Deck 8: The Development of Language

Question 1

Missy has been babbling while she watches her father read the paper. Her babbling has ended with a falling intonation indicating

A) that she expects her father to answer her.
B) that she is feeling sad.
C) that she does not expect a response.
D) a problem in her language development.
E) that she may have a hearing problem.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The sequence of development in the prelinguistic phase of language development is

A) cooing, crying, babbling.
B) babbling, crying, cooing.
C) crying, babbling, cooing.
D) crying, cooing, babbling.
E) cooing, babbling, crying.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

From six months on, babies begin engaging in ________, which is a sound pattern consisting of consonants and vowels.

A) cooing
B) babbling
C) gurgling
D) fussing
E) crying

Answer 3

B

Question 4

All of the following changes occur at 9 or 10 months of age EXCEPT

A) the beginning of meaningful gestures.
B) telegraphic speech and holophrases.
C) imitative gestural games.
D) first comprehension of individual words.
E) receptive language becomes evident.

Question 5

Fenson's research on language indicates that children's first words appear by the age of

A) 5 months.
B) 7 months.
C) 9 months.
D) 11 months.
E) 12-13 months.

Question 6

Researchers have found that deaf children

A) are very slow to use any type of communication.
B) cannot learn to "sign" until about three years of age.
C) use simple gestures at about the same time as hearing children.
D) do not learn to use referential signs.
E) fail to learn any gestural language.

Question 7

Which of the following babies is most likely to show a preference for the stress patterns of his or her native language?

A) nine-month-old Eric
B) seven-month-old Latisha
C) five-month-old Sam
D) three-month-old Bobbi
E) one-month old Maria

Question 8

The most common gesture infants use is

A) hitting.
B) arms up.
C) waving.
D) clapping.
E) pointing.

Question 9

In the past week, Larry has learned to wave "bye-bye" when his mother goes to work. How old is he?

A) two months
B) three months
C) five months
D) seven months
E) ten months

Question 10

Which of the following statements about babbling is CORRECT?

A) In the development of babies' babbling, it can be said that they are "learning the words before the tune."
B) When babies babble with a falling intonation at the end of a string of sounds, it seems to signal a desire for a response.
C) When babies first start babbling, they typically babble all kinds of sounds, including some that are not part of the language they are hearing.
D) At about 9 or 10 months of age, the sound repertoire in babbling gradually shifts to include the set of sounds they do not hear spoken.
E) Babbling involves complex combinations of vowels that occur before cooing.

Question 11

According to linguists, any sound or set of sounds that is used consistently to refer to some thing, action, or quality is considered to be

A) babbling.
B) a gesture.
C) language.
D) a word.
E) an overextension.

Question 12

According to your text, what is the relationship between receptive language and expressive language in early language development?

A) Children generally understand more than they can express.
B) Children generally express more than what they understand.
C) Children generally understand only the words they express.
D) Approximately 50 percent of children express more than they can understand.
E) Language should be limited to a very simple form in order for both to develop.

Question 13

Marsha is anxious to hear her baby say his first real words. At about what age will this occur?

A) 8 or 9 months
B) 10 or 11 months
C) 12 or 13 months
D) 14 or 15 months
E) 16 or 17 months

Question 14

The gestural language of infants

A) develops near the end of the first year.
B) is only seen in deaf babies.
C) is seen only in babies who speak very early.
D) is used to express anger and disappointment.
E) is used to convey a variety of meanings.

Question 15

Terry is an average 16-month-old. He will probably have a speaking vocabulary of how many words?

A) 30
B) 50
C) 200
D) 320
E) 500

Question 16

By one or two months of age, most babies can

A) make repetitive vowel sounds known as cooing.
B) understand that speech sounds are matched by the speaker's mouth movements.
C) discriminate among syllables or words.
D) show a preference for words in their native language.
E) produce babbling sounds.

Question 17

An infant first understands the meaning of individual words spoken to him/her at about

A) 12 months.
B) 9 or 10 months.
C) 4 or 5 months.
D) 24 months.
E) 1 or 2 months.

Question 18

The type of vocalization used by infants between 6 and 12 months of age is

A) cooing.
B) grunting.
C) baby talk.
D) fastmapping.
E) babbling.

Question 19

Sounds, signs, or symbols that communicate meaning are called

A) prelinguistic language.
B) expressive language.
C) prenatal language.
D) cooing and babbling.
E) phonology.

Question 20

From birth to about one month of age, we would expect that a baby's most common sound is

A) pseudowords.
B) laughing.
C) babbling.
D) cooing.
E) crying.

Question 21

Manny is 24 months of age and his speaking vocabulary should be about

A) 30 words.
B) 50 words.
C) 240 words.
D) 320 words.
E) 502 words.

