PSYC200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Psycholinguistics, Language Disorder, Language Development
Language Development
Week 6 Michelle Delaney
Overview
• Language acquisition in infancy
• Language acquisition in childhood
• Bilingualism
Language
• Language: system of symbols, sounds, meanings & rules for combination
for the primary mode of communication among humans
–Symbols are arbitrary
–E.g.,
• a,b,c,d,e
• ⱷ,Ⅎ,ᾡ,Ԉ,Ӷ
Psycholinguistics
• The study of the relationship between linguistic behaviour and the
psychological processes (e.g. memory, attention) thought to underlie it
–The common aim of all who call themselves psycholinguists is to find
out about the structures and processes that underlie a human’s ability
to speak and understand language
Language & the brain
Studies of individuals with brain damage resulting in aphasia provide
evidence of specialization for language within the left hemisphere
• Damage to:
Broca’s area is associated with difficulties in producing speech
•
Wernicke’s area is linked to difficulties with meaning
•
Language difficulties
• Aphasia
–An acquired language disorder, in which there is an impairment of a
language modality
• Receptive(Wernicke’s)aphasia
–Can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation & stress,
but language content is incorrect
–Use the wrong words, insert nonexistent words into speech, or string
normal words together randomly
–Retain the ability to sing or to recite something memorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oef68YabD0
• Expressive(Broca’s)aphasia
–Speech & writing difficult to initiate, nonfluent, laboured & halting
–Intonation & stress patterns are deficient
–Language is reduced to disjointed words
–Sentence construction is poor, omitting function words & inflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aplTvEQ6ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh3cUe4BVrI
Language & the brain
• Non-invasive techniques
–The brain shows a consistent organisation for language across the
lifespan
–The left hemisphere shows activity when listening to speech & the
right shows activity when processing the melody or rhythm of speech
–Greater localisation in the left hemisphere in male brains
Main Elements of Language
(1) Phonology: The sounds of language
(2) Semantics: The units of meaning in a language
(3) Syntax: The rules for combining words
(4) Pragmatics: The knowledge of how language is used
Phonology:
(1) Phonology
–Study of the principles that govern the organisation of sounds in a
language and how sounds vary
• Phonemes:
–Minimum unit of sound (perceptually discriminable) that conveys
meaning in a particular language
–/p/ vs. /b/ /pat/ vs. /bat/
–/i/ vs. /e//pit/ vs. /pet/
• Prosody:
–Patterns of stress, pitch & rhythm – melody of language
–Conveys new or important knowledge to listener –Poorly
represented in written communication
(2) Semantics
• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of a language (symbols)
–e.g., antidisestablishmentarianism
–anti/dis/establish/ment/arian/ism
• Lexicon: the words of a language
• Some word shave multiple meanings, e.g., bird
(3) Syntax
• Rules for organising words & phrases in each language
• Order of language
• Generative grammar – according to Chomsky, there is an infinite number
of sentences that can be generated
• Hierarchical structure of language
Type of syntactic cues
• Prosody: Patterns of stress, pitch, and rhythm
–‘John gave Sam the book?
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
• Semantics/word meaning: Strong cue to syntax and subsequent
interpretation of sentence
(4) Pragmatics
• The ways in which context contributes to meaning
• Unlike semantics, which examines conventional meaning, pragmatics looks
at how meaning depends on structural/linguistic knowledge of speaker and
lister + the context of the utterance
Helps us over come ambiguity at times •
E.g., “You have a green light” •
Understanding & using language
• Meaning conveyed by a number of things
–Syntax
–Prosody
–Rules of conversation
–Shared world knowledge –Non-verbal cues
The acquisition of language
• Infant perception of speech sounds
• Prelinguistic communication
• First words and the acquisition of meaning
• Telegraphic speech and grammar
• Linguistic environment: child-directed speech
• Theories of language acquisition
The course of language development
Born with a preparedness for speech
- Preference for speech sounds
- Preference for mother’s voice
- Language development is universal
What does the child need to learn?
