Communication and Pragmatics - Psychology 355 Summary - PDF

Communication and Pragmatics What is pragmatics? Why do children talk to themselves? Turn-taking Politeness What is pragmatics? BEYOND learning sounds, words, grammar Using language appropriately in different social contexts to get things done Examples: Tu...

Communication and Pragmatics What is pragmatics? Why do children talk to themselves? Turn-taking Politeness What is pragmatics? BEYOND learning sounds, words, grammar Using language appropriately in different social contexts to get things done Examples: Turn-taking Persuading Being polite Staying on topic Requires adjusting speech to listener’s needs Why do children talk to themselves?  Why do children talk to themselves? Piaget – Communicative egocentrism Vygotsky – Private speech Development is embedded in social Young children are egocentric. context, through interactions with Young children’s language is also others, and with adult guidance egocentric. They cannot take into Early speech is social, NOT account the needs of the listener. egocentric. Children talk to themselves in order to guide and regulate their own actions. Eventually gets internalized (“inner speech”) Evidence supports Vygotsky, not Piaget 1. Children’s speech is not egocentric, because even preschool children take into account the age, needs, and knowledge of the listener. 2. Talking to self (“private speech”) helps children with task performance. Children take into account listener’s age 4-year-olds talk differently to 2-year-olds vs. adults (Shatz & R. Gelman): Shorter sentences: average length of 9 words (speaking to 2-year-olds) vs. 15 words (speaking to adults) Simpler sentences More commands More attention-getters (“Hey!”, “Mikey!”) Children take into account listener’s needs (O’Neill) Two-year-olds watched as toy was hidden in one of two containers Parent was either: knowledgeable (saw object hidden) ignorant (didn’t see object hidden) “Tell Mommy/Daddy what you want her/him to do.” → Children provided more info to “ignorant” parent (naming the toy, naming the container, gesturing to location) Private speech and task performance Private speech increases when: Child is in goal-directed or problem-solving activity (vs. free play) Task is challenging but attainable (not easy) Child is alone (vs. with peers, though more with peers than with teacher) Private speech leads to better problem-solving: 3- and 4-year-olds worked on jigsaw puzzles More private speech when puzzle-solving is more successful Tended to talk to themselves when having trouble. Examples: “Where does this one go?” “Get in!” “Ta- da!” Turn-taking Early expectation: responsive other = conversational partner L-10 Children anticipate turn switches (Casillas & Frank, 2013) Child views conversation with two puppets. Eye-tracking method: Where and when do children look? Children can predict when next turn will be, by 2 years of age! They look toward speaker moments *before* they speak. They do better when they have full information (normal speech vs. just words or just intonation). They improve with age. Face = public self-image presented to others (Goffman) Politeness Politeness is based on “face wants” (Brown & Levinson): positive: Desire to be appreciated negative: Desire not to be imposed upon Social encounters are potentially face-threatening Managed via politeness: ‘positive politeness’ to build solidarity asserting common ground, displaying interest, and avoiding disagreement ‘negative politeness’ to show restraint being indirect, minimizing imposition, and giving deference Politeness and directness Less direct is more polite: Open the window. Can you open the window? Would you please open the window? I wonder if you might be able to open the window, please? What can children do? Even 2-year-olds understand indirect requests Ex.: “Can you get the book?” → [get the book], NOT ‘yes’ But older children use: Increasing range of politeness strategies Increased understanding of subtle uses (e.g., sarcasm) Conclusions Language is always social (so, Vygotsky was right). Foundation for pragmatics begins surprisingly early -- in infancy. But there are important changes throughout childhood. Children must learn culturally specific ways of using language.  Bilingualism and Bilingual Education Introduction One language or two? Effects on cognition Bilingual education Class discussion How many languages do you speak? When and how did you learn these languages? What have you found most challenging? What have you found most rewarding? What kind of language environment would you ideally provide for your own children? Introduction Bilingualism and multilingualism = highly common (> 5,000 languages, 195 countries) Introduction More than half the world’s population is bilingual US: ~20% speak home language that’s not English (up to ~60% in some communities, e.g., Los Angeles) Many different ways of being bilingual! For example… One person, one language Home vs. outside home Use two languages interchangeably Introduce 2nd language later (e.g., 3-5 years) Introduction Fragility Minority language can drop out Retained only if needed for communication Example: Werner Leopold’s study of daughter, Hildegard (1939-1949) Father spoke German; mother spoke English First: English dominant Age 4, moved to Germany → fluent in German; English weaker; German accent in English Returned to U.S. → started