Question 22

The bulk of the research indicates that for most children, the majority of new words during very early vocabulary growth are

A) nouns.
B) pronouns.
C) verbs.
D) adjectives.
E) adverbs.

Question 23

A group of children are watching a guinea pig run around on the floor. Which one of the following comments from the children illustrates overextension?

A) "See the guinea pig."
B) "Look at the mouse."
C) "Look at Tim."
D) "That's not a rabbit."
E) "That's my pet."

Question 24

Based on his research on vocabulary development, Anglin argues that children at about age 8 or 9

A) have a vocabulary of 10,000 words.
B) lose their ability to use derived words.
C) figure out relationships between whole categories of words.
D) begin to use telegraphic speech.
E) acquire about 1,000 words a year.

Question 25

When Dora's mother mentions that the neighbors have a new "kitty." Dora says, "They can't have Kitty because Kitty lives with us." Dora is demonstrating

A) overextension.
B) fast mapping.
C) vocabulary explosion.
D) word constraints.
E) underextension.

Question 26

When Lisa sees a dog she points and says "kitty." Lisa is demonstrating

A) overextension.
B) telegraphic speech.
C) underextension.
D) holophrasing.
E) overregularization.

Question 27

A child says, "Doll" while holding out her hand. This is an example of a(n)

A) holophrase.
B) constraint.
C) overextension.
D) inflection.
E) sentence.

Question 28

Linguists use the term holophrase to indicate

A) a two- or three-word phrase conveying a single meaning.
B) a word-gesture combination used to convey a sentence-like meaning.
C) a phrase or sentence imitated from another's speech.
D) the child's first two-word sentence.
E) random words with no specific meaning.

Question 29

Children's vocabulary grows rapidly because, by age 3, children begin to

A) memorize as well as an adult.
B) pay attention to words in whole groups.
C) speak more clearly and frequently.
D) interact more with other children.
E) go to preschool.

Question 30

All of the following are true of the first six months of early word learning EXCEPT

A) words are understood to be symbolic.
B) the process is very slow.
C) many repetitions are required.
D) each word is connected to a specific context.
E) as few as 30 words may be learned.

Question 31

The first two-word sentences are usually formed between the ages of

A) 10 and 12 months.
B) 12 and 18 months.
C) 18 and 24 months.
D) 20 and 26 months.
E) 24 and 30 months.

Question 32

All of the following are characteristic of Brown's stage 1 grammar EXCEPT

A) short sentences.
B) simple sentences.
C) use of nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
D) absence of purely grammatical markers.
E) use of inflections.

Question 33

The principle of contrast is an example of what some linguists believe is a(n) ________ in children's language development.

A) built-in bias
B) naming explosion
C) overextension
D) inflection
E) underextension

Question 34

Lawanda has not yet experienced the naming explosion. Therefore, her use of "car" is most likely to be for

A) the family car only.
B) all cars, including toys.
C) all four-wheel vehicles.
D) all methods of transportation.
E) cars used only by people she knows.

Question 35

Linguists point out that children overextend words because

A) their language development is delayed.
B) it is a device that calls attention to them.
C) they can't differentiate between the objects they are labeling.
D) they are trying to communicate with a limited vocabulary.
E) they fail to make accurate discriminations.

Question 36

Fenson's cross-cultural study found that nouns made up what percent of the words children knew by two years of age?

A) 8.5
B) 30.2
C) 48.9
D) 63.0
E) 90.0

Question 37

When a child assumes that objects will have only one name, the child is influenced by

A) the whole object constraint.
B) the principle of contrast.
C) the mutual exclusivity constraint.
D) underextension.
E) overextention.

Question 38

The type of speech in which children frequently omit everything in a sentence but the critical words is called ________ speech.

A) overregulated
B) overextended
C) receptive
D) telegraphic
E) holaphrastic

Question 39

The ability to categorically link new words to real-world referents is

A) overextension.
B) linguistic reference.
C) expressive language.
D) fast-mapping.
E) underextension.

Question 40

Edna's father points to a squirrel climbing up a tree with a nut in its mouth and says, "Look at the squirrel." Because of built-in constraints, Edna will know that her father is referring to

A) the squirrel itself.
B) the nut in the squirrel's mouth.
C) the tree.
D) the fact that the squirrel has a nut.
E) the fact that the squirrel is running up a tree.

Question 41

When young children use audible language to help control or monitor their own behavior, they are exhibiting

A) overregularization.
B) child directed speech.
C) baby talk.
D) fast mapping.
E) private speech.

