Helpful theories for exam prep.


LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORIES


Text Box: “What a child can do with help today, he can do alone tomorrow”

 

SKINNER – BEHAVIOURIST
  • Imitation
  • Positive and Negative Reinforcement
SOCIAL – VYGOTSKY
  • Learn through conversation
  • LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) – parents assist children in social conversations (first time going to a doctor for example)
  • Zone of Proximal Development – difference between what learner can do with help and without it.
COGNITIVE – PIAGET
  • Can’t learn to speak without learning the concepts of what they’re speaking about first.
  • Object Permanence – Before 18 months children believe that objects disappear when they’re not in vision.
  • Egocentric Speech – children speak to themselves to develop language.
INNATENESS – CHOMSKY
  • Language learning comes from an ability to acquire language that we’re born with.
  • LAD (Language Acquisition Device) – Part of the brain (Brocha’s and Wernick’s) is responsible for acquiring language.
·         Universal Grammar – All languages of the world share common patterns (Nouns, verbs) and therefore makes learning the language easier.
·         Overgeneralisation – occurs when child tries to apply rule to word it doesn’t apply
CRITICAL AGE – LENNEBERG
·         If speech hasn’t been acquired by 7, they will never catch up.




GENIE -

13 year old who was neglected meaning that she never fully
caught up in language.
 

 

FIS (Berko and Brown) –                                      WUG (Berko) -                                                   
Even though child cannot produce the          Child worked out plural         
the phoneme, they recognise it.                      form of a made-up word.                         
                                                                                                                                                                
 
CASE OF JIM –                                                         AMALA AND KAMALA -          
Son of deaf parents, didn’t                                 Feral children found in the wild
learn through imitation and                                  couldn’t speak, and because they
only developed when expert                              were too old they never caught up.
was assigned to speak with him.
BELLUGI –
                NEGATIVES:                                                      PRONOUNS
  1. No/Not at beginning                           1) Use first name
  2. No/Not in middle                                  2) Subject/object inversion (mistaking she/her)
  3. Connected to auxiliary verb                             3) Correct Usage

CLARK -                                                                                                    NELSON -
QUESTIONS:                                                                                       FIRST WORDS:
  1. Uses rising intonation to form question                         1) Naming
  2. Wh questions: What, Where, Why, When                     2) Action
  3. Connected to auxiliary verb                                              3) Describing
                                                                                                   4) Social

BROWN –                                         CAZDEN-
                INFLECTIONS:                                    INFLECTIONS:
  1. –ing                                           1) Words learnt, not rules
  2. –s                                               2) Rules learnt
7) Auxiliary –be                              3) Correct inflections used.                           

POLITENESS > CORRECTNESS                            MLU (MEAN LENGTH OF UTTERANCE) [BROWN]
Children respond better when                        Average length of utterance of the child.
parents correct bad manners                           > The higher the further developed.
rather than errors in their speech.                 > Lower shows poor/slow development.

 CAZDEN –                                                                           NELSON -
                CORRECTNESS:                                                                  CORRECTNESS:
                Correcting a child doesn’t help                                   Children who are corrected
                language development as much                                               develop slower.
                as continuing the conversation.
 
SINCLAIR –                                                                             BANCROFT -
                IRF (INITIATE, RESPONSE FEEDBACK):                     ‘PEEK-A-BOO’
                Used in classrooms, usually present in                   Parallels conversation in 4 ways.
                caregiver’s speech.                                                         1) Common purpose   2) Turn taking
                                                                                                                3) Relevant replies      4) Participant pleasure
 
 
ALISON CLARKE-STEWART –                                               CRUTTENDEN -
Children who have a mother                                                               INTONATION:
who speak to them a lot have a                                                         Children can reproduce       
larger vocabulary.                                                                                    basic intonation patterns
                                                                                                                        but not accurately predict
                                                                                                                        football scores from intonation.
 
FEATURES OF POST-TELEGRAPHIC –                                YOUSEFF -
  1. Compound and complex sentences                Children respond differently
  2. Manipulate verb aspects                                      to different social contexts.
  3. Longer noun phrases                                                                                                                    


HALLIDAY -                                                                                         CRYSTAL -
                PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS:                                                      LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
  1. Instrumental: Needs                                                         Vegetative (0-4 months)
  2. Regulatory: Orders                                                            Cooing (4-7)
  3. Interactional: Contact                                                      Babbling (6-12)
  4. Personal: Feels                                                                    Proto-words (9-12)
  5. Representational: Facts                                       
  6. Heuristic: Environment                                                    Holophrastic (12-18)
  7. Text Box: “Children learn to use language initially to get what they want” - BrunerImaginative: Create environment                                Two word (18-24)
                                                                                              Telegraphic (24-36)
                                                                                              Post- Telegraphic (36+)
                                                                                           
 
 
OVEREXTENSION = Linking objects to others                UNDEREXTENSION = children giving a narrower
                                    with similar qualities.                                                      definition than it really
                                                                                                                                      has.
LESLIE RESCORLA –                                                                          EVE CLARK -
                CATEGORIES OF OVEREXTENSION:                                           ADJECTIVES:
  1. CATEGORICAL: name for one member                            Simple first, complex later.
    is extended to all                                       Time last, spacial second.
    members.
  2. ANALOGICAL: extended based on looks
                              or same function.
                                
  3. MISMATCH: complete mistake, no link.
 
JEAN AITCHISON –
                SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT:
  1. LABELLING: linking words to objects
  2. PACKAGING: exploring labels, overgeneralisations
                            are made here.
  3. NETWORK-BUILDING: making connections between
                                            words, understanding similarities
                                            and differences in meaning.
 
PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT –
                                TYPES:
      • Deletion: remove from front
      • Reduction: remove from middle
      • Substitution: replacing for phoneme already in word
      • Addition: adding to end to make easier to pronounce
      • Reduplication: repeat sound
      • Assimilation: replace for easier
 
POLITENESS –
 
LAKOFF:                                                 BROWN AND LEVINSON:
  • Don’t impose                                     > Attend to the hearer
  • Give options                                      > Avoid disagreement
  • Compliment                                       > Assume agreement
                                                              > Hedge opinion
 
SNOW –
       PURPOSES OF CDS:
  1. Attract attention
  2. Understandable chunks
  3. Keep conversation in here and now.
 




·         Concrete nouns

·         Expansions

·         Recasting            

 
 





·         Absence of past tense

·         One word utterance

·         Simple sentences

·         Omission of inflections

 
 

Features:
  • Intonation and stress                    
  • Repeated sentence frames
  • Repetition
  • Questions and Commands

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