losing German after only 4 weeks One language or two? Evidence of language differentiation Sensitivity to rhythmicity Sensitivity to visual mouth movements Vocabulary Code-switching Early language differentiation: Rhythmicity stress-timed (e.g., English, Dutch) syllable-timed (e.g., Spanish, French, Tagalog) mora-timed (e.g., Japanese) Stress-timed Syllable-timed Early language differentiation: Rhythmicity Newborns can use rhythmicity to distinguish the two languages (Byers- Heinlein, Burns, & Werker) Example: English (stress-timed) vs. Tagolog (syllable-timed) Babies 0-5 days old English monolingual newborns & Tagalog-English bilingual newborns Habituation/dishabituation paradigm Results: distinguished between English and Tagalog Early language differentiation: Visual cues (Weikum et al., 2007) Bilingual speaker, English & French, reading from “The little prince” (“Le petit prince”) SILENT CLIPS (testing awareness of mouth movements) Babies were exposed to English Habituated to clip from one language, and tested in clip from other language At 4 and 6 months of age, babies exposed only to English can distinguish the two languages At 8 months of age, bilingual (French-English) babies distinguish the two languages, but monolingual (English) babies do not Early language differentiation: Vocabulary IF children are mixing languages, then they should avoid cross- language synonyms (for example, “cat” and “gato”) Pearson et al.: English-Spanish bilinguals Vocabulary checklist in each language. For example: Water, cat, duck, daddy, no Agua, gato, abuela, si, araña Results: All but one child had overlap across the languages, even from earliest use Average overlap: 31% So, no support of language mixing. Early language differentiation: Code-switching Young French-English bilingual children in Montreal (English mother, French father) – Genesee et al. Age 1-2 years MLU 1.23-2.08 Results: Children used English with mothers > fathers Children used French with fathers > mothers Effects of Bilingualism Early 1900s: Untested claim that monolingual was better Yoshioka (1929): “bilingualism in young children is a hardship and devoid of apparent advantage…” Jesperson: “the brain effort required to master two languages instead of one certainly diminishes the child’s power of learning other things which might and ought to be learnt.” Smith (1926, 1949): “It would seem unwise to start any but children of superior linguistic ability at a second language unnecessarily during the preschool years.” Some serious problems with early research Language background was confounded with SES (bilinguals had less education & lower economic status than monolinguals) Bilinguals with varying degrees of English were tested in English When these problems are fixed, bilingual “disadvantage” disappears (e.g., Peal & Lambert) Bilingualism and executive control Both languages appear to be activated at all times, even when tested in just one language ex: English-Spanish bilinguals performing picture-naming task in English Managing attention to two languages may lead to increased executive control May require inhibition of non-target language Bilingual advantage on conflict tasks (Bialystok) ex.: flanker, Stroop, Simon Brain differences in infancy https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/research/the-advantages-of-a-bilingual-brain/ Some debates about bilingualism and executive control Bilingual Education Bilingual Education: Some Points Significant issue in U.S. Census 2000: foreign-born residents > 10.1 % of population; California: foreign-born population = 26% Estimated to be ~ 3.4 million non-native English-speaking students in U.S. Length of time to acquire L2 3-5 years for oral proficiency 4-7 years for academic English proficiency Danger of losing L1 Fishman (1966) : “many Americans have long been of the opinion that bilingualism is ‘a good thing’ if it was acquired via travel … or via formal education … but that it is a ‘bad thing’ if it was acquired from one’s immigrant parents or grandparents” Be sure to read the Gándara & Escami paper. Language development - Summary Languages are complex and distinctively human. They can be spoken or signed. Children are remarkably skilled at learning the sounds, words, grammars, and pragmatics of their native language. They are better language-learners than adults. In many parts of the world, children learn two or more languages at once. Bilingualism seems to confer cognitive advantages. Even without language input, children can create their own communication systems. However, a full-blown language requires a community. Reading and writing Although all typically developing children learn to speak, many never learn to read. Examples of different writing systems Universal properties of writing systems (Dehaene, 2009) High contrast (black letters on white background) Small inventory of basic shapes (26 letters in English) Orientation is relevant: d p Location and size are not relevant: R R R Units represent sound and/or meaning  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah  Variation in writing systems System Unit(s) Example Language Meaning Sound Symbol Idea -- Horse crossing -- Word or Logography morpheme Mandarin Turtle Gui Syllabary Syllable Japanese -- Ka Abjad Consonant only Arabic -- S Consonant + vowel Abugida (diacritic) Brahmic -- Ku Alphabet Phoneme Greek -- Ah tsunami Some benefits and drawbacks of alphabets: Benefits: Drawbacks: Difficulty dealing with homonyms Fewer forms to memorize (bat/bat) Individual written forms are Difficulty dealing with language simpler variation (e.g., different dialects) and Easier to generalize to new words language change (dactylography) Some sounds are difficult to capture Flexible and adaptable to new with limited number of letters (ch, th, languages sh, ow) Example of how a non-alphabetical system handles homonyms better Learning an alphabet Speech can be broken down into units of different sizes (down to phonemes) Phoneme: smallest unit of sound that CHANGES meaning: example: “b” (bat) vs. “p” (pat) In English, these units (often) map onto written units. Phonemes are hard for children to be aware of.  