Deck 7: Language Acquisition

Question 1

The basic sound categories of a language are known as:

A) letters.
B) syllables.
C) phonemes.
D) morphemes.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Children change from babbling to pronouncing words at about what age?

A) late in the first year
B) around 18 months
C) at the end of the second year
D) around 36 months

Answer 2

A

Question 3

When chimpanzees are reared as human children they:

A) make recursive utterances.
B) acquire oral language like that of their human counterparts.
C) acquire sign language like that of their human counterparts.
D) can acquire gestures that resemble some aspects of human language.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The existence of Broca's area and Wernicke's area in the brain suggests that the:

A) left hemisphere of the brain is genetically wired to support normal language processing.
B) right hemisphere of the brain is genetically wired to support normal language processing.
C) brain processes information in a distributed way, such that specific functions are not associated with specific areas.
D) brain is fully developed at birth.

Question 5

What was Alexander Luria referring to when he claimed that humans have a "double world"?

A) Humans spend part of their life in childhood and part in adulthood.
B) Humans experience both the world they perceive directly and worlds that are the experience of others.
C) Humans understand that the world is large and diverse, but they live their lives in their local communities.
D) Humans begin life dependent on others and move toward greater independence as they grow older.

Question 6

All of the following are strategies for investigating the question of how biology influences language development EXCEPT:

A) comparing human language learning to the language abilities of other species.
B) using neuroimaging techniques to study relationships between brain development and language skills.
C) examining how damage to particular brain regions influences language-related behaviors.
D) exploring how cultural differences in adult-child interaction influence language development.

Question 7

When Claire (a mother) and June (her baby) talk, they share knowledge about objects to which they jointly attend. This is an example of ____________ as a precursor to language.

A) social referencing
B) primary intersubjectivity
C) pragmatic communication
D) secondary intersubjectivity

Question 8

Which of the following is evidence that children are born into the world predisposed to attend to language and communicate with people around them?

A) At birth, children show a preference for rhythmic womb-like sounds over speech sounds.
B) Children do not say their first word until about 1 year of age.
C) At birth, children are capable of differentiating the basic sound categories or phonemes characteristic of the world's languages.
D) Children learn grammar before they learn pragmatics.

Question 9

Damage to a specific part of the brain that leads to an inability to comprehend language is known as:

A) Broca's aphasia.
B) Wernicke's aphasia.
C) Williams syndrome.
D) hemispheric aphasia.

Question 10

Organized, reciprocal interaction between an infant and caregiver is known as:

A) primary intersubjectivity.
B) secondary intersubjectivity.
C) social referencing.
D) jargoning.

Question 11

Primary intersubjectivity refers to:

A) a baby's use of cooing before the secondary stage of the sound repertoire, babbling.
B) social referencing.
C) a baby's use of the cry signal starting at birth.
D) sharing feelings as a result of organized face-to-face interactions.

Question 12

Baby Claire is in her crib when her mother hears her vocalize "babababababa" for the first time. How old is Claire likely to be?

A) 3 months
B) 7 months
C) 10 months
D) 12 months

Question 13

Damage to Broca's area results in:

A) an inability to comprehend language.
B) an absence or disruption of normal speech.
C) an inability to develop a full vocabulary.
D) difficulties understanding grammatical rules.

Question 14

What is the process through which the sound of a familiar word serves as an anchor for learning new words?

A) babbling
B) fast mapping
C) perceptual scaffolding
D) syntactic bootstrapping

Question 15

At birth children:

A) must be taught to attend to language.
B) show a preference for language over other sounds.
C) produce basic sounds in all languages through babbling.
D) can differentiate the basic sound categories of only their language.

Question 16

Baby Claire is in her crib when her mother hears her vocalize "babababababa." What is Claire doing?

A) scaffolding
B) cooing
C) fast mapping
D) babbling

Question 17

Baby Sarah, for the first time, demonstrates that she comprehends the meaning of the word "mommy." How old do you expect her to be?

