers, or boys). With time,

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they decrease and eventually disappear Underextension: tendency to apply a word too narrowly; it occurs when children fail to use a word to name a relevant event or object Two-word utterances - 18-24 months: usually vocalize two-word utterances - Convey meaning w just two words, the child relies heavily on gesture, tone, and context. Children can communicate a wealth of meaning with a two-word utterance - Identification see doggie - Location book there - Repetition more milk - Nonexistence all gone - Possession my candy - Attribution big car - Agent-action mamá walk - Question where ball? - Omit many parts of speech and are remarkably succinct - Telegraphic speech: use of short and precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives - Not limited to 2 words: Mommy give ice cream and Mommy give Tommy ice cream -

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EARLY CHILDHOOD - 2-3 y/o: begin the transition from saying simple sentences that express a single proposition to saying complex sentences - All children learn the prepositions on and in before other prepositions - But, some children encounter obstacles to language development, including speech and hearing problems - Understanding phonology and morphology - During preschool years, most children gradually become more sensitive to the sounds of spoken words and become increasingly capable of producing all the sounds of their language. - By the time children are 3 y/o: they can produce all the vowel sounds and most of the consonant sounds - By the time children move beyond two-word utterances, they demonstrate a knowledge of morphology rules (plural and possessive forms of nouns, put appropriate endings on verbs, use prepositions, articles, and various forms of the verb to be) - Change in syntax and semantics - Young children learn quite early where to put the wh- word (What, Where…), but they take much longer to learn the auxiliary-inversion rule. Thus, “Where daddy is going?” and “What that girl is doing?” - Gains in semantics also characterize early childhood - Vocabulary development is dramatic. 18 months-6 yrs, young children learn words at the rate of abt one new word every waking hour. By the time they enter 1st grade, it is estimated that children know abt 14,000 words

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Fast mapping: involves children’s ability to make an initial connection bw a word and its referent after only limited exposure to the word Researchers have found that exposure to words on multiple occasions over several days results in more successful word learning than the same number of exposures in a single day Six principles in young children’s vocabulary development: - Children learn the words they hear most often. Interacting w parents, teachers, siblings, peers, and also from books. They especially benefit from encountering words they do not know - Children learn words for things and events that interest them. Parents & teachers can direct children to experience words that interest them. Playful peer interactions are especially helpful - Children learn words best in responsive and interactive contexts rather than passive contexts. Turn-taking opportunities, joint focusing experiences, and positive, sensitive socializing contexts w adults encounter the scaffolding necessary for optimal word learning. Learn words less effectively when they are passive learners - Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful. In integrated contexts rather than as isolated facts - Children learn words best when they access clear information abt word meaning. Children whose parents and teachers are sensitive to words the children might not understand and provide support and elaboration with hints abt word meaning learn words better than when parents and teachers quickly state a new word and don’t monitor whether children understand its meaning - Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered. Children who experience a large number of words and diversity in verbal stimulation develop a richer vocabulary and better understanding of grammar. Advances in Pragmatics - Young children begin to engage in extended discourse. For ex, they learn culturally specific rules of conversation and politeness and become sensitive to the need to adapt their speech in different settings - Their developing linguistic skills and increasing ability to take the perspective of others contribute to their generation of more competent narratives - As children get older, they become increasingly able to talk abt things that are not here and not now. A preschool child can tell u what she wants for lunch tomorrow, something that would not have been possible @ the two word stage of language development - 4-5 yrs: children learn to change their speech style to suit the situation - Use shorter sentences w 2 y/o. Speak more polite and formal w adult Early literacy - Early precursors of literacy and academic success include language skills, phonological and syntactic knowledge, letter identification, and conceptual knowledge abt print and its conventions and functions - The extent to which phonological awareness is linked to learning to read

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effectively varies across language to some extent Further, rate of dyslexia is higher in countries where english is spoken than in countries where the alphabet script is more phonetically pronounced Strategies for using books effectively w preschool children? - Use books to initiate conversation w young children. - Use what and why questions - Encourage children to ask questions abt stories. - Choose some books that play with language. Creative books on the alphabet, including those with rhymes, often interest young children

MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD - Alphabetic principle: the fact that the letters of the alphabet represent sounds of the language - Vocabulary, grammar, and metalinguistic awareness - Children begin to organize their mental vocab in new ways: young children typically provide a word that often follows the word in a sentence (“dog” “...barks”) - 7 y/o children begin to respond w a word that is the same part of speech as the stimulus word (“dog” “...cat”) - Categorizing becomes easier as children increase their vocab - From an avg of abt 14,000 words @ 6 y/o to abt 40,000 @ 11) - During elementary school years, children’s improvement in logical reasoning and analytical skills helps them understand such constructions as the appropriate use of comparatives and subjunctives - Metalinguistic awareness: knowledge abt language such as knowing what a preposition is or being able to discuss the sounds of a language - Allows children to think abt their language, understand what words are, and even define them - Improves considerably during the elementary school years - Also understand how to use language in culturally appropriate ways---pragmatics - By the time they enter adolescence, most children know the rules for the use of language in everyday contexts - Reading - Vocabulary development plays an important role in reading comprehension - Whole language approach: stresses that reading instruction should parallel children’s natural language learning - Beginning readers are taught to recognize whole words or even entire sentences, and to use the context of what they are reading to guess at the meaning of words - Reading materials that support the whole-language approach are whole and meaningful---children are given material in its complete form such as stories, poems - Reading and writing is connected with listening and writing skills - Most share the premise that reading should be integrated with other skills and subjects, such as science and social studies, and that it should focus on real-world material - Phonics approach: emphasizes that reading instruction should teach basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds

