Atypical Language Acquisition

Atypical Language Acquisition

1. Theoretical Perspectives

   • Nativism
     • Chomsky 1982: A lot of language development is innate - universal grammar.
     • There are a set of processes that are domain specific - specified in learning language.
     • There are a wide set of principles that children are bias to that make them good in learning language.
     • Emphasises the importance of genes
     • Predicts that language is robust to cognitive deficits or impoverished input - mechanisms are specific to language, so it does not matter if other input/ cognitive mechanisms are not functioning properly.
     • Language is like a mental organ (Chomsky)
   • Behaviourism/ Empiricism
     • Skinner 1957: idea that we learn by stimulus-response associations
     • Emphasises importance of the environment
     • Predicts the language follows the richness of input, and that linguistic and cognitive development should come hand-in-hand
   • Cognitivism
     • Piaget 1954: idea that children are active problem solvers - they are looking at strategies to learn from their environment (e.g. language)
     • Depends on reaching milestones in cognitive development
     • Emphasised importance on cognitive maturation.
     • Predicts that language would be limited by cognitive deficits.

2. Pidgins and Creoles.

   • When people speak a different language to us:
     • Avoidance: avoid one another as you cannot communicate with them
     • Learn other's language
     • Develop a pidgin: a simplified form of communication (a simplified language.
   • Pidgin: Not a native language; small vocabulary; simple structure.
   • Creoles
     • Pidgins are turned into Creole's when children are primarily exposed to the pidgin - children then make sense of it so it becomes a Creole.
     • Learned from birth
     • Many words
     • Full grammar
     • Language goes beyond the input: if exposed to pidgin, they can turn it into a full language - NATIVIST PERSPECTIVE.
     • Example: Nicaragaun Sign Language - Senghas et al 2004
       • As new cohorts of children came into the school, they were exposed to sign language.
       • Interested in how you express manner and path when you deserve something moving - something rolling down a hill
       • As a speaking adult, you simultaneously produce gestures to accompany your speech - manner and path are encoded simultaneously.
       • First cohort: one gesture to describe 'rolling'; and a separate gesture to describe 'down' - sequential gestures, analysing
     • Example: second language mistakes - what happens when you learn a language as an adult instead of as a child.

3. Age of Exposure

   • The earlier you learn a language, the more fluent you will be.
     • Second language mistakes
     • Johnson & Newport (1989): Immigration to the USA - if arrived before the age of 7, children were more fluent.
   • Sign Language (Newport 1990)
     • Exposed children to sign language at varied ages: Native Learners, Early Learners 4-6 years; Late Learners 12 years+
     • Tested word order and morphology - In ASL words indicating motion have complex morphology
     • 15 tests of ASL - younger learners were better at morphological tests. Is there a critical period in the early years?
   • Critical period hypothesis:
     • Biological maturation drives language acquisition.
     • There else is a special window of opportunity (individual differences), if you miss this, acquisition is difficult.
   • Less is more?
     • Shorter memory capacity forces children to abstract regularities - this forces them to analyse their input and break it down into components, making it easier to remember.
     • Adult learners have more memory capacity - more strategies.
     • Cognitive development does affect language development? - COGNITIVE PERSEPCTIVE

4. Developmental Impairments

   • H1; language emerges from general cognitive abilities - if true, we should find developmental impairments in which both language and cognitive processes are impaired.
     • E.G. Down Syndrome - Common genetic mutation. Reduces both cognitive and language abilities (poor auditory memory and delayed language).
   • H2: language relies on specialised mental processes - if true, we should find developmental impairments in which language is impaired and cognition is not, vice versa.
     • E.G. Specific Language Impairments: Adults making grammatical errors (e.g. "the boys eat four cookie"), Heritable, slow speech, grammatical errors, normal intelligence and hearing. Language is impaired, but cognition is unaffected - NATIVIST perspectives.
     • E.G. Williams Syndrome: rare, genetic. Limited cognition, but language is unaffected.