Question 42

Children's first use of questions and negatives

A) is purely random.
B) is an exact copy of the speech they hear.
C) reveals a knowledge of rules.
D) is characterized by overuse of auxiliary verbs.
E) involves overextension.

Question 43

As she works on a puzzle, Ashley tells herself, "This is a corner piece." This is an example of

A) holophrastic speech.
B) telegraphic speech.
C) delayed speech.
D) private speech.
E) underextension.

Question 44

Flavell found that the "private speech" of 9- to 10-year-old children was

A) was only used for problem solving but not for planning.
B) not used to guide their own behavior.
C) less likely to be audible than the private speech of younger children.
D) more likely to be audible than the private speech of younger children.
E) nonexistent.

Question 45

When Amy wants to play with the toy that Ellie has, she says, "Give me that toy." However, when she wants something her father has, she asks, "May I please have that?" Amy is using

A) syntax.
B) semantics.
C) pragmatics.
D) grammar.
E) overgeneralization.

Question 46

Research on the use of various meanings that children convey with earliest sentences (such as agent-action, action-location, and recurrence) has shown that

A) all children express all the meanings in their earliest sentences.
B) there is a fixed order in which the meanings are acquired.
C) all children appear to express at least a few meanings in their earliest speech.
D) most of the meanings are too difficult for children under five years of age.
E) the meanings first appear in holophrastic speech.

Question 47

The use of "flied" instead of "flew" by a child is an example of

A) underextension.
B) overextension.
C) inflection.
D) overregularization.
E) pragmatics.

Question 48

When Anita simplifies her language for her younger brother, she is demonstrating that she

A) is egocentric.
B) dislikes her sibling.
C) knows complex language rules.
D) has poor language skills.
E) understands pragmatics.

Question 49

Private speech is used to

A) practice before talking to someone.
B) entertain oneself.
C) block out the surrounding environment.
D) monitor one's own behavior.
E) talk to imaginary friends.

Question 50

Which of the following language forms are difficult for a 5- or 6-year-old child to understand and use?

A) negations
B) passive voice
C) past tense
D) questions
E) inflections

Question 51

What is the relationship between the grammar explosion and vocabulary development?

A) a strong negative correlation
B) a weak negative correlation
C) a weak positive correlation
D) a strong positive correlation
E) no correlation

Question 52

Shawn is beginning to use grammatical inflections in his speech. Which is he most likely to have added first?

A) -ing
B) -ed
C) -est
D) -er
E) -es

Question 53

Four-year-old Tobias has learned to use several sentence forms. Which of the following sentences reflects the last sentence form Tobias learned to use?

A) "Why it is resting now?"
B) "I sitted for a long time."
C) "Where did you put my truck?"
D) "Bobby is the baddest boy."
E) "I not crying."

Question 54

According to Fenson's research, 24-month-old children's longest sentences include

A) one to two words.
B) two to three words.
C) three to four words.
D) four to five words.
E) five to six words.

Question 55

Overregularization occurs because the child in the later stages of grammatical development

A) is being raised in a restrictive environment.
B) cannot generalize rules he develops about the past tense.
C) cannot use auxiliary verbs.
D) is operating with a set of rules.
E) is copying what adults say.

Question 56

All of the following are examples of pragmatics EXCEPT

A) four-year-old children simplify their language when speaking to younger children.
B) by their teens, children are able to use the passive voice.
C) first graders explain things more fully to a stranger than to a friend.
D) first graders are more polite to adults and to strangers than they are to their own peers.
E) children are more polite to strangers than to their peers.

Question 57

The understanding of what type of language to use in specific situations is called

A) grammar.
B) pragmatics.
C) semantics.
D) syntax.
E) inflections.

Question 58

Which of the following sentences is likely to be the most difficult for a 5- or 6-year-old child to understand?

A) "The car was fixed by the man yesterday."
B) "We saw the man at the gas station."
C) "Was the man repairing a car?"
D) "Please fix the car."
E) "Where did you say you put the truck?"

Question 59

Jerome is two years old and is building with blocks. As he builds, he mutters to himself, "No, not there." This is an example of

A) prepositional speech.
B) auxiliary speech.
C) possessive speech.
D) private speech.
E) commanding speech.

Question 60

Pragmatics is an aspect of language dealing with

A) grammar.
B) word meaning.
C) communication.
D) commonalities.
E) inflections.

Question 61

Imitation theories of language development cannot account for

A) children saying things like, "I hurted myself."
B) children's repetition of their parents.
C) the drift of babbling toward the language spoken around the infant.
D) rapid language growth of children who repeat the words they hear.
E) the failure of reinforcement to promote language development.

