Language Acquisition Ching-fen Hsu

2013/9/13

Lecture 1

Prelinguistic Communication • Unique human capacity

• > 2.5m sound system: cooing babbling jargoning recognizable words

• > 7m infants become familiar with sound patterns of languages & adept at interacting with people & objects around

• Primary intersubjectivity: 3m infants’ ability to match one’s behavior to that of another person and to share experiences in direct face-to-face interaction

• Secondary intersubjectivity: 9-12m, ability to share mental states with another person & to understand what they are intending to do, i.e., social referencing (joint attention: sharing knowledge about events & objects; pointing); precursor to language acquisition

Pointing and Communication • Pointing: a communicative

act intended to create a joint focus of attention

• 12m infants wait & see how caregivers react to their pointing

• 18m infants wait till caretakers come back into room & know pointing has purpose to communicate with others

• 2y children understand repertoire of words & word ordering

• 3y start conversation

Puzzle of Language Development • Problem of Reference: how do children

discover what words mean? How do we learn to pick out its intended referent---object or relation to which it refers?

• Infants have to figure out ongoing flow of experience to indicate actual event, object, feeling

• Look, there sits a ptitsa (bird, Russian).

• An adult can point to the animal in the picture or to many parts of the animal and apply the same kind of declaratory statement: that’s a ____. How do children know what is being referred to? (George Miller, 1991)

Problem of Grammar • Comprehensible sentence must be governed by

grammar, rules for sequencing words in a sentence &

ordering of parts of words for a particular lg

• 7m infants: sensitive to word orderings in simple S &

extract word patterns

• Learn grammatical rules from errors: “My doggy runned

away” “Mommy, Johnny camed late”

• Children confuse grammatical forms

• Problem of central coherence (recursion): embedding of

S within each other

• Recursion: provides language with great economy and

flexibility of expression

i.e., the boy who went to the beach saw some fish and

got a sunburn (3 propositions)

Four Subsystems of Language

• Language is a system

• Central parts of languages:

sounds, words, methods of

combining words, communal

uses that language serves

• Each of parts is connected to

the others & social world

• Learning language takes time &

practice

I. Sounds • 1y children begin to vocalize particular sounds &

sound sequences that make up words in language of their community

• Takes several years for children to master pronunciation of words

• Children’s native sound system develops unevenly

• Some sounds master late, i.e., /l/

lucky vs. Yucky (substitution)

• Children understand phonemes by minimal pairs

• Children’s attention to differences bet sounds is not simply a mechanical skill but develops along with growing understanding of meanings of words

International Phonetic Alphabet: Consonant

International Phonetic Alphabet: Vowel

II. Words • Words are more than a set of

sounds that communicate

• Words are symbols: stand for something beyond themselves

• The earliest vocabularies: 13-14m 10 words (production) +300 words (comprehension) 17-18m 50 words

• 2y 300 words

• Nouns referring to objects make up large proportion of early vocabularies of young children & actions accomplish with things named (hat & sock > sweater & diaper)

• Objects that can change or move to

capture children’s attention (cars &

animals) > large & immobile objects

(trees & houses) > adjectives & verbs

(2y verbs > nouns) > changes in states

& object locations & relational words

• NO: communicative function as

rejection, protest, denial; one of the

earliest & most frequently used words

in child’s early vocabulary

Overextension vs. Underextension • Underextension: 1.5y

children use words in a

narrower way than

adults do

i.e., bottle only for

plastic bottle; cat only to

family’s cat

• Overextension: 2y a

single label refers to

circumstances that

adults use

i.e., daddy to all men in

a room & kitty to small

four-legged animals

• Overextension: a term for the error of

applying verbal labels too broadly

• Underextention: a term used for

applying verbal labels in a narrower

way than adults do

• Children learn words from contexts

Levels of Abstraction • Children choose words that are at

appropriate level of abstraction with

time and experience

i.e., Mommy, look at Sally/that girl/

her/that person

• 2-4y label basic levels of generality

• 4-5y are close to adults with more

naming of flowers than adults

• Children’s limitation in categorizing

does not mean failing in

understanding differences bet objects

Changing Structure of Children’s Vocabularies

• Structure of children’s word meanings changes based on developmental course of children’s use of single words (i.e., dog)

• Initially children take ‘dog’ to evoke a range of situations which dog is only one element (dog growls, barks, is petted, runs away, fights); each connects in a specific way as part of an action (graph a)

• With experience, words begin to acquire conceptual meanings; not depending on any one context or a real-world context (graph b)

Words as Mediators • Humans have a double world: objects &

situations can be perceived by senses; indirectly manipulate things which cannot be perceived

