Podcast
Questions and Answers
What aspect of language allows for the combination of small units to convey meaning?
What aspect of language allows for the combination of small units to convey meaning?
- Prosody
- Syntax
- Semantics (correct)
- Phonology
At what age can infants typically discriminate between all sounds, including those from foreign languages?
At what age can infants typically discriminate between all sounds, including those from foreign languages?
- 3-4 months
- 7-8 months
- 1-2 months (correct)
- 5-6 months
What do infants prefer to listen to shortly after birth?
What do infants prefer to listen to shortly after birth?
- Sounds of foreign languages
- Their mother's voice (correct)
- Music played in the womb
- Neutral environmental sounds
Which of the following statements about phonemes is correct?
Which of the following statements about phonemes is correct?
What happens to an infant's ability to distinguish sounds from a nontarget language between 7-11 months?
What happens to an infant's ability to distinguish sounds from a nontarget language between 7-11 months?
What distinguishes languages in terms of prosody?
What distinguishes languages in terms of prosody?
What change occurs in a child's babbling during their first year of life?
What change occurs in a child's babbling during their first year of life?
How are infants trained in habituation/familiarization studies?
How are infants trained in habituation/familiarization studies?
What do nativist approaches emphasize regarding children's early multiword utterances?
What do nativist approaches emphasize regarding children's early multiword utterances?
What is one characteristic of continuity accounts in explaining language development?
What is one characteristic of continuity accounts in explaining language development?
At which age do children typically reach the Lexical Stage of development?
At which age do children typically reach the Lexical Stage of development?
What change occurs during the Functional Stage of development?
What change occurs during the Functional Stage of development?
What is a potential problem with identifying points in development within maturational models?
What is a potential problem with identifying points in development within maturational models?
What type of utterances primarily consist of content words at the Lexical Stage?
What type of utterances primarily consist of content words at the Lexical Stage?
Which statement aligns with the theoretical advantages of the maturational models?
Which statement aligns with the theoretical advantages of the maturational models?
Which of the following is an aspect that maturation accounts aim to explain in children's language development?
Which of the following is an aspect that maturation accounts aim to explain in children's language development?
What characterizes primary intersubjectivity in early socialization?
What characterizes primary intersubjectivity in early socialization?
What type of communication is primarily used by infants during early socialization?
What type of communication is primarily used by infants during early socialization?
At what age do infants start to show more sophisticated interactions indicating secondary intersubjectivity?
At what age do infants start to show more sophisticated interactions indicating secondary intersubjectivity?
What does the preference for faces in newborns suggest?
What does the preference for faces in newborns suggest?
What is the limit of imitation observed in infants during primary intersubjectivity?
What is the limit of imitation observed in infants during primary intersubjectivity?
How does mutual eye gaze affect infants' ability to follow gaze to an object?
How does mutual eye gaze affect infants' ability to follow gaze to an object?
In which type of experimental setting did researchers observe emotional coordination among infants?
In which type of experimental setting did researchers observe emotional coordination among infants?
What becomes a characteristic of social interactions during secondary intersubjectivity?
What becomes a characteristic of social interactions during secondary intersubjectivity?
What is the primary focus of preference studies in infants?
What is the primary focus of preference studies in infants?
What are phonemes in the context of language development?
What are phonemes in the context of language development?
How does infants' ability to discriminate between sounds change from 7-11 months?
How does infants' ability to discriminate between sounds change from 7-11 months?
Which characteristic of the foetal auditory system is mentioned?
Which characteristic of the foetal auditory system is mentioned?
What do infants demonstrate regarding their mother's voice shortly after birth?
What do infants demonstrate regarding their mother's voice shortly after birth?
What kind of sounds do children initially produce during babbling?
What kind of sounds do children initially produce during babbling?
What ability do newborns have regarding the discrimination of languages?
What ability do newborns have regarding the discrimination of languages?
What happens to infants' sound discrimination abilities after the first few months of life?
What happens to infants' sound discrimination abilities after the first few months of life?
What characterizes interactions during primary intersubjectivity?
What characterizes interactions during primary intersubjectivity?
Which of the following best describes the imitation abilities of infants in the first few months of life?
Which of the following best describes the imitation abilities of infants in the first few months of life?
At what stage do infants begin to point and engage in joint attention with caregivers?
