PS 545 – Language Development – Fall 07
Lecture Time: Tues+Thurs 3:30-5pm Room: PSY 155
Instructor: Prof. Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris, PSY 123, 617-353-2956
Email: charris@bu.edu
Office Hours : Mon 3-4pm, Thurs 5-6pm. (Please put Language
Development of PS 545 in the subject header of your email)
Courseinfo website: http://courseinfo.bu.edu/courses/07fallcasps545_a1/
Course goals. Introduce, in the setting of a graduate seminar, contemporary topics in
language development, including bilingualism, second language learning, and language
disorders.
Prerequisites. This is a graduate-level class. Students who do not have graduate standing
need to have completed substantial coursework in the relevant disciplines, such as prior
classes in Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Psychology, introductory
language/linguistics, and statistics at the level of PS 211 or MA 116.
Readings
Berko Gleason, The Development of Language (6th Ed.) ISBN: 0205394140. Weekly
articles – see CourseInfo website
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Course Requirements
Discussion board postings - project proposal postings = 10%
Two tests - non-cumulative, each 15% of final grade. Emphasize material in lecture
and parts of the reading relevant to lecture topics. Format: short answer + multiple choice.
For students who miss either of the two tests, there will be a single cumulative make-up test,
short-answer format, on December 13th, 3:30-5pm. = 30%
Powerpoint Presentations/Paper – create a presentation (or write a paper) on one of
the course topics and present the presentation conference-style (papers will be read by at least
three of your peers) = 40%
Class Participation (including in-class debate) = 20%
Opportunities for extra credit. Posting comments on the discussion board about
readings/discussion in class is an option. This may help students who are between two
grades. Provide links to sources that will help resolve questions that came up during
discussion.
Debate
We will be holding one debate session this semester. All students will participate in the
debates which will be part of the class participation grade. Students can suggest topics on the
Courseinfo website. Participating students will prepare for both sides of their debate, and will
be notified one class session before the debate which side they will be arguing for in front of
the class. The debate will be structured Lincoln-Douglass style, with a follow-up questionand-answer period. Students will have the option of asking their question directly to the
debaters or handing a written question to the instructor to present to the debaters.
Details on the Paper or Presentation
We aim for this to function as an “authentic assessment,” one that is presented to an audience
of your peers and will help prepare you for your future in academia or elsewhere. The topic
chosen can include original work that you have done.
Presentation option: You will design a powerpoint presenting your research on a topic
related to the course. You may work alone or with a partner. Presentations will be the last
two days of class. Attendance required for all hours, but you chose your presentation time
slot. For the day of your presentation prepare a 1-2 page handout summarizing the main
points of your talk. Some people actually reproduce the entire powerpoint in small print on
the handout – this is fine. Fellow students will appreciate your handout when writing their
comments.
Paper option. Write an 8-10 page paper, writing as succinctly as possible. Uses APA citation
style and headers as appropriate for your topic.
Posting to the CourseInfo Discussion Board
Post your presentation ideas
Post to the discussion board about your ideas for your project, and responses to fellow
students’ proposals.
1st posting – Refine your ideas and obtain feedback from class members by posting your project
proposal to the courseinfo site by Nov 13-20. Post early if you want feedback early.
2nd posting – Let your classmates know what ideas are interesting and give them advice about
how to implement their ideas (minimum: respond to two people). When commenting, think:
You’re your project serve as a vehicle to explore themes in language development? Does the
project go beyond class material and common knowledge? Are sources other than websites
available and used? Could the project lead to original work synthesis and conclusions?
Respond anytime before Nov. 27. Note that the earlier you respond, the more time you give
your classmates to benefit from your feedback and incorporate your suggestions into their
presentation.
3rd posting – After you have attended both the two end-of-semester presentation sessions, write
short reviews (5-10 sentences, see guidelines on website) of at least four of them as feedback
to the presenters and/or the uploaded papers on Courseinfo. You may choose to make your
comments anonymous, but to receive credit for these, also email them to the instructor with a
title such as “my anonymous comments.” When choosing your 4 papers/presentations,
please give priority to those presenters/authors who have not received feedback from other
students. If someone has received more than 4 comments, choose another presentation or
paper for your comments. When writing your critiques, please mention at least one area in
which the presentation could have been improved. Post your comments by December 17th.
Optional Reading Responses
You will write your response to the readings on the discussion boards. You are welcome to
write as many responses throughout the semester. Each response should not to exceed ½ a
page. You may write about whatever strikes you in the reading, or respond to prompt
questions posted in the lecture slides.
Schedule and Readings
*Readings from Berko Gleason text indicated with BG
Lecture slides are in the Lectures folder on the CourseInfo site. Articles are available on the
courseinfo site.
