Language & Literacy I

EMAT634

W. Scott-Simmons

REVISIT: Theories of Language Acquisition Cambourne – Conditions of Learning

Halliday – Language Acquisition: Function

Skinner – Language Acquisition: Imitation

Chomsky: Language Acquisition: Innateness

Piaget: Language Acquisition: Cognition

Vygotsky: Social Development

Language Acquisition ChartStage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV

Preproduction Early Production Speech Emergence Intermediate Fluency

Characteristics Physical response; minimal comprehension; up to 500 receptive words

One or two-wordresponses; disconnected speech; limited comprehension; up to 1,000 receptive/reactive words

Connected speech;simple sentence responses; up to 3,000 receptive/ reactive words

Simple/complex-sentence responses (discourse); Increased comprehensionBeyond 3000 receptive/active-words

Teacher Strategies Uses commands to teach receptivelanguage (TPR)Requires physical response to checkcomprehensionAsks student to show/draw answersto questionsAsks "yes/no" questionsUses manipulatives and propsShows/writes key words after oralpresentation

Continues to expand receptive languageEncourages all attempts to respondAsks students questions that requireone/two words to answer:Who? What? Where? When?Which one?Use concrete objectsDisplays print to support oralpresentation

Expands receptive language throughcomprehensible input; Engages student in producinglanguage such as describing,re-telling, comparing,contrasting, defining,summarizing, reportingAsks application questions: What do you do when? How do you react when?

Develops cognitive academiclanguage:oral and writtenIntroduces figurative languageAsks "why" questions solicitingopinion, judgment, prediction,hypotheses, inference, creationEngages student in higher-orderthinking skills

Rough Timeline Birth to 2 months 2 – 4 months 1 – 2 years 3-5 years

Human Development & Language Researched focus of Linguists & Psychologists

Language learning - fascinating aspect of human development

How do children accomplish language acquisition?

What are the processes involved in stringing words together to form sentences?

What prompts a child to push deeper into the development of complex grammatical language even though initial, simplistic communication is successful?

Do language acquisition patterns & processes transcend culture and nationality?

How does bi-lingualism develop?

Lightbrown, P., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. New York: Oxford University Press.

Language Characteristics – The Infant Developmental Sequences – 1st Language Acquisition :

Early Weeks

Infants have little conscious control over the cooing sounds that they make in early weeks of life

Infants are able to hear subtle differences in the sounds of human languages

Eimas (1971): EX: babies can hear the difference between pa & ba

Language Characteristics – First Years Babies understand a few repeated words

Will produce a few understandable words by 12 months

By 24 months can reliably produce at least 50 words Begin to combine words into short sentences: i.e. -

Mommy juice, baby down Called telegraphic sentences as they omit articles,

prepositions, & auxiliary verbs

Also missing function words & grammatical morphemes

Word order used reflects word order heard (syntax beginning)

Sign of creative word combination

EX: What is the intent behind kiss baby vs. baby kiss

Think about this information as it relates to dialect, culture, geography, & SES

Predictable Patterns Related to cognitive development: First three years

EX: no use of temporal adverbs until a sense of time is developed

EX: aware of the concept of singular & plural long before adding endings to nouns (irregular plurals may take much longer to master)

Grammatical Morphemes Landmark longitudinal study of language development

: 1960’s – Roger Brown; Jill & Peter deVilliers (1973) Three children (Adam, Eve, Sarah) 14 grammatical morphemes acquired in a similar manner –

developmental sequence Present progressive (ing – Mommy running) Plural (-s – two books) Irregular past forms (Baby went) Possessive (‘s – Daddy’s hat) Copula (Annie is happy) Articles the and a Regular past (-ed - She walked) Third person singular simple present (-s – She runs) Auxiliary be (He is coming)

Children mastering those at the bottom of the list were very likely to master those concepts at the top (the reverse was not true)

Not acquired at the same age or rate by the children

Grammatical Morpheme Sequence Rationale

Frequency in parents’ speech

Cognitive complexity of the meanings represented by the morphemes

Difficulty level of the pronunciation

Interplay between all of the above

Assessment: Grammatical Morpheme Development

Wug Test – Jean Berko Gleason (1950’s)

Generalizing rules using nonsense words: PLURALS:

Children are shown drawings of an imaginary creature

Informed “This is a wug”

Next picture shows two creatures; ask child to complete the sentence

“Now I have two wug ? “

Assessment: Grammatical Morpheme Development

Wug Test – Jean Berko Gleason (1950’s)

Generalizing rules using nonsense words: PAST TENSE:

Children are shown drawings of a man doing something

Informed “Here is a man who knows how to bod.”

“Yesterday, he did the same thing. Yesterday he ______ed.”

Assessment: Grammatical Morpheme Development

Ability to generalize language rules using nonsense words demonstrates an understanding beyond memorization

Demonstration of the systematic acquisition of language patterns

…and the ability to move beyond mere “knowledge” to synthesis, analysis, & application ( on Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Negation Children learn the function of negation very early

Disappearance of objects

Refuse a suggestion

Reject an assertion

Bloom (1991) discovered in a longitudinal study that even though children can express negation with gestures or a single word, “no,” it takes time for expression in full sentence form

Appropriate word usage & word order

Negation – Stages of Development Stage 1: Expressed by the single word “no”

Beginning of the sentence – “No cookie”; “No comb hair”

Stage 2: Sentences grow longer & a subject may be included Negative word appears just before the verb – “Daddy no comb

hair”

Stage 3: Negation expressed in a correct English pattern through a more complex sentence; additional negation forms may be added other than “no”; negative attached to auxiliary or modal verb “He can’t do it”; “I don’t want it”

Stage 4: Negative element is attached to the correct form of the auxiliary verb – i.e.: ‘do’ & ‘be’ “She doesn’t want it”*May still have trouble with negative features: “I don’t have no

more candy”

Questions Developmental Sequence: Predictable order to “wh” questions

(Bloom, 1991) What

Where identifying & locating people & objects in the child’s Who understanding of the world; also represent the type of

questions frequently asked by adults; “Who is that?” “Where is dad?”