• Phonology(system of sounds)
• Morphology(combining sounds in to meaningful words)
Syntax(combining words into sentences) •
Semantics(meaning system) •
Pragmatics(appropriate use of language) •
Nonverbal communication •
Language development in infancy
• Neonate
–Startle response, head turning, preference for mother’s voice,
soothed by voice
–Can discriminate speech sounds
–Can discriminate between languages belonging to different rhythmic
classes
–Can segment continuous speech stream through cues such as pause,
pitch & duration
• 6-8weeks:beginproducingdrawnoutvowelsounds
• 4-8months:beginbabbling
Prelinguistic communication: Intentionality
• Someevidencethatasearlyas6months babies seem to communicate
intentionally
• Examples from later part of first year:
–Rejection (e.g., pushing away a toy)
–Request (e.g., greeting, gesture to obtain object, lifting arms to be
picked up)
–Comment (e.g., pointing at object repeatedly to get adult to attend)
Language development in infancy
• 9-12 months: protowords
–Sounds that are similar to, but are not quite words
• 12-18 months: first words/one word sentences mostly concrete objects
• 18-24 months: vocabulary spurt - fast mapping
Errors in new word acquisition
• Overextension
–Use a given word in a broader context than is appropriate,
represents an effort to communicate despite a limited vocabulary
–Demonstrates expressive language (use of words, signs & gestures)
lags behind receptive language (understanding what is communicated)
• Underextension
• Failure to extend a word learnt in relation to one instance, to other objects
in the same category
Language Achievement
On average, children say their 1st word at ~13 months
Experience a vocabulary spurt at ~18 months
Begin to produce simple sentences at around 24 months
Great variability in when different children achieve each of these milestones
How do children learn words so quickly?
• Fast mapping
• Occurs through a number of processes
• Whole-of-object bias
• Mutual exclusion
• Syntactic bootstrapping
Mutual exclusion example
Videos
• Mutual exclusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEE2UULd q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_uVTWfX yI
How do children learn words so quickly?
• With cognitive development comes a range of improvements
• Categorisation
• Memory
• Imitation
• Perspective taking
• Pronunciation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7TatEeC2s
Late-talking children
• Approx. 10% of children
• Increased prosocial, emotional & behavioural problems at 2 years
• Typically these children will ‘catch-up’ & there will be no lasting difficulties
• Only a concern if persists in school-age children
Creating sentences
Most children begin to combine words into simple sentences by their 2nd
year
Two-word utterances = telegraphic speech
◦ Word order is preserved in early sentences, indicating understanding
of syntax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EertzeHjM
Children are capable of producing 3- or 4-word sentences at approx. 21⁄2
years of age; the relationships between words become more noticeable
Learning Grammar
• Strongest support for the idea that young children learn grammatical rules
comes from their production of word endings
–Over-regularization errors: speech errors in which children
treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
• Idiom
–Words bear no logical relation to normal syntax or semantics
–So children must learn them as exceptions
• School age child
–Appreciation of jokes & riddles
Development of Pragmatics
• Early childhood
• Use of intonation & gesture
• Demonstrate listening cues
• Typically self-directed
• From about 3 years, become more socially orientated
• Collective monologue
Use of intonation continues to improve •
Conversational turn taking develops •
Theories of Language Acquisition Nurture
• Learning Perspective
–Language is learned through reinforcement & shaping (e.g., B.F.
Skinner)
–But research provides little support for notions that parents shape
grammatical speech
• Social learning theory Scaffolding
Behavioural model of language acquisition
Interactions that support language development
Parents’ central role in social learning models
Caregivers play an important role in word learning by:
Placing stress on new words •
Saying them in the final position in a sentence •
• Labeling objects that are already in the child’s attention
Repeating words •
Child-directed speech •
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Nature: Nativist approach
• Chomsky (1959,1994) proposed alternative to Skinner’s theory –
biogenetic model
• An innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Involves specialised brain structures & mechanisms that facilitate the
accurate & rapid accquisition of language
• Evidence for:
• The universal & species-specific nature of language
• Berko’s (1958) ‘Wug’ experiment
• Criticisms:
• Insufficient attention to language environment e.g., Genie
• Accounts for a limited aspect of language: grammar
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Interactionist Perspective
–Combination of both Learning & Nativist perspectives
–Biological & cognitive influences
–Environmental supports
38
Critical period for language acquisition
• To learn language, children must also be exposed to other people using
language
—spoken or signed
