Oral Language Development

1. Oral Language Development Chapter 2 Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy N. Vines RE 3902

2. Vocabulary to Know • Behaviorist perspective: the view that language acquisition is a result of imitation and reinforcement. • Nativist perspective: the view that language development is a result of an inborn capacity to learn language. • Neurobiological perspective: the view that language acquisition can be explained by studying the structural development of the brain. • Social-interactionist perspective: the view that language development is a result of both genetics and adult support.

3. Vocabulary Continued • Cerebral cortex: the largest part of the brain, composed of two hemispheres that are responsible for higher brain functions, including thought and language. • Neurons: the impulse-conducting cells that make up the brain. • Myelineation: a process in which the neurons of the brain become coated with a white substance known as myelin, which facilitates the transmission of sensory information and promotes learning. • Synapses: connections between the neurons of the brain.

4. Vocabulary Continued • Otitis media: an inflammation of the inner part of the ear that can retard language acquisition. • Morpheme: the small unit of meaning in oral language. Ex. Cats contains two morphemes: cat (name of a type of animal) and s (plural). • Pragmatics: rules that affect how language is used in different social contexts. • Semantics: the part of language that assigns meaning to words and sentences. • Syntax: rules for arranging words into sentences.

5. Linguistics • Phonology: the sound system of a language. Phonemes, as discussed previously, are the smallest units of sounds. • Newborns recognize and prefer the sound of the human voice, their mother’s voice to other female voices, the cadence of their native language, and familiar music heard while in the womb. • Verbal interactions with caregivers offer opportunities for babies to hear and observe how their native language(s) works. • Prosody refers to articulation and intonation.

6. Linguistics Continued… • Morphology: the smallest unit of meaning in a word. • Sound to meaning connections occur around 6 months beginning with people such as parents. At this time real words begin to mix with made up words. This is called echolalia. • The development of real words can be categorized: • Lexical: individual meaning-carrying words, i.e. cat, baby.

7. Continued… • Bound: units of sound that hold meaning but must be attached to other morphemes, i.e. reorder, unbend. • Derivational and inflectional: usually suffixes that change the class of the word: example, noun to adjective-dust to dusty; verb to noun-teaches to teacher. • Compound: two lexical morphemes that together may form a unique meaning; butterfly for example. • Idiom: an expression whose meaning cannot be derived from its individual parts; Put your foot in your mouth. Idioms do not have the literal meaning you may visualize when hearing them.

8. Continued… • Syntax: refers to sentence structure. • Around her first birthday, a child is able to communicate with single words. • Between the ages of 2 and 3, children begin to use sentences consisting of two or more words. • With scaffolding from adults, children’s language will develop further. However, this may take time and modeling until the child is developmentally ready for modifications to her language.

9. Continued… • Semantics: refers to word meanings or vocabulary. A child’s vocabulary is shaped by her culture as well as her personal experiences. • We can see vast differences within our classrooms depending on our children’s cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

10. Continued… • Pragmatics: refers to social rules when communicating. These can include how to initiate and sustain conversation, taking turns, how to change subjects, etc. • This also refers to the use of appropriate body language and tone. • We can see children using these rules in dramatic play as they switch roles. • It is important to remember that these components are not explicitly taught , but acquired through listening, imitating, practicing, observing, and interacting with supportive adults.

11. Behaviorist Perspective • B.F. Skinner: operant and classical conditioning. • Operant conditioning: behaviors are reinforced by rewards. • Classical conditioning: ex. An object is repeatedly named and the child eventually learns the specific word for the object. • Language is acquired by parental teaching and modeling. • Nurture is the big player in language development.

12. Nativist Perspective • Noam Chomsky: we are hardwired for language. • Opposite of the behaviorist perspective. • Emphasis is on nature. • Children learn to communicate even without support from parents or caregivers. • The environment (nature) activates the innate system.

13. Social-Interactionist Perspective • The marriage of the behaviorist and nativist views. • Emphasizes the role of the environment as well as the innate ability to acquire language. • The big key here is the validation of and support in the child’s attempts. • Vygotsky: described this validation as scaffolding the language growth within the zone of proximal development .

14. Neurobiological Perspective • The previous perspectives were developed through careful, long-term observations with the findings being inferred. • As technology has advanced, neuroscientists have been able to study how the brain develops, processes, organizes, connects, stores, and retrieves language. This ability has given us a better understanding of human language.

15. How it works… • Neurons cause the brain to develop different but interdependent systems. • The brain imaging technology we now have has allowed scientists to locate areas in the brain responsible for hearing, speaking, and interpreting language. • This supports the nativist perspective as it proves we are “hard wired” to learn language.

16. Continued… • This perspective also supports the behaviorist perspective as the language(s) we learn are determined by what is spoken in the home. • As this perspective supports aspects of both the nativist and behaviorist perspectives, we see that the social-interactionist perspective is correct in that nature and nurture both play a role in language development. We are born with the innate ability to acquire and develop language, and our environment plays an important role in what language we learn and how it develops.

17. Theoretical Perspectives on Language Development

18. Typical Language Development

21. Factors Which Affect Language Acquisition • Gender: the majority of girls talk earlier and talk more. What are some possible reasons for this? • Socioeconomic Level: Page 39 in our textbook describes these differences very well. I would also like for us to discuss why this occurs. • Cultural Influences: some cultures rely on nonverbal forms of communication. Some cultures do not acknowledge early vocalizations and many emphasize receptive language (adults speak, children listen).

22. Continued… • Medical Concerns: hearing impairments delay language development. Fortunately, it is possible to detect such impairments very early. • Congenital Language Disorders: can be physical such as a malformed palate, or neurological in which the brain is unable to interpret the sounds of language. • Disfluency: stuttering, speaking too slowly or too rapidly. Speech is often unintelligible. • Pronunciation: articulation difficulties. Can be caused by malformation of the tongue, palate, or mouth; partial hearing loss; serious brain trauma; or temporary hearing loss due to ear infections.

23. Second Language Learners • Reread the special feature on pages 40-43 in our textbook. • What are some positive aspects for bilingual young children when entering preschool/kindergarten? • What are some negative aspects? • Do ESL students acquire English differently than they acquired their native language? • How do we encourage our bilingual children’s language development in their native language as well as English?

24. Interesting Facts • By 18 months children tend to have a language “explosion” called fast mapping. • Although parents have been warned against using parentese or baby talk, recent studies have shown that the practice seems to facilitate language development. • The first 36 months of a child’s life is the critical period for language development.

25. Discussion • What are ways in which parents/adults can support and encourage a child’s language development? Specific strategies for specific ages? What do you think is the most important practice for a parent or adult involved with a child who is acquiring language? • Why is it important for adults to model appropriate language use instead of correcting a child’s language? • How has the Neurobiological Perspective helped us better understand language development?

26. “Virtually every child, without special training, exposed to surface structures of language in many interaction contexts, builds for himself-in a short period of time and at an early age in his cognitive development-a deep-level, abstract, and highly complex system of linguistic structure.” -Lindfors, 1987