Why – emerges around the end of the second year & lasts approx 2 years; children learn that it is an easy way to engage adults in conversation

How & When emerge last as the child begins to develop deeper understanding of time; cognitive resonance developed with the responses received

Questions: Stages Stage 1: Simple, single word or tw0 to three word sentences with rising

intonation – “Cookie?” Stage 2: Word order of the declarative sentence with rising intonation –

“You like this?” Stage 3: Notice the changing structure of sentences & begin to produce

in accordance with that observation – “Can I go?” “Are you hungry?” This stage may exhibit a pattern known as “fronting” – the placement of

a question word or verb form at the start to a sentence: “Is teddy is tired?” “Why you don’t have any?” Notice the remainder of the sentence is in statement form

Stage 4: Questions are formed by subject-auxiliary inversion – similar to stage 3 with more variety in the auxiliaries that appear before the verb – “”Are you going to play with me?” “Do” questions may be added at this stage, “Do dogs like chocolate?”

Stage 5: Both “wh” & yes/no questions formed correctly – “Why did you do that?” Negatives may still be difficult – “Why the teddy bear can’t go outside?” Overgeneralization of the inverted form may exist – “Ask him why can’t

he go out.”

Stage 6: Correct formation of all types of questions including negative & complex embedded questions

How do the language cueing systems (phonological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic) relate to this information?

Developmental Language Milestones See Puzzling Pieces PRESCHOOL – By age 4: most children are able to ask

questions, give commands, report events, create stories; understand language as a tool of expression & connection Using correct word order Using correct grammatical markers Mastered basic structure of the language spoken to them Vocabulary continues to learned at several words per day Acquisition of passive & relative clauses Metalinguistic awareness is developing (ability to treat

language as an object separate from the meaning it conveys –awareness that it is semantically silly to say “drink the chair” & that “cake the eat” is incorrect syntactically

Developmental Language Milestones See Puzzling Pieces SCHOOL YEARS –

more sophisticated metalinguistic awareness through learning to read (language, represented by letter symbols, has a form & meaning)

more sophisticated metalinguistic awareness through a greater understanding of language ambiguity (the multiple nature of language)

greater understanding that a word is separate from the thing it represents

amazing growth of vocabulary acquisition of different language registers (codeswitching)

Written language differs from spoken language Playground language is different from classroom language Math language is different from art language Ethnic language is very different from school language

Behaviorism & Language Acquisition

Say what I say B. F. Skinner (leading behaviorist – 1940’s & 1950’s)

Positive adult reinforcement in the form of praise when speech replicates mandated form as presented by the adult

The tabula rasa epistemology – belief that children are born as blank slates without any preconceived or built-in metal content, knowledge or ability; knowledge is gained through experience & perception

Innatism & Language Acquisition It’s all in your mind Noam Chomsky (leading linguist – 1950’s)

All human languages are fundamentally innate

children are biologically programmed for language (language develops naturally as with other biological functions – i.e., all children will learn to walk, at approximately the same time, if provided sufficient nourishment , freedom & room to explore)

there exists a fundamental UG (Universal Grammar – how language systems are used & function)

CPH (Critical Period Hypothesis) – we are genetically programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skills at specific times / periods in life

Do you truly believe in Teacher Efficacy & Lifelong Learning?Research the following cases as support or contradiction of Chomsky’s theory of CPH:

1. The theories & beliefs of Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard (1799) & Victor2. The theories espoused by the work of Susan Curtiss (1977) & Genie

Interactionism / Developmentalism & Language AcquisitionLearning from the inside out Piaget & Vygotsky Cognitive & developmental psychologists emphasize the

developmental aspects of learning (vs. the innatists who focus on the end goal or “end state”)

What children need to know they learn from experience What children learn they do so from the language they are

exposed to Learning occurs in the connection between the innate

ability of children to learn AND the environment in which the learning occurs Greater importance placed on environment

Emphasize the power of cognitive development Importance of Interaction & Connection

Disorders & Delays Deafness

Articulatory Challenges

Dyslexia

Glossary accuracy order

action research

active listening

American Sign Language (ASL)

audiolingual approach

auditory discrimination

Behaviorism

bilingualism

child-directed speech

Glossary cognate

Cognitivist

cognitive maturity

communicative competence

Connectionism

Critical Period Hypothesis

declarative knowledge

developmental sequence

formulaic language

Glossary function words

grammatical morphemes

information processing

Innatism

Interactionist hypothesis

interlocutor

language acquisition

longitudinal study

metalinguistic awareness

Glossary mitigation

Morpheme

negotiation of form

negotiation of meaning

private speech

procedural knowledge

rate of development

scaffolding

Sociocultural Theory

Glossary teacher talk

Universal Grammar (UG)

working memory

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Additional Resources Casson, R. (1981). Language, culture, & cognition. New

York: Macmillan Publishers. Montgomery, M. (1986). An introduction to language &

society. New York: Routledge. Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: William

Morrow. Seminsky, C., & Spielberger, M. (2004). Early language

learning: A model for success. Grennwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Wells, G. (1986). Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.