ASL
If I know how to communicate ASL in America, then I can also fluently use ASL in France
False; As nice as it sounds ASL is not universal. Sign language varies from place to place and most countries have their unique set of signs.
Phonological sounds such as babbling and cooing are important in language acquisition?
True; Language begins with the vocalizing at birth that produces the cooing and babbling we hear from babies. These sounds and stage of development may go from the vocalizing to cooing to the utterance of words as they begin to develop their vocal tract
Linguists aim to correct the way people speak
False; Linguists aim to analyze the way various people from different backgrounds speak. And to see how languages are connected or differ
Your child is too young for you to be worried about Speech progression
It is never too early to determine the developmental status of a child at any given age.
Men and women tend to speak differently from each other.
True; Men and women tend to speak differently across different cultures, languages, and speech communities. Keep in mind, stereotypes do exist, and gender and cultural norms for speaking can be broken. However, women tend to use the ‘standard’ or prestigious form of the language, more than men do.
Only spoken languages have grammatical structure
False; ASL is a very structured language just like any other language. Grammar in ASL can be expressed through eye gaze, body positioning, speed, repetition, facial expression, and the can convey verb tense, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, pronouns and so on.
Learning a second language is the same as learning your first language?
False; When children learn their first language they are exposed to its sounds,patterns, and meaning on a daily basis for hours upon hours.When it comes to learning a second language they may only be exposed to it for a couple hours a day and therefore do not have the same time and intuitive input as they would with their first language.
Some language and dialects have superiority over others
False;Children learn whichever language they are exposed to at a similar rate. When adults learn other languages, they depend on what they already know, mostly pronunciation and grammar structure.
It is too late to help your child with a speech disorder
False, it is never too late, development does stop at age 3, it continues throughout a child’s life and while it may be harder, it can be super helpful to implement coping mechanisms and improve speech abilities
Modern Americans are ruining the English language as it is grammatically and linguistically diverging from classic British English.
False; Americans are not ruining the English language as language constantly evolves over time and over regional distances. American English is a language variety of the English language.
Spoken Languages are not superior to ASL
True; Actually both spoken and signed language use the same parts of the brain and both languages are acquired in a similar way. For example, babies learning ASL babble with hands the same way a baby would babble with mouths when learning to speak
Children learn language more easily than adults
True/False; children learn language faster because their brain is developing and able to make more connections quicker making it more specialized. They have what is known as a critical period which allows for neural foundations of language to be set.
Language evolve over time
True, all languages change over time. The most common way is borrowing words from other languages, those borrowed words get adapted into the sound system and grammar.
A child that is undiagnosed is lazy or shy or even a trouble maker
False, because that child does not have the language skills to express what he/she needs or wants they withdraw into themselves, show frustration at what we consider the “smallest things”, and choose to not vocalize often.
African American English (AAE) is grammatically incorrect English.
False; AAE may not follow the grammatical rules of standard English that is determined by prestigious society, but AAE is a language variety that has its own grammatical rules and linguistic system.
Learning ASL interferes with learning English
False; ASL can actually help improve English reading/writing and also speech and speech-reading skills. Research shows that strong ASL skills can help improve English because ASL is a visual language which means every part of it is easily and fully accessible to people who use it, so foundational language skills develop naturally and help them pick up other languages easily.
Language Acquisition has multiple stages that children go through while learning a language?
True, children go through a language acquisition stage from the 6 month/1 year stage until they are 4. This consist of various babbling sounds to one or two words sentences to phrases and then eventually to full on storytelling
Reading and writing are a main part of language.
False, not all languages are written. Language has been existed for at least a hundred thousand years before writing. Reading and writing take years for formal instructions and need effort for proficiency.
Boys take longer to become conversational
True; they develop slower than girls, but if they are slower than other boys their own age, this should be an indicator that there is a language deficit that needs to be addressed
lesser, underdeveloped and unpatterned versions of standard English used by lower class populations.
False; Everyone has a dialect, there is no perfect standard English. Standard English is simply the idealization of English used in schools and politics, however dialects do not directly relate to intelligence or education on its own.
Signed languages are not a kind of pantomime
True; Signed languages are not iconic based. This means that the forms and gestures used do not communicate the direct meaning. Signed languages have quite complex rules for forming sentences, it’s not just a form of miming.
Speaking a language is being proficient in the language?
Non-native speakers can easily decode a sentence and read it aloud, but have no comprehension of the sentence. While they may have oral proficiency there is a need for academic proficiency which can be enhanced with abstract model drawing for responses.
Animals have language just like humans
False, human language is recursive, creative, and productive. Animal communications do not consist the complexity that human language have, such as past, future, hypothetical events,and entities
A child will grow out of the difficulty they have with language
Language difficulty can not be “grown out of”, they need help beyond what parents can offer to move past the parts of spoken language that are difficult or they will never grow out of it.
Higher socioeconomic classes and dominant racial groups determine the rules of language and proper usage of it.
True; Dominant groups in society tend to determine what is considered “prestigious” English and determine the grammatical rules, vocabulary, and pronunciation that is deemed appropriate and ‘standard’ to be taught in schools and formal settings.