At what stage do infants begin to point and engage in joint attention with caregivers?
What is the primary focus of communication during primary intersubjectivity?
What is the primary focus of communication during primary intersubjectivity?
Which behavior illustrates the preference for face-like stimuli in newborns?
Which behavior illustrates the preference for face-like stimuli in newborns?
What role does mutual eye gaze play in infant interactions?
What role does mutual eye gaze play in infant interactions?
What is a defining feature of secondary intersubjectivity?
What is a defining feature of secondary intersubjectivity?
What is a key outcome of early socialization in infants regarding emotional engagement?
What is a key outcome of early socialization in infants regarding emotional engagement?
What is a key characteristic of the Lexical Stage of language development?
What is a key characteristic of the Lexical Stage of language development?
During which stage of language development do children begin to use auxiliary verbs and determiners?
During which stage of language development do children begin to use auxiliary verbs and determiners?
What do continuity accounts propose regarding children's grammatical knowledge?
What do continuity accounts propose regarding children's grammatical knowledge?
What evidence supports the idea of similar language learning trajectories among different groups of children?
What evidence supports the idea of similar language learning trajectories among different groups of children?
What is one theoretical advantage of maturational models in explaining language development?
What is one theoretical advantage of maturational models in explaining language development?
What challenge do researchers face regarding the maturational aspects of grammatical development?
What challenge do researchers face regarding the maturational aspects of grammatical development?
How do nativist approaches view children's multiword utterances in comparison to adult language?
How do nativist approaches view children's multiword utterances in comparison to adult language?
What type of utterance is characterized by phrases like 'I don't need that' and 'Will you help me?'?
What type of utterance is characterized by phrases like 'I don't need that' and 'Will you help me?'?
What is the significance of prosody in language development?
What is the significance of prosody in language development?
How do infants initially respond to phonemes from different languages?
How do infants initially respond to phonemes from different languages?
What changes occur in an infant's babbling as they approach their first year?
What changes occur in an infant's babbling as they approach their first year?
Describe what infants demonstrate regarding their mother's voice shortly after birth.
Describe what infants demonstrate regarding their mother's voice shortly after birth.
What role do habituation and familiarization studies play in understanding infant language preferences?
What role do habituation and familiarization studies play in understanding infant language preferences?
In what way does the ability to discriminate phonemes change as infants develop?
In what way does the ability to discriminate phonemes change as infants develop?
What are infants able to do at 1-2 months concerning sound discrimination?
What are infants able to do at 1-2 months concerning sound discrimination?
How do infants utilize stress and intonation patterns in language?
How do infants utilize stress and intonation patterns in language?
What marks the transition from the Lexical Stage to the Functional Stage in language development?
What marks the transition from the Lexical Stage to the Functional Stage in language development?
How do maturational models address the development of children's grammar over time?
How do maturational models address the development of children's grammar over time?
What evidence supports the theory that children develop language at different stages rather than having innate knowledge?
What evidence supports the theory that children develop language at different stages rather than having innate knowledge?
Provide an example of a lexical utterance from children and explain its significance.
Provide an example of a lexical utterance from children and explain its significance.
What is one theoretical challenge faced by maturational models in language development?
What is one theoretical challenge faced by maturational models in language development?
In what way do maturational models align with empirical data related to language learning?
In what way do maturational models align with empirical data related to language learning?
What distinguishes functional utterances from lexical utterances in children's language development?
What distinguishes functional utterances from lexical utterances in children's language development?
Why do maturational models promote the idea of innate knowledge being developed over time?
Why do maturational models promote the idea of innate knowledge being developed over time?
What characterizes secondary intersubjectivity in infants?
What characterizes secondary intersubjectivity in infants?
How do infants demonstrate their preference for faces from birth?
How do infants demonstrate their preference for faces from birth?
What type of communication interactions do infants engage in during primary intersubjectivity?
What type of communication interactions do infants engage in during primary intersubjectivity?
What role does mutual eye gaze play in an infant's ability to follow someone else's gaze?
What role does mutual eye gaze play in an infant's ability to follow someone else's gaze?
What is the significance of dyadic mimicry in the early socialization of infants?
What is the significance of dyadic mimicry in the early socialization of infants?
At what age do most infants start to show more complex social interactions indicative of secondary intersubjectivity?
