Deck 9: Language Development

Question 1

Professor Chan believes that language is a unique human accomplishment that children acquire naturally due to the structure of the brain. Professor Chan supports the __________ perspective of language development.

A) nativist
B) behaviorist
C) interactionist
D) sociocultural

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following statements is true regarding homesign?

A) Children who use homesign reach language milestones at the same rate as hearing children.
B) Children typically pick up the homesign gesture system from their parents.
C) Homesign does not follow any basic grammatical rules.
D) Homesign is used for the same diverse purposes as any language.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Before children can combine words and modify them in meaningful ways, they must

A) have begun the mastery of vocabulary.
B) master their culture's narrative mode.
C) understand the guidelines for effective conversation.
D) figure out how gestures, tone of voice, and context clarify meaning.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Common chimps, the species studied most often, have been

A) able to consistently predict others' goals.
B) shown to have a broad understanding of others' mental states.
C) taught artificial languages and American Sign Language.
D) taught to produce strings of three or more symbols that conform to a rule-based structure.

Question 5

In one study, deaf toddlers and preschoolers whose parents discouraged manual signing and addressed them verbally

A) spontaneously produced a gestural communication system.
B) reached language milestones at the same time as their hearing agemates.
C) did not develop stable vocabularies or systematic grammatical rules.
D) generated a communication system that was limited to writing.

Question 6

In American Sign Language (ASL), accurately expressing motion requires

A) at least some ability to hear low tones.
B) well-developed fine-motor skills.
C) up to seven grammatical markers.
D) an understanding of pragmatic communication.

Question 7

Three-year-old Giselle says, "I swimmed like a fish, Mommy!" Giselle's addition of the -ed ending, although incorrect, shows her growing awareness of

A) syntax.
B) semantics.
C) phonology.
D) morphology.

Question 8

Chomsky's language acquisition device (LAD) refers to

A) instructional techniques for children with speech and language delays.
B) speech programs that parents can use to teach their children grammatical rules.
C) computer programs that attempt to generate the linguistic rules that are needed for language acquisition.
D) an innate system that permits children to combine words into grammatically consistent, novel utterances.

Question 9

Noam Chomsky reasoned that

A) in early childhood, rewards and punishments support language development.
B) young children are unable to assume much responsibility for their own language learning.
C) the rules for sentence organization are too complex to be directly taught to cognitively sophisticated young children.
D) language, like any other behavior, is acquired through imitation and operant conditioning.

Question 10

Valerie is a college student studying to become a speech/language pathologist. In one of her classes, she is learning about the rules that govern the structure and sequencing of speech sounds. Valerie is studying

A) phonology.
B) semantics.
C) grammar.
D) pragmatics.

Question 11

__________ is the aspect of grammar that provides the rules by which words are arranged into sentences.

A) Phonology
B) Morphology
C) Syntax
D) Semantics

Question 12

Research on language acquisition in animals

A) supports Chomsky's assumption of a uniquely human capacity for an elaborate grammar.
B) shows that animals can produce complex and novel sentences.
C) shows that not even the brightest animals can comprehend language.
D) shows that chimps are intelligent enough to comprehend and produce elaborate, human-like sentences.

Question 13

Children typically say their first word at about _____ months and have mastered a large vocabulary and most grammatical constructions by _____ years.

A) 6; 2 to 3
B) 9; 3 to 4
C) 12; 4 to 5
D) 18; 5 to 6

Question 14

When 14-year-old Tatiana's friends call her name, she responds with, "What?!" When her teacher calls her name, she responds by saying, "Yes, ma'am?" Tatiana's responses indicate her understanding of

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

Question 15

According to the nativist perspective, children master the structure of language

A) only with deliberate training from parents.
B) spontaneously, with only limited language exposure.
C) at different rates, depending on their native language.
D) quickly, but only in its simplest forms; more complicated forms come much later.

Question 16

Reuben is a young child with a language impairment. He has difficulty expressing concepts using words and word combinations. Reuben has problems with

A) grammar.
B) pragmatics.
C) semantics.
D) phonology.

Question 17

Research conducted with Kanzi, a bonobo chimp,

A) shows that bonobos are capable of conversation that includes asking questions and sharing information.
B) produced no definitive results about Kanzi's linguistic achievements.
C) proves that chimps are capable of communicating basic needs, but nothing else.
D) indicates that chimps are better at communicating through the use of written, rather than visual, symbols.

