CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam PDF

CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Lecture 1: Overview of Language Acquisition Language Development: Timespan From infancy to old age– commonalities within and across languages (culture does not impact major milestones; underlying cognitive capacities are the same across language...

CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Lecture 1: Overview of Language Acquisition Language Development: Timespan From infancy to old age– commonalities within and across languages (culture does not impact major milestones; underlying cognitive capacities are the same across languages because of our biological makeup) ○ Communication in infancy ○ Phonological development Bilabials first ○ Semantic development Often making requests (e.g., “more,” “want,” “no”) ○ Morphological and syntactic development Morphology differs based on language (e.g., word order– subject + verb + object); Syntactically some similarities between languages, but often differ ○ Pragmatic development (e.g., preschoolers learning how to make polite requests) Communication Across Animal Species Is language unique to humans? – Brings up the question: What constitutes language? ○ Bee communication ○ Dolphin communication ○ African elephants– subsonic calls ○ Attempts to teach language to chimpanzees (→ strong receptive language abilities) Resemble human language? ○ Stimulus dependent (i.e., depends on something in the immediate environment), limited to present and restricted messages ○ Language (has these properties): semanticity/ symbolism (one thing is a referent for another); productivity (can produce an endless combination of symbols)/ generativity; displacement (discuss content that is not restricted to the immediate environment) ○ The bees, elephants, and dolphins do not meet these requirements. For the chimp, however, he has language, but on the level of a 2-3 year old Human Language Species specific and species uniform: ○ Onset of speech (developmental milestones) is regular (i.e., regularly the same across all cultures) CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam ○ Speech is “not suppressible” (All cultures provide suitable environment for language learning) ○ [Adult-level] Language cannot be taught to other species. ○ Languages share universals – e.g., phonology, semantics, syntax, social rules for language use Components and Subsystems of Language 3 major components: ○ Form: syntax, morphology, phonology ○ Content: semantics ○ Use: pragmatics Start off by having something to say to someone = content; In order to say it, you put message into a form; To communicate i appropriately = use 5 Subsystems of Language: ○ Phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics Phonology Aspect of language related to the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables Phoneme: the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning Phoneme– a family of very similar sounds Allophone: individual members of a phoneme that differ slightly from one another, but not enough to modify the meaning of a word English has ~43 phonemes Phonological rules: govern the distribution (e.g., “ng” at the end but not beginning of words) and sequencing (e.g., /dn/ can’t be within one syllable) of phonemes with a language Morphology Aspect of language concerning the rules governing the internal organization of words Morpheme: the smallest unit of meaning (e.g., bed) 2 types of morphemes: ○ Free morpheme: Independent, can stand alone (e..g, red) ○ Bound morphemes: grammatical markers that cannot function independently (e.g., est) Attached to nouns, verbs, and adjectives Bound morphemes can be either: ○ Derivational– prefixes and suffixes Precede (prefix) or follow (suffix) the free morpheme Change whole classes of words (e.g., -ly for adjectives) CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam New word class is DERIVED, so derivational ○ Inflectional– suffixes Change the state or increase the precision of the free morpheme Include tense markers (-ed), plural markers, third person singular tense verbs ending is –s (“He talks.”) Semantics A system of rules governing the meaning or content of words and word combinations World knowledge: an individual's autobiographical and experiential understanding and memory of particular events Word knowledge: contains word and symbol definitions and its primarily verbal ○ Lexicon: mental dictionary Syntax Rules of govern the structure of a sentence Specifies which word combinations are acceptable Main elements of a sentence are noun and verb phrases, which compare different word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives) Pragmatics The study of language in context as a communication tool that is used to achieve social ends Includes: communication intentions and recognized ways of executing them, conversational principles or rules, types of discourse (e.g., narratives, jokes) and their construction Requires understanding of culture (affects content, proximity, touch while speaking, etc.) and of individuals