A) 3 months
B) 6 months
C) 8 months
D) 10 months

Question 18

The remarkable ability that children demonstrate in their ability to understand and use language is due primarily to:

A) specialized biological structures and systems.
B) participation in language-using communities.
C) both biological and environmental factors.
D) caregivers' efforts to teach children language skills.

Question 19

Kanzi, a chimpanzee who understood simple requests, was told, "Give Liz a shot." What did he do?

A) He ignored the request and continued with the activity he was already engaged in.
B) He gave a syringe to Liz.
C) He touched the syringe on Liz's arm as if giving her a shot.
D) He touched the syringe to his own arm as if giving himself a shot.

Question 20

After chimpanzees are included in everyday human activities for an extended period, they:

A) learn several thousand signs.
B) create word combinations on lexical keyboards that are similar to the verbal utterances of 2-year-old children.
C) produce speech comparable to the speech of 4-year-old children.
D) frequently use complex communicative language to coordinate actions.

Question 21

Which of the following results is true of deaf children born to parents who communicate with sign language?

A) They acquire sign language as rapidly as hearing children born into hearing households acquire vocal language.
B) The rate at which they acquire sign language is delayed compared to hearing children born into hearing households.
C) The rate at which they acquire language is accelerated compared to hearing children born into hearing households.
D) They are unable to learn sign language without professional intervention.

Question 22

What contribution do studies of deaf children born to hearing parents make to our understanding of the language acquisition process?

A) They prove that it is sufficient to be raised in an environment where the actions of all other participants are organized by human language and culture.
B) If the parents do not use sign language, deaf children will not use more than a single sign in any "utterance."
C) They point to the importance of active participation of the child in language-mediated activity.
D) Hearing is essential to acquire language.

Question 23

Neuroimaging studies reveal that the vocabulary spurt that occurs in early childhood follows:

A) synaptic pruning within Broca's area.
B) myelination of language-related brain regions.
C) the development of connections between the brain regions related to language and vision.
D) gradual differentiation of the left hemisphere.

Question 24

When compared to dual-language learning children, monolingual children:

A) notice multiple images in an ambiguous figure at an earlier age.
B) notice multiple images in an ambiguous figure at a later age.
C) notice multiple images in an ambiguous figure at about the same age.
D) are more flexible in their interpretation of ambiguous images.

Question 25

When given rehabilitation, Genie, a child who lived in nearly total isolation for more than 11 years:

A) recovered to the point of nearly normal behavior.
B) recovered somewhat, but never developed normal language skills.
C) developed normal language skills but never showed affection toward other people.
D) made little progress in any area of development despite years of rehabilitation.

Question 26

Terrance is a child who has been exposed to two languages. He can be expected to:

A) show a strong preference for one language.
B) show no preference but develop better skills at one language.
C) differentiate between the two languages when appropriate in a given conversation.
D) have difficulty in distinguishing the vocabulary of the two languages.

Question 27

Which of the following is evidence of the plasticity of the brain?

A) damage to the left hemisphere is associated with more severe language impairment in children than in adults.
B) right-hemisphere damage is associated with more severe language impairment than is left hemisphere damage.
C) the left hemisphere quickly regenerates in response to damage, resulting in little noticeable language impairment.
D) the right hemisphere becomes the brain center for language among infants with left-hemisphere damage.

Question 28

Vince is a child who believes that sneezes are called "achoos." He is struggling with the ____________ aspect of language development.

A) phonological
B) semantic
C) grammatical
D) pragmatic

Question 29

The ____________ aspect of language development refers to learning to segment speech into meaningful units of sound, whereas the ____________ aspect refers to learning the meanings of words.

A) semantic: grammatical
B) pragmatic; semantic
C) phonological; pragmatic
D) phonological; semantic

Question 30

Jennifer is a child who uses "home sign." She fails to:

A) communicate.
B) embed sentences.
C) make two- and three-word utterances.
D) master complex grammatical distinctions.

