Lecture Outline Components of Language Development

1. Lecture Outline • Components of Language Development • Theoretical Perspectives on Language Development • Nativist • Evidence and Criticisms • Interactionist • Evidence and Criticisms

2. Components of Language Development • Phonological Development • Acquisition of knowledge about the sound system of a language • Phonemes: The smallest sound units that distinguish meaning • Ex: rake and lake differ by one phoneme (/r/ versus /l/)

3. Syntactic Development • The learning of the syntax (grammar) of a language • Syntax: Rules in a language that specify how words from different categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) can be combined

4. Semantic Development • Learning the system for expressing meaning in a language, including word learning

5. Pragmatic Development • Acquiring knowledge about how language is used (cultural rules)

6. Nativist Perspectives on Language Development • Universal Grammar: A set of highly abstract, unconscious rules that are common to all languages (Noam Chomsky) • Unique to humans

7. Evidence Consistent with Nativist Perspectives: • Children master language with little explicit training • Non-human primates require extensive training to master the most basic language skills • Although some non-human primates may combine symbols, they do not show evidence of using syntax • Indicates that only humans can acquire language and also suggests that innate factors are involved in language development

8. Evidence (con’t): • Certain areas of the brain appear to be specialized for language • Left hemisphere of cerebral cortex • Hemispheric specialization is present in infancy—suggests that innate factors are involved in language development

9. Evidence (con’t): • Appears to be a “critical” period for language acquisition: • Critical period: Time during which language develops readily and after which language acquisition is much more difficult and less successful • Suggests that innate factors are involved in language development

10. Evidence for “critical period”: • Brain damage is more likely to result in permanent language impairment if it occurs in adulthood than if it occurs in childhood

11. Less hemispheric specialization occurs when a second language is learned at 4 years or older than if it is learned earlier

12. Knowledge of grammar is related to the age at which individuals begin learning a second language, not the length of their exposure to the language • Individuals exposed earlier show greater knowledge as adults

13. Evidence Consistent with Nativist Perspectives (con’t): • Congenitally deaf children whose parents are not proficient in sign language: • Develop larger vocabularies (gestures) than their parents • Spontaneously impose syntax (grammatical structure) when signing • Suggests that innate factors are involved in language development

14. Criticisms of Nativist Perspectives: • Universal grammar common to all languages has not been identified • Focus on syntactic development and neglect other aspects of language development • Ignore role of social environment in language development

15. Interactionist Perspectives on Language Development • Language development is strongly influenced by children’s motivation to communicate with others • Because of this motivation, they pay attention to “clues” in language and the social context in which language is used • Allows them to master language

16. Evidence Consistent with Interactionist Perspectives: • Children show sensitivity to a variety of “clues” in language and the social context in which language is used

17. Fast Mapping: • Process of rapidly learning a new word when a familiar and unfamiliar word are contrasted • Ex: “chromium” and “red”

18. Linguistic Context • Grammatical form of a novel word influences children’s interpretation of it • Ex: “sibbing” vs. “a sib” vs. “some sib”

19. Syntactic Bootstrapping • Inferring the meaning of a word based on the grammatical structure of the sentence in which it is used • Ex: “The duck is kradding the rabbit” OR “The duck and rabbit are kradding”

20. Pragmatic Cues • Aspects of the social context that are used to infer the meaning of words • Children use direction of gaze or other gestures to learn word meanings • Will assign a new word to the object that an adult is looking at when saying the word (even if the child cannot see the target object) • Intentionality/Emotional Reactions of the speaker • Ex: “Let’s find the gazzer!”

21. Criticisms of Interactionist Theories • Language is too complex to be learned only by paying attention to “clues” available in language and the social context in which it is used • The evidence of children’s sensitivity to “clues” involves mainly semantic development, not syntactic development