Pragmatic rules govern conversational interactions: ○ Sequential organization and coherence of conversations, repair of errors, role, and speech acts (performatives/ utterances that accomplish something e.g., “I now pronounce you husband and wife”) “Cooperation principle”: Participants of a conversation cooperate with each other by following 4 maxims: ○ 1. Quantity: i.e., don’t say too much or too little ○ 2. Quality: i.e., integrity in what you are saying ○ 3. Relation: i.e., on topic ○ 4. Manner: i.e., be direct and avoid ambiguity Linguistic Competence vs. Linguistic Performance CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Linguistic competence: a language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules ○ Can;t be measured directly; it’s deduced from performance (We can’t measure competence, can only measure output) Linguistic performance: linguistic knowledge in actual use Why are there discrepancies between linguistic competence and performance? ○ E.g., false starts, slips of the tongue, distraction, fatigue, language learning disability (skills are masked) Lecture 2: Cognitive Development– Foundations for Speech-Language Acquisition Explosive development during first two years= critical period of acquisition Cognition and Language Cognitive development: growth of perception, memory, imagination, conception, judgment, and reason; mental activities for comprehension, and acquiring, organizing, remembering, and using knowledge ○ Nothing is inherently language, but language skills are intertwined and related Does the relationship between cognition and language change over time and if so, how? ○ Initially cognition precedes language skills ○ Relationship becomes more intertwined over time Interaction across domains of cognition and language – Achievement in one area → growth in another area ○ Once a child learns to stand (compared to only seeing floor when crawling) → able to take in so much more stimuli → more labels for items in environment ○ Generalization: often if there is a delay in one area → delay in other areas Organization of Information (Since we are always bombarded with lots of information, this is our task:) An attempt to bring systematic order to info. ○ Storing and representing knowledge ○ Related to more efficient processing Basic unit: a scheme/ concept that enables “chunking” of info for storage and retrieval Concepts are linked to stored info in mental maps– complex webs Why use concepts instead of individual pieces of info? ○ Organization → easier/quicker retrieval of information; more efficient Memory Development For retaining and integrating input into stored representations Info is maintained in long-term memory (LTM) via rehearsal (e.g., If you want to remember a phone number, you will repeat it to yourself over and over again) CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam As children develop the skills to create memory cues, they become less dependent on external stimuli ○ Children gradually learn to retrieve representations with no input stimulus As working memory develops, less attentional resources are needed for this process. Development of Processing As cognitive skills improve, brain function becomes more automatic and efficient Cognitive development may reflect an increase in more efficient use of processing strategies. How Does Cognitive Development Occur? Piaget: Cognitive development is primarily based on maturation, physical experience, social interaction, and a general progression toward equilibrium (= cognitive balance between incoming stimuli and internal cognitive structures) Cognitive development means restructuring knowledge. ○ Child has a cognitive structure based on experience → child encounters a novel experience → disequilibrium → adaptation Piaget: Cognitive Development Adaptation: the function or tendency of all organisms to change in response to the environment Adaptation occurs due to 2 processes: ○ 1. Assimilation: the use of existing schemes to incorporate external stimuli ○ 2. Accommodation: a transformation scheme in response to external stimuli that do not fit into any available scheme and therefore, cannot be assimilated Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development Piaget, 1963: Described 4 stages of intellectual development from birth through late adolescence– sensorimotor, preoperational, and concrete and formal operational stages Sensorimotor and preoperational stages: ○ Preparatory, prelogical stages Concrete and formal operational stages: ○ Advanced, logical thinking stages Preparatory Stages Sensorimotor period– Birth-Age 2: ○ Most behaviors are reflexive ○ Ideas are not manipulated as concepts ○ Extraordinary cognitive development occurs ○ By the end of this period, reflexive behavior evolves into intellectual behavior CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Preoperational period– 2-7 years: ○ Child can represent action through thought and language. (Not everything is about DOING. Can TALK and THINK about things.) Advanced Stages Concrete operational period– 7-11 years: ○ Development of abstract