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Questions and Answers
According to the content, what is the critical period hypothesis proposed by Eric Lenneberg?
According to the content, what is the critical period hypothesis proposed by Eric Lenneberg?
Private speech develops as children turn social speech inward.
Private speech develops as children turn social speech inward.
True
What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?
What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?
The space between what the learner can do alone and what the learner can do with assistance.
According to Balinger (2002), acquiring a language at an early age is known as the ______.
According to Balinger (2002), acquiring a language at an early age is known as the ______.
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Match the following stages in first language acquisition with their descriptions:
Match the following stages in first language acquisition with their descriptions:
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What is a theory?
What is a theory?
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The United States National Academy of Sciences states that some well-established explanations may change with new evidence.
The United States National Academy of Sciences states that some well-established explanations may change with new evidence.
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What is the key difference between scientific laws and scientific theories?
What is the key difference between scientific laws and scientific theories?
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____ provides concepts to name what we observe and explain relationships between concepts.
____ provides concepts to name what we observe and explain relationships between concepts.
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Match the theory development processes with their descriptions:
Match the theory development processes with their descriptions:
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Study Notes
Theories of Language Origin
- The Tower of Babel: people built it, God destroyed it, people scattered, and languages emerged
- Darwin's Theory of Human Evolution: understanding human evolution through grasping movements, ape conversations, and sign language
- Bipedalism: standing and walking on two feet; Quadrupedalism: four-legged movement in chimpanzees
What is a Theory?
- A related set of concepts and principles explaining a phenomenon
- Purpose is to explain or predict the phenomenon
- Well-established theories are not likely to change
Laws vs. Theories
- Theories explain, laws are patterns of data
- Theories remain theories, laws remain laws
- One does not convert to the other with new evidence
Importance of Theories
- Provide concepts to understand observations
- Justify funding and research
- Enhance professional knowledge growth
- Guide research and identify unknowns
Development of Theories
- Speculative: based on thoughts, not evidence
- Descriptive: describe reality
- Constructive: people construct their own knowledge
Theory Development Processes
- Theory-Practice-Theory: applying existing theories
- Practice-Research-Theory: researching and developing new theories
- Theory-Theory Research/Practice: building and testing new theories
Theories on the Origin of Language
- Bow-Wow Theory: language emerged from natural sounds
- Ding-Dong Theory: language from environmental sounds
- Pooh-Pooh Theory: language from emotional vocal responses
- Yo-He-Ho Theory: language from cooperative activities
- La-La Theory: language from playful, loving, and poetic expressions
- Ta-Ta Theory: language from tongue and mouth gestures
Learning vs. Acquisition
- Language Learning: grammar method
- Language Acquisition: immersion method
- Hybrid Method: combining grammar and immersion
Facts about Language Acquisition
- No genetic predisposition to acquire a particular language
- All languages are equally easy to acquire as a first language
- Children acquire language rapidly and effortlessly
- Formal instruction is generally unnecessary
Puzzles of Language Acquisition
- Children say things they've never heard
- They get things right without correction
- Master grammar by age 5, but not complex math by age 15
Discussing Language Acquisition
- Is language an innate capacity or learned?
- How do First Language Acquisition (FLA) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) compare?
Explaining First Language Acquisition
- Behaviorist: learned through conditioning
- Innatist: biologically programmed to acquire language
- Interactionist: learned through social interaction and cognitive development
Generative Grammar
- Children don't simply imitate adults
- They hypothesize rules and acquire deep structures
Universal Grammar
- Knowledge of common language elements
- Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
Chomsky's Theory
- Children acquire language rapidly
- They progress to deep production with limited errors
Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives
- Emphasize cognitive development and social interaction
- Piaget: stages of mental development
- Vygotsky: language develops through social interactions
Connectionist Perspective
- Language acquisition explained by learning in general
- Building connections between words and situations
Critical Period Hypothesis
- Age limit for acquiring native-like fluency
- Brain development and linguistic citizens of the world
Theories of Second Language Acquisition
- Innatist: children are programmed to learn a language
- Fundamental Difference Hypothesis: L2 acquisition is different from L1
- Behaviorist: learning through imitation and practice
- Cognitive: learning through comprehension and production### Language Development Stages
Babbling (6-8 months)
- Infants begin to distinguish between the sounds of their parents' language and other sounds.
- They respond only to sounds that are language distinctions of their parents' language.
- Examples include "baba" (bottle), "mama" (mother), and "nana" (grandmother).
Holophrastic (9-18 months/1-1.5 or 2 years)
- The first words stage, starting at around 1 year and continuing for approximately 6-12 months.
- Examples include "no" (no), "da" (dog), and "ma" (mom).
Two-Word (18-24 months)
- Normally begins at around 18-24 months or 1.5 to 2 years and continues for several months.
- A vocabulary of 50 or more words marks the beginning of this stage.
- Clear syntactic and semantic relations begin to appear, but not syntactic or morphological markers.
- There are no inflectional affixes and pronouns are rare.
- Word order matches the adult's word order, but the same two words in the same order can have more than one meaning.
- A word can refer to:
- A whole object, not its parts or attributes.
- A type of thing, not a particular thing (overgeneralization or overextension).
Overextensions and Underextensions
- Overextension: a child may use a word to refer to other objects with similar properties (e.g., calling all animals "sheep").
- Underextension: a child may not use a word for enough particular cases (e.g., "kitty" only means the family cat, not other cats).
Telegraphic (24-30 months)
- Children start stringing more than 2 words together, but omit function words and grammatical morphemes.
- Speech resembles telegraph writing (e.g., "Arrive Paris Monday" instead of "We arrived in Paris on Monday").
Later Multi-Word (30+ months)
- Vocabulary development continues, including overextension and overgeneralization strategies.
- Morpheme development starts, including -ed (past tense) and derivational affixes.
- Compounding shows up early in this stage.
- Inversion in questions appears later.
- This stage continues into fully developed language skills.
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Description
Explore the concepts of human evolution, language development, and related theories. Learn about the Tower of Babel, Darwin's theory, and ape language skills.