• Between age of 5 & puberty, language acquisition becomes much harder &
ultimately less successful
–Difficulties feral children have in acquiring language in adolescence
–Comparisons of the effects of brain damage suffered at different
ages on language
–Language capabilities of bilingual adults who acquired their second
language at different ages
• e.g., Knowledge of fine points of English grammar, related to
the age at which individuals are exposed to English; not to the
total length of their exposure to the language
Bilingualism
Ability to speak two languages
Acquire wo langagues simultaneously
○
First one and then the other
○
-
• Benefits
• Selective attention
• Logical analytical tasks
• Metalinguistic awareness
• Extends to late adulthood
Sensitive period for 2nd language acquisition
• Age of acquisition determines ability to acquire any language + proficiency
in 2nd language
–Onset at age 2, finish at age 13
–No known neurological basis for the end point
• Ease of acquisition: depends on language similarity
• Pronunciation: poorer the older the age of acquisition
• Success partly determined by individual factors: motivation and
acculturation
Language disorders
• Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
–When a child’s language does not develop normally, and the
difficulties cannot be accounted for by:
• Generally slow development
• Physical abnormality of the speech apparatus
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Acquired Brain Injury
• Hearing loss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5e6LFJoiFE
Language in non-human animals
• Communication in both animals and humans consists of signals
• Human communication consists of both signals and symbols
• Key differences between human communication and that of other
primates are
–Humans have an open vocal system while other primates have a
closed vocal system
Humans have a larger bank of symbols to use in communication
Lecture 6
Wednesday, 11 April 2018
7:34 AM
Language Development
Week 6 Michelle Delaney
Overview
• Language acquisition in infancy
• Language acquisition in childhood
• Bilingualism
Language
• Language: system of symbols, sounds, meanings & rules for combination
for the primary mode of communication among humans
–Symbols are arbitrary
–E.g.,
• a,b,c,d,e
• ⱷ,Ⅎ,ᾡ,Ԉ,Ӷ
Psycholinguistics
• The study of the relationship between linguistic behaviour and the
psychological processes (e.g. memory, attention) thought to underlie it
–The common aim of all who call themselves psycholinguists is to find
out about the structures and processes that underlie a human’s ability
to speak and understand language
Language & the brain
Studies of individuals with brain damage resulting in aphasia provide
evidence of specialization for language within the left hemisphere
• Damage to:
Broca’s area is associated with difficulties in producing speech •
Wernicke’s area is linked to difficulties with meaning •
Language difficulties
• Aphasia
–An acquired language disorder, in which there is an impairment of a
language modality
• Receptive(Wernicke’s)aphasia
–Can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation & stress,
but language content is incorrect
–Use the wrong words, insert nonexistent words into speech, or string
normal words together randomly
–Retain the ability to sing or to recite something memorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oef68YabD0
• Expressive(Broca’s)aphasia
–Speech & writing difficult to initiate, nonfluent, laboured & halting
–Intonation & stress patterns are deficient
–Language is reduced to disjointed words
–Sentence construction is poor, omitting function words & inflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aplTvEQ6ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh3cUe4BVrI
Language & the brain
• Non-invasive techniques
–The brain shows a consistent organisation for language across the
lifespan
–The left hemisphere shows activity when listening to speech & the
right shows activity when processing the melody or rhythm of speech
–Greater localisation in the left hemisphere in male brains
Main Elements of Language
(1) Phonology: The sounds of language
(2) Semantics: The units of meaning in a language
(3) Syntax: The rules for combining words
(4) Pragmatics: The knowledge of how language is used
Phonology:
(1) Phonology
–Study of the principles that govern the organisation of sounds in a
language and how sounds vary
• Phonemes:
–Minimum unit of sound (perceptually discriminable) that conveys
meaning in a particular language
–/p/ vs. /b/ /pat/ vs. /bat/
–/i/ vs. /e//pit/ vs. /pet/
• Prosody:
–Patterns of stress, pitch & rhythm – melody of language
–Conveys new or important knowledge to listener –Poorly
represented in written communication
(2) Semantics
• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of a language (symbols)
–e.g., antidisestablishmentarianism
–anti/dis/establish/ment/arian/ism
• Lexicon: the words of a language
• Some word shave multiple meanings, e.g., bird
(3) Syntax
• Rules for organising words & phrases in each language
• Order of language
• Generative grammar – according to Chomsky, there is an infinite number
of sentences that can be generated
• Hierarchical structure of language
Type of syntactic cues
• Prosody: Patterns of stress, pitch, and rhythm
–‘John gave Sam the book?