thought and ability to make rational judgements ○ Great increase in accommodation ○ More sophisticated mental manipulation of info and problem solving, but still concrete Formal operational period– 11-15 years: ○ Cognition fully developed ○ Can consider multiple points of view when problem solving ○ More abstract thought; can incorporate principles of logic Concepts and Behaviors Critical for Early Cognitive Development Concepts Object permanence: knowing that objects exist in time and space even if you can’t see or act on them Causality: the understanding that events can cause other events Means-ends: a conceptual extension of causality; the understanding that there are ways (means) to attain a goal (end) Behaviors Imitation: duplication of models you hear and see Play: provides the child with opportunities for learning (through exploration) Communication: conceptual development contributes to the ever-increasing development of a child’s language ability Motor Development Muscle development and the sensory feedback (feedback to brain to tell you your body is in motion, even if someone else moves your hand, which was not planned or initiated by you) that informs the brain of the extent off that movement Most early motor behaviors are reflexes– automatic, involuntary motor patterns (sucking reflex, rooting reflex, grasping/ palmar reflex, phasic bite reflex) ○ Reflexes disappear or are modified by 6 months. (Due to brain growth and myelination– protective sheath around cranial nerves that facilitates neural functioning) Gross motor skills: movements involving large muscles (e.g., leg muscles for walking) Fine motor skills: movements involving smaller muscles (e.g., muscles in the fingers and tongue) CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Professionals involved– physical and occupational therapists Gross Motor Milestones These milestone ranges largely apply to children of different geographic backgrounds and across time, with some variability. Windows of Achievement: ○ Sitting without support: 4-9 months ○ Standing with assistance: 5-11.5 months ○ Hands and knees crawling: 5.5-13.5 months ○ Walking with assistance: 6-14 months ○ Standing alone: 7-17 months ○ Walking alone: 8-18 months Development of Prelinguistic Vocalizations 0-1 month: ○ Reflexive cries (not communicative), vegetative sounds (burping, etc.) 1-4 months: ○ Cooing (vowel-like sounds), differentiated crying (hunger, pain, etc.)-- not always recognized differences 4-6 months: ○ Transitional or marginal babbling: single-syllable productions of vowel and consonant-like sounds 6-8 months: ○ Reduplicated babbling (productions of the same syllable, e.g., “bababa”) 8-12 months: ○ Echolalia: imitation of sounds and syllables– continues beyond 12 months) Excessive echolalia after age 2= red flag for ASD ○ Variegated babbling: changes in consonant–vowel combinations, e.g., “dadu” ○ Jargon babbling: intonational changes added to syllable productions to give impression of sentence like behavior (strings of made up words that sound like adult sentences due to prosody) **Not all typically developing children produce jargon** ○ Vocables or protowords: productions unique to each child (resembles a word, but not a word; shows that they understand that language is a symbol system and one “word” represents an object) Social- Emotional Development Main reason for language is to socialize. Socialization is the driving force for communication and language allows for that. Relationship to communication? – Language is a social tool. CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Infants show a visual preference for the human face or a face pattern. Caregiver-newborn communication: ○ Caregivers perceive eye contact as a sign of interest– Aids in establishing a bond between the child and caregiver. (Parents of children with congenital blindness and ASD report difficulty with forming connections/ establishing bond) ○ Caregivers infer emotional states from infants’ facial expressions ○ Caregivers interpret head positions as communication signal Looking at you= interested; looking away= not interested in engaging Selective attention (focusing on one stimuli to the exclusion of others) of each partner and ease of interaction predict later communication between the child and caregiver ○ Regulatory capacity develops– from control of physiological responses to control of emotional state and attention– hypothesis ○ Professionals involved: psychological and teachers Language Development Interaction of language development and cognitive, motor, and social-emotional development Intentionality Model (Bloom & Tink, 2001): 3 component model of language development Stresses impact of engagement (social- emotional development) and effort (cognitive development) in language acquisition Child’s responsiveness to environment and social connectedness determines what is relevant to learn and what is the motivation to learn Assessment of Child Development: Communication Most child assessments are combination of: elicitation, parent report, observation Communication & Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) ○ Standardized, norm-referenced tool; Birth -preschool ○ Natural play routines or other typical adult-children interactions; parent-completed questionnaire; observation of child in structured play; language skills and use of symbols (gestures, facial expressions and play are scored) Rossetti Infant- Toddler Language Scale ○ Criterion-referenced tool; Birth-3 ○ Measures interaction-attachment, pragmatics, gesture, play, and language comprehension and expression ○ Observation, elicitation and parental report MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) ○ Norm-referenced too; 8-37 months ○ Assesses language and communication CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam ○ Parent/ caregiver- completed report forms that measure words, gestures, and sentences used by the child Battelle Developmental Inventory ○ Norm-referenced tool; birth-7;11 ○ Assesses personal-social, adaptive, motor, communication and cognitive ability ○ Parent/ caregiver interview regarding child’s development: to determine whether child requires comprehensive evaluation Lecture 4: Infant Communication Development Communication with a Newborn (Before vocalizations) Eye contact: ○ Caregivers perceive eye contact as a sign of interest (use it as an opportunity to provide stimuli) ○ Aids in establishing a bond between the child and caregiver Caregivers infer emotional states from infants’ facial expressions Caregivers interpret head positions as communication signals Newborn’s needs are communicated via reflexive crying– not intentionally communicative Infant- Caregiver Bonding What impacts infant-caregiver bonding? Quality of interactions (selective attention: paying attention to one stimuli/ individual to the exclusion of others) Maternal playfulness, sensitivity, encouragement, and pacing at 3 months is related to security of attachment (early establishment of trust) at 9 months Maternal responsiveness: (mother responds to infants' bid for attention– can be by smiling, eye contact, vocalizations, etc.) infant learns the stimulus-response sequence (Nature of communication = you will get response!) By 3-4 months: ○ Rituals and game playing emerge. Rituals (routines): e.g., feeding– offer predictable patterns of behavior and speech Game playing: e.g., “peekaboo” – turn-taking, places for words and actions 3-6 months: Infant mirrors mother’s facial expression (lots of gazing and eye-contact); increased interest in toys and manipulatives at about 6 months because better hand-eye coordination, able to reach, etc. Joint reference: 2 individuals direct their attention to the same entity– provides opportunity to expose child to language Joint action CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Turn-taking: important for development of conversational skills Situational behaviors: mothers use natural situations to foster language and communication Protoconversations Child-caregiver interactions that contain the initial elements of emerging conversation Mother and 3-month-olds show initiation, mutual orientation, greeting, a play dialog, and disengagement Mother talks in bursts with occasional pauses and infant vocalizes during the pauses 5-month-old vocalizes corresponding to particular attitudes (e.g., pleasure, anger) Communication from Birth- 6 Months By 3 months: Infant can distinguish people visually and respond differentially Gaze coupling (type of mutual gaze): turn-taking interaction; establish eye contact and then break it Handing has decreased by 30% from birth, dialogue has increased Turn-taking for vocalizations aids infant’s babbling Increase in alternating, rather than simultaneous, vocalization pattern (child is twice as likely to revocalize in response to moms vocalizations; mom-child-mom-child) Intentionality: 7-12 months Intentionality: goal directedness and the ability to share goals with others Infant increases ability to communicate intentions, primarily through gestures and vocalizations Caregivers of 8-12 month olds recognize intonational patterns that signal request, frustration, greeting and pleasant surprise Communication Intentions Demonstrated by a request for attention and a signal First, pre-linguistic means are used for functions; later, language is used 9 months: Infant uses speech sounds and gestures to convey intentions 6-12 months: Infant develops the vocal skills to regulate child-caregiver interactions. 