Theorists
What does LAD stand for?
Language Acquisition Device
Which theory of language acquisition suggests that children learn language through imitation and reinforcement?
Skinner
What did Katherine Nelson (1973) investigate and find?
Nelson placed the early words of children in to four categories: naming, action, social and modifying (descriptions). She found that around 60% of a child’s first 50 words were nouns.
What does the term 'fast mapping' refer to in language acquisition?
The ability of children to quickly learn the meaning of a word after hearing it used in a context only once or twice.
What is Scaffolding?
The active support provided by caregivers/MKOs (eg. modelling). Children will initially be heavily reliant upon support but as they become more competent, the support can be reduced.
Who was Genie and what might she prove?
Feral child. Vocabulary limited to 20 words. Supports critical period of learning hypothesis.
What term does Vygotsky use to describe the supportive interaction between a child and a more knowledgeable other, which aids language development?
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
Which tribe in Papua New Guinea was studied by anthropologists to understand language acquisition in a non-Western culture, and what key finding emerged?
The Kaluli tribe. Researchers found that children in the Kaluli culture were often not spoken to directly until they were older, yet they still learned to speak fluently, suggesting a different cultural approach to language acquisition.
What term describes the sounds babies make before forming actual words, such as "ba-ba" or "da-da"?
Babbling
What is expansion? Provide example.
When adults elaborate on a child’s utterance to provide a more complex form. Example: A child says, "Doggy run," and the adult replies, "Yes, the doggy is running very fast."
Who researched the wug test and what did it discover?
Jean Berko
Using a made-up animal to test the plural -s rule. Nearly all applied it to a noun that they had never heard before.
ich psychologist developed the idea that children go through stages of cognitive development, which also impacts their language acquisition?
Jean Piaget.
What did Ursula Bellugi (1967) find about negation or pronouns?
Negation development stages: 1) Uses ‘no’ or ‘not’ at the beginning of end of the sentence – “No shoes!” 2) Puts ‘no’ or ‘not’ inside the sentence –“I no wear shoes!” 3) Attaches negatives to auxiliary verbs - “I won’t wear shoes!” NB the main verb is not always yet in the correct tense 21. Ursula Bellugi (1967) Pronoun usage stages: 1) Uses their own name – “Katherine play.” 2) Recognises I/me pronouns – “I play”, “Me up” 3) Uses pronouns according to whether they are the subject or object position – “I play with the toy.”/ “Give it to me.”
A child refers to an apple, orange and grapefruit as a ball. What process is at work?
Overextension
List three features of CDS
Higher pitch
Exaggerated intonation patterns for key content words as children tend to imitate the stressed words
Frequent use of the child’s name and an absence of pronouns.
Questions and commands (getting the child to do something)
Questions where the w-word doesn’t appear in its usual place but where the baby must replace with a word (eg. you ate what?) 27. Repeated sentence frames. This occurs when the parent uses the same structure over and over, filling in part of it with a different word each time, e.g. ‘That’s a … ' 28. Absence of past tenses (e.g. threw, ran, played). 29. One-word utterances. 30. Use of simple sentences (e.g. Shoogle is a nice cat) 31. Omission of inflections such as plurals and possessives 32. Fewer verbs, modifiers (adjectives in front of nouns) and function words (e.g. at, my) 33. Use of concrete nouns and dynamic verbs 34. Simplification of lexis to become more general (eg. calling tulips, roses and bluebells ‘flowers’) 35. Repetition and partial repetition of the adult’s own words. 36. Use of re-castings — where the baby’s vocabulary is put into a new utterance
What was the Jim case study?
Who is the linguist that introduced the concept of the "critical period hypothesis," which suggests there is a window of time in early childhood when language acquisition is easiest?
Eric Lenneberg.
What was the 'fis' phenomenon? Which theorists investigated it?
Berko & Brown (1960) ‘Fɪs phenomenon’ - A child called his toy fish fɪs. When asked: “Is this your fɪs?”, he said no. But when asked: “Is this your fɪʃ“, he said: “Yes, my fɪs.” This is evidence that children’s perceptual abilities are often in advance of their productive abilities.
What term refers to the social rules and conventions governing language use in various contexts, such as turn-taking and politeness?
Pragmatics
What is meant by syllable reduction? Provide example.
Definition: When children simplify longer words by omitting syllables. Example: Saying "nana" for "banana" or "tele" for "television."
List all functions of Halliday's language
Instrumental function - language that is used to fulfil a need, such as to obtain food, drink or comfort. This typically includes concrete nouns.Regulatory function - language that is used to influence the behaviour of others including persuading, commanding or requesting. Interactional function - language that is used to develop relationships and ease interaction. This could include phrases like "I love you mummy" or "Thank you". Personal function - language that expresses personal opinions, attitudes and feelings including a speaker's identity. Representational/Informative function- language that is used to relay or request information.Heuristic function - language that is used to explore, learn and discover. This could include questions or a running commentary of a child's actions. Imaginative function - the use of language to tell stories and create imaginary constructs. This typically accompanies play or leisure activities.
What significant finding did Deb Roy reveal in his study regarding how children learn words and meanings?
Roy found that children often learn words through social interactions and that their vocabulary acquisition is closely linked to their exposure to words in context, especially from caregivers.
What did Brown’s research in a variety of cultures suggest about the universality of language acquisition, and how does this relate to the concept of a universal grammar?
Brown’s research indicated that while language acquisition may differ across cultures, there are universal patterns and stages that are consistent across societies. This supports Chomsky’s idea of universal grammar, suggesting that all human languages share common underlying structures.
What is underextension?
When a word is used in a limited way which does not recognise its full meaning (eg. knowing the word banana for one in real life but not for a bunch of bananas or a picture of a banana).
What is meant by expanded negation? Provide example.
Definition: Using more complex structures to express negation. Example: A child progressing to "I don’t want to go" instead of just saying "No go."