At what age do most infants start to show more complex social interactions indicative of secondary intersubjectivity?
What are some key forms of pre-linguistic communication exhibited by infants during their first months?
What are some key forms of pre-linguistic communication exhibited by infants during their first months?
What type of social interaction emerges when infants and caregivers act together with a toy during secondary intersubjectivity?
What type of social interaction emerges when infants and caregivers act together with a toy during secondary intersubjectivity?
Flashcards
Phonemes
Phonemes
The smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language. They distinguish one word from another (e.g., pat / bat, sip / zip).
Phonology
Phonology
The study of how sounds are combined to form words in a language. This involves understanding how phonemes are arranged and pronounced.
Semantics
Semantics
The study of how meaning is conveyed through language. It examines the relationship between words and their meanings.
Syntax
Syntax
The study of how words are combined to form sentences. It involves understanding the rules of word order and grammatical structure.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Prosody
Prosody
The pattern of stress and intonation in a language. It adds emphasis and emotion to speech.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Native language preference
Native language preference
Infants prefer to listen to their native language compared to a foreign language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Phoneme discrimination development
Phoneme discrimination development
Infants can discriminate between all sounds, even foreign ones, until around 7-11 months. After that, they become better at distinguishing sounds in their native language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Babbling development
Babbling development
Infants' babbling initially encompasses a wide range of sounds. Over the first year, they progressively produce only sounds present in their target language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Primary Intersubjectivity
Primary Intersubjectivity
Early stage of social development in which infants focus on face-to-face interactions and basic communication like eye contact and vocalizations.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Secondary Intersubjectivity
Secondary Intersubjectivity
Later stage of social development (around 9 months) where infants engage with shared attention and learn to coordinate actions with others.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Joint Attention
Joint Attention
The ability to coordinate emotional states with another person, allowing infants to understand and relate to others' feelings.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Pre-Linguistic Communication
Pre-Linguistic Communication
A type of communication based on gestures, sounds, and expressions, occurring before infants develop speech.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind
The ability to understand that others have different perspectives and knowledge than our own.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Turn-Taking
Turn-Taking
A communication pattern involving a back-and-forth exchange of signals, like turns in a conversation.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Shared Attention
Shared Attention
A type of communication where infants and caregivers focus their attention on the same object, sharing a common point of interest.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Still-Face Experiment
Still-Face Experiment
An experimental method where a caregiver abruptly stops responding to an infant, creating a disruption to the child's expected social behavior.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Nativist Approach
Nativist Approach
An approach to language acquisition that emphasizes the similarity of children's early utterances to the adult language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Continuity Accounts
Continuity Accounts
Theories that propose that children possess grammatical rules from the very beginning, but their performance is restricted due to limitations in other cognitive abilities.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Maturational Models
Maturational Models
The theory that certain aspects of Universal Grammar (UG) develop and mature over time, following a biological timetable.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Radford's Maturational Model
Radford's Maturational Model
Radford's model proposes that children go through distinct stages of language development, starting with a lexical stage focused on content words and progressing to a functional stage where they acquire more complex grammatical elements.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Lexical Stage
Lexical Stage
The earliest stage in Radford's model, where children's utterances primarily consist of content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Functional Stage
Functional Stage
The later stage in Radford's model where children's innate grammar matures and they acquire more complex grammatical components like auxiliary verbs, determiners, and inflections.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Lexical Utterances
Lexical Utterances
Utterances produced by children in the early stages of language development that primarily focus on content words and lack complex grammatical structures.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Functional Utterances
Functional Utterances
Utterances produced by children in the later stages of language development that exhibit more complex grammatical constructions like the use of auxiliary verbs, determiners, and inflections.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Maturational Models of Language Development
Maturational Models of Language Development
Children's grammatical abilities develop over time due to maturing aspects of their innate language system.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What are phonemes?
What are phonemes?
The smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another. Like the 'p' in 'pat' and the 'b' in 'bat'.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is phonology?
What is phonology?
The study of how sounds are combined to form words. It's about the rules of how we put sounds together, like how we say 'cat' differently from 'act'.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is semantics?
What is semantics?
The study of how language conveys meaning. It explores how words and phrases relate to the ideas and concepts they represent.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is syntax?
What is syntax?
The study of how words are arranged in sentences. It's about the 'grammar' of language, the rules of word order.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is prosody?