3 Stages of Early Communication Functions 1. Perlocutionary Stage: Birth- 8 months Infant only communicates intentions to sustain an interaction (e.g., cries, coos) Attentional interactions: infant attends to and discriminates stimuli Infant’s responses are undifferentiated, reflexive (e.g., crying) 2. Illocutionary Stage: 8-12 months: ○ Infant uses conventional gestures and vocalizations to communicate intentions CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam ○ Child considers the message and how the partner receives it ○ Intentional communication is signaled by: Gestures and eye contact with the child’s communication partner Consistent sound and intonation to convey particular intentions Persistent attempts to communicate 3. Locutionary Stage: 12+ months ○ Begins with the first meaningful word ○ Child expressed intent via words that may not be accompanied by gestures ○ Child uses words and gestures to refer to the same content “Baby Talk” – Child Directed Speech Adapted speech and language of adults and children to infants Motherese Characteristics: ○ Short utterance length ○ Simple syntax ○ Use of small core vocabulary ○ Paraphrases and repetitions ○ Frequent questioning and greeting ○ High pitch ○ Slower ○ Exaggerated ○ Simplified and redundant ○ Variability in pitch and intonation Maternal Speech Appropriateness and consistency of adult responsivity is important for early communication development If mother has just vocalized, 12 week old is more likely to vocalize Maternal utterances are often produced in strings that refer to the same object, action, or event Episodes shared by caregiver and infant commonly begin with object manipulation and a high degree of naming by mother Semantic and syntactic redundancy of mother’s speech leads to increased predictability and continuity of an episode Mothers use paralinguistic variation (e.g., high pitch) Mothers exhibit longer vowel durations and longer pauses between utterances Mother’s pausing teaches the infant the time frame for pauses between speakers in discourse Fostering an inviting communication environment → Motivate the child to communicate CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Lecture 5: Phonological Development Classification of Phonemes Use of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Vowels vs. Consonants ○ Vowels: vocal fold vibration; relatively unobstructed vocal tract ○ Consonants: place, manner, voicing Descriptive features: according to the source (airstream friction or vocal fold vibration) of the sound in the vocal tract and the shape of the vocal tract during production Infant Speech Perception (Perception of Speech Sounds) critical precursor to speech production Begins in utero; hearing mechanism developed at 30 weeks gestation. Can newborns discriminate their mother’s voice from the voice of another woman? ○ Contingent sucking rate procedure: Researchers studied this question with 10 newborns; 3 days old. The babies sucked on non-nutritive pacifiers connected to a pressure transducer and their median sucking rate was recorded. There were 2 phases: 1. Base rate: What is their regular sucking rate? 2. Test phase: Heard their mother or a foreign woman read a Dr. Seuss story For 50% of the infants, if they sucked faster than the median rate, they got to hear their moms voice. For the other 50% of the infants, if they sucked slower than their median rate, they got to hear their moms voice. 8/10 infants modified their sucking rate from their median rate in order to hear their mother. Since what they heard was contingent on their sucking rate, it showed that at 3 days old infants were able to perceive their mother’s voice. 1 month old infants perceive the difference between /b/ and /p/ in /ba/ and /pa/ ○ High-amplitude sucking (HAS) procedure: Infant has non-nutritive pacifier connected to a sound generating system. Every suck causes a noise to be generated. ○ The infant sucks on the pacifier and they hear a noise (/ba/) they are interested in the stimulus and begin to suck vigorously, but after a while habituation occurs and they are no longer interested. ○ Habituation occurs when the infant becomes used to the stimulus response so they suck less frequently. CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam ○ Then, the researchers present a new sound (/pa/). If the baby perceives this is a new sound (discrimination), they will begin to suck vigorously again. This renewed interest is called dishabituation. ○ However, if they cannot discriminate that it is a new sound, they will not suck vigorously.. dishabituation did NOT occur. 1-3 month old infants can discriminate sounds by place and manner of articulation and by contrasting intonational patterns ○ Infants can perceive some aspects of the speech signal in utero. Since they are surrounded by amniotic fluid in utero, they can not hear acoustic properties. However, low pass filtering allows prosodic features (e.g., rhythm, rising and falling pitch) to be transmitted. Infants can discriminate phonetic contrasts of any language → lose this ability with exposure to their own language ○ Lose ability to discriminate non-native vowel contrasts between 6-8 months, and consonant contrasts between 10-12 months Speech Production: Prelinguistic Period Early vocalizations: ○ Reflexive- cries, coughs, hiccups ○ Non Reflexive- sounds shaped into adult forms Prelinguistic stages of vocalization: ○ Stage 1: Phonation Stage (birth- 1 month) ○ Stage 2: Coo and Goo Stage (2-3 months) ○ Stage 3: Exploration and Expansion Stage (4-6 months) ○ Stage 4: Canonical Babbling Stage (7-9 months) ○ Stage 5: Variegated Babbling Stage (10-12 months) Young Deaf infants: ○ Reflexively will babble, not contingent on sensory organ for