• 11-12m infants discover sound sequences can recruit adults’ attention & help; making sounds to anticipate/guide/stimulate own & others’ actions & feelings

• Language acts as mediator; children make something happen without doing the thing themselves

• As children start understand words, children can be influenced by others directly (nonverbal actions) & indirectly (words & culturally organized knowledge that words embody)

• Beautiful intellectual power of human

III. Sentences • Is single word a sentence? (1)

holophrases: children utter single words to represent sentences to communicate; (2) single words + gestures + facial expressions = whole sentences

‘shoe’ = ‘you want daddy to tie your shoelace’

• It’s difficult to say how much of child’s meaning & how much of adult’s interpretation

• Two-word combinations mark birth of grammar, i.e., No eat!

Increasing Complexity • Children increase complexity,

variety of words & grammatical devices

2y: you can’t pick up a big kitty coz a big kitty might bite!

• More complex utterances communicate more explicitly

• MLU (mean length of utterance): average number of morphemes per utterance

• MLU accesses linguistic complexity by counting morphemes but not words

• MLU provides index of children’s potential for making meaning in particular utterance

Ex1: That big bad boy plays ball.

(six words & seven morphemes)

Ex2: Boys aren’t playing. (three

words & six morphemes)

Grammatical Morphemes

location

number

subject & time of the action

Figurative Speech • Metaphors = figurative speech

2.5y banana: telephone

• Creative process of language; essential tool of

human thought

• Children have to recognize similarity bet two

things & express it in a new way

• 2-6y children use metaphors without

understanding figurative meaning of adult speech

耳邊風 碰釘子

• Develop through childhood into adulthood

IV. The Use of Language • Master language = grammatical rules + word

meanings + pragmatic uses

• Pragmatics: ability to select words & orderings

in contexts

• Conversational acts: actions that achieve goals

through lg

• Protoimperatives: engage another person to

achieve desired object, i.e., a child holds up a

cup & say ‘more’

• Protodeclaratives: initiate & maintain dialogues

with adults, i.e., pointing & giving (toys)

• Word sequence accomplish alternative goals (Is

the door shut? = please shut the door; you have

forgotten to shut the door again)

• 2y can understand alternative goals

Conversational Conventions • 3-4y children can solicit information (what happened?),

action (put the toy down), assert facts & rules (we have a

boat), utter warnings (watch out)

• Four basic rules in conversation: cooperative principle

(1)the maxim of quantity

(2)the maxim of quality

(3)the maxim of relevance

(4)the maxim of clarity

• Irony violates rules

• Children acquire social knowledge that regulate what is to

be said & how to say it

Explanations of Language Acquisition

• Biological-maturation perspective: nativist approach

•Nativism: language acquisition is attributed largely to

nature

•Children mature language-using capacity naturally with

minimum input from E & special training

•Environmental-learning approach: attributes language to

nurture (language environment & teaching activities)

•En-learning does not come from imitation

• Imitation cannot explain two basic puzzles (how children

learn referents of words & how they master grammar) &

En-learning still contains nature (connectionism)

•Nativism agrees that E contributes to lg acquisition

The Nativist Explanation • Noam Chomsky: children acquire lg quickly effortlessly

with no instruction & learning mechanisms

• Lg is innate & develops through universal process of

maturation

• Lg learning is like maturation of child’s body in a

predetermined way with appropriate nutrition & E

stimulation

• Lg = mental organ, special psychological mechanism

(children acquire verbal & nonverbal beh by causal

observation & imitation of adults & children)

• Lg = distinct piece of biological makeup of our brains;

distinct from general abilities processing info or intelligent

beh

The Nature of Language • Surface structure: actual Ss people produced

• Deep structure: basic set of rules of lg derives Ss

• LAD (language acquisition devise): innate lg-processing capacity that is programmed to recognize universal rules that underlie lgs that a child hear

• LAD = lg genetic code; with maturation & interaction with E, LAD enables children increasing complex lg forms to form adult capacity

Child: Nobody don’t like me

Mother: No, say “nobody likes me”

Child: Nobody don’t like me

Mother: No, now listen carefully; say “nobody likes me”

Child: No! Nobody don’t likes me

The Interactionist Explanation • Lg acquisition = social process

• Social E incorporates children as

members of existing lg-using group

• Formats: earliest social structures for

lg development; recurrent socially

patterned activities in which adult &

child do things together

i.e., routines surrounding bathing,

bedtime, meals, peekaboo

providing structures for

communication bet babies &

caregivers

• Formats: crucial vehicles in passage

from communication to lg

Emphasizing cognition

Emphasizing cultural

context & social

interaction

Lg is not simply

triggered by children’s

exposure to it

Emphasizing Cognition • Large word vocabularies =>

complex grammar

• Positive correlation bet grammatical complexity & number of words

• Grammar emerges from using many words to convey complex messages

• > 400 words grammatical complexity accelerates

• >18m children changes word usage (reason hidden objects/ vary actions to reach goals/ social words)

