1. Language Development and Linguistic Diversity
Kathryn Oswood, Linda Jodock, Star Miller

2. Personal Outcomes To understand how children learn language
To investigate the positive and negative impacts of second-language learning
To better serve students with language disorders

4. Biological Foundations
Language is predominantly associated with the left hemisphere of the brain.
Wernicke’s Area
Affects comprehension in speech that is heard and text that is read.
Broca’s Area
Affects the production of language through speaking or writing.
Individual differences in language ability are due to genetics.
Critical Periods for Language Development
Speed of Acquisition Relative to the Amount of Input for Language Development

6. Language Acquisition
Comprehension and production of language involves a variety of skills.
Speech Perception
Speech Production and Phonological Development
Lexical Development
Semantic Development
Grammatical and Syntactical Development
Pragmatic Development
Metalinguistic Development

8. Language Acquisition Bilingual Language Development
Bilingual Language Development - very similar to first language development.
Critical periods for second-language learners:
Strong correlation between age at immigration and syntactical competence in English.
Still unclear if critical period is:
First 5 years,
First 12 years,
Or even first 20 years or so of life.
Earlier acquisition predicts more likelihood
of attainment of native speaker competence.

9. Prelinguistic Development
Speech Perception
Phonemes
See Table 7.1 for vowel and consonant phonemes in English
Speech Production
Babbling

10. Prelinguistic Development: Speech Perception and Production
Children develop a sensitivity to phonemes in their language community
By the end of the first year of
life, they have difficulty
distinguishing between
phonemes from another
language.

11. Phonological Impairment
Children have difficulty expressing words in their native language.
Speech errors are extreme.
They are likely to experience problems with phonemic awareness that can negatively impact their ability to learn to read.

12. Language Development: Deafness
Babbling
Children that are exposed to sigh language use manual babbling – their hands babble
Gestures
Most common gesture is pointing.
Deaf children develop vocabulary sooner than most hearing-normal infants

13. Semantic Development Referential Style Expressive Style
One-word utterances that refer to objects
Expressive Style
One-word expressions of emotion, feeling, and action
Vocabulary Growth
Fast Mapping
A child understands a word in one exposure
Extended Mapping
A child understands a word after multiple exposures

14. Semantic Development Bilingual
One-word stage: child uses words from both languages and sometimes blends them together.
Separate lexicons or a common store for both, with each somehow tagged for which language?
Semantic vocabulary
correlates with academic
achievement.

15. Semantic Development Language Impaired
Children have less extensive vocabularies
Word retrieval is slow which correlates with poor reading comprehension
Interventions for word retrieval
Developing fuller understandings of word meanings
Increasing student’s strategies for retrieving words they know

16. Syntactic Development
Morphemes
Small units of language that convey meaning.
Unbound morphemes
Words that can stand alone
Dog, fire, tractor
Bound morphemes
Cannot stand alone
Prefixes, suffixes
MLU
Mean Length of Utterance
The length of a child’s utterances calculated in morphemes.
See Figure 7.2, page 196

17. Syntactic Development
Stage 1
Telegraphic Speech
“Doggie run”
Stage 2
Overregularization
“”goed” instead of “went”
Stage 3
Use of negatives
“I not eating”
Stage 4 and 5
Compound and complex sentences and passive constructions
“The teddy and the doll are going to play.”
“You bettern’t do that.”

18. Syntactic Development Bilingual
For bilinguals, adherence to word-order conventions seems to be more rigid than for monolinguals
Children tend not to “transfer syntactic rules and conventions that occur in only one of the languages they are learning to the other language.”
Differing gender markers are not
confused
Tenses occurring in only one language
are not confused, nor are particular
rules for asking questions.

