Language Acquisition Theories

• Language development traditionally relies on reinforcement
• Some learning theorists believe language is acquired through imitation
• Noam Chomsky proposed language is learned based on the Nativist Theory of Language Acquisition

Nativist Explanation

• Children possess an innate ability to discover language system rules from natural language exposure

• Modern theorists believe language is learned through interaction

Interactionist Theory

• Language development is both biological and social

• Jerome Bruner says parents/caregivers have a critical role in language acquisition and proposes Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)

• Lev Vygotsky proposes collaborative learning

Antecedents of Language Development

• Pseudo-dialogues: Early training using give-and-take conversations between child and mother (or other person)
• Protodeclaratives: Child uses gestures to describe something
• Protoimperatives: Child uses gestures to get someone to do something for them

Bilingual Language Development

• Bilingualism means a person can speak or write fluently in two languages

• Bilingualism is distinguished into two types (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1994)

• Productive Bilingualism: Speaker can produce and understand both languages

• Receptive Bilingualism: Speaker can understand both languages, but has limited production abilities

• Fierro-Cobas and Chan (2001) state language development is a complex, dynamic process influenced by age, language exposure, and social interaction

• Bilingual children generally follow patterns of simultaneous bilingualism (acquiring two languages before age 3) or sequential bilingualism (acquiring a second language by age 3)

Emergent/Early Literacy

• This explains a child's reading and writing skills before they can actually read and write
• Marie Clay, a New Zealand researcher, introduced it in 1966
• Emergent literacy prepares the child learning skills before formal introduction in school

Foundations of Emergent Literacy

• Letter Knowledge: Understanding each letter is unique, has a name/sound, and recognizing letters everywhere
• Vocabulary Development: Knowing the name of things
• Narrative Skills: Being able to describe things, events, and tell simple stories
• Print Motivation: Being interested in/enjoying books
• Print Awareness: Noticing prints, knowing how to handle a book, and following words across pages
• Phonological Awareness: Being able to hear/play with smaller sounds in words

Promoting Child's Literacy Development

• Use books/reading materials with eye-catching pictures
• Read books with rhymes, rhythm, and repetition (like nursery songs)
• Point out words in the child's surroundings and explain their meaning (e.g., tree)

Promoting Early Literacy Development

• Parents can fill a child's environment with useful books, magazines, or toys
• Parents can read short stories with one character and a basic plot
• Answering a child's inquiries about their environment helps development
• Parents can support writing development by making sure that papers and crayons are available

Reading Development and Performance

• Emergent Readers
• Enjoy listening to books and repeated readings
• Retell simple narratives
• Begin to understand that print carries the message
• Identify some letters and know some letter-sound matches (phonetic awareness)
• Begin to match spoken words and written ones
• Recognize some words by sight (sight words)
• Early Reader
• Use letter-sound correspondence knowledge to sound out unknown words when reading
• Use a variety of strategies, such as rereading, predicting, and using context when comprehension breaks down
• Recognize common, irregularly spelled words by sight (have, said, where)
• Identify and increasing number of sight words
• Self-correct when an error does not fit with letter or context cues
• Accomplished Reader
• Read with greater fluency
• Use strategies (rereading, questioning) when comprehension breaks down
• Use word-identification strategies with greater efficiency to identify unknown words
• Accurately read many irregularly spelled words and uses roots, prefixes, and suffixes to infer meaning

Chall's Stages of Reading Development

• Stage 0 (Pre-reading): 6 months-6 years, Preschool

• Child "pretends" to read, retells stories, names letters, recognizes signs, prints own name, and plays with books

• Achieved by being read to, dialogic reading, and being provided with books, paper, pencils, blocks, and letters

• Most can understand children's picture books and stories read to them

• Stage 1 (Initial reading and decoding): 6-7 years old, 1st grade and beginning 2nd

• Child learns relation between letters and sounds and between printed and spoken words and is able to read simple text

• Achieved through direct instruction in letter-sound relations and practice in their use and reading of simple stories

• The level of difficulty of language read is much below the language understood when heard

• Stage 2 (Confirmation and fluency): 7-8 years old, 2nd and 3rd grade

• Child reads simple, familiar stories with increasing fluency by consolidating basic decoding elements

• Achieved by direct instruction in advanced decoding skills and wide reading, being read to

• Listening is still more effective than reading

• Stage 3 (Reading for learning the new): 9-13 years old, 4th-8th grade

• Reading is used to learn new ideas and knowledge from one viewpoint

• Achieved through reading textbooks, reference works, trade books, newspapers, and magazines and systematic study of words

