Please check, just in case…
APA Tip of the Day: Changing
sentence final punctuation
“The punctuation mark at the end of a
sentence may be changed to fit the syntax”
(APA, 2010, p. 172).
• This means that you can do things like
getting rid of the final period or question
mark at the end of a quote without
indicating this change.
APA Example
From: The punctuation mark at the end of a
sentence may be changed to fit the
syntax.
To: “The punctuation mark at the end of a
sentence may be changed to fit the
syntax” (APA, 2010, p. 172).
Announcements
1. Start thinking about/exploring what
intervention you might like to research for
this class. Some examples might include:
functional communication training (FCT),
milieu techniques, total communication,
responsive interaction. Please send me an
e-mail with three interventions that you
would be interested in researching.
Quick
questions or
quandaries?
Today’s Topic:
Theories of language
development, cont.
Ways to contrast approach to
language development:
Language
is separate
from
cognition
Language
is a subset
of
cognition
Ways to contrast approach to
language development:
“Nature” is
the major
influence on
language
development
“Nurture” is
the major
influence on
language
development
Chomskyan Nativism
“The child’s language ‘grows in the mind’ as
the visual system develops the capacity for
binocular vision, or as the child undergoes
puberty at a certain stage of maturation.
Language acquisition is something that
happens to a child placed in a certain
environment, not something the child does.”
(Chomsky, as cited in Cowie, 1999, p. 153)
Nature AND Nurture
According to Chomsky (1959), the
characteristics of complex organisms
“are in general a complicated product of
inborn structure, the genetically
determined course of maturation, and
past experience (p. 27).
Ways to contrast approaches to
language development:
Focus on
competence
Focus on
performance
Competence is “the speakerhearer’s knowledge of his
language” and performance is
“the actual use of language in
concrete situations.”
Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 4)
Focus on Linguistic Competence
“Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with
an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely
homogeneous speech-community, who
knows its language perfectly and in
unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant
conditions as memory limitations,
distractions, shifts of attention and interest,
and errors… in applying his knowledge of
the language in actual performance.”
Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 3)
“The problem for the linguist, as well as for
the child learning the language, is to
determine from the data of performance
the underlying system of rules that has
been mastered by the speaker-hearer and
that he puts into actual performance.
Hence, in the technical sense, linguistic
theory is mentalistic, since it is concerned
with discovering a mental reality
underlying actual behavior.”
Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 3)
What’s the “problem” for
language socialization?
Competence or performance?
(Ochs, 1986, p. 11)
Small Group Activity:
1. What do you think Ochs (1986)
meant when she wrote that language
socialization refers to both
"socialization through language and
socialization to language" (p. 2)?
2. How does this relate to individuals
with intensive communication needs?
Quick Write
Define language
socialization in your own
terms. How might this
concept relate to your work
with students with intensive
communication needs?
What does it
mean to
know a
language?
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2Cl
UvUY
What is Socialization?
“an interactional display
(covert or overt) to a
novice of expected ways
of thinking, feeling, and
acting.”
(Ochs, 1986)
“One critical area of social
competence a child must
Language
Socialization
acquire is the ability to
recognize/ interpret what
social event is taking place
and to speak and act in ways
that are sensitive to the
context.”
(Ochs, 1986, p. 3)
Social Events???
Attending church
Hanging with my bud….
The Job Interview
Closing the Deal
Family Counseling Session
Telephone
Conversations
socialization through
language
and
socialization to use
language
“Johnny, Don’t say
Bob, say Dr. Jones”
Socialization through language:
“…children and other novices in
society acquire tacit knowledge of
principles of social order and
systems of belief (ethnotheories)
through exposure to and
participation in language-mediated
interaction.”
(Ochs, 1986, pp. 2-3)
Socialization through language, cont.
“…grammatical and conversational
structures…are also culturally organized and
as such expressive of local conceptions and
theories about the world. Language use then
is a major if not the major tool for conveying
sociocultural knowledge and a powerful
medium of socialization. In this sense, we…
suggest that children acquire a world view as
they acquire a language.”
(Ochs, 1986, pp. 2-3)
The Transactional Model of
Communication Development
“This perspective emphasizes the
reciprocal, bidirectional influence of
the communication environment, the
responsiveness of communicative
partners, and the child's own
developing communicative
competence…
Transactional Model, cont.
…For example, this model assumes that
the increasing readability or clarity of the
child's communicative behavior may
influence the parent's style and
frequency of contingent responsiveness
in ways that will further scaffold the
child's developing competence during
the transition to linguistic
communication.”
(Wetherby, Warren, & Reichle, 1998, p. 2)
The
Communication
Environment
The responsiveness
of communicative
partners
The child’s
developing
communicative
competence
Another definition…
“Children are viewed as active
participants who learn to affect the
behavior and attitudes of others
through active signaling and who
gradually learn to use more
sophisticated and conventional means
to communicate through caregivers’
contingent social responsiveness.”
(Kublin et al., 1998, p. 286)
And…
“The quality and nature of the contexts in
which interaction occurs are considered
to have a great influence on the
successful acquisition of language and
communicative behavior... development
can be understood only by analysis of
the interactive context, not simply by
focusing solely on the child or the
caregivers, because successful
communication involves reciprocity and
mutual negotiation."
(Kublin et al., 1998, p. 286)
Think-Pair-Share
• Individually reflect on what we’ve talked
about so far tonight. What seem to be
important points? What isn‘t clear? How
does this perhaps relate to your work with
individuals with intensive communication
needs?
• Talk about your thoughts with a partner.
• Share with the group as a whole.
Today’s Main Points:
1. Children are active participants in their own
language development.
2. Children develop language within a social
context -- language is not learned without
interacting with others.
3. Children learn about the way their society is
organized and about their culture by learning
their language.
Main points, cont.:
4. We speak differently in different contexts, i.e.
with friends versus during religious
ceremonies. By learning to speak in different
situations, we learn about how our culture is
organized.
5. By participating in cultural events, we learn
language.
6. Therefore, active participation in meaningful
communicative interactions is necessary for
develop language.
Looking ahead…
Cultural differences in the
development of
communication
Please take a
minute for the
minute paper.
And don’t forget to turn
your phone back on.