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
• Semantics/word meaning: Strong cue to syntax and subsequent
interpretation of sentence
(4) Pragmatics
• The ways in which context contributes to meaning
• Unlike semantics, which examines conventional meaning, pragmatics looks
at how meaning depends on structural/linguistic knowledge of speaker and
lister + the context of the utterance
Helps us over come ambiguity at times •
E.g., “You have a green light” •
Understanding & using language
• Meaning conveyed by a number of things
–Syntax
–Prosody
–Rules of conversation
–Shared world knowledge –Non-verbal cues
The acquisition of language
• Infant perception of speech sounds
• Prelinguistic communication
• First words and the acquisition of meaning
• Telegraphic speech and grammar
• Linguistic environment: child-directed speech
• Theories of language acquisition
The course of language development
Born with a preparedness for speech
- Preference for speech sounds
- Preference for mother’s voice
- Language development is universal
What does the child need to learn?
• Phonology(system of sounds)
• Morphology(combining sounds in to meaningful words)
Syntax(combining words into sentences) •
Semantics(meaning system) •
Pragmatics(appropriate use of language) •
Nonverbal communication •
Language development in infancy
• Neonate
–Startle response, head turning, preference for mother’s voice,
soothed by voice
–Can discriminate speech sounds
–Can discriminate between languages belonging to different rhythmic
classes
–Can segment continuous speech stream through cues such as pause,
pitch & duration
• 6-8weeks:beginproducingdrawnoutvowelsounds
• 4-8months:beginbabbling
Prelinguistic communication: Intentionality
• Someevidencethatasearlyas6months babies seem to communicate
intentionally
• Examples from later part of first year:
–Rejection (e.g., pushing away a toy)
–Request (e.g., greeting, gesture to obtain object, lifting arms to be
picked up)
–Comment (e.g., pointing at object repeatedly to get adult to attend)
Language development in infancy
• 9-12 months: protowords
–Sounds that are similar to, but are not quite words
• 12-18 months: first words/one word sentences mostly concrete objects
• 18-24 months: vocabulary spurt - fast mapping
Errors in new word acquisition
• Overextension
–Use a given word in a broader context than is appropriate,
represents an effort to communicate despite a limited vocabulary
–Demonstrates expressive language (use of words, signs & gestures)
lags behind receptive language (understanding what is communicated)
• Underextension
• Failure to extend a word learnt in relation to one instance, to other objects
in the same category
Language Achievement
On average, children say their 1st word at ~13 months
Experience a vocabulary spurt at ~18 months
Begin to produce simple sentences at around 24 months
Great variability in when different children achieve each of these milestones
How do children learn words so quickly?
• Fast mapping
• Occurs through a number of processes
• Whole-of-object bias
• Mutual exclusion
• Syntactic bootstrapping
Mutual exclusion example
Videos
• Mutual exclusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEE2UULd q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_uVTWfX yI
How do children learn words so quickly?
• With cognitive development comes a range of improvements
• Categorisation
• Memory
• Imitation
• Perspective taking
• Pronunciation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7TatEeC2s
Late-talking children
• Approx. 10% of children
• Increased prosocial, emotional & behavioural problems at 2 years
• Typically these children will ‘catch-up’ & there will be no lasting difficulties
• Only a concern if persists in school-age children
Creating sentences
Most children begin to combine words into simple sentences by their 2nd
year
Two-word utterances = telegraphic speech
◦ Word order is preserved in early sentences, indicating understanding
of syntax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EertzeHjM
Children are capable of producing 3- or 4-word sentences at approx. 21⁄2
years of age; the relationships between words become more noticeable
Learning Grammar
• Strongest support for the idea that young children learn grammatical rules
comes from their production of word endings
–Over-regularization errors: speech errors in which children
treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
• Idiom
–Words bear no logical relation to normal syntax or semantics
–So children must learn them as exceptions
• School age child
–Appreciation of jokes & riddles
Development of Pragmatics
• Early childhood
• Use of intonation & gesture
• Demonstrate listening cues
• Typically self-directed
• From about 3 years, become more socially orientated
• Collective monologue
Use of intonation continues to improve •
Conversational turn taking develops •
Theories of Language Acquisition Nurture
• Learning Perspective
–Language is learned through reinforcement & shaping (e.g., B.F.
