Chapter 9
Language Development
Aspects of Language
Theories of Language Development
Language and the Brain
Stages of Language Development
Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
Language Disorders
Basic Units of Language
- Phonemes
- Smallest distinct sound in a particular
language that distinguishes between
different words
- Different languages have different sets
of phonemes
- Morphemes
- Smallest unit of language that has
meaning
What’s in a Language?
Phonology: the sounds of a language
Syntax: the grammar of a language
Semantics: the meaning of words
Pragmatics: how language is used
Theories of Language Development
Behaviorism & Social Cognitive Learning
Theory
Nativism
Interactionism
Cognitive Processing Theory
Behaviorism and
Social Cognitive Learning Theory
Social cognitive learning theory: learning
language by imitation
Behaviorism: language is shaped by operant
conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
Research says: mothers who vocalize more
have children who vocalize earlier and more
(Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein, & Baumwell,
2001)
Nativism
Universal grammar (Chomsky)
hardwired grammatical structure present in
the brain that is activated by hearing
language in the environment
Research says:
children use sentences they have never
heard
overregularization supports that there are
inborn rules that children follow when
learning language
Interactionism
Behaviorism + Nativism = Interactionism
Biological readiness to learn language interacts
with language in the environment to allow
language learning
Language is created socially through interaction
between adult and child
Cognitive Processing Theory
Language learning is a process of “data
crunching”: children take in and process the
language they hear
Learning relies on computational ability of the
human brain
Research says:
- infants process language well before they
can speak
Research on cognitive processing
theory
Infants can differentiate “words” from a series of
syllables in a row by using the frequency with
which some syllables end up beside other
syllables and the frequency with which
others do not
This phenomenon is called statistical learning
Language and the Brain
Language-specific areas of the brain
Expressive vs. Receptive language
Broca’s Area
 Involved in speech production
 Located near the motor center that
produces movement of the lips and tongue
 Damage: trouble speaking (leave out noncrucial words) tend to use telegraphic
speech (like toddlers)
Wernicke’s Area
 Involved understanding and creating
meaning in speech
 Located near the auditory center of the
brain
 Damage: trouble making sense; but no
trouble producing actual words
Expressive vs. Receptive Language
 Difference between comprehension and
production
 Throughout the lifespan, people generally
understand more words than they produce.
 Almost universally, comprehension is
always greater than production.
Stages of Language Development
Prenatal development
Preverbal communication
Toddlers
Preschoolers
School-aged children
Adolescents
Prenatal Development
 A fetus can hear many things in utero
 Research says:
 infants prefer the sound of their mother
reading a The Cat in the Hat when they
heard her read it prenatally to the sound
of her reading something else
 Newborns also show a preference for
the language that their mother speaks.
Preverbal Communication
 Crying
 Cooing
 Babbling
Crying
 Begins as a reflexive behavior, but becomes
intentional
 Parents and caregivers can differentiate the
severity and intensity of the cry, but not the
specific reason for the cry.
Cooing
 Starts between 2 and 4 months
 Sounds like doves cooing (no clear
syllables)
 Beginnings of conversational rules
 Starting to learn how to use language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZJzF0Z
mFgY
Babbling
 Early babbling: repetition of the same sound
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqUTJA
fy48
 Expressive babbling: repetition of a variety
of mixed sounds
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfkHtamYLU&NR=1
 Early words for mom and dad originate from
these earliest sounds (i.e., ma, da, ba)
How Adults Foster Language
Development
 Child-directed speech
 Shared Attention, Gestures, Sign Language
Child-directed Speech
 Also called infant-directed speech or
“motherese”
 High pitched voice, exaggerated pitch,
slower speech
 Hypothesized to increase the child’s
attention to speech
 Very similar aspects of infant-directed
speech across the languages of the world
Shared attention, Gestures, Sign
Language
 Adults tend to label things that children are
attending to (they share the attention)
 Infants use gestures before they speak, and
continue to use them along with speech
 Infant sign language is hypothesized to
build on infants early gesture use to try to
reduce frustration and allow more
communicative opportunities
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSZfW4
gVhI
Toddlers: Words and Sentences
 Vocabulary burst: A period of time in
which the learning of new words happens
rapidly. Some children learn words more
gradually.