Question 31

Research on the effects of brain injury on language development shows that:

A) adults are more severely affected by right hemisphere damage than left hemisphere damage, but children are not.
B) children are more severely affected by left hemisphere damage than right hemisphere damage, but adults are not.
C) both children and adults are more severely affected by left hemisphere damage.
D) children are affected about equally by left and right hemisphere damage.

Question 32

Suan is a deaf child who is being raised by parents who do not know sign language. He can be expected to:

A) not learn any language.
B) learn to read lips.
C) develop "home signs" to communicate.
D) learn to vocalize to communicate.

Question 33

The term morpheme:

A) is synonymous with phoneme.
B) refers to children's first words.
C) refers to a basic unit of meaning in a language.
D) refers to units of sound that are the same for all languages.

Question 34

When a child between the ages of 2 and 3 years old cannot produce a particular sound, she will typically:

A) substitute another sound.
B) become frustrated and angry.
C) refuse to use words that include the sound.
D) misunderstand words that include the sound when she hears them.

Question 35

What is a device that transforms sounds into electric pulses that directly stimulate the auditory nerve, bypassing the malfunctioning inner ear that ordinarily processes sound?

A) secondary intersubjectivity
B) semantic implant
C) mapping implant
D) cochlear implant

Question 36

Approximately what percentage of those who live in the European nations are bilingual or multilingual?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 75

Question 37

The case of Genie, a child who lived in conditions of isolation and neglect for more than 11 years:

A) was of little public or scientific interest.
B) turned out to be faked.
C) is difficult to evaluate because her experience affected every aspect of her health and development.
D) suggests that participation in a normal social environment is essential to the process of language acquisition.

Question 38

Nicaraguan sign language developed because:

A) a group of teachers created a sign system to map onto Spanish.
B) a community of deaf children was formed, and they developed their own pidgin language.
C) children were taught to lip-read and finger-spell.
D) deaf children were struggling to learn American Sign Language (ASL).

Question 39

Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between vocabulary exposure and vocabulary acquisition?

A) There is a positive correlation between vocabulary exposure and vocabulary acquisition.
B) There is a negative correlation between vocabulary exposure and vocabulary acquisition.
C) The rate at which children acquire vocabulary is not influenced by the amount of language they hear.
D) The relationship between vocabulary exposure and vocabulary acquisition has not yet been studied.

Question 40

Susan Goldin-Meadow and her colleagues found that "home sign":

A) develops as far as pointing.
B) develops among hearing children of deaf parents.
C) develops among deaf children of hearing parents who do not know sign language.
D) is idiosyncratic and does not resemble normal language in any way.

Question 41

When Bartlett and Carey arranged for preschool children to learn the word "chromium," the children:

A) learned it only after being tutored.
B) had difficulty learning the unfamiliar word.
C) learned to say the word but could not identify "chromium" objects.
D) learned the word after one experience with its use in a familiar situation.

Question 42

Which picture would Warren, a 2-year-old, MOST likely select when presented with a sentence such as "Big Bird is daxing Cookie Monster"?

A) a picture of Big Bird doing something to Cookie Monster
B) a picture of Cookie Monster doing something to Big Bird
C) the picture in which her favorite Sesame Street character was doing the action
D) the picture in which her favorite Sesame Street character was the recipient of action

Question 43

Children acquire ____________ words by the time they are 13 to 14 months old and ____________ words by the time they are 17 to 18 months of age.

A) 10; 50
B) 10; 200
C) 50; 200
D) 20; 200

Question 44

The figurative use of words provides evidence that language is:

A) innate.
B) creative.
C) imitative.
D) independent of thought.

Question 45

When children hear an unfamiliar word in a familiar and highly structured situation, they likely form an idea of the word's meaning and how that word might fit into their existing repertoire. This phenomenon has been termed:

A) pragmatism.
B) fast mapping.
C) mental module.
D) telegraphic ability.

