Sounds & Words
TRUE or FALSE? Babbling is a baby's first attempt at communicating with meaning.
The first tense acquired by native English-speaking kids is:
(a) Present simple
(b) Present continuous
(c) Regular simple past
(d) Past continuous
(b) Present continuous
TRUE or FALSE? The majority of the world's kids are exposed to more than one language.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE? Heritage language learners are usually dominant in their L2.
TRUE
On average, at what age does a child produce his/her first word?
12 months
At what age do children tend to reach the two-word stage?
2 years old
What is a common myth about bilingual children?
Their lack of fluency in a language indicates less intelligence, that they will get "confused".
Do children correct the errors they produce in their L1 when adults correct them?
Maybe at that moment, but it doesn't stick over time.
What tends to happen when adults produce the same errors that children do when they imitate them?
Children know it's wrong and get frustrated.
What is MLU and what is it used for?
Mean length of utterance, used to measure complexity of children's utterances.
What is subtractive bilingualism according to Lambert?
"Losing one language to learn another"
What is another name for the Critical Period Hypothesis and what is it?
Sensitive Period Hypothesis
Window of time for L1 and L2 acquisition
L1: before age 7
L2: before onset of puberty
What are some characteristics of child-directed speech?
Delivery, pitch, intonation, sentences, stress
"Children's utterances display systematicity". What does this mean?
That they follow some sort of [implicit] rules.
Describe heritage language learners.
Children raised in a linguistic environment that is different from the dominant one in society. Sometimes find cases of incomplete acquisition ("divergent attainment").
What is the difference between the usage-based and behaviorist view on language acquisition?
Usage-based: LA is possible because of children's cognitive capacities and the opportunities they have to make connections between the language they hear and their environment.
Behaviorist: based on repetition and drilling, language is a habit.
Explain the difference between overextension and underextension and give an original example of each.
Overextension: using a word for too many things ("ice cream" to refer to anything frozen)
Underextension: not using a word enough ("bag" only for a brown paper bag but not a plastic bag or shopping bag)
Explain the wug test.
Heritage language learners are often considered a heterogenous group. Explain why.
Because they have varying exposure and use of the heritage language.
Explain the story of "Genie the Wild Child".
American feral child, kept in isolation, severe abuse, discovered at age 13, never fully developed faculty of language, not sure if due to isolation and abuse or some type of retardation or impediment.