Parents often can’t keep up with writing
down the child’s productive vocabulary
because they use new words so frequently
Telegraphic speech
 Sounds like a telegram because the
inconsequential words are left out
 “want bear” vs. “I want the bear”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzWt
MNZzCjo&feature=PlayList&p=66264D1
ACFCB17E3&playnext_from=PL&playn
ext=1&index=23
Biases and Constraints
Children use constraints to form hypotheses
about the names for things in the
environment.
Whole Object Bias
 Bias that a word (“mug”) is naming the
whole object, rather
than a part of that object (like the handle)
Mutual Exclusivity
 Children assume there is one and only one
name for an object.
 Thus, if an object has a name, a new label
must refer to an object that is as yet
unnamed.
Taxonomic constraints
 Two objects with features in common can
have a common name, but each object also
needs an individual name
 For example, “cow” and “dog” are both
“animals,” but since cow and dog are
different they retain their individual labels as
well.
Fast mapping
 Fast mapping is learning words from what
seems to be a single exposure to the new
label.
Syntactic bootstrapping
 Children use the knowledge they have in
one domain of language (like word
meaning) to learn in another domain (like
word order).
Preschoolers
 The role of environment:
 Children from families with professional
parents hear significantly more words than
children in working class families or families
on welfare (Hart & Risley, 1995).
 The number of complex sentences that
children use also varies by educational level
of parents.
Differences in Toddler’s Vocabulary
Egocentric vs. Private Speech
 Egocentric speech: children's inability to
take the role of other people in
conversations
 Private Speech: speech to oneself (begins
aloud and increasingly becomes silent)
How language develops according to Piaget
and Vygotsky
Piaget
presocial speech
egocentric speech
socialized speech
Vygotsky
social speech
communicative speech
private speech
inner speech/thought
Written Language
 Ability to understand and use written
language
 Though usually the context for written
language is school, emergent literacy
happens earlier
 Phonological awareness emerges
around 3 or 4
Dialogic Reading
 Reading between an adult and a child –
essential that both play the roles of the
storyteller and the active listener/questioner
 PEER
 Prompt
 Evaluate
 Expand
 Repeat
Types of Prompts
 Completion
 Recall
 Open-ended
 W-prompts
 Distancing prompts
School-Aged Children
 Metalinguistic Skills
 Humor
 Reading
 Writing
Metalinguistic Skills
 Children begin to think about language and
how to use it
 Also come to understand that words are not
the same as what they stand for (i.e., the
word “cup” has no actual resemblance to a
cup)
Humor
Methods for Teaching Reading
 Phonics
 Letter-sound relationships
 Whole language
 Using reading materials with inherent
interest for the child
 Balanced reading approach
 Combines elements of phonics and
whole language
Writing Skills
 Begins with inventive spelling, but early
elementary children learn to apply
conventional rules
 Communicating ideas
 Knowledge telling
 Knowledge transforming
Teenagers
 Increasingly using electronic communication
like text messaging and instant messaging
 Teenagers also develop their own
vocabulary to use with peers (i.e., slang)
Childhood Bilingualism
 Children learning two languages
simultaneously reach milestones at about
the same time as those learning one
 No strong evidence that early bilingualism
gives global cognitive advantage
 Learning a second language prior to
adolescence improves aspects of that
language
Bilingual classrooms
 Transitional bilingual education programs
 Developmental bilingual programs
 Dual language programs
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9jWkO1
g_oc&feature=related
Language Disorders
Communication disorders
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Learning Disabilities
Communication Disorders
Expressive language disorder
Phonological disorder
Receptive-expressive language disorder
Stuttering
Autism Spectrum Disorders
 Spectrum from PDD to Autism
 Communication Issues
 Smaller than average vocabulary
 Echolalia
 Non-verbal communication is impaired
Learning disabilities
 Impairments in the ability to understand
and/or use spoken or written language
 Dyslexia: difficulty distinguishing or
separating the sounds of spoken words
Creates problems with learning to spell
and reading written words
 Dysgraphia: trouble with spelling,
handwriting, and expressing thoughts
through written words
Learning Disabilities
Disabilities that include impairments in the
ability to understand or use spoken and/or
written language
Dyslexia: difficulty distinguishing or
separating the sounds of spoken words
Creates problems with learning to spell and
reading written words
Dysgraphia: trouble with spelling,
handwriting, and expressing thoughts
through written words
Conclusion
 Language is essential to the human
experience.
 Children go through stages in learning
language
 Children must also learn to decipher written
language if they live in a literate society.
 Communication disorders must be treated.
 Language is a central aspect of children’s
cognitive development