• Comprehension of same material is still more effective than reading

• Stage 4 (Multiple viewpoints): 15-17 years old, 10th-12th grade

• Reading widely from a broad range of complex materials with a variety of viewpoints

• Achieved through wide reading/study of sciences, humanities, literature, newspapers, and systematic study words/word parts

• Reading comprehension is better than listening comprehension of difficult content and readability

• Stage 5 (Construction and reconstruction): 18+ years old, College and beyond

• Reading is used for one's own needs and serves to integrate knowledge and create new knowledge

• Achieved through wide reading of ever more difficult materials/beyond one's immediate needs and writing papers

• Reading is more efficient than listening

Factors Affecting Language Development

• Early Language Stimulation: Parent and caregiver can help the development of a child's communication through activities like playing and talking

• Literate Communities and Environment: Emphasizes speaking, reading and writing, selection of materials, reflection/thought regarding classroom design, and intentional instruction

• Story Reading: Plays a vital role in literacy and language development, books and characters become like companions

• Aphasia: Communication disorder, caused by brain dysfunction, that makes it hard to read, write, or say what one wants to say

• Stroke/brain injury

• Brain tumor/infection

• Dementia (Alzheimer's)

• Epilepsy/neurological disorder

Types of Aphasia

• Expressive Aphasia: The person knows what they want to say but struggles to express it to others
• Receptive Aphasia: The person can read/hear but may not understand the meaning
• Anomic Aphasia: The person struggles to find the right word when speaking or writing
• Global Aphasia: The person is unable to read/write or has difficulty speaking/understanding
• Progressive Aphasia: The person slowly loses the ability to talk, read, write, or understand conversation

Main Symptoms of Aphasia

• Trouble speaking and/or finding the appropriate word

• Using strange and inappropriate words during conversation

• Dyslexia: A learning problem that makes it hard to read, write, and spell due to brain mixes of letters/words

• Genetic disorder transmitted from parents to children

• Signs in young children: Talking later than expected, slow to learn new words, problem rhyming, problems following directions

• Signs in school children: Problems reading single words and linking letters with sounds and confusing small words, reversing shapes/words

Concept of Intelligence

• Intelligence is the ability to judge well, reason well, and act well (Binet)
• It is the ability to adapt, shape, and select the environment to accomplish one's goals and those of one's society and culture.
• It is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Alfred Binet: Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale

• Binet and colleague Theodore Simon developed a series of tests to assess mental abilities, concentrating on attention and memory

• Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale tool measures an individual's intellectual abilities and helps identify children struggling in school

• IQ = (Mental Age/Chronological Age) × 100

• Scores > 100: Above-average intelligence

• Scores < 100: Below-average intelligence

Charles Spearman: Theory of General Intelligence

• General intelligence or "g" is correlated with specific abilities
• Skills enable people to learn new things and solve issues
• Broad mental capacity underpins specialized talents
• All tasks on intelligence tests, whether related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g factor
• Visual-Spatial Processing: Abilities (putting together puzzles and copying complex shapes)
• Quantitative Reasoning: The capacity to solve problems involving numbers
• Knowledge: A person's understanding of a wide range of topics
• Fluid Reasoning: The ability to think flexibly and solve problems
• Working Memory: The use of short-term memory (such as being able to repeat a list of items)

IQ Test Score Labels

• 40-54: Moderately impaired or delayed
• 55-69: Mildly impaired or delayed
• 70-79: Borderline impaired or delayed
• 80-89: Low average intelligence
• 90-109: Average
• 110-119: High average
• 120-129: Superior
• 130-144: Gifted or every advanced
• 145-160: Exceptionally Gifted or Highly Advanced

Louise Thurstone: Primary Mental Abilities

• Psychologist Louis L. Thurstone (1887-1955) offered a differing theory of intelligence which focused on seven different primary mental abilities
• Associative Memory: Ability to recall/memorize information
• Numerical Ability: Ability to use numbers to quickly compute answers to problems
• Perceptual Speed: Ability to grasp perceptual details quickly/accurately
• Reasoning: Ability to derive general rules/principles from presented information
• Spatial Visualization: Ability to visualize/manipulate patterns and forms in space
• Verbal Comprehension: Ability to understand the meaning of words/concepts/ideas
• Word Fluency: Ability to use words quickly/fluency

Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences

• Model differentiates intelligence into specific modalities instead of a single general ability
• Identifying intelligences has classroom ramifications, allowing teachers to accommodate children more successfully based on learning orientation
• Visual/Spatial children best learn visually, like to see what is being talked, and enjoy charts, graphs, maps, tables, illustrations, art, puzzles, costumes, etc.
• Verbal Linguistic children show strength in language arts and have always been successful in traditional classrooms
• Mathematical/Logical children display aptitude for numbers, reasoning, and problem-solving, they typically do well in traditional classrooms
• Bodily/Kinesthetic children learn best through activity
• Musical/Rhythmic children learn well through songs, patterns, rhythms(easy to overlook)
• Intrapersonal children are especially in touch with their own feelings, values and ideas
• Interpersonal children are people-oriented, outgoing and do their learning cooperatively
• Naturalist children love the outdoors, animals, field trips and pick up on subtle differences in meanings
• Existentialist children learn in context of humankind stands in the "big picture" and ask questions like "what is our role in the world?"