hearing ○ Will see marginal babbling, but not reduplicated babbling ○ Shows the importance of auditory feedback for infants to learn From Babbling to Speech Inferences can be made from babbling. Quality and complexity of canonical babbling can have long term effects/ ramifications Preferences in babbling may persist in child’s first words Frequent use of canonical syllables is associated with earlier onset of words, a larger expressive vocabulary, and more accurate word productions from 24-36 months in typically developing children Later Phonological Acquisition CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam Protowords: the link between babbling and adult-like speech First word stage: 12-18 months: From babbling to meaningful speech 18 months- 4 years: Vocabulary increases from 50 words at 18 months to 1,000 words at 36 months ○ Syllabic structures increase in complexity; multisyllabic structures and consonant clusters emerge 5-6 years: Phonemic inventory stabilizes (most sounds acquired) ○ Age 6: Child introduced to reading a writing– Adds another modality to enhance child’s phonemic repertoire 7 years: Child uses “adult standard” speech Child vs. Adult Speech Production Theories Help to explain why children’s early words are different from adult forms Perceptual theories: Perceptual biases constrain the child’s phonological productions ○ Children perceive speech sounds differently than adults → produce differently ○ Limitation: does not account for assimilation processes and variability within the child Articulatory theories: Limited articulatory systems → simplified productions ○ Limitation: understood in some cases, but not all Innate phonology theories: phonological processes reflect default values of a child’s innate grammar ○ Infants have a set of underlying representations that have to be adjusted over time ○ Similar to universal grammar, but for phonology ○ Limitation: don’t account for variability among children Experiences with the target language theories: Word forms are impacts by the most frequent sounds and sound sequences in a language ○ I.e., substituted sounds should be more frequent than the sounds they replace ○ Based on child’s experience with a language → shapes what is more difficult/ easier for them ○ Limitation: Does not account for variability within the child The linguistic genius of babies- Patricia Kuhl Why can’t you preserve a language by speaking to adults? Language exhibits a “critical period” for learning ○ After age 7 systematic decline ○ After puberty completely “fall off the map” First critical period of development = babies try to master which sounds are used in their language; by studying how sounds are learned, provides us with a model for the rest of language + critical periods for social, emotional, and cognitive development Study: Baby sits on parent’s lap, trained to turn their heads when a sound changes CASD 7107 Language Acquisition Midterm Exam ○ E.g., from /a/ to /e/ – doing so appropriately → a visual reward Babies can discriminate all the sounds from all languages (not culturally bound) ○ When do babies turn into language bound listeners? Before their first birthdays. At 6-8 months American and Japanese infants are equivalent on discrimination of /r/ and /l/, but 2 months later American infants get much better at the task, while Japanese infants get much worse During this critical 2 month period (critical period for sound development) ○ Babies listen intently to us and “take statistics” from us on the language that they hear; babies are sensitive to the statistics (the statistics of English and Japanese are very different– much less /r/ and /l/) ○ Learning of language material may slow down when our distributions stabilize? Babies can take statistics on a new language (whatever you put in front of them, they will take statistics on) ○ What role does the human play in this learning exercise? ○ Instead of in person sessions: Video session with face vs. just audio session with a teddy bear on the screen: No result from audio or video, it takes a human being for infants to take their statistics Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) allows millimeter accuracy with regard to spatial and millisecond accuracy using 306 squids to pick up the magnetic fields that change as you are thinking ○ Record babies while they are learning (listening to various languages in earphones) → seeing babies brain as they hear sounds in their language Results: the auditory areas of the brain light up and subsequent areas around it Why talking to little kids matters | Anne Fernald Children living in poverty are behind before they start school – Family poverty affects the rate of brain growth in children Inadequate opportunities for early learning: ○ Proficiency in oral language provides children with a vital tool for thought. ○ Without fluent and structured oral language, children will find it very difficult to think. 30 million word gap: By the age of 4 years, children in professional families had heard 30 million more words directed to them than in the welfare families