Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition The Development of Children (5th ed.) Cole, Cole & Lightfoot Chapter 8

Early Childhood (ages 2-6) • Explosive growth in ability to comprehend and use language • Learn several new words per day • By the age of 6, a child’s vocabulary is between 8,000 and 14,000 words • Totally transforms theirmental and social lives

Overview of the Journey • Puzzle of Language Development • Language Subsystems • Explanations of Language Acquisition • Essential Ingredients for Acquisition • Relation of Language and Thought

The Puzzle of Language Development Prelinguistic Development Problem of Reference Problem of Grammar

Prelinguistic Developments • Birth: Preference for language over other kinds of sounds; can differentiate basic phonemes characteristic of world’s languages • Neonate: Can distinguish sounds of their native language from those of a foreign language • 2½ months: Social smiling; cooing  babbling ( jargoning  words by 1 year old)

Prelinguistic Developments • 3 months: Match behavior to that of another person (primary intersubjectivity) • 9 months: Social referencing and pointing at an object (evidences of secondary intersubjectivity) • 18 months: Will not point unless caregiver is present

Problem of Reference How do children discover what words mean? “Smotri sinochik! Tam sidit ptitsa.” “Look, son! There sits a ptitsa.”

Problem of Reference “Look, Sarah! That’s a _________.”

Problem of Grammar How do children learn to arrange words and parts of words in a way that has meaning to others? • Grammar: Rules of a given language for the sequencing of words in a sentence and the ordering of parts of words • 7 months: Sensitive to ordering of words in simple sentences and can abstract patterns of word usage from such sentences • Later: “My doggy runned away” – significant, because have not been taught to say this and have not learned it from imitation

Language Subsystems (1) Sounds (2) Words (3) Sentences (4) Uses of Language

1: Sounds • Phonemes: Basic sounds in a language • Newborn: Can perceive the differences between the phonemes of language • Shortly afterward, will cease to differentiate sounds that are not a part of their native language (Japanese: /l/ and /y/; Spanish: /b/ and /v/) • Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning in the words of a language • “Transplanted”  [trans] [plant] [ed] • By 8-9 years, can use morpheme knowledge to figure out meanings of new words (e.g., “treelet”)

2: Words • Genuine words appear around first birthday • Aided by adult interpretation of vocalizations • Words as mediators that allow a child to operate indirectly on an object via an adult • Conversely, allows the child to be influenced by others (e.g., a command)

2: Words • Growth of vocabulary… • 14 months: 10 words • 18 months: 50 words • 24 months: 300 words • Receptive vocabulary (i.e., what they understand) is much larger • 14 months: 100 words • Mostly nouns (closely linked to actions they accomplish, or that change and move) • 24 months: By then, nouns account for less than half • Verbs, relational words (e.g., “gone” “here” “no”), comments on attainments (e.g., “There!” “Hooray!” “Uh-oh”)

Vocabulary Development

2: Words • Problems of referential ambiguity • Overextensions: Applying a verbal label too broadly (e.g., “Daddy” to all men) • Underextensions: Applying the label too narrowly (e.g., “cat” only to the family’s cat) • Levels of abstractions: Children between ages of 2 and 4 seem to label all sets at the same intermediate level of generality…

Levels of Abstractness

Word Meanings • For a young child, word meanings are dominated by the contexts of action in which the words have played a role • As the child acquires formal conceptual categories of language, the structure of word meanings changes accordingly • Assessed by “What kind of thing is a _____?”

Holophrases • Simple-word utterances of babies that some believe stand for entire phrases or sentences • “Up” “Bottle” • However, are almost always accompanied by nonverbal elements (e.g., gestures, distinctive facial expressions) • Consequently, single word in conjunction with gestures and facial expressions is equivalent of a whole sentence

3: Sentences • Utterances of 2+ words: Language milestone at end of infancy (age 2 years) • “Want do” “More sing” “Water off” “Mail come” • Can vary order of words to create different meanings (early understanding of grammar) • “Chase Daddy” vs. “Daddy chase” • Increasing complexity… • Measured in number of morphemes (units of meaning): MLU (mean length of utterance) • “Boys aren’t playing” = 3 words, but 6 morphemes (boy, s, are, not, play, ing)