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Only after children have learned correspondence rules that relate spoken phonemes to the alphabet letters that are used to represent them should they be given complex reading materials such as books and poems Which is better? - Research suggests that children can benefit from both approaches, but instruction in phonics needs to be emphasized. An increasing number of experts in the field of reading now conclude that direct instruction in phonics is a key aspect of learning to read Writing - Most 4 y/o can print their first names - 5 y/o produce letters and copy short words - They gradually learn to distinguish the distinctive characteristics of letters, such as whether they lines are curved or straight, open, or closed - Through the early elementary grades, many children continue to reverse letters such as b and d and p and q - At this age, if other aspects of the child’s development are normal, letter reversals do not predict literacy problems - Children often invent spellings basing them on the sounds of words they hear - The metacognitive strategies needed to be a competent writer are linked with those required to be a competent reader bc the writing process involves competent reading and rereading during composition and revision - Researchers have found that strategy instruction involving planning, drafting, revising, and editing improve older elementary school children’s metacognitive awareness and writing competence - Most effective in improving fourth-twelfth grade students’ writing quality: strategy instruction, summarization, peer assistance, and setting goals Bilingualism and second language learning - For adults and adolescents, new vocab is easier to learn than new sounds or new grammar - Adults tend to learn a second language faster than children, but their final level of second-language attainment is not as high as children’s - Children are less sensitive to feedback, less likely to use explicit strategies, and more likely to learn a second language from large amounts of input - Some aspects of children’s ability to learn a second language are transferred more easily to the second language than other - Perform better than their single-language counterparts on tests of control of attention, concept formation, analytical reasoning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, cognitive complexity, and cognitive monitoring - More conscious of the structure of spoken and written language and better at noticing errors of grammar and meaning, skills that benefit their reading ability - But they have smaller vocab in each language Subtractive bilingualism - ELL been taught in two ways: English-only, or dual language

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Dual language is more effective bc children have difficulty learning a subject when it is taught in a language they do not understand and when both languages are integrated in the classroom, children learn the second language more readily and participate more actively

ADOLESCENCE - Be able to make strides in understanding metaphor - Satire: use of irony, derision, or wit to expose folly or wickedness (caricatures) - Much better writers than children; better at organizing ideas before they write, at distinguishing bw general and specific points as they write, at stringing together sentences that make sense, and at organizing their writing into an introduction, body, and concluding remarks - Dialect: characterized by jargon and slang by teenagers - Variety of language that is distinguished by its vocab, grammar, or pronunciation - Labels might be used to show that one belongs to the group and to reduce the seriousness of a situation ADULTHOOD AND AGING - Varies in adult years depending on such things as level of educ and social occupational roles - Vocab of indivs often continues to increase throughout most of the adult years, at least until late adulthood - Many older adults maintain or improve their knowledge of words and word meanings - In late adulthood, some decrements in language may appear - Difficulty in retrieving words to use in conversation and in understanding spoken language in certain contexts - Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon - Have difficulty in understanding speech (when rapid, when competing stimuli are present, when they cant see their environments, and when they cant see their conversation partner) - May be due to hearing loss but decline little among older adults who are healthy - Phonological skills - Typically lower in volume, slower, less precisely articulated, and less fluent (more pauses, fillers, repetition, and corrections) - But are mostly adequate for everyday communication - Nonlanguage factors may be responsible for some of the decline in language skills that occur in older adults - Slower info processing speed and a decline in working memory, especially in regard to keeping information in mind while processing, likely contribute to reduced language efficiency in older adults - Indivs with alzheimer’s especially have difficulty on tests of semantic verbal fluency, in which they have to say as many words as possible in a category - Most retain much of their ability to produce well-formed sentences until the late stages of the disease - Nonetheless, they do make more grammatical errors than older adults w/o the disease

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BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES - Evolution and the Brain’s role in language - Nervous system and vocal apparatus of humanity’s predecessors changed over hundreds of thousands or millions of years - Homo sapiens went beyond the grunting and shrieking of other animals to develop speech - Broca’s area: region of the left frontal lobe of the brain that is involved in producing words - Wernicke’s area: region of the brain’s left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension - Damage to either of these areas produces types of aphasia, which is a loss or impairment of language processing - Individuals with damage to Broca’s area have difficulty producing words correctly - While indivs with damage to Wernicke’s area have poor comprehension and often produce fluent but incomprehensible speech - Chomsky’s language acquisition device (LAD) - Noam Chomsky (1957) proposed that humans are biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way - Children are born into the world with a language acquisition device (LAD) a biological endowment that enables the child to detect certain features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics - Children are endowed by nature with the ability to detect the sounds of language, and to follow rules such as how to form plurals and ask questions ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES - Many language experts argue that a child’s experiences, the specific language to be learned, and the context in which learning takes place can strongly influence language acquisition - Michael Tomasello stresses that young children are intensely interested in their social world and that early in their development they can understand the intentions of other people - Support and involvement of caregivers and teachers greatly facilitate a child’s la...