Language Development

1. Language Development Quick take on theories about how we acquire or learn language: • Behaviorism—the behavior of using language and language approximations (babbling) is rewarded. • Social Cognitive Theory—parents model language and children learn from watching and listening to their parents. • Nativist Theory—we are genetically programmed to learn and use language. Exposure to language triggers this development. • Sociocultural Theory—(Vygotsky) parents scaffold their children’s use of language.

2. Feedback Cycle in Language There is a critical feedback cycle in language. Children attempt to communicate and they get feedback on their attempts. The feedback is either positive or negative Positive feedback: The baby says “mamamamamama” and the mom, in a wildly excited voice, says, “You said ‘mama’!!” Parents reward gross approximations of the use of language to communicate. Positive feedback helps the child to know s/he is on the right track and encourages the child to keep on trying. Attempt to communicate Reception The child gets negative feedback when an attempt to communicate does not work. For example, while crying is a first way of communicating, it is not very specific, so it takes parents time to figure out why the baby is crying. Negative feedback encourages children to move forward in linguistic development. Single words are so much better than crying, but even they are not as effective as multi-word phrases and later on specific, complete sentences.

3. The feedback cycle explains all the theories about language acquisition. Social Cognitive Theory: Children imitate their parents when they are attempting to communicate. Nativist Theory: The whole background: we are “hardwired” to use language. The Language Acquisition Device in our brains is a genetic set of language-processing skills that enables children to understand and use the rules governing speech. Sociocultural theory: Parents scaffold language for their children. Babytalk is a form of scaffolding—a simplified version of language. Attempt to communicate Reception Behaviorism: approximations of language are rewarded Piaget: Negative feedback creates disequilibrium and the processes of adaptation: accommodation and assimilation.

4. Stages of Language Acquisition • Cooing & babbling (first few months of life) • First words (age 1). Holophrases—one or two words stand for a lot of words (“Cookie!!” means “I want a cookie!”). Overgeneralization—one word used to refer to too many things, such as “dog” referring to all 4-legged furry things. Undergeneralization—the opposite—being too specific with a word. • Fine-tuning (around age 2) developing verb forms. Overgeneralizes irregular grammar forms (“I goed to the store.”). • Strategic use of language (age 3)—questions, positive & negative forms • Complex sentences (age 6) Overgeneralization: occurs when a child uses a word to refer to a broader class of objects than is appropriate. When a child assimilates instead of accommodates, that is overgeneralization—see the slide on “Schemes and Organization.” The child in that example is overgeneralizing her scheme for “doggie.” Undergeneralization: occurs when a child uses a word too narrowly such as “kitty” for a specific cat but not for cats in general.

5. Language development in the school years • Pronunciation: most first graders can pronounce all the sounds of their native language but some will struggle, still.

6. Language development in the school years • Grammar: children master syntax (word order) in their native language early. But some constructions are more complex and while they understand these constructions, they may not use them until late elementary school. • For example: passive voice. • Active voice: “The dog played with the ball.” • Passive voice: “The ball was played with by the dog.” This is a more complex way of stating the main idea. It is part of academic-style writing (it’s actually not the best style of writing, but it might be necessary sometimes).

7. Language development in the school years • Vocabulary and meaning: Average 6 year old’s vocabulary is 8,000-14,000 words. Average 11 year old’s vocabulary is 40,000. • Early elementary school students may have a hard time with abstract words such as “justice.” They may not understand sentences such as “if I were…” because that is an abstraction. They may not understand sarcasm.

8. Language development in the school years • Pragmatics: the rules for when and how to use language to be an effective communicator in a particular culture. • Turn-taking in conversation (not monopolizing the conversation) • Commands may be expressed in many different ways besides directly

9. Language development in the school years • Metalinguistic awareness: understanding about one’s own use of language. • This is knowledge about language—its rules and constructions and how to use it.

10. Metalinguistic knowledge • When I was in France, I wanted to be able to use my French skills, but I had heard that people there tend to switch to English if they think you aren’t speaking well enough. I decided to use conditional tense when I asked for something as well as the formal version of “you.” I figured that conditional tense would “mark” me as being beyond the beginning stages of speaking French and that the formal “you” would let them know that I understood its importance in that culture. It worked!! I ordered tickets in a railway station completely in French.

11. Language development in the school years • Partnerships with families—it is important to partner with students’ families in promoting their linguistic development. Home life can add to school life and parents often will add activities to their lives that you suggest (and provide materials for).

12. Diversities and convergences • Children around the world develop at different ages, however, assessing development needs to be done in ways that children understand in order to get an accurate picture of what a student is able to do. • Cultures create different pragmatics. Middle class families tend to ask questions that are “test-like” while parents from other families tend to think of these questions as obvious and not particularly interesting.

13. Convergences • Cognitive development requires physical and social stimulation • To develop, children need to be active in all areas of their lives. They need to experiment and try things out for themselves. They need older people to help. • Children need to play. • Good teaching is in the learning zone—not too hard, not too easy, but JUST right. • Challenge + Support = Learning

14. Accommodation Concrete operational stage Vocabulary Adaptation Conservation Funds of knowledge Neo-Piagetian theories Preoperational stage Social development Adolescent egocentrism Compensation Heritage language Neurons Private speech Social experience Assimilation Cultural tools Holophrases Object permanence Reversability Sociocultural theory of development Assisted learning Decentering Identity Organization Scaffolding Synapses Centration Development Lateralization Over-generalization Schemes Syntax Classification Disequilibrium Maturation Personal development Semiotic function Systematic reasoning Co-constructed process Egocentrism Metalinguistic awareness Physical development Sensori-motor stage Transformation Cognitive development Equilibrium Myelination Plasticity Seriation Under- generalization Collective monologue Formal operational stage Nativist theory Pragmatics Shared understanding Zone of proximal development