Chapter 2 Describing Language

Language samples should be representative in two ways

1. Population sample from which the language is collected should be representative of ALL aspects of the total population. 2. Each child's language sample should be representative of his or her typical language performance.

Four goals of child language research

1. To confirm general linguistic principles. 2. to discover principles of language development. 3. to clarify the relationship of language to development in other areas such as cognition. 4. to provide a more or less theoretical description of language development

Goals of Cross-Language studies

1. To determine what aspects of language are universal. 2. To determine whether development is the result of universal cognitive-development or unique linguistic knowledge. 3. to identify underlying language-learning strategies

# of utterances needed to have an adequate sample

100

Explain the different ways in which a child is assumed to learn grammar in the Generativist/Nativist and Constructionist theories.

A child must acquire all the words, idioms, and constructions of that language. They must also link the core structures of the particular language being learned to the universal grammar. Although the language a child hears has errors, the child acquires the rules because he or she has a genetically determine capacity for acquiring language.

CHILDES

Child Language Data Exchange System. A computer program for the analysis of transcripts, and an archive of previously collected transcripts of children's speech.

language acquisition device (LAD)

Chomsky's term for a hypothesized mental structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation.

How can the method of collection affect the language sample collected?

Depending on the control of context, it may result in rather narrow sampling.

child-directed speech (CDS)

Form of speech often used in talking to babies or toddlers; includes slow, simplified speech, a high-pitched tone, exaggerated vowel sounds, short words and sentences, and much repetition; also called parentese.

Explain the differences between the Generative/Nativist and Constructionist models of language with regard to the brain

Generativists/Nativists assume that children learn language with the aid of innate rules or principles related to the structure of human language. They characterize language as a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words that children learn and then link back to language universals.Constructionists assume that children learn language from the input to which they are exposed using general brain processes. They believe language structure emerges from language use. They characterize language as a set of meaningful rules and a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words.

Generative grammar theory

Grammar is a system of rules that is intended to generate exactly those combos of words which form grammatical sentences

Explain the way in which language sample and population sample size and variability affect the data collected.

If a sample size is too small, it will restrict the conclusions that can be drawn about all children, and too large a sample may be unwieldy. Variability should accurately reflect the diversity of the larger population from which they were drawn.

Any sample should fulfill what two requirements

Naturalness and Representativeness- in a comfortable or child's natural environment and a representative sample includes as many of the child's everyday experiences as possible.

Two primary ways of data collection

Qualitative and Quantitative -spontaneous conversational sampling or natural observation-structured testing or experimental manipulation

Effect of the method of data collection on the resultant data

Research requires careful consideration of many variables including the method of data collection, sample size and variability, naturalness and representativeness of the data, and collection and analysis procedures.

speech perception studies

Research studies on the speech discrimination abilities of young children - primarily infants - and what those abilities can contribute to language learning

Language Comprehension Studies

Studies examining young children's understanding of language structure

Expressive Language Studies

Studies using a variety of formats from very structured to very open-ended as a way of examining a child's language output

Generativists/Nativists characterize language as

a set of abstract algebraic rules and a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words that children learn and then link back to language universals

Constructivists characterize language as

a set of meaningful rules and a set of meaningful linguistic elements or words.

Generative/Nativist Approach

assumes that children are able to acquire language because they are born with innate rules or principles related to structures of human languages

MLU (mean length of utterance)

average length of a child's spoken statements

Constructivist/Empiricist approach

children learn linguistic knowledge from the environmental input to which they are exposed. This approach is sometimes called interactionist.

Semantic-Cognitive Theory

children pay attention to the meanings of things, use language to talk about something, syntax develops because of need to talk about more information and experiences

speech-language pathologist

concentrates on disordered communication including the causes of disorder, the evaluation of the extent of the disorder, and the remediation process

Linguist

concerned with describing language symbols and stating the rules these symbols follow to form language structures

Collection Techniques

diary accounts, checklists, parental reports, direct and digitally recorded observation

Offline Test Tasks

fill-ins, providing the missing word - measures only the endpoints of several linguistic processes

psycholinguist

interested in psychological processes and constructs underlying language..

Emergentism

language is a structure arising from existing interacting patterns in the human brain rather than from language-specific structures such as LAD

Constructivist approach: Language structure emerges from

language use

Constructivists assume that language acquisition involves

learning linguistic construction from the input AND the child is considered to be a contributing member in the learning process

MLU

mean length of utterance, the most commonly used quantitative measure of language growth

online tasks

measure operations at various points during processing and describe individual and integrative components.

behavioral psychologist

minimizes language form and emphasizes behavioral context of language. Interested in eliciting certain behavioral responses and how to increase or decrease those.

transcriber reliability

occurs when more than one individual transcribes the same recorded performance

sociolinguist

studies language rules and use as a function of role, socioeconomic level, and linguistic or cultural context

observer paradox

the absence of an observer may result in uninterpretable data, but the presence of an observer may influence the language sample obtained