Skinner)
–But research provides little support for notions that parents shape
grammatical speech
• Social learning theory Scaffolding
Behavioural model of language acquisition
Interactions that support language development
Parents’ central role in social learning models
Caregivers play an important role in word learning by:
Placing stress on new words •
Saying them in the final position in a sentence •
• Labeling objects that are already in the child’s attention
Repeating words •
Child-directed speech •
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Nature: Nativist approach
• Chomsky (1959,1994) proposed alternative to Skinner’s theory –
biogenetic model
• An innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Involves specialised brain structures & mechanisms that facilitate the
accurate & rapid accquisition of language
• Evidence for:
• The universal & species-specific nature of language
• Berko’s (1958) ‘Wug’ experiment
• Criticisms:
• Insufficient attention to language environment e.g., Genie
• Accounts for a limited aspect of language: grammar
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Interactionist Perspective
–Combination of both Learning & Nativist perspectives
–Biological & cognitive influences
–Environmental supports
38
Critical period for language acquisition
• To learn language, children must also be exposed to other people using
language
—spoken or signed
• Between age of 5 & puberty, language acquisition becomes much harder &
ultimately less successful
–Difficulties feral children have in acquiring language in adolescence
–Comparisons of the effects of brain damage suffered at different
ages on language
–Language capabilities of bilingual adults who acquired their second
language at different ages
• e.g., Knowledge of fine points of English grammar, related to
the age at which individuals are exposed to English; not to the
total length of their exposure to the language
Bilingualism
Ability to speak two languages
Acquire wo langagues simultaneously
○
First one and then the other
○
-
• Benefits
• Selective attention
• Logical analytical tasks
• Metalinguistic awareness
• Extends to late adulthood
Sensitive period for 2nd language acquisition
• Age of acquisition determines ability to acquire any language + proficiency
in 2nd language
–Onset at age 2, finish at age 13
–No known neurological basis for the end point
• Ease of acquisition: depends on language similarity
• Pronunciation: poorer the older the age of acquisition
• Success partly determined by individual factors: motivation and
acculturation
Language disorders
• Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
–When a child’s language does not develop normally, and the
difficulties cannot be accounted for by:
• Generally slow development
• Physical abnormality of the speech apparatus
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Acquired Brain Injury
• Hearing loss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5e6LFJoiFE
Language in non-human animals
• Communication in both animals and humans consists of signals
• Human communication consists of both signals and symbols
• Key differences between human communication and that of other
primates are
–Humans have an open vocal system while other primates have a
closed vocal system
Humans have a larger bank of symbols to use in communication
Lecture 6
Wednesday, 11 April 2018
7:34 AM
Language Development
Week 6 Michelle Delaney
Overview
• Language acquisition in infancy
• Language acquisition in childhood
• Bilingualism
Language
• Language: system of symbols, sounds, meanings & rules for combination
for the primary mode of communication among humans
–Symbols are arbitrary
–E.g.,
• a,b,c,d,e
• ⱷ,Ⅎ,ᾡ,Ԉ,Ӷ
Psycholinguistics
• The study of the relationship between linguistic behaviour and the
psychological processes (e.g. memory, attention) thought to underlie it
–The common aim of all who call themselves psycholinguists is to find
out about the structures and processes that underlie a human’s ability
to speak and understand language
Language & the brain
Studies of individuals with brain damage resulting in aphasia provide
evidence of specialization for language within the left hemisphere
• Damage to:
Broca’s area is associated with difficulties in producing speech •
Wernicke’s area is linked to difficulties with meaning •
Language difficulties
• Aphasia
–An acquired language disorder, in which there is an impairment of a
language modality
• Receptive(Wernicke’s)aphasia
–Can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation & stress,
but language content is incorrect
–Use the wrong words, insert nonexistent words into speech, or string
normal words together randomly
–Retain the ability to sing or to recite something memorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oef68YabD0
• Expressive(Broca’s)aphasia
–Speech & writing difficult to initiate, nonfluent, laboured & halting
–Intonation & stress patterns are deficient
–Language is reduced to disjointed words
–Sentence construction is poor, omitting function words & inflections
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aplTvEQ6ew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh3cUe4BVrI
Language & the brain
• Non-invasive techniques
–The brain shows a consistent organisation for language across the
lifespan
–The left hemisphere shows activity when listening to speech & the
right shows activity when processing the melody or rhythm of speech
–Greater localisation in the left hemisphere in male brains
Main Elements of Language
(1) Phonology: The sounds of language
(2) Semantics: The units of meaning in a language
(3) Syntax: The rules for combining words
(4) Pragmatics: The knowledge of how language is used
Phonology:
(1) Phonology
–Study of the principles that govern the organisation of sounds in a
language and how sounds vary
• Phonemes:
–Minimum unit of sound (perceptually discriminable) that conveys
meaning in a particular language
–/p/ vs. /b/ /pat/ vs. /bat/
–/i/ vs. /e//pit/ vs. /pet/
• Prosody:
–Patterns of stress, pitch & rhythm – melody of language
–Conveys new or important knowledge to listener –Poorly
represented in written communication
(2) Semantics
• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful units of a language (symbols)
–e.g., antidisestablishmentarianism
–anti/dis/establish/ment/arian/ism
• Lexicon: the words of a language
• Some word shave multiple meanings, e.g., bird
(3) Syntax
• Rules for organising words & phrases in each language
• Order of language
• Generative grammar – according to Chomsky, there is an infinite number
of sentences that can be generated
• Hierarchical structure of language
Type of syntactic cues
• Prosody: Patterns of stress, pitch, and rhythm
–‘John gave Sam the book?