Emphasizing Cultural Context & Social Interaction

• Children constitute language acquisition support

system (LASS) from formatted events in

acquisition

• LASS: parental behaviors and formatted events

for children to acquire language; E complement to

innate biological LAD

• Language acquisition emerges from different

contributing factors, e.g., general cognitive

capacities & culturally organized E

Essential Ingredients of Language Acquisition

Biological Prerequisites for Language • Is language uniquely human?

• Humans: powerful language; other species: communication systems

• Genetic basis for process of language development

• Chimpanzees can learn to comprehend spoken words & phrases; or signs referring to things; but never produce language

• Kanzi: using lexical keyboard to communicate; telegraphic utterances to combine symbols

Language & Brain Damage • Human brain supports lg development

• LH: lg dominance

• 19th century: aphasia (speech disorders);

genetically programmed brain areas for

lg (nativism)

• Brain plasticity: infants’ brains

(predisposed)

Broca’s area: Left frontal lobe

(named after 1861 French

physician Paul Broca)

Wernicke’s area: Left frontal

lobe (named after 1861 French

physician Wernicke)

Language & Cognitive Development • Chromosome deficit: Down syndrome

• Restricted vocabularies + simple talk

• Failure in understanding complex linguistic constructions

• Normal cognitive functioning for lg development

• Williams syndrome

The Environment of Language Development

• Lg-support system in

acquisition (e.g., Genie)

• Active participation in

human activity to learn lg

(deaf children delay learning

in hearing E)

• Deaf children are forced to

learn lip-reading but not

signs (home-sign system

invention)

• Home sign starts as pointing

• Hearing children one-word

stage = home-sign children

sign one words

• Hearing children multiword

sentence = home-sign

children sign >3 signs

Nicaraguan Sign Language • Children generate signed utterances of greater

complexity than gestures

• <1970s deaf Nicaraguans were socially isolated & marginalized

• 1977 25 deaf children in school to 100

• 1979 >400 adolescents in a vocational school

• Little success in lipreading or fingerspelling

• Children started using invented home signs & complexity increase

• Pidgin creation: combination of simple phrases; no formal grammar; proto-language

• Later conventionalized & stylized lg generates with spatial arrangements to make grammatical distinctions

Interaction & Fast Mapping • Children quickly acquire words in community

without efforts

• Color-naming test: chromium color from olives

• 1-week or 6-week after children have influence of

this test

• Children learn lg ≠ from adults’ explicit reward ≠

from imitation

• Fast mapping: children quickly form idea of

meaning of unfamiliar words in familiar & highly

structured social interaction

Cognitive Principles for Fast Mapping

• (1) whole-object principle: children connect whole

objects with new words

• (2) mutual-exclusivity principle: children learn one

name for one object & exclude known objects &

application for new objects

• (3) categorizing principle: extend to similar objects

e.g., categorization test of three picky puppets on

animals (“name”, examples, “grouping” only);

only “name” works

Social Context Contribution • Social contexts solve puzzle of word

reference

• Well-timed interaction & joint attention support word-learning for children

• Attention A + object B was slower than attention A + object A in new word learning

• Social conditions enable rapid acquisition of vocabularies

• Explicit rewards for learning lg are unnecessary

• Reinforcement = children’s increased success at communicating & enhanced participation with others in valued activities

Deliberate Instruction • No firm conclusions about parental feedback work

• No effect on children’s lg development by

expanding & correcting incorrect sentences

• Kaluli (New Guinea) children are taught lg as they

are taught other culturally valued forms (“elema”

repeat words that their mother say); Samoans;

working class mothers in Baltimore, Maryland

• Motherese: speech directed to young children with

high-pitched voice, boundary-emphasis bet clauses;

simplified vocabulary

Language Exposure Influences Development

• Grading lg (isolated constituents) helps model

correct grammatical structure, e.g., “put the red

truck in the box now…the red truck…no, the red

truck…in the box”

• Adults’ reformulations of children’s utterances, e.g.,

“Mommy wash”, ”Yes, Mommy is washing her

face”, “Daddy sleep”, “Yes, Daddy is sleeping.

Don’t wake him up”

Teaching Implications

卡爾威特資優教育法

Questions?