Language Development
o
Language is a generative process with limitless
creativity
o
The giant pink elephant marched defiantly into
David Lawrence Hall and roared
Language Development: What Develops?
o
Phoneme
Development
n
Basic sounds of
language
n
Must both
perceive and produce
o
Morpheme
Development
n
Units of meaning
o
Both free and
bound morphemes
o
Both Comprehension
and Production
o
Syntax
Development
n
Structure and
rules of language
o
Semantic
Development
n
Meaning of
Language
o
Pragmatic
Development
n
Using language to
communicate effectively
Language and the Brain
o
Language is a
species-specific behavior.
o
Only humans
acquire language in the normal course of development, although some primates have
been taught to sign and recognize words.
o
Language seems to
be localized in the brain.
o
For 90% of
right-handed people, language is primarily controlled in the left hemisphere of
the cerebral cortex.
Language and the Brain
Critical Period for Language Development
o
There seems to be
a critical period (between the ages of 5 and puberty) during which language
develops readily and after which language acquisition is more difficult and
less successful.
o
The extraordinary
case Genie (United States, 1970) seem to support the
critical period hypothesis.
Critical Period for Language Development (continued)
o
Other evidence
for critical period comes from:
n
Studying the
effects of damage to language areas in the brain (children recover more readily
than adults).
n
Studying the ages
at which a second language is acquired.
Methods Used to Study Language Development
o
Parental reports
o
Natural
observations
o
Diaries
o
Experiments
n
E.g., wugs
Speech (Phoneme)Perception
o
Babies can
recognize new sounds from old ones they have learned.
o
Young children
are better than adults in distinguishing phonemic contrasts that are not made
in their own language.
o
Phonemic contrast
ability appears to be innate, present at birth and independent of experience.
Developmental Changes in
Speech Perception
o
By the age of 1
year, children�s speech perception seems to have become specialized for their
own language.
o
Phonemic contrast
ability becomes like that of adults.
o
Infants are
sensitive to the distributional properties of speech they hear, recognizing
that certain sounds are used together and being more sensitive to words than to
nonword sounds.
Phoneme Development
o
Hearing the
�sounds� of language
n
As previously
discussed, infants are �tuning� into the sounds of language through out the 1st
year
Phoneme Development
o
Producing the
sounds of language
n
Transition from
cooing to babbling
Phoneme Development
o
Progression of sound development
n
Consonant sounds: From front of mouth to back of
mouth (e.g., �B� before �K�)
n
Vowel Sounds: From Back of mouth to front of
mouth (e.g., �ah� before �eh�)
o
Babbling: Why do infants babble?
Using Words (comprehension)
o
Infants first
recognize words; then they begin to comprehend them.
o
Infants as young
as 4 months recognize their own name.
o
By 7 to 8 months,
infants recognize new words and remember them for weeks.
o
By about 6
months, infants address the problem of reference, associating words with
meaning (as shown by looking toward mother or father when someone says �Mommy�
or �Daddy�).
Early Semantic Development
o
Disparity between comprehension and production
o
One word stage at around 12 months
o
Representation of First Words
n
Over-extensions (dog= dog, cat, horse)
n
Under-extensions (dog= only a poodle)
n
Mismatches (infant and adult have different
referents)
Motherese or Baby Talk
o
Attention getting qualities
n
Exagerations of tone, loudness,
expressions, etc.
o
Simplicity of what is said
n
Easy to pronounce words
n
Basic level of meaning
o
Exaggerated turn-taking or synchrony
o
Use of correction?
Two word speech
Child: Go car
Mother: Yes, time to go in the car.� Where�s your jacket?
Child: Dacket
Mother: There�s the jacket.� Ont it goes.�
Let�s zip it up.� Now say bye-bye
to Timmy
Child: Bye-Bye Tim
Mother: Where�s your bear?
Child: Looks around
Mother: See? Go get the bear
Child: Get bear
Child: Big bear
Two word speech
o
Holophrastic: single words stand for who phrases
o
Telegraphic: words selected are the most
important for meaning
o
No use of inflections: e.g., �s�, �ed�
o
Is there syntax?
o
Is there pragmatics?
Later Language Development
o
Theories of Language Development
n
Behavioral Theory
n
Imitation Theory
n
Hypothesis Testing (Language Acquisition Device-LAD)
o
Possible innate principles
n
Look for syntactic markers that imply semantic
difference
n
Pay attention to work endings
n
Pay attention to word order
n
Over generalize and avoid exceptions
n
Attend to aspects such as correlations of words
Later Pragmatic Development
o
Role of egocentrism
o
Appreciation of language as a tool of
communications
Is language unique to humans?
o
Work with chimpanzees and gorillas
n
Sign language
n
Yerkish