Question 46

The process of identifying what words mean depends primarily on:

A) the child's ability to figure out what a speaker is talking about.
B) adults' interpretation of children's attempts to speak.
C) joint effort on the part of both adults and children to understand each other's utterances.
D) direct instructional strategies on the part of adults.

Question 47

A child's new potential for creating meaning by varying the arrangement of linguistic elements marks the birth of:

A) language.
B) grammar.
C) social words.
D) interpretations.

Question 48

The first words children acquire are:

A) names for common things like sweater and diapers.
B) verbs and adjectives.
C) closely linked to actions they can accomplish or objects they can move.
D) names for large immobile things like trees and houses.

Question 49

Which of the following is a relational word that appears early in children's vocabularies?

A) "no"
B) "juice"
C) "doggie"
D) "Mommy"

Question 50

Which of the following is an example of how adults work with each other and their children to create word meanings?

A) A child says, "I goed to school today."
B) A child says, "dahdee" to commands and requests, and adults ignore that it sounds like "daddy."
C) A child says, "All gone" when he finishes his milk.
D) A child calls all four-legged animals "dogs."

Question 51

Neuroimaging studies show that, as children's vocabularies increase, their brain:

A) processes word-object associations more efficiently.
B) processes word-object associations less efficiently.
C) requires more time to store semantic information.
D) utilizes glucose at a higher rate.

Question 52

The basic unit of meaning in language is called a:

A) noun.
B) word.
C) phoneme.
D) morpheme.

Question 53

Nori is watching her mother cook breakfast. On the counter is a spoon and a whisk. Although Nori has never heard the label "whisk" before, she hands her mother the correct tool when her mother asks her to pass the whisk. This is an example of:

A) overextension.
B) underextension.
C) fast mapping.
D) reformulation.

Question 54

Bartlett and Carey demonstrated children's developing vocabularies in the course of normal conversation by inventing the color "chromium." The findings of this study suggest:

A) children learn by imitation.
B) direct teaching of new vocabulary words is most effective.
C) children acquire language because adults explicitly reward their efforts.
D) children can learn new words when they occur in a close relationship with a familiar action.

Question 55

The rules that govern both the sequence of words in a sentence and the ordering of parts of words are called:

A) referents.
B) grammar.
C) semantics.
D) deep structure.

Question 56

At what age would a parent expect the rate of children's vocabulary acquisition to increase dramatically?

A) 6 months
B) 12 months
C) 18 months
D) 30 months

Question 57

Which of the following is a likely explanation for the dramatic increase in vocabulary acquisition that occurs in toddlerhood?

A) Adults of toddlers intensify their efforts to teach word meanings.
B) Toddlers demonstrate increasing abilities to use social cues to infer a speaker's intentions.
C) Toddlers are more persistent than younger children in their efforts to communicate their needs.
D) Toddlers are focused on language learning whereas younger children are focused on motor development.

Question 58

Which of the following is true regarding metaphorical language?

A) It is thought to depend on the appearance of deferred imitation.
B) It provides evidence that language production is a creative process.
C) Metaphorical language appears fairly late in childhood.
D) When young children become able to use metaphorical language they also understand the figurative meaning of adult speech.

Question 59

Children begin to produce comprehensible words:

A) at birth.
B) when they begin to babble.
C) around their first birthday.
D) just after their second birthday.

Question 60

The first words that infants raised in English-speaking settings use are generally:

A) verbs for actions.
B) commands for actions.
C) labels for objects.
D) their names.

Question 61

At playtime with her sister, Brenda says, "Gimme the doll." Later, at dinner, she asks her mother, "Please pass the milk." This child is demonstrating a developing understanding of:

A) figurative language.
B) pragmatic language use.
C) levels of abstractness.
D) gestural forms of communication.

Question 62

When her father asks, "Did you remember to wash your hands?" 2-year-old Tamika runs to the kitchen sink and begins to wash her hands. This example suggests that Tamika:

A) understood that the question was functioning as a request.
B) heard the word "wash" and remembered that she had not yet washed her hands.
C) misunderstood her father's attempt to start a conversation with her.
D) does not yet realize the health benefits of washing her hands before having a meal.

