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