Question 62

Studies of a wide variety of language communities have revealed that

A) Asian children skip the prelinguistic phase.
B) Western children tend to use language before they understand it.
C) the prelinguistic phase is identical in all language communities.
D) there is no set pattern for language development.
E) all language development is genetically programmed.

Question 63

Research on private speech has shown all of the following EXCEPT

A) it completely disappears by age 9 or 10.
B) young children talk to themselves when trying to remember lists.
C) children use it to remind themselves of a new strategy.
D) adults sometimes use it when dealing with difficult tasks.
E) it is not always audible.

Question 64

In Fenson's research study of more than 1,000 toddlers, the earliest age at which the transition from simple two-word sentences to more complex forms occurred was

A) 21 months.
B) 22 months.
C) 27 months.
D) 30 months.
E) 33 months.

Question 65

The fact that children say things such as "I wented" supports what conclusion about the role of imitation in language development?

A) Imitation is the central process in language development.
B) Imitation alone can't explain all language acquisition.
C) Imitation in infancy improves language development in early childhood.
D) Imitation is irrelevant in language development.
E) Imitation slows language development.

Question 66

Skinner's theory of language states that children's language is shaped through systematic ________ of better and better approximations of adult speech.

A) generation
B) reinforcement
C) imitation
D) monitoring
E) development

Question 67

Slobin proposes that babies are preprogrammed to pay attention to

A) adult-directed speech.
B) the stream of sounds as a whole.
C) the middle of a string of words.
D) stressed sounds.
E) prefixes and suffixes.

Question 68

Mr. Esterhaus reads frequently to his children and talks to them about a wide range of subjects. We can expect that his children will do all of the following EXCEPT

A) begin to talk sooner.
B) use more complex sentences.
C) learn to read more readily in school.
D) develop larger vocabularies.
E) learn to dislike reading.

Question 69

Billy lives in the United States, Anwar lives in Egypt. They are both beginning to learn prepositions describing locations. Both will learn which of the following prepositions last?

A) front
B) beside
C) under
D) on
E) in

Question 70

Two-year-old Alissa is more likely to imitate a correct grammatical form if she

A) hears her mother use that form in her normal conversation.
B) is explicitly corrected when she makes a grammatical error.
C) hears her own sentences recast by her mother.
D) is ignored when she speaks ungrammatically.
E) is reinforced for good grammar.

Question 71

According to Vygotsky, children use "private speech"

A) because they enjoy hearing themselves talk.
B) because they are egocentric.
C) to keep others from talking to them.
D) to guide their own behavior.
E) to talk to imaginary friends.

Question 72

Bowerman and other constructivist theorists maintain that the important factor in language development is

A) built-in biases.
B) genetically programmed operating principles.
C) the constraints on language.
D) the rate of brain cell development.
E) the child's construction of language.

Question 73

Parents who talk more, read more to their children, elicit more language from them, and respond appropriately to them tend to have children who develop

A) language strictly as programmed by their genetic heritage.
B) a more complex language but at a later-than-average age.
C) language at a later age than other children.
D) language more rapidly without regard to genetic inheritance.
E) a larger vocabulary but poor grammar skills.

Question 74

Which theorist is most strongly associated with nativist theories of language?

A) Skinner
B) Freud
C) Chomsky
D) Piaget
E) Vygotsky

Question 75

According to Slobin, infants and children

A) must be taught grammar.
B) learn language strictly by imitation.
C) are programmed with rules to listen by.
D) construct their own operating principles.
E) must receive reinforcement to learn language.

Question 76

All of the following are characteristics of infant-directed speech EXCEPT

A) concrete vocabulary.
B) lower-pitched voice.
C) short, simple sentences.
D) slower pace.
E) simple grammar.

Question 77

Which of the following is an accurate statement about motherese?

A) It is the behavior pattern shown by infants attached to their mothers.
B) It is not effective in communicating with young children.
C) It is scientifically described as infant-directed speech.
D) It is spoken only by mothers and only to their own infants.
E) It tends to slow down language acquisition.

Question 78

The earliest theories of language reflected which of the following perspectives?

A) psychoanalysis
B) learning theory
C) cognitive theory
D) information processing
E) humanistic theory

Question 79

The fact that parents are remarkably forgiving of all sorts of peculiar constructions and meaning in their children's speech is evidence against which theory of language development?

A) imitation
B) reinforcement
C) innateness
D) constructivist
E) psychoanalytic

Question 80

Carlos lives in Mexico and Greti lives in Switzerland. Cross-cultural research indicates that both children will do all of the following EXCEPT

A) use more nouns than verbs.
B) babble after they coo.
C) understand before they speak language.
D) use their first words at about 12 months.
E) first use two-word phrases at 18 months.