What is prosody?
The pattern of emphasis and tone in speech. It adds emotion and meaning to what we are saying.
Signup and view all the flashcards
How does babbling change?
How does babbling change?
Infants' babbling initially uses a wide range of sounds, but over time it narrows down to sounds only found in their native language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
How does phoneme discrimination develop?
How does phoneme discrimination develop?
Infants can initially tell the difference between all sounds, even those in foreign languages, but this ability decreases as they learn their own language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Nativist Approaches to Language Acquisition
Nativist Approaches to Language Acquisition
Theories that explain language development by focusing on innate grammatical knowledge that is not fully present at birth but matures over time.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is native language preference?
What is native language preference?
Babies show a preference for their native language over a foreign language, even before they learn to speak. This suggests they are learning language from the womb.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Imitation
Imitation
The ability to imitate another person's behavior, even from birth. This demonstrates infants' innate desire to connect and learn from others.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Preference for Faces
Preference for Faces
A preference for looking at things that resemble faces. This suggests infants are biologically predisposed to seek out social interaction.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is a phoneme?
What is a phoneme?
The smallest unit of sound that creates differences in meaning between words.
Signup and view all the flashcards
What is a baby's 'accent'?
What is a baby's 'accent'?
The tendency for newborns to cry with an accent that reflects the prosodic patterns of their native language.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Radford's Model
Radford's Model
A maturational model that proposes distinct stages in language development: Lexical and Functional.
Signup and view all the flashcards
Dyadic Mimicry
Dyadic Mimicry
Infants' natural tendency to mimic facial expressions, sounds, and gestures. This is a key way they learn and engage with others.
Signup and view all the flashcardsStudy Notes
Lecture 1: Language Basics
- Language is generative
- Language consists of combined units (phonology)
- Language conveys meaning (semantics)
- Language follows rules for combining words (syntax)
- English sentence structure is Subject-Verb-Object
- Language is a social phenomenon
Lecture 1: Infant Designs
- Infants prefer familiar stimuli
- Habituation/familiarization studies are used to determine preference
- Change detection studies compare infant responses to changes
- Prosody is the pattern of stress and intonation in languages.
- Languages have different prosodic patterns.
- Phonemes are perceptually distinct units of sound that distinguish words.
- Languages vary in the phonemes used.
- The fetal auditory system is fully functional from the last trimester.
Lecture 2: Early Socialisation
- Primary intersubjectivity: Focuses on face-to-face interactions (first months)
- Secondary intersubjectivity: Older infants participate in more sophisticated interactions (pointing, shared attention, turn-taking)
- Infants imitate facial expressions and sounds (early form of mimicry)
- Infants display a preference for looking at facial patterns.
Lecture 2: Early Socialisation - Joint Attention
- Older infants engage in more sophisticated interaction (pointing and turn-taking)
- Caregivers and infants share experiences and interact in triadic interactions.
- Joint attention promotes the understanding of the intentions of others by using gaze following, social referencing, and joint attention.
- Infants learn to coordinate interactions with others.
- Social referencing (i.e. drawing emotional cues from others)
- Visual cliff is associated with social referencing tasks - used to determine if infants look to caregivers for clues
Lecture 3: Word Learning
- Word learning is challenging. Simply pointing and naming is not enough.
- Word learning difficulties include over-extension (applying a word to too many objects/actions), under-extension (applying a word to too few objects/actions).
- Early words tend to be nouns.
- Children show early comprehension abilities before production.
- Infants acquire a large vocabulary
- Children's early utterances follow adult word order due to routines and patterns
- Children learn frequently used words early on.
- Comprehension precedes production
Lecture 4: Early Multi-Word Speech
- Children's early multi-word utterances are not simply imitations, nor do these follow a random pattern.
- Social routines influence how words are combined, interpreted, and understood.
- Routines and patterns in language are learned by children.
- Infants use their social-cognitive skills (e.g., joint attention) to interpret the communicative intentions of others.
- Children's early grammatical development builds on repeated interactions and routines.
Lecture 5: Nativist Approaches
- Nativist approaches propose that children are born with an innate understanding of grammatical rules.
- Children learn language by activating innate grammatical knowledge and modifying this knowledge in response to input.
- Children’s understanding of the world influences their interpretation of language, which influences grammar.
Studying That Suits You
Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.