19. Syntactic Development Language Impaired
Syntactic rules are developed at a much slower rate.
Sentences are less syntactically complex.
Grammatical errors are higher in both speaking and writing.
Intervention
Direct teaching of syntax
Enrich child's naturalistic experiences with language

20. Pragmatic Development
The ability to understand the perspective of others contributes to the ability to communicate with others in dialogue.
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21. Pragmatic Development Language Impaired
Have difficulties:
initiating conversations
changing topics in conversations
responding to questions from other children
being assertive in conversations

22. Metalinguistic Awareness
Metasyntax
Discrimination of syntactically correct sentences from incorrect ones
Metalexical / Metasemantic
Understanding the nature of a word
Metaphonological
Awareness that words are composed of separable sounds
Alphabetic Principle
Understanding that letters represent sounds

23. Metalinguistic Awareness Bilingual
“Bilingual children are more aware of language than monolingual children”.
They understand that words and things have arbitrary relationships.
They can single out words in contexts like sentences more easily than monolinguals.
“Bilingual children know more about syntax than monolinguals.”
Bilingual children can translate from one language to another early in life.
They use language “appropriately as a function of speaker and context.”

24. Bilingualism and Cognitive Development
In a study in Montreal by Peal and Lambert in 1962, they found:
Bilingual children outperformed the monolinguals on intelligence tests, both for verbal and nonverbal intelligence.
Their cognitive ability was clearly superior.
Bilinguals had a better understanding of concepts. Knowing two names for a concept seems to stimulate more reflection on it.
More recent studies point to a more flexible intelligence in bilinguals than in monolinguals.
More evidence in favor of rather than against bilingualism in its positive effects on intelligence and creativity.

25. Nature and Effects on Bilinguals
Educators are looking for ways to combat underachievement by non-English speakers.
Additive programs
Goal - add a second language without eliminating the first.
Additive programs teach students in the target (new) language for several years before being taught in both the new and the first language.
These programs tend to improve the attitudes of participants toward members of the other language group.
Subtractive programs
Goal – assimilation into majority culture
Replace students’ native language with the majority language
Dubbed “submersion programs” because child has to sink
or swim
Majority culture is implicitly and explicitly praised
Emotionally traumatic for the students

26. Social Consequences of Education
In the majority language for bilinguals:
Students bring the majority language home with them.
Students’ skills in the minority language seems to decline.
Relations with parents and other family
members are negatively affected
due to communication difficulties.
Families become concerned about
losing their cultural and ethnic values
in the next generation.

27. Effective Classroom Practices
Good teacher – student communication; teachers monitor and clarify.
Class works in small, collaborative groups.
Instruction organized around thematic units with student input.
Students’ home culture incorporated into classroom and instruction.
High student engagement, teacher intervention for difficulties.
Both languages used to instruct at lower grade levels; English prevailing as they progress. Use of either as needed.
High expectations communicated to
students; teachers committed and
convinced that their students will do well.
Parent involvement at school.

28. Cognitive Differences in Deaf and Hearing-Normal Individuals
Deaf children perform below hearing-normal children on assessments of:
general intelligence (including nonverbal measures)
conservation task
Deaf children have difficulties in school with reading and writing

29. Connection to Learning Theory: Stages versus Continuous Development
Childhood probably a critical period for language development.
Stage progression suggested by Roger Brown for syntax sensible
Data on accents in bilinguals
suggests a sensitive period
for acquiring ability to
pronounce competently.

30. Connection to Learning Theory: Nature versus Nurture
Language depends on and is determined by nature.
Experience matters too.
Sounds children can produce depend on what they hear in the first few years of life.
Both nature and nurture affect language development

31. Connection to Learning Theory: Lasting versus Transient
Lack of exposure to language of any kind, oral or sign, will negatively impact language development. Early exposure is essential.

32. Conclusions
We need to have differentiation in the classroom due to the significant differences in language acquisition.

33. Recommendations: Speech and Language Pathologist Cheryl Mercer
Reinforce prepositions – under, above
Reinforce quantitative words few, many
Abstract concepts need to be taught often
Make sure students are looking at you
Give one direction at a time

34. Recommendations: ELL Francy Hale
WASL
Language biases need to removed from standardized tests.
ELL programs need to have a high school model for delivery and instruction.

35. References
Pressley, Michael, and McCormick, Christine B. (2007). Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. New York, NY: Guilford Publications, Inc.
Lightbown, P.M. and Spada, N. (2006). How Languages are Learned. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Krashen, Stephen D. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

36. Discussion Questions
What implications does this have for your classroom?
What strategies could you implement in your classroom to differentiate your instruction? ELL? Language Impaired?