Lecture 5 Language Development PDF

Introduction to Language Development  OLD: Last week… Theory theory Vygotsky’s approach to cognition Piaget vs. Vygotsky Attachment as a construct Attachment theory and styles  NEW: This week… By the end of this week, you will: 1. Understand h...

Introduction to Language Development  OLD: Last week… Theory theory Vygotsky’s approach to cognition Piaget vs. Vygotsky Attachment as a construct Attachment theory and styles  NEW: This week… By the end of this week, you will: 1. Understand how infants parse the speech stream they hear to units of words and phrases. 2. be familiar with the different techniques to study how infants acquire basic language skills. 3. Learn formal and informal aspects of language. 4. Know different theories of language acquisition Pre-linguistic stage  Speech perception Ways to parse the speech stream Take home: Development is over-determined  Parsing speech into words How do you know what’s a word? How do you know what’s a phrase? Even with a conversational frame… Really hard in unfamiliar language Where’s your ears? Where’s your eyes? Where’s your nose? Where’s your toes? Prosody (“motherese”)  Motherese = infant-directed speech Fernald (1985 to current) Exaggerated high pitch & long pauses  Motherese = infant-directed speech High pitch, lots of pauses Displayed in many cultures (but not all) Adults use it with children & pets  Motherese = infant-directed speech Fernald, Broesch (2018), Gergely (2017) High pitch, lots of pauses Displayed in many cultures (but not all) Adults use it with children & pets Fathers & mothers do it Children use it with babies & dolls  Motherese Where’s your ears? Where’s your eyes? Where’s your nose? Where’s your toes? Fernald (1985): Babies motherese Normal Motherese Speech % Head Turns  Fernald (1985): Babies motherese 4-month-olds turn to hear motherese Infant can distinguish 2 types of speech Prefer (i.e. pay more attention to) motherese  Babies pretty much motherese ManyBabies Consortium (2020, 2021) Replicated effect of infant-directed vs. adult-directed speech in babies 3-15 months of age Monolingual & bilingual babies Using head-turning & looking time methods More on motherese from Anne Fernald Contingent Social Signals Adjustable Sloping Walkway (0°-50°) How infants weigh & integrate perceptual & social information Encourage Discourage Multiple channels, mixed in affect Karasik et al (2008) Mixed affect attuned to infants’ behaviors Karasik et al (2008) Conversational Frames First conversations: Protoconversations Ed Tronick (1980s - current) Feeding dialogue (gaze – eye-contact – talk – stop sucking/smile/eye-contact – repeat) "Peek-a-boo" (word – laugh – repeat word – laugh) Social contingencies = rules – Turn-taking (1 at a time) – Reciprocity (continuation) – The “dance”  “Still face” paradigm Used to test if babies “join” in this dance The experimental manipulation is “stopping the dance” - the dialogue Language Sounds  Categorical speech perception = Eimas et al. (1971, 1985) = process of categorizing sounds that are meaningful in your own language Sucking Habituation = sucking decreases If sucking increases again…  Categorical speech perception = Eimas et al. (1971, 1985) Operant conditioning & habituation 2-month-olds discriminate la/ra Japanese & English infants discriminate Japanese infants discriminate sounds that their parents cannot hear (use it or lose it)  “Use it or lose it” phenomenon E.g., La/Ra sounds – 1st, hear all sounds – Then, hear only own language sounds Janet Werker: “Ka/ka” Statistical Regularities Jenny Saffran on “Babies” (Netflix)  Pick up on statistical regularities Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996) Statistical regularities – “pretty baby mommy’s baby pretty lily” Word boundaries? – “prettybabymommy’sbabyprettylily” Hypothesis: Within-word syllables (pre-tee) are more frequent than between-word syllables (tee- bay)  Pick up on statistical regularities Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996), Saffran (2020) 8-month-olds listened to 2 min of four 3- syllable nonsense “words” – No cues to word boundaries – “bidakupadotigolabubidaku” (audio!) Transitional probabilities – Syllables in words = 1.0, – Non-words =.33  Pick up on statistical regularities Saffran, Aslin, & Newport (1996), Saffran (2020) Test: – Words: “bidaku” “golabu” – Non-words: “kupado” “bubida” – Non-words: “dadobu” “bigoti” – “bidaku padoti golabu bidaku” Results... see Different Sounds  Pop/peep: Visual & auditory info Kuhl & Meltzoff (1984) Preferential looking paradigm 4- to 5-month-olds see 2 video displays central speaker in middle Hear POP or PEEP 1 video display matches sound from speaker, 1 doesn’t Seeing the sounds of Ah/Ee  Pop/peep: Visual & auditory info Kuhl & Meltzoff (1984) Infants look differentially at displays – They can see sounds Speech is intermodal Seeing sound helps to hear it