Robert Sternberg: Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Theory integrates components lacking in Gardner's theory
• Definition of intelligence is the ability to achieve success based on standards and sociocultural context
• Aspects: analytical, creative, and practical (Sternberg, 1985)
• Analytical intelligence:Ability to evaluate information and solve problems
• Creative Intelligence: Ability to come up with new ideas
• Practical intelligence: Ability to adapt to a changing environment

Cognitive Information Processing Theory: Atkinson Shiffrin Theory

• Richard Shiffrin is known for empirical, theoretical, and computational work in modeling human cognition and co-authored the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory in 1968

• Model concerns how information is stored in memory, presenting a sequence of three stages

• Sensory memory: Involves whatever we take in through our senses ( exceedingly brief, lasting up to 3 seconds)

• Individual has to be attentive for something to enter

• Filters out irrelevant things and only sends what seems important

• Short-Term/Working Memory: This is where info goes one info reaches STM and further filters

• Doesn't last long (15-20 seconds)

• Can last up to 20 minutes if repeated

• Long Term Memory: The capacity of long-term memory is thought to be limitless, and several different types of information are encoded and organized in it

• Declarative Information (explicit memory): Involves the conscious recollection of memories (events, facts, figures, locations)

• Semantic Memory: Refers to recollecting general knowledge and facts about the world

• Episodic Memory: Refers to recollecting an autobiographical memory of events that occurred in a spatial and temporal context

• Procedural Memory: Information about how to do something (drive or brush your teeth) , and imagery (mental pictures)

Jean Piaget's: Cognitive Development Theory

• Theory is a foundational in child psychology and education that describes development of cognitive abilities from infancy-adolescence and provides a framework for understanding how children learn/make sense of world

Piaget's Major Concepts

• Schema/Scheme: Piaget proposes cognition develops through enhancement/modification of mental structures/schemes
• Pattern of thought/action that helps organize/interpret information
• Used by children to interpret and organize the world they live in
• Organization: the process by which children combine existing schemes into new and more complex intellectual schemes
• Adaptation: This is the ability to adjust to new information/experiences
• Assimilation: Process by which children try to interpret new experiences in terms of their existing models of the world
• Accommodation: the process of modifying existing structures when faced with new experiences
• Equilibration: Refers to the force which drives the learning process
• Disequilibrium occurs when new information cannot be incorporated into existing schemas

Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)

• Sensory inputs/motor capabilities of infants are coordinated and infants use senses/motor abilities to explore environment

• Important Feature is Object Permanence

• Preoperational Stage (2-7 years old): Children are not yet ready to perform operations

• How children think logically is based on their own personal knowledge of the world rather than on conventional knowledge

• Important Features: Symbolic Function/Thinking, Pretend play, Animism, Egocentrism, and Centration

• Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years old): Major turning point in the child's cognitive development -beginning of logical thought

• Important Features are classification, conservation, decentration, reversibility, seriation, and socioentricity

• Formal Operational Stage (11-beyond): Increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and abstract ideas

• People become capable of seeing multiple solutions to problems and think more scientifically

• Features are Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning and Thinking Like a Scientist

• Relativistic Thinking: Adolescents are more likely to engage in relativistic thinking to question assertions and are less likely to accept information as absolute truth.

Lev Vygotsky's: Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

• Effective learning happens through participation in social activities
• Parents, teachers, and other adults contribute to the process
• Peers cooperate, collaborate, and enrich the learning experience
• Language- viewed as a verbal expression of culture
• Opens the door for learners to acquire knowledge that others have
• Used to know/understand the world and solve problems
• Serves a social and individual (regulate/reflect on own thinking) function
• Social Speech: Communication with others
• Private Speech: Self-talk that guides thinking/action
• Inner Speech: Internalized through process, silent self-talk used for self-regulation/problem-solving skills
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Zone of Actual Development: Level of competency in which child can perform/may not be proficient
• Zone of Proximal Development: Difference between what the child accomplishes alone and with guidance
• Scaffolding: Temporary support given to a child by a More Knowledgeable Other that enables the child to perform independently