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Theories and Models of Language

Theories and Models of Language. Oral Language and Written Language. “Reading seems to depend on a set of language processes that are common to both reading and listening.” (Daneman, 1991, p.56)” …internally reading and auding are the same language (Sticht & James, 1984, p. 303).

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Theories and Models of Language

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  1. Theories and Models of Language

  2. Oral Language and Written Language • “Reading seems to depend on a set of language processes that are common to both reading and listening.” (Daneman, 1991, p.56)” • …internally reading and auding are the same language (Sticht & James, 1984, p. 303).

  3. Definition of Oral Language • Primary means of human communication • A system for representing human thought • Use of abstract symbols (sounds) to represent concepts • Use of a finite number of sounds to create an infinite number of words • Involves genetic and environmental bases • Acquired through active participation: listening, speaking, evaluating responses

  4. Language and Thought: Possibilities • Thought depends on language • Language depends on thought • Language and thought are interactive

  5. Components of Language • Phonology • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics • Pragmatics

  6. The Sounds of Language: Phonology • The English language has 44 sounds represented in writing by only 26 letters: cough, tough, bough, through, though • Linguists categorize sounds by the place and manner of articulation.

  7. Speech Production • We push air from the lungs up through the vocal tract and manipulate: • Vibration of vocal cords • Raising the velum (air is forced through the mouth) and lowering the velum (some air escapes through the nose) • Stopping or impeding the air flow • /p/ /t/ /k/ /m/

  8. Morphology • Morphemes are units of meaning. • A word may contain one or more morphemes: hunt; hunts; hunted; hunter; hunters. • Morphemes can be free (cat) or bound (s, ing, ed). • The same morpheme can carry multiple meanings in English: cats, wants.

  9. Syntax • Syntax refers to sentence construction. • The vyakum flannered down the quettiful voth with maggle tome. Despite zathers, Cneb ackered the sestuaga and planella. He iffered and hathered for bromes and bromes.

  10. Semantics • Word Meaning: Fat, rich, soft, suet, weighty • Word Choice: Fat, plump, overweight, chunky, chubby, stout, obese • Word Combinations: fat cat, fat of the land, chew the fat; fat farm; fat chance; fat wallet; fat lip

  11. Pragmatics • “For pity’s sake, will you shut up so I can get a word in edgewise?” • “Excuse me for interrupting but I really need to offer a comment.” • “Stuff it!”

  12. Units of Language • Phoneme • Syllable • Morpheme • Word • Phrase • Clause • Sentence • Genre or discourse

  13. Communicative Competence • Grammatical competence: Word formation; word meaning; pronunciation; sentence formation • Pragmatic or sociolinguistic competence: Producing and understanding language in different contexts; considering factors as participants, purposes and conventions of the interaction

  14. Communicative Competence • Discourse Competence: Combining linguistic units into meaningful wholes • Strategic Competence: manipulating language to achieve goals; use of gestures and voice tone

  15. Language Functions • Instrumental • Regulatory • Interactional • Personal • Imaginative • Heuristic • Informative • Metalinguistic

  16. How Children Learn LanguageSkinner • Language is a set of associations learned through relating a stimulus to a response • Language is learned through imitation, practice and reinforcement • Criticized because of low rate of parental reinforcement; attention to accuracy as opposed to grammatical correctness and low use of imitation in children

  17. How Children Learn Language Chomsky • Language is innate and part of biological makeup: LAD • Each language has a limited set of basic sentence structures and transformations of these structures • Speed of language development would be impossible without innate structures

  18. How Children Learn Language: Phonology • Emerges without teaching • Learning to make sounds occurs before learning to make words • Sounds are learned in a pattern • The first stage in babbling or spontaneous vocalizing

  19. How Children Learn Language: Morphology • Learn irregular forms: came, men, mice,feet • Overgeneralize to other words: camed, mens, mices, feets • Learn rules and relearn exceptions

  20. How Children Learn Syntax • One word stage • Two word stage • Telegraphic stage

  21. How Children Learn Vocabulary • Overextension and underextension • Age I year, 8 months: 50 words • Age 5: 15/20 words per day • Age 8: 18,000 basic words

  22. Language Myths • Some languages are simpler and easier to learn • Some languages are primitive • Some dialects are better than others • Some languages are superior to others

  23. Language Myths • Other people have accents • Language should be correct • Children learn languages more easily than adults • English spelling is irregular and idiosyncratic ghoti = fish

  24. Two Theoretical Perspectives • Cognitive Science Perspective • Sociocultural Perspective

  25. Cognitive Science Perspective • An empirically based effort to answer questions concerned with the nature of knowledge, its components, its development and its use. • The individual is regarded as a processor of environmental input.

  26. Cognitive Science Perspective • There is little innate higher knowledge. • Lower level learning mechanisms lead to higher level concepts and behavior. • Cognitive science focuses on the processes individuals use to make sense of and integrate information.

  27. Sociocultural Perspective • Human knowledge is embedded in social and physical contexts and cannot be examined in decontextualized manner. • Social experience plays a critical role in the development of language and literacy.

  28. Contrasting Perspectives Cognitive Science • Learning: acquisition • Capability: skill • Mind: rational • Unit of Analysis: the individual Sociocultural • Learning: participation • Capability: practice • Mind: evaluative • Unit of Analysis: social participation in context

  29. Contrasting Perspectives Language Cognitive Science • Interest in grammar • Stress on complex rule systems and cognitive constraints • Word meaning analyzed as components features Sociocultural • Interest in meaning and pragmatics • Stress on social dynamics • Context analyzed in determining meaning

  30. Contrasting Perspectives Language Cognitive Science • Language is a knowledge system that must be acquired by means of a processing system. Sociocultural • Language is a system of social and cultural practices into which a child must be socialized.

  31. Study Team Digestion Time • What were the most important new concepts that you learned? • What did you find interesting, controversial, confusing, alarming, comforting, etc.? • Be prepared to share with the class.

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