CENTRO UNIVERSITARIO DE ESTUDIOS GENERALES

CARRERA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS

LINGUISTIC OBSERVATION

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

Students’ Names:

Estefani Gisselle Posas Martinez 20123000058

Kathia Maria Rosales Caceres 20141002957

Jorge Misael Alvarez Montalvan 20051000349

Yenci Rossalinda Castañeda Gomez 20141004925

Teacher’s Name:

Mrs. Gabriela Torres

Date:

Monday, August 24th

, 2015.

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INDEX

Content

INDEX .............................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................3

LINGUISTIC OBSERVATION REPORT ..........................................................................4

I. SITUATION: .............................................................................................................4

II. SUBJECTS: ..............................................................................................................4

III. TIME AND PLACE: ................................................................................................4

IV. DATA: ....................................................................................................................5

V. ANALYSIS: ...............................................................................................................6

Recognition of sounds and people ...............................................................................6

Visual stimuli ................................................................................................................6

Auditory stimuli.............................................................................................................6

When she is alone, she cried. ......................................................................................7

Different reactions of the baby .....................................................................................8

CONCLUSIONS ..............................................................................................................9

ANNEXES .....................................................................................................................10

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................................12

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INTRODUCTION

A baby’s first word is typically a momentous occasion, witnessed with proud smiles and

teary eyes. But what of the babbling that comes before? These nonsensical noises may

also be a major milestone on the way to learning language, according to a new study in

the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of

Science. Scientists have argued for years over how our ability to use language arose.

Babbling, it turns out, may be an important part of the answer. (Whren K, 2002, “A

baby’s babble leads to language”, par.1, and 2).

The purpose of the following assignment is to demonstrate the babbling stage in

children under twelve months and how parents and the environment influenced children

in order to they start to acquire a language and then they try to communicate something

(babbling process). First, we are going to show some data evidences that a little baby

has when she tries to say something. And then, we are going to explain you how this

evidences are related with babbling stage.

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LINGUISTIC OBSERVATION REPORT

I. SITUATION:

Observe the speech that parents use with a baby under 12 months (see Motherese talk

or baby talk).

II. SUBJECTS:

a) Baby: Jenny Patricia Sanchez Salgado; a healthy baby of six months.

b) Mother: Paola Salgado, 18 years old.

c) Grandmother: Patricia Salgado, 41 years old.

d) Aunt: Ninoska Salgado, 13 years old.

III. TIME AND PLACE:

Neighborhood: La Era

House: A big and clean house with two floors.

Date: Saturday, August 22nd, 2015.

Time: 12:20pm

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IV. DATA:

We can observe that the baby had several responses.

1. The baby reacted every time when she heard her name.

2. She responded to visual stimuli:

a) The baby recognized her mother, grandmother and her aunt.

b) When the mother showed her a little teddy, she answered back with a happy

reaction. She started to smile and move her arms.

c) While her family was talking with other people, she began to make sounds.

d) Every time she saw a glass of coke, she cried because her mother did not

want to give it.

3. In a spontaneous way, she said a word (tata).

4. When she is alone, she cried.

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V. ANALYSIS:

Recognition of sounds and people

Infants show a very early response to different properties of language, infants react to

some stimuli (visual and auditory), they recognize the voice of his/her mother before

they birth, and according to the environment in which they grow up they identify the

voices and faces of their relatives. Babies are born with the ability to perceive just those

sounds that are phonemic in some language. From around six month, they begin to lose

the ability to discriminate between sounds that are not phonemic in their own language

as their linguistic environment begins to shape their initial perceptions (Fromkin V,

Rodman R, and Hyams N, 2013, p. 399). In other words we can say that the baby begin

to understand when she is called by her name, and identify the sounds that does not

belong to her native language.

Visual stimuli

There is an age in which children respond to several stimuli, for example according to

Jean Piaget in his theory of Object Permanence, he explains that infants recognize

every object they see even though they do not know what it is (Piaget and Inhelder,

1969; pag. 14). So, this theory applies in the recognition the baby had with the teddy

bear. Every time the baby saw the teddy bear she had a happy reaction, she started to

smile and moved her arms and legs.

Auditory stimuli

As we know children can recognize different auditory stimuli. Some listening techniques

reveal that when children listen to sounds they turn their heads and they will respond to

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that sounds (Fromky. V, Rodman. R, Hyams. N. 2013; pg. 399). According to this

explanation we can say that when the baby listened that her family was talking with us

she started looking at everyone, she smiled and tried to talk by moving her mouth and

arms.

When she is alone, she cried.

To explain this situation, we related it with the following quote:

Infants will respond to visual depth and distance distinctions, to differences between

rigid and flexible physical properties of objects, and to human faces rather than to other

visual stimuli. (Fromkin V, Rodman R, and Hyams N, 2013, p. 399).

Based on this quote, children can recognize their environment. So, this situation tells us

that when the baby does not see her mother, grandmother, and her aunt; she starts to

cry in order to her family listens to her and comes to her. In other words she responds

(babbling) to visual stimuli.

Her visual stimulus was being alone and did not see anyone.

How could she recognize that?

She began to see around her and she did not see any relative close to her. So, she

realized that she was alone. After that, she started to cry. She did that because it was

the only way she had in order to communicate something. She made a few sounds while

she was crying. She did all this because she wanted attention.

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Different reactions of the baby

When children are 6 month old, they are in the babbling stage. Since 6 months to twelve

months children have a repertoire of cries. Also babbling stage has a sign language in

which children want to communicate with the people (Alam. S, 1998; p. 10).

According to this, is why the girl cried when her mother didn’t want to give the glass of

coke because she wanted to say her mother that she wanted coke. On the other hand,

she is in the reduplicated stage that is inside of babbling stage which refers when the

infant repeats the same syllable over and over. And that explains why she said

spontaneously the word “TATA”.

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CONCLUSIONS

There are several stimuli babies used in babbling stage in order to respond to

different properties of language, for example visual and auditory stimuli.

Babies have the ability to recognize the sounds they listen and react to the same

sounds. They differentiate the voice of her mother or other members of their

family.

Babbling stage has many sub-stages that children pass through, for example the

expansion and reduplicated stage.

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ANNEXES

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2013). An Introduction to Language. Bostom:

Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Piaget, J. (1969). Piaget and Inhelder (2 ed.).

Samsul, A. (1998). Babbling: a definiton and overview of theories. ERIC Clearinghouse.

Whren, K. (2002, August 29). A babby's babble leads to language. Retrieved from

Science Mysteries NBC NEWS:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077446/ns/technology_and_science-

science/t/babys-babble-leads-language/#.Vds36SV_Okq