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
–‘John gave Sam the book’
• Semantics/word meaning: Strong cue to syntax and subsequent
interpretation of sentence
(4) Pragmatics
• The ways in which context contributes to meaning
• Unlike semantics, which examines conventional meaning, pragmatics looks
at how meaning depends on structural/linguistic knowledge of speaker and
lister + the context of the utterance
Helps us over come ambiguity at times •
E.g., “You have a green light” •
Understanding & using language
• Meaning conveyed by a number of things
–Syntax
–Prosody
–Rules of conversation
–Shared world knowledge –Non-verbal cues
The acquisition of language
• Infant perception of speech sounds
• Prelinguistic communication
• First words and the acquisition of meaning
• Telegraphic speech and grammar
• Linguistic environment: child-directed speech
• Theories of language acquisition
The course of language development
Born with a preparedness for speech
- Preference for speech sounds
- Preference for mother’s voice
- Language development is universal
What does the child need to learn?
• Phonology(system of sounds)
• Morphology(combining sounds in to meaningful words)
Syntax(combining words into sentences) •
Semantics(meaning system) •
Pragmatics(appropriate use of language) •
Nonverbal communication •
Language development in infancy
• Neonate
–Startle response, head turning, preference for mother’s voice,
soothed by voice
–Can discriminate speech sounds
–Can discriminate between languages belonging to different rhythmic
classes
–Can segment continuous speech stream through cues such as pause,
pitch & duration
• 6-8weeks:beginproducingdrawnoutvowelsounds
• 4-8months:beginbabbling
Prelinguistic communication: Intentionality
• Someevidencethatasearlyas6months babies seem to communicate
intentionally
• Examples from later part of first year:
–Rejection (e.g., pushing away a toy)
–Request (e.g., greeting, gesture to obtain object, lifting arms to be
picked up)
–Comment (e.g., pointing at object repeatedly to get adult to attend)
Language development in infancy
• 9-12 months: protowords
–Sounds that are similar to, but are not quite words
• 12-18 months: first words/one word sentences mostly concrete objects
• 18-24 months: vocabulary spurt - fast mapping
Errors in new word acquisition
• Overextension
–Use a given word in a broader context than is appropriate,
represents an effort to communicate despite a limited vocabulary
–Demonstrates expressive language (use of words, signs & gestures)
lags behind receptive language (understanding what is communicated)
• Underextension
• Failure to extend a word learnt in relation to one instance, to other objects
in the same category
Language Achievement
On average, children say their 1st word at ~13 months
Experience a vocabulary spurt at ~18 months
Begin to produce simple sentences at around 24 months
Great variability in when different children achieve each of these milestones
How do children learn words so quickly?
• Fast mapping
• Occurs through a number of processes
• Whole-of-object bias
• Mutual exclusion
• Syntactic bootstrapping
Mutual exclusion example
Videos
• Mutual exclusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEE2UULd q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_uVTWfX yI
How do children learn words so quickly?
