Language

Language Defining Characteristic of humans! Developmentally it is amazing that they are born without knowing any words yet in a few years are fluent in a language. Infants and children face an especially important developmental task with the acquisition of language

How Do Children Acquire Language? Innateness theory of language – Children learn language mainly by following an inborn program for acquiring vocabulary and grammar Steven Pinker believes that language is an innate human ability. It is instinct. Steven Pinker and language acquisition

Noam Chomsky He proposed that children are born with mental structures that make it possible for them comprehend and produce speech. Language acquisition device (LAD) – Structure in the brain innately programmed with some of the fundamental rules of grammar Lies in Broca’s area in the cerebral cortex. It is not fixed but flexible

More Chomsky Universal Grammar-The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and considered to be innate. Critical period- the idea that a child will be able to learn language from birth to about the age of puberty. (remember Genie?)

Language Development Chart

How Children Acquire Language Early stages of language acquisition include the following: The babbling stage The one-word stage The two-word stage Telegraphic speech (short, simple sentences) The naming explosion

Babbling Infants have natural ability to perceive speech sounds and to produce language sounds Comes form the vocal apparatus that is biologically adapted for speech. “mamama” Uses conversational rules During this stage babies make nearly all sounds heard in all languages. However, learning will narrow to language the baby hears. Example of conversational rules

Acquiring Vocabulary and Grammar Children are excellent language learners! Age 2-1000 words Age 6-10000 words One word stage: mama, dada, agua, me Two word stage: “share me” Telegraphic speech: more complex sentence structure. Ex: “Please share the cupcake with me”

Naming Explosion 18 mos. of age is when children’s word learning accelerates. This stage is when children begin to acquire new words at a rapidly increasing rate. Vocab. Spurt! It then moves from naming objects to why and how. (describing what they do and how.) Important cornerstone for judgment and reasoning.

Rules of Grammar Grammar – The rules of a language, specifying how to use words, morphemes and syntax to produce understandable sentences. Morphemes – Meaningful units of language that make up words (ed, ing, un), Children make mistakes because they do not know how to apply rule. Overregularization – Applying a grammatical rule too widely and thereby creating incorrect forms (e.g. using “hitted” and “feets”)

Other language Skills Social rules of conversation includes taking turns talking, listening and making meaningful contributions The use of abstract words (e.g. hope, truth) will develop overtime.