Sept 4,6
The Development of Language: An Overview and a Preview (BG Ch1)
Additional reading topic: Primate Language
6th: Primate social cognition and the origins of language – Seyfarth, Cheney, and Bergman
‘Babbling’ and social context in infant monkeys: parallels to human infants – Elowson,
Snowdon, and Lazaro-Perea
Lecture slides: The development of language – Lecture 1 & Primate Language
Sept 11
Continuing topics from Chapter 1, Language and the Brain
11th: Human Brain Language Areas Identified by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
– Binder et al.
Lecture slides: Language and the Brain
Sept 13
Communication Development in Infancy (BG Ch2)
13th: Intonation and communicative intent in mothers' speech to infants: is the melody the
message? – Fernald
Lecture slides: Communication Development in Infancy
Sept 18,20 Phonological Development: Learning Sounds and Sound Patterns (BG Ch3)
18th Lecture slides: Phonological Development – Day 1
20th : Native-language recognition abilities in 4-month-old infants from monolingual and
bilingual environments– Bosch and Sebastian-Galles
20th Lecture slides: Phonology – Day 2
Sept 25, 27 Semantic Development: Learning the Meanings of Words (BG Ch4)
25th: Early Sensitivity to Language-Specific Spatial Categories in English and Korean Bowerman et al
27th How Children Learn the Meaning of Words (Precis) – Bloom
Lecture slides: Semantics
Oct 2, 4
Morphology and Syntax in the Preschool Years (BG Ch5)
2nd: Competition, variation, and language learning - Bates & MacWhinney
Dominant Grammatical Cues Survive Cross-language Interference – Harris
Lecture Slides: Morphology and Syntax 2
4th: The item-based nature of children's early syntactic development – Tomasello
Lecture Slides: Morphology and Syntax 2
Oct 9
Oct 11
No class, BU Monday Schedule
Test 1
Oct 16, 18 Language in Social Contexts: Communicative Competence (BG Ch6)
16th: A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Children's Language Use:
Talkativeness, Affiliative Speech, and Assertive Speech – Leaper and Smith
Lecture Slides: Chapter 6 Lecture 1
18th: Language Development in African American English Child Speech – Wyatt
Lecture Slides: Chapter 6 Lecture 2 Overview
Oct 23, 25
Theoretical Approaches to Language Acquisition (BG Ch7)
23rd : Intro: Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar - White
23rd Supplemental: A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language
acquisition –MacWhinney
Lecture Slides: Overview of main theories
25th: The Return of Constructions – Tomasello
25th: Construction grammar and its implications for child language research – Bates
Lecture Slides: Main points from MacWhinney’s article & Arguments about learnability
Oct 30
Individual Differences (BG Ch8)
th
30 : Individual differences in attainment of English passives - Dabrowska
Lecture slides: Individual Differences
Nov 1
No class - go to the BUCLD and SLD symposium!
Nov 6, 8
Atypical Language Development (BG Ch9)
6th: Hearing Impairment - choose 1 of 3 articles
1. First-Language Acquisition in Adolescence: Evidence for a Critical Period for Verbal
Language Development – Grimshaw et al
2. Linguistic ability and early language exposure - Mayberry, et al
3. Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition:
Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesis -Mayberry and Lock
Lecture Slides: Deafness and critical period
8th: Specific Language Impairment - choose 1 of 3 articles
1. Specific Language Impairment: a deficit in grammar or processing? – Joanisse &
Seidenberg
2. Domain-specific cognitive systems: insight from Grammatical-SLI - van der Ley
3. Grammatical language impairment and the specificity of cognitive domains: relations
between auditory and language abilities - van der Ley
Lecture Slides: Atypical Language Development – SLI
Nov 13, 15 Language and Literacy in the School Years (BG Ch10)
NOTE: Begin posting presentation ideas on discussion board
13th: How Do Children Who Can't Hear Learn to Read an Alphabetic Script? A Review of
the Literature on Reading and Deafness – Musselman et al
Lecture Slides: How deaf children learn to read,
15th: Changing models across cultures: Associations of phonological awareness and
morphological structure awareness with vocabulary and word recognition in second graders
– McBride-Chang et al
Lecture Slides: Cross-cultural literacy
Nov 20
Nov 22
Watch “Unlocking Language”; Discussion board postings due
Thanksgiving
Nov 27
Autism
27th: Understanding Language and Communicative Impairments in Autism - Tager-Flusberg
Lecture Slides: Autism
Nov 29
DEBATE
Dec 4
Development in the Adult Years (BG Ch11)
NOTE: Papers are due today. Post them on the Discussion Board on Courseinfo
Lecture Slides: Adult Years
Dec 6
Dec 11
Dec 20
Dec 17
Presentation Session 1 3:30-5pm
Presentation Session 2 3:30-5pm
Test 2: Final Exam (12:30-2:30pm)
Presentation critiques due on discussion board