Rapidly Increasing Complexity

3: Sentences • Grammatical morphemes: Units that create meaning by showing relations between other elements within sentence • Present progressive(-ing) first to appear • Followed by location, number, possession, past tense

3: Sentences • Complex constructions • Words added to end of a sentence to turn it into a question  “You will come, won’t you?” • Acquire grammar rules that even most adults can’t explain  evidence of high level of abstraction

4: Uses of Language • Conversational conventions (pragmatics) • Cooperative principle: Make contributions to conversation at required time and for accepted purpose of the talk exchange • Conversational acts • Proto-imperatives: Engage another person to achieve a desired objective (e.g., “More”) • Proto-declaratives: Initiate/maintain dialogue with another person (e.g., point and “Doggie”; giving)

4: Uses of Language • Taking the listener into account • 3½ years: Provide more information to someone who is blindfolded; use simpler language with younger child or a baby doll (but not a grown-up doll) • Use of metaphors (creative process) • Beginning of metaphorical language coincides with the onset of symbolic play (e.g., yellow bat becomes an ear of “corn”) • In middle childhood, still have difficulty with metaphors that link physical terms to people (e.g., “That kid is a bulldozer”)

Explanations of Language Acquisition Learning-Theory Explanation Nativist Explanation Interactionist Explanation

Learning-Theory Explanation • Major causal factor • Environment (nurture) • Mechanisms • Conditioning: Classical(sum of all experiences) & operant (parental enthusiasm over closer approximations to correct sound of the word) • Imitation: Abstract modeling (Bandura) for grammar • Major phenomenon explained • Word meaning

Nativist Explanation • Major causal factor • Heredity (nature): Innate ability (Chomsky) • Mechanism • Triggering: Via Language Acquisition Device (LAD) programmed to recognize the deep structures that underlie any particular language that the child may hear • Major phenomenon explained • Syntax

Interactionist Explanation • Major causal factor • Cognitive hypothesis (derived from Piaget’s constructivism): Interaction of social and biological factors • Cultural-context approach (based on Bruner’s formats – peekaboo & routines): Cultural mediation of social-biological interaction • Mechanisms • Cognitive hypothesis: Assimilation-accommodation • Cultural-context approach: Cultural scripts – Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) • Major phenomenon explained • Language-thought relationships

Vocabulary Size & Grammatical Complexity Linked The fact that grammatical growth is more closely correlated with vocabulary growth than either of those are with age lends support to the constructivist framework. Bates & Goodman, 1999

Essential Ingredients for Acquisition Biological Prerequisites Role of the Environment Language Requirements

Biological Prerequisites • Chimpanzees • After years of hard work, chimpanzees can learn several dozen signs, in combinations similar to a 2-year-old; but children with no special training learn thousands of words in a relatively short time span • Down syndrome • Restricted vocabulary and simple grammar suggest that normal language development requires normal cognitive function, at least in certain key areas • Williams syndrome • Although mentally retarded, relatively normal vocabulary and grammar use suggest that at least some aspects of language develop independently of general cognitive function

Role of the Environment • Deaf children (whose parents won’t sign or who “home sign”) and hearing children raised by deaf parents • Develop basic rudiments of grammar (2- or 3-word phrases), but not more complex ones • Fast Mapping • Children hear an unfamiliar word in a familiar, structured, and meaningful social interaction (e.g., taking a bath routine) • Whole-object principle: Assume word (“cup”) applies to whole object • Categorizing principle: Assume that object labels (“dog”) extend to classes of similar objects • Mutual-Exclusivity principle: Assume that an object can have only one name (“zebra” refers to the animal that’s different in a group of cows – “cow” already known)

Language Requirements • Biologically programmed sensitivity to language present at birth, which develops as the child matures (Nativist view) • Ability tolearn from and imitate the language of others (Environmental-learning view) • Acquisition of basic cognitive capacities – schemas for actions with objects, ability to represent the world mentally, presence of lexical principles (Interactionist view – Constructivist version) • Inclusion of children in familiar routines in which language is one of many forms of interaction (Interactionist view – Cultural-context version)

Relation of Language & Thought

Language becomes an intellectual function, while thinking becomes verbal Vygotsky

Progress of Language Development

Language Acquisition