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Language and Cognitive Development

Language and Cognitive Development. Revision Session. Learning objectives. Theories of language acquisition Developmental course of language acquisition? By what age / in what sequence do particular language abilities develop?

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Language and Cognitive Development

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  1. Language and Cognitive Development Revision Session

  2. Learning objectives • Theories of language acquisition • Developmental course of language acquisition? By what age / in what sequence do particular language abilities develop? • 2. Driving force behind language development? Mechanisms responsible for developmental changes in children’s language abilities? • 3. In what sense are our language abilities innate? To what extent is linguistic knowledge wired directly into the brain? To what extent does it develop as a function of the interaction between innate learning mechanisms and the structure of the environment?

  3. Exam Structure • 6 questions regarding the whole course (Developmental Psychology and Language/Cognitive Development) • Unlike past exams, no division into 2 sections • Write any 2 essay questions of 6 • Past papers: useful for Professor Mitchell’s part of the course and theoretical questions on language acquisition

  4. Sample Exam Questions Developmental Psychology: • Is it necessary to develop a concept of oneself in order to understand that other people possess minds? • What is the developmental significance of being able to track the direction of another individual’s gaze? • What is the link between early developments in language-communication and developments in social relatedness?

  5. Sample Exam Questions Developmental Psychology: • What factors obstruct developments in social understanding and social coordination in autism? • Evaluate the claim that individuals with autism have “weak central coherence”. • Can executive dysfunction explain apparent difficulties in understanding the mind in autism? • How effective are normal human adolescents and adults in understanding the mind?

  6. Sample Exam Questions Language and Cognitive Development: • On what basis does Chomsky argue for innate knowledge of Universal Grammar? What form is this knowledge assumed to take? • Critically evaluate the Chomskyan approach to language acquisition. • Critically evaluate the Social Interactionist approach to language acquisition. • Compare and contrast Chomskyan and Social-Interactionist approaches to the problem of language acquisition. What are their relative strengths and weaknesses?

  7. Sample Exam Questions Language and Cognitive Development: • How does spoken language develop in children born congenitally deaf? • Do studies of colour term acquisition in young children support the notion of universal colour categories? • Discuss evidence for and against Frith’ s Integrative Theory of literacy development

  8. Specific Questions Frith’s Integrative Theory: What is the correct succession of stages? Key points (from Dr. Pitchford’s lecture): • Spelling and reading development interact leading to increased proficiency in each ability. • Spelling and reading progress through three stages: • Logographic • Alphabetic • Orthographic • Literacy development begins with logographic reading

  9. Frith’s Integrative Theory Step READING SPELLING 1A logographic1(symbolic) 1B logographic2logographic2 2A logographic3alphabetic1 2B alphabetic2alphabetic2 3A orthographic1alphabetic3 3B orthographic2orthographic2 Taken from Frith (1985)

  10. Specific Questions Sensory deprivation: what is the significance of the findings by Bishop (1983)? Key points (from Dr. Pitchford’s lecture): • Bishop (1983) investigated the comprehension of syntax in 79 severely prelingually deaf children aged 8-15 years, using the Test for Reception of Oral Grammar (TROG). • TROG measures different syntactic structures of increasing degrees of complexity.

  11. Specific Questions Sensory deprivation: what is the significance of the findings by Bishop (1983)? Key points (from Dr. Pitchford’s lecture): • Deaf children performed at the level of 4-year-old hearing children showing delayed acquisition. • Importantly, the order of difficulty across grammatical contrasts varied amongst the deaf and hearing children. • Suggests that spoken language presentation affected comprehension in the deaf children in both a quantitative (delay) and qualitative (deviant) manner.

  12. Key References Key readings: Refer to the contents of each lecture for chapters that relate best to those lectures. General chapters of interest either available in the library or photocopied (see handout of selected readings from: Bloom, P. (1993). Language acquisition: Core readings. Cambridge. Video: Theories of language acquisition: another viewing tomorrow, Pope C16, 2pm.

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