• With cognitive development comes a range of improvements
• Categorisation
• Memory
• Imitation
• Perspective taking
• Pronunciation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7TatEeC2s
Late-talking children
• Approx. 10% of children
• Increased prosocial, emotional & behavioural problems at 2 years
• Typically these children will ‘catch-up’ & there will be no lasting difficulties
• Only a concern if persists in school-age children
Creating sentences
Most children begin to combine words into simple sentences by their 2nd
year
Two-word utterances = telegraphic speech
◦ Word order is preserved in early sentences, indicating understanding
of syntax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2EertzeHjM
Children are capable of producing 3- or 4-word sentences at approx. 21⁄2
years of age; the relationships between words become more noticeable
Learning Grammar
• Strongest support for the idea that young children learn grammatical rules
comes from their production of word endings
–Over-regularization errors: speech errors in which children
treat irregular forms of words as if they were regular
• Idiom
–Words bear no logical relation to normal syntax or semantics
–So children must learn them as exceptions
• School age child
–Appreciation of jokes & riddles
Development of Pragmatics
• Early childhood
• Use of intonation & gesture
• Demonstrate listening cues
• Typically self-directed
• From about 3 years, become more socially orientated
• Collective monologue
Use of intonation continues to improve •
Conversational turn taking develops •
Theories of Language Acquisition Nurture
• Learning Perspective
–Language is learned through reinforcement & shaping (e.g., B.F.
Skinner)
–But research provides little support for notions that parents shape
grammatical speech
• Social learning theory Scaffolding
Behavioural model of language acquisition
Interactions that support language development
Parents’ central role in social learning models
Caregivers play an important role in word learning by:
Placing stress on new words •
Saying them in the final position in a sentence •
• Labeling objects that are already in the child’s attention
Repeating words •
Child-directed speech •
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Nature: Nativist approach
• Chomsky (1959,1994) proposed alternative to Skinner’s theory –
biogenetic model
• An innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Involves specialised brain structures & mechanisms that facilitate the
accurate & rapid accquisition of language
• Evidence for:
• The universal & species-specific nature of language
• Berko’s (1958) ‘Wug’ experiment
• Criticisms:
• Insufficient attention to language environment e.g., Genie
• Accounts for a limited aspect of language: grammar
Theories of Language Acquisition
• Interactionist Perspective
–Combination of both Learning & Nativist perspectives
–Biological & cognitive influences
–Environmental supports
38
Critical period for language acquisition
• To learn language, children must also be exposed to other people using
language
—spoken or signed
• Between age of 5 & puberty, language acquisition becomes much harder &
ultimately less successful
–Difficulties feral children have in acquiring language in adolescence
–Comparisons of the effects of brain damage suffered at different
ages on language
–Language capabilities of bilingual adults who acquired their second
language at different ages
• e.g., Knowledge of fine points of English grammar, related to
the age at which individuals are exposed to English; not to the
total length of their exposure to the language
Bilingualism
Ability to speak two languages
Acquire wo langagues simultaneously
○
First one and then the other
○
-
• Benefits
• Selective attention
• Logical analytical tasks
• Metalinguistic awareness
• Extends to late adulthood
Sensitive period for 2nd language acquisition
• Age of acquisition determines ability to acquire any language + proficiency
in 2nd language
–Onset at age 2, finish at age 13
–No known neurological basis for the end point
• Ease of acquisition: depends on language similarity
• Pronunciation: poorer the older the age of acquisition
• Success partly determined by individual factors: motivation and
acculturation
Language disorders
• Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
–When a child’s language does not develop normally, and the
difficulties cannot be accounted for by:
• Generally slow development
• Physical abnormality of the speech apparatus
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Acquired Brain Injury
• Hearing loss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5e6LFJoiFE
Language in non-human animals
• Communication in both animals and humans consists of signals
• Human communication consists of both signals and symbols
• Key differences between human communication and that of other
primates are
–Humans have an open vocal system while other primates have a
closed vocal system
Humans have a larger bank of symbols to use in communication
Lecture 6
Wednesday, 11 April 2018 7:34 AM
Document Summary
Overview: language acquisition in infancy, language acquisition in childhood, bilingualism. Language: language: system of symbols, sounds, meanings & rules for combination for the primary mode of communication among humans. Psycholinguistics: the study of the relationship between linguistic behaviour and the psychological processes (e. g. memory, attention) thought to underlie it. The common aim of all who call themselves psycholinguists is to find out about the structures and processes that underlie a human"s ability to speak and understand language. Studies of individuals with brain damage resulting in aphasia provide evidence of specialization for language within the left hemisphere: damage to: Broca"s area is associated with difficulties in producing speech. Wernicke"s area is linked to difficulties with meaning. An acquired language disorder, in which there is an impairment of a language modality: receptive(wernicke"s)aphasia. Can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation & stress, but language content is incorrect. Use the wrong words, insert nonexistent words into speech, or string normal words together randomly.
