Language development in childhood.ppt
- 1. Language A means of communication.
- 2. Language Special form of communication in which we learn complex rules to manipulate symbols that can be used to generate an endless number of meaningful sentences. Communication Set of Symbols Complex Rules Endless Number of Meaningful Sentences
- 3. Communication Ability to use sounds, smells, or gestures to exchange information.
- 5. Structural Properties Phonology phonemes Semantics morphemes syntax
- 6. All languages contain…. Phonemes The smallest units of sound in a language. English has about 44 phonemes. Morphemes The smallest unit of meaningful sound. Can be words like a or but. prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense How many phonemes in cats? How many morphemes in cats? How many phonemes does platypus have?
- 7. Language Structure Grammar: The rules of a language. Semantics - rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. Syntax: the order of words in a language. Is this the White House or the House White?
- 8. First Steps to Speech 2 months: cooing 6 months: babbling 8 to 11 months: babbling includes intonation 1 year: first words appear
- 9. Language Acquisition Stages that we learn language… 1. Babbling Stage make speech sounds both in and out of native language First able to discriminate speech sounds 2. Holophrastic Stage/one word stage Productive language begins (speaking meaningful words) Receptive language (comprehension of meaning) 3. Telegraphic Stage/two word stage Grammatically correct 2 word saying Contains mostly nouns and verbs Follows rules of syntax Overgeneralization – extending the application of a rule to items that are excluded from it in the language norm
- 11. How do we learn language?
- 12. Language Development VIDEO 6 Months Vocalization with intonation Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes 12 Months Babies begin to produce one or two recognizable words (esp. content word); producing single-word sentences. 18 Months-Video Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words
- 13. Language Development 24 Months-video 1) at least 50 different words 2) “telegraphic” sentences (no function words and grammatical morphemes) e.g., “Mommy juice”, “baby fall down” 3) reflecting the order of the language e.g., “kiss baby”, “baby kiss” 4) creatively combining words e.g., “more outside”, “all gone cookie”
- 14. Language Development 36 Months-Video Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name Handles three word sentences easily About 90% of what child says should be intelligible
- 15. Language Development 4 Years Knows names of familiar animals Names common objects in picture books or magazines Knows one or more colors Often indulges in make-believe 5 Years Can count to ten Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct 6 Years Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful
- 16. Language Development 7 Years Should be able to tell time to quarter hour Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words 8 Years All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions Can carry on conversation at rather adult level
- 17. Language in Middle Childhood Vocabulary continues to increase; receptive vocabulary is about 40,000 words by age 10 Phonemes mastered and aspects of intonation better understood Increases in mastery of grammar and syntax, along with improvement in pragmatic skills Development of metalinguistic awareness Increasing sophistication in language play
- 18. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Language as a Learned Skill Learning theory based on behaviorist theories of learning - operant conditioning, modeling Language viewed as behavior learned like other skills Parents also provide models of advanced language that child then imitates
- 19. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Language As A Learned Skill Criticisms of theory: - parents do not explicitly teach rule systems - pace of language development difficult to explain through learning principles - ignores evidence that humans biologically predisposed to detect language stimuli
- 20. Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner • Association – sights and sounds • Imitation – modeling others • Reinforcement- by smiles and hugs
- 21. 21 Behaviorism: Say what I say Skinner: language behavior is the production of correct responses to stimuli through reinforcement. Language learning is the result of 1) imitation (word-for- word repetition), 2) practice (repetitive manipulation of form), 3) feedback on success (positive reinforcement), and 4) habit formation. The quality and quantity of the language that the child hears, as well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the environment, would shape the child’s language behavior.
- 22. 22 Behaviorism: Say what I say Children’s imitations are not random: Their imitation is selective and based on what they are currently learning. They choose to imitate something they have already begun to understand, rather than simply imitating what is available in the environment. Children’s practice of new language forms The way they practice new forms is very similar to the way foreign language students do substitution drills. Their practice of language forms is also selective and reflects what they would like to learn. They are often in charge of the conversation with adults.
- 23. Nativist Theory ‘Born to Talk’ Noam Chomsky’s Viewpoints Language is an innate human capability- Children are biologically programmed for language and language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop.
- 24. Nativist Theory Chomsky’s Viewpoints Cont’d The environment makes only a basic contribution, that is, the availability of people who speak to the child. Therefore, the child’s biological endowment (LAD) will do the rest. Children are born with a specific innate ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to.