Key predictor of reading skill in English: phonemic awareness Phoneme = smallest unit of sound that CHANGES meaning: example: “b” (bat) vs. “p” (pat) Listen to these words. Do they rhyme? sit, fit trip, sock Tell me a word that rhymes with bat, hat. What word would I have if I put together the sounds: /t/ /ake/ What word would I have if I put together: /t/ /a/ /p/ What sounds do you hear in “joke”? Invented spelling  Learning to Phonemic read alphabetic awareness language Alphabetic reading experience improves phonemic awareness – even for adults! Chinese speakers who learned Pinyin (alphabetic writing system) - McBride-Chang & Ho; 2000; Shu et al. 2008; Lin et al., 2020) Portuguese adults who become literate (Morais et al., 1979, 1986; Morais, 2021) BUT for children learning English, recognizing phonemes isn’t enough to be a skilled reader gaffe, laugh, staph limb, women, gym fashion, special, nation George Bernard Shaw: How to spell ‘fish’ English spelling also reflects morphemes (not just phonemes) Plural –s Cats /s/ Glasses /ez/ Dogs /z/ Past tense – ed Walked /t/ Started /id/ Learned /d/ Common roots: Produce/production, transit/transition, sign/signal, medical/medicine… Reading beyond decoding – from Cervetti (2020) Developmental changes in skills required for reading comprehension (e.g., letter skills [early] vs. background knowledge and reasoning skills [later]). Early oral language skills also predict later reading comprehension. Reading comprehension depends on many cognitive skills, including inhibitory control, self-regulation, comprehension monitoring, inferencing), though some play a larger role than others. Word and world knowledge play a role in reading comprehension. Cervetti, G. N. (2020). The nature and development of reading for understanding. Reaping the rewards of the Reading for Understanding initiative, 41-66. Literacy transforms the brain Learning to read creates & automates an interface between vision & spoken language. The three brain regions in green are enhanced with reading experience. Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Morais, J., & Kolinsky, R. (2015). Illiterate to literate: behavioural and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 234-244.  Mathematical reasoning Two core systems of number Learning to count Linguistic and cultural influences Two core systems of number – present in infants Large #s (> 3) Small #s (1, 2, 3) Approximate Approximate Number System Exact Object File System Approximate Number System (ANS) Approximate only, not exact Large numbers only, not small numbers Test: Compare two sets of items (without counting!) Example: More blue dots or more yellow dots? Let’s try it out! https://panamath.org/ How to test infants’ ANS Accuracy increases with age 6 months: 2:1 ratio (example: 16 vs. 8) 10 months: 3:2 ratio (example: 12 vs. 8). Adults: 8:7 ratio (example: 8 vs. 7) Object File System Exact only, not approximate Small numbers only, not large numbers Test: Determine how many distinct items are in a set (without counting) Example: How many dots? How to test infants’ Object File System By 10 months of age, infants can distinguish: 1 vs. 2 2 vs. 3 However, they CANNOT distinguish: 3 vs. 4 2 vs. 4 1 vs. 4 3 vs. 6 Large, exact numbers are hard for children!  Counting principles One-to-one principle Stable order principle Cardinality principle Abstraction principle Order-irrelevance principle Which principles does this child use? Which principles does this child not use?  Counting principles One-to-one principle Stable order principle Cardinality principle Abstraction principle Order-irrelevance principle Which principles does this child use? Which principles does this child not use?  Counting principles One-to-one principle Stable order principle Cardinality principle Abstraction principle Order-irrelevance principle Which principles does this child use? Which principles does this child not use? Language and cultural influences on counting and math Counting in English: When/why do difficulties arise? Irregular counting system is harder! English Chinese 11 eleven ten-one 12 twelve ten-two 13 thirteen ten-three 14 fourteen ten-four 15 fifteen ten-five 16 sixteen ten-six 17 seventeen ten-seven 18 eightteen ten-eight 19 nineteen ten-nine 20 twenty two-tens 21 twenty-one two-tens-one Counting system in Oksapmin (Papua New Guinea)  Pirahã have no words for exact numbers Matching task: line up balloons to match a quantity of spools (4-10) Did well when the spools were visible Did poorly for numbers > 4 when the spools weren’t visible Frank et al., 2008 Home educational resources School resource shortages