Flashcards
Child Language and Development - Lecture 1
Cards in this deck (12)
- 1Background on language- The development of language = complex.
- The growth of language = rapid, gradual and unique to humans.
- Language = universal amongst humans (acquired ‘automatically’ and in similar ways across cultures); varies by culture/group.
- However, animals do communicate e.g. bees + waggle dance. Chimps closest to us + some success in teaching chimps to sign language but children still far better at acquiring lang than chimps. - 2Levels of linguistic knowledge- Communication (pragmatics+Sociolinguistics) = how language is transmitted in a socially acceptable manner
- Grammar (Morphology+Syntax) = how words are combined to form sentences and how sentences are understood.
- Lexicon = part of morphology+semantics. Words+derivational processes (how new words created).
- Phonology = sound system of mother lang. Sounds, how they're combined, intonation pattern, syllable structure.
- All interact to produce successful and meaningful communication if breakdown in one occurs = breakdown in communication. - 3Factors of language- Structure = phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic.
- Function = semantics, pragmatics, communication, aesthetics etc.
- Use = pragmatics. - 4How language is acquired- Without explicit teaching or correction.
- On the basis of positive evidence.
- Under various circumstances.
- In a limited amount of time.
- In identical ways across language. - 5Theoretical research- How the mind works.
- A testing ground for competing theories in cognitive psychology.
- How children in multilingual environments achieve competence. - 6Applied research- Applications in second language learning and teaching.
- Interventions in atypical populations (people with language difficulties). - 7History of the study of language development - Wild children- Boy of Aveyron, 12 (1800, France): his muteness supported the idea that “man depends on society for all…” (Lane, 1976).
- Ginie, 13 (1970, USA): some support to the critical period for some aspects of language. - 8History of the study of language development - Chomskian revolution- Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures.
- Change from describing grammars and regularities in acquisition to talking about the mental state of the speakers.
- Language = innate, and we are born with a capacity for language.
- Language is so complex that the environment is not an explanation for how we learn language alone. - 9History of the study of language development - Roger Brown- Adam, Eve, Sarah: longitudinal study.
- Speech transcribed and analysed.
- First scientific research into language development. - 10Nature vs Nurture- Nurture = personal experiences - behaviourism. Refers to your childhood, or how you were brought up
- Nature = genes - nativist. The physical and personality traits determined by your genes stay the same irrespective of where you were born and raised. - 11Domain-specificity vs Domain-generality- Domain-specificity = separate module in the mind independent of other cognitive capacities. Distinct subsystems for the mind. Specialised capabilities for different types of information
Domain-generality = language is processed by general cognitive capacities: 1. Capacity for symbolic representation. 2. Memory skills. 3. Skills in segmenting chunks of speech. 4. Categorization. 5. Statistical learning - 12Continuity vs discontinuity- Continuity = children “have” rules for grammar/morphosyntax initially.
- Discontinuity = children do not “have” rules for grammar/morphosyntax initially. These develop over time, something happens biologically and they are activated.
Information
- Description
- English Flashcards on Child Language and Development - Lecture 1, created by GEORGINA FRASER on 19/01/2019.
- Created by
- GEORGINA FRASER
- Views
- 0
- Rating