Question 63

Grammatical morphemes are:

A) acquired in roughly the same sequence by children learning English as a first language.
B) acquired in a different sequence by slow and fast learners.
C) not understood by children until they are about age 5.
D) not intuitively grasped by children.

Question 64

The utterance "Boys are playing" contains:

A) 5 morphemes.
B) 6 morphemes.
C) 6 words.
D) 4 morphemes.

Question 65

Grammatical morphemes:

A) are innate structures inherent in language.
B) measure the complexity of children's utterances.
C) create meaning by showing the relations between words.
D) show that children do not understand the difference between verbs and nouns.

Question 66

The process of using grammar to learn the meaning of new words is known as:

A) referential intent.
B) syntactic bootstrapping.
C) fast mapping.
D) chronology.

Question 67

The elements that create meaning by showing the relations between other elements within the sentence are called:

A) vowels.
B) phonemes.
C) extensions.
D) grammatical morphemes.

Question 68

Julie, a baby, points to a cat and says "kitty." This is an example of:

A) overextension.
B) underextension.
C) protoimperative.
D) protodeclarative.

Question 69

When children are learning about how to make contributions to a conversation at the required time and for the accepted purpose of the exchange, they are learning about:

A) pragmatics.
B) grammar.
C) phonemes.
D) morphemes.

Question 70

The reason children's sentences such as "I runned home" are informative in understanding children's language acquisition is that they suggest children:

A) can learn from simple imitation.
B) can be taught grammar directly.
C) are familiar with some grammar rules but often misapply them.
D) do not understand anything about grammar.

Question 71

A protodeclarative is:

A) always verbal.
B) a way of referring.
C) not considered conversational in nature.
D) a way of engaging another person in order to achieve a desired object.

Question 72

The pragmatic use of language refers to the:

A) rules governing word order and the relations between words.
B) ability to select words and word orderings that are appropriate to their participation in particular cultural contexts.
C) sound systems of a language.
D) process of associating words with their meaning.

Question 73

Utterances such as, "Sarah eated fast":

A) are usually learned by imitation.
B) are rarely if ever made by children.
C) show that children have some grasp of grammatical rules.
D) provide evidence that children rarely confuse grammatical forms.

Question 74

In her study of how children make use of language, Marilyn Shatz found that children as young as 2 were able to:

A) imitate parental speech patterns.
B) understand only direct commands.
C) correct the grammatical errors of peers.
D) respond correctly to indirect commands.

Question 75

All of the following are common features of African American narratives EXCEPT:

A) use of dramatic tone and language.
B) use of body language and gesture.
C) references to culturally specific events and behaviors.
D) insistence on a quiet but attentive audience.

Question 76

If Jill, an infant, holds up her cup and says "more" to get more juice, she is using:

A) recursion.
B) a protoimperative.
C) a protodeclarative.
D) the cooperative principle.

Question 77

Characteristics of two-word utterances include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) the order of the words can be varied to create different meanings.
B) they are free from ambiguity.
C) they can be used to indicate possession and nonexistence.
D) understanding of their meaning depends upon contextual cues.

Question 78

Why are children's early attempts to produce narratives difficult for adults to interpret?

A) Children's pronunciation of words is often confusing.
B) Children are unable to remember events clearly.
C) Children do not describe events in a chronological order.
D) Children seem to assume shared knowledge and leave out essential information.

Question 79

When calculating the complexity with which children speak, researchers often calculate the "mean length of utterance," which is the average:

A) number of syllables per utterance.
B) number of words per utterance.
C) number of morphemes per utterance.
D) time taken to complete utterances.

Question 80

Conversational acts are defined as:

A) actions that achieve goals through language and gesture.
B) making contributions to the conversation at the required time.
C) speaking in a relevant and informative way.
D) words combined with gestures.