Talker-Specific Information  Talker-specific information = Nygaard, Mitchell, & Pisoni (1994) talk info + talker info talk info: what the person is saying talker info: who is speaking Hearing the person helps you to hear the words  Knowing the language helps to distinguish different talkers Fecher & Johnson (2019) Native English 4.5-month-olds – Prelinguistic! Heard English, Spanish, or Polish with same speaker, then tested in same language with new speaker 4.5-month-olds show the “language familiarity effect” – Looked longer at new speaker in native English language than in foreign language  How to break into language? Lots of ways. Multiply determined. Motherese Conversational frames Timing with baby’s behaviors Differentiate sounds Statistical regularities See sounds Talker info, etc etc etc! What do you need to learn to know a language?  Formal aspects of language Phoneme = elementary units of sound Related to categorical speech perception Big vs. Pig Big vs. Bug Big vs. Bit  Formal aspects of language Morpheme = unit of word structure Love = 1 morpheme Loves = 2 Loving = 2 Lover = 2 Unloved = 3 Beloved = 3 Unlovable = 3  Formal aspects of language Semantics = meaning of language Syntax = grammar The man bit the dog. The dog bit the man. The man was bitten by the dog.  Formal aspects of language Semantics = meaning of language Syntax = grammar Different semantics, The man bit the dog. same syntax The dog bit the man. The man was bitten by the dog.  Formal aspects of language Semantics = meaning of language Syntax = grammar The man bit the dog. Same semantics, The dog bit the man. diff syntax The man was bitten by the dog.  Non-formal aspects of language Prosodics = “music” of language – Prenatal language learning – Motherese  Non-formal aspects of language Pragmatics = using language appropriately Function of language in context – Intent of speaker & listener in social & physical context Language learning before words  Language production From sounds to words to sentences Comprehension before production – Note! Babies understand more than they say  Cooing (~2 months) Vowels aaah, oooh, etc  Babbling (~6-10 months) Consonants, clicks, raspberries) – Produce sounds outside own language, but not all sounds of every language Deaf children babble vocally later & not as richly as hearing children Deaf children babble manually at same time, repeated components of words Babbling in sign  Babbling in vocal development Goldstein (2002) What drives the change? Quasi-voiced Creaks/grunts Fully-voiced Cooing – vocal passage open Marginal Syl Failed consonants ‘mmba’ Canonical Syl ‘ba’ Birth 3 mo 6 mo 9 mo 12 mo How might babbling develop? How might babbling develop? Moms inadvertently shape babies’ speech (operant conditioning)  Babbling results Goldstein (2002) Experimental group babble more and “more mature” babbles during contingent phase Control didn’t change babbling quality, same as when first came into lab Effects long-lasting for experimental group during free play after experiment, even though no more reinforcement Social feedback loop: – Baby influences caregiver (by accident) – Caregiver influences baby… > multiplier effect  Babbling results Goldstein (2002) Experimental group babble more and “more mature” babbles during contingent phase Control didn’t change babbling quality, same as when first came into lab Effects long-lasting for experimental group during free play after experiment, even though no more reinforcement Social feedback loop: – Baby influences caregiver (by accident) – Caregiver influences baby… > multiplier effect Social mechanisms of vocal development infant caregiver modifies Infant Caregiver more likely sounds vocalizes reacts to react Expressive jargon Expressive jargon in a “conversation” Word learning First words in non-native language?  Baby’s 1st words: Types of words Important people, animals Vehicles, toys, food, utensils Body, clothing Familiar actions Short phrases Usually not complete word  Baby’s 1st words: Types of learners Different word-learning styles – Referential: nouns, people, familiar objects (ball, doggie, bottle, water) > more frequent – Expressive children: pronouns, social interactive, descriptive (more, gimme, stop it, bye-bye, all gone, Idunwanna, mine)  Baby’s 1st words: Misuses of words Over-extensions = – “Dog” > all dogs, all stuffed animals, all soft animals Under-extensions = – “Dog” < doggie refers only to family dog. Other dogs not doggie  Baby’s 1st words: Holophrases How do adults know what babies are talking about?? Single word stands for a whole phrase or sentence Adults recast holophrases into meaningful sentences, but they must guess which sentence child intends  Baby’s 1st words: Holophrases Ball Jonah Baby’s 1st words: Fis phenomenon bubblebee (bumblebee) dumb pick (drum sticks) Jonah  After 1st words: Word explosion Word explosion = “vocabulary spurt” – 2 years: 50 