- 25. 25 Nativism: It’s all in your mind LAD (an imaginary “black box” existing somewhere in the brain): LAD contains the principles which are universal to all human languages (i.e.. Universal Grammar – UG). For the LAD to work, children need access only to samples of a natural language, which serve as a trigger to activate the device. Once the LAD is activated, children are able to discover the structure of the language to be learned by matching the innate knowledge of basic grammatical principles (UG) to the structures of the particular language in the environment.
- 26. The Nativist Theory ‘Born to Talk’ Specific physical structures in humans specialized for producing/processing language No single organ is LAD Constellation of several brain areas that are specialized to process linguistic input and their connections (Wernicke’s area, Broca’s area)
- 28. How Language Works Left hemisphere – more verbal side. We literally speak with half a brain. The dominant location of language for more than 95% of people, including a sizable majority of left-handers Right hemisphere – responsible for the inflection and overall musical quality that lend important emphasis to verbal communication
- 29. The Nativist Theory Existence of critical periods for language development supports nativist position - children deprived of language have poorer language skills - older children and adults have greater difficulty learning second language - older children and adults show less recovery from brain damage affecting language areas
- 30. 30 Critical Period: It’s all in your mind The biological basis for the nativist position: The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) – Lenneberg: There is a specific and limited time period (i.e., “critical period”) for the LAD to work successfully. The best evidence for the CPH is that virtually every child learns language on a similar schedule in spite of different environments.
- 31. Critical Periods Critical Period – sensitive period for mastering certain aspects of language Children not exposed to language by age 7 gradually lose ability to master any language Learning a language as an adult you will always speak with an accent Most easily master language as a child
- 33. 33 The Interactionist Position Piaget: Language is dependent upon and springs from cognitive development. That is, children’s cognitive development determines their language development. (e.g., the use of words as “bigger” or “more” depends on children’s understanding of the concepts they represent.) He argued that the developing cognitive understanding is built on the interaction between the child and the things which can be observed, touched, and manipulated.
- 34. 34 The Interactionist Position Vygotsky: sociocultural theory of human mental processing. He argued that language develops primarily from social interaction. Zone of proximal development (ZPD): a level that a child is able to do when there is support from interaction with a more advanced interlocutor. That is, a supportive interactive environment enables children to advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance than s/he would be able to do independently. He observed the importance of conversations which children have with adults and with other children and saw in these conversations the origins of both language and thought.
- 35. 35 Connectionism Though both Nativism and connectionism look at the cognitive aspect of language acquisition, yet they differ in the following: Connectionists hypothesize that language acquisition dose not require a separate “module of the mind” but can be explained in terms of learning in general. Connectionists argue that what children need to know is essentially available in the language they are exposed to. They attribute greater importance to the role of the environment than to any innate knowledge in the learner. video
- 36. Connectionism Connectionism views language as a complex system of units which become interconnected in the mind as they are encountered together. The more often units are heard or seen together, the more likely it is that the presence of one will lead to the activation of the other. Language acquisition is not just a process of associating words with elements of external reality. It is also a process of associating words and phrases with the other words and phrases that occur with them, or words with grammatical morphemes that occur with them. 36
- 37. 37 Childhood bilingualism “Simultaneous bilinguals” Children who learn more than one language from birth. “Sequential bilinguals” Children who begin to learn a second language after they have acquired the first language.
- 38. 38 Childhood bilingualism Is it difficult for children to cope with 2 language? 1. There is little support for the myth that learning more than one language in early childhood slows down the child’s linguistic development or interferes with cognitive and academic development. 2. Bilingualism can have positive effects on abilities that are related to academic success, such as metalinguistic awareness. 3. The learning of languages for bilingual children is more related to the circumstances in which each language is learned than to any limitation in the human capacity to learn more than one language.
- 39. 39 Childhood Bilingualism Language attrition for bilinguals - “Subtractive bilingualism” (Lambert, 1987) When children are “submerged” in a second language for long periods in early schooling, they may begin to lose their native language before they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the second language. It can have negative consequences for children’s self-esteem. In some cases, children continue to be caught between two languages; not having mastered the second language, but not having continued to develop the first language.
- 40. Whorf’s Linguistic Determination Hypothesis The idea that language determines the way we think. The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past. Underestimates how much thinking occurs without language
- 41. Thinking and Language Bilingual advantage Thinking and images Thinking affects language, which then affects our thoughts.
Editor's Notes
- #8: A European visitor to the United States asked a taxi driver, “Can you please a ride to the airport me give?” This visitor has apparently not yet mastered the syntax of the English language. Syntax – in English, adjectives precede nouns Nouns precede verbs