PSYC 206 Lifespan Development Bilge Yagmurlu

Basic Domains of Language Acquisition Phonological development Semantic development Grammar development Pragmatic development

Phonological Development The process of learning how to segment strings of speech sounds into meaningful units. Phoneme:sounds that differ and make a difference in meaning in a particular language Minimal pairs: pat vs. bat; /p/ and /b/ as two phonemes Examples in Turkish: yar vs. kar; al vs. ar

Semantic Development Semantic development: The process of learning the meanings of words and word combinations. Components: Expressive and receptive vocabulary E.g., can say 10 words at 14 months and 300 words at year 2.

What kinds of words are first words? Bates et al., Nelson: nearly 65% of child’s first 50 words are common nouns. Verbs, adjectives, other words each account for less than 10% Research in non-English languages? Chinese and Korean children have many verbs in their early speech These languages are rich verbal morphology Korean and Japanese-speaking mothers used fewer nouns than English-speaking mothers

Grammar Development Definition of grammar development: The process of learning the rules of a particular language for sequencing words in a sentence, and word parts within words. Syntactic bootstrapping: use of knowledge of grammar to figure out the meaning of new words

Grammar Development Syntactic bootstrapping: 7 months: Sensitive to ordering of words in simple sentences and can abstract patterns of word usage from such sentences children use the syntactic frames in which verbs are presented as a source of information about their meaning. rapid acquisition of language skill in an informal manner 7

Pragmatic Development Definition of pragmatic development: The process of learning the social and cultural conventions that govern how language is used in particular contexts. Functions: To use context to interpret communications Making requests, apologies, how to open phone calls etc.

Pragmatic Development Children with autism tend to have problems with pragmatics. They don't understand the small nuances that go on in a conversation, the socially acceptable things to do during a conversation. Without a good understanding of the pragmatics, children will miss a huge part of communication and have a large amount of trouble learning to express feelings and thoughts. 9

Pragmatic Development Referential communication being able to package the info in a way that takes into account the perceptual and informational status of the listener shows development throughout preschool ages related to children´s developing theory of mind 10

Keys to Language Two keys to the world of language Normal human biological structures and processes Active participation in language-using community With these two keys, young children enter a symbolic universe that is distinctively human.

Explanation of Language Acquisition Three distinctive approaches Biological Social and Cultural Cognitive

Biological Explanations Perspective: Our brains are hard wired to learn a language. Biologically programmed sensitivity to language is present at birth, which develops as the child matures Noam Chomsky’s theory: heredity, innate ability Development is triggerred via Language Acquisition Device (LAD). We are programmed to recognize the deep structures that underlie any particular language that the child may hear

Social and Cultural Explanations Perspective Emphasizes the role of environment Social interactions Bruner’s Language Acquisition Support System (LASS): behaviors and formatted events within which children acquire language Environmental complement to LAD

Cognitive Approaches Perspective: Language abilities follow from increasing ability to think and process information Schemas for actions with objects, ability to represent the world mentally, presence of lexical principles Mechanisms: assimilation-accommodation Switch from collective monologues to true dialogs. Related to egocentrism.

Biological Prerequisites Chimpanzees After years of hard work, chimpanzees can learn several dozen signs, in combinations similar to a 2-year-old; but children with no special training learn thousands of words in a relatively short time span Down syndrome Restricted vocabulary and simple grammar suggest that normal language development requires normal cognitive function, at least in certain key areas

Role of the Environment Deaf children whose parents won’t sign and hearing children raised by deaf parents develop basic rudiments of grammar (2- or 3-word phrases), but not more complex ones