words – 6 years: > 14,000 words Vocabulary spurt = 2 stages – Slow growth, then fast growth due to “naming insight,” object concept (Piaget’s substage 6), word segmentation, etc. Recent evidence shows it is more of gradual quadratic increase, no stages  Jonah’s productive vocabulary: 12-24 48 48 46 46 38 33 30 25 23 22 17 11 6 7 5 7 3 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 Jonah’s productive vocabulary: 12-18 Jonah’s productive vocabulary: 18-20 21-24 How do infants learn words? The input matters! And when words get said. Must hear words to learn them Infants learn words best when they hear a word at the same time that they’re doing something with the referent How do infants learn words? The input matters! And when words get said. Must hear words to learn them Infants learn words best when they hear a word at the same time that they’re doing something with the referent Baby blows bubble. Caregiver says, “Bubble!  Baby’s 1st words: How do babies know what you’re talking about? Reference problem – How does child know what object or part of the object the word refers to?? – Reference is not accurate (“cup” > whole object or handle?) Constraints solution – Nativist constraint solution: we think of wholes, not parts Context solution – Caregivers spontaneously name objects at just the right time! And talk about things babies care about  Amount of input depends on SES Hart & Risley (1995), Rowe (2012) From birth to 4 years of age – Professional families = 45 million words – Working class families = 26 million words – Welfare families = 13 million words Types are more important than tokens – “Pretty, pretty baby” = 2 types, 3 tokens Words at 18 mos predicts school achievement Interventions to teach caregivers to talk to their infants (books to read, videos to teach) After 1st words: Telegraphic speech Open, shup! Uh oh, ball go. Jonah  After 1st words: Telegraphic speech Telegraphic speech – “Big cookie” = what???!!! – What are children trying to say? Learning Formal Aspects How do children learn formal aspects of language & make it look so easy? Nature vs. Nurture…  Extreme nurture: Skinner’s behaviorism Language just like everything else – Get reinforced – e.g., baby says “wawa” in her bath, mom says "yes, that's water, water water" Learn it through operant conditioning – Shaping: caregiver nudges baby’s words closer to what it really is (wawa > water) Imitation (of what they hear) Verbal Behavior (1957)  Interactionist view Bruner, Tomasello, Smith, Tamis-LeMonda, Bloom, Snow, MacWhinney, Iverson, etc. Communication shapes language acquisition Language cues & social context are enough to discover rules for using language Words are learned this way, why not formal aspects of language?  Extreme nature: Chomsky’s nativism Language is special – part of the human package – Formal aspects = universal Reviewed & trashed Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957)! – Moderns (Pinker, Marcus) criticize moderate nurture view  Chomsky: Language is universal! “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” Skinner missed the point… Semantic non-sense stays nonsense, no way of reinforcing it even if grammatically correct. That applies to every new bit of language Language is generative & creative!  Chomsky: What is innate? Universal grammar – Some sort of core knowledge about language – Whatever is true about all languages in the world  LAD: Language acquisition device = special part of brain, used for language Only need exposure to language “Language module,” “universal grammar”  Pinker’s “language instinct”: Born to learn the language of your culture Sensitive period for learning syntax: Chomsky, Lenneberg, Newport Genie: Early days Genie: Later days  Validity issues in Genie’s case Horribly abused Mental disability? Lack of language vs. cognitive, social, vocal problems  Sensitive period: 2nd language learning (when tested as an adult) Johnson & Newport (1989) Errors Easier for younger kids, even if equate for time exposed to new language  Sensitive period: 2nd language learning (when tested as an adult) Johnson & Newport (1989) Errors Easier for younger kids, even if equate for time exposed to new language  “Less is more” Newport (1981 to current) Kids are dumber than adults! Kids easily learn L2 for non-linguistic reasons due to lower level of cognitive awareness – Shorter attention span: pay attention to critical elements – Smaller short-term memory: remember only critical elements – Limited cognitive capacity: focus on general rules not details  Language summary Language production – Comprehension > production – Sounds to words to sentences – Word learning through social input Syntax – Skinnerian nurture (debunked): Operant conditioning, reinforcement – Chomskyan nature: universal grammar, sensitive period, 2nd language learners – Social interaction: Leads to learning formal (& non-formal) aspects of language