Question 18

Based on her experience with young infants, Maria, a child-care worker, wonders if children are born with a built-in storehouse of rules that are common to all human languages. Maria is pondering the concept of

A) linguistic expansions.
B) infant-directed speech.
C) private speech.
D) universal grammar.

Question 19

With extensive training, dolphins and parrots can acquire a vocabulary and respond to short, novel sentences,

A) although they do so less consistently than a preschool child.
B) but only chimps can be taught to produce strings of three or more symbols that conform to a rule-based structure.
C) showing that they follow the same grammatical rules as humans in their own "language."
D) and are highly attuned to recognize human intentions that motivate use of language.

Question 20

Wernicke's area, located in the left temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex, plays a role in

A) comprehending word meaning.
B) supporting grammatical processing.
C) communicating with motor areas involved in speaking.
D) supporting language production.

Question 21

Which of the following factors underlie the younger-age language-learning advantage?

A) neural networks becoming dedicated to processing native-language sounds
B) sensitivity to sound variations in languages not regularly heard
C) complete lateralization of the language function to the left hemisphere
D) an ability to hear sound variations across all languages

Question 22

ERP and fMRI measures of brain activity indicate that second-language processing is

A) more lateralized, and also overlaps more with brain areas devoted to first-language processing, in older than in younger learners.
B) less lateralized, and also overlaps less with brain areas devoted to first-language processing, in older than in younger learners.
C) better developed in adults who take language classes than in young children who immigrated to the United States in infancy.
D) shared between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, whereas first-language processing is primarily located in the right hemisphere.

Question 23

Currently, statistical learning theorists are investigating how __________ might combine with other general-cognitive and language-specific processing abilities to explain children's acquisition of increasingly complex language structures.

A) sensitivity to statistical regularities
B) learning American Sign Language
C) becoming bilingual
D) sensitivity to nonspeech sounds

Question 24

Which of the following statements is a limitation of Chomsky's nativist perspective?

A) Chomsky's theory cannot explain how children weave statements together into connected discourse and sustain meaningful conversations.
B) Chomsky's theory is inconsistent with research on efforts to teach language to nonhuman primates.
C) Chomsky's theory overemphasizes the role of social experience in language development.
D) Chomsky's theory ignores the existence of specialized regions in the brain that support language skills.

Question 25

According to the social interactionist perspective, __________, __________, and __________ combine to help children discover the functions and regularities of language.

A) positive social interactions; a strong sense of self; an understanding of abstract concepts
B) cognitive ability; physical ability; enthusiasm for learning
C) native capacity; a strong desire to understand others and be understood by them; a rich language environment
D) the ability to imitate; recognize rules; recognize patterns

Question 26

Dr. Bean believes that language development is a product of inner capacities and environmental influences. Dr. Bean's belief is consistent with the __________ perspective.

A) behaviorist
B) nativist
C) interactionist
D) dynamic systems

Question 27

Jadzia is a young child with Williams syndrome. Recent evidence indicates that Jadzia will

A) have less complex sentence production than a child with Down syndrome.
B) depend on rule learning to acquire language skills.
C) probably learn language by capitalizing on her social strengths.
D) have a limited vocabulary and rarely speak in full sentences.

Question 28

The absence of a complete description of abstract grammatical structures

A) supports the existence of Chomsky's LAD.
B) casts doubt that one set of rules can account for the multiplicity of grammatical forms.
C) provides clear evidence that children are naturally skilled at linking grammatical rules with strings of words.
D) supports the behaviorist perspective of language development.

Question 29

Sean was not wearing a helmet when he flipped his ATV and subsequently suffered damage to his brain's frontal lobe. We can anticipate that Sean will

A) have difficulty producing language.
B) be unable to understand spoken language.
C) be unable to understand written language.
D) experience spatial reasoning problems.

Question 30

Physiological research on Chomsky's notion of a brain prepared to process language indicates that

A) electrical activity is distributed across both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.
B) the broad association of language functions is right-hemispheric.
C) electrical activity becomes increasingly concentrated in the right-hemispheric region.
D) the broad association of language functions is left-hemispheric.

Question 31

Social interactionists believe that children's __________ language development.

A) built-in LAD is solely responsible for
B) native language dictates the pace of
C) social competencies and language experiences greatly affect
D) neural processing speed determines

Question 32

Which of the following findings raises doubt about Chomsky's assumption that grammatical knowledge is innately determined?

A) Adults and adolescents have more difficulty acquiring a second language than young children.
B) Complete mastery of some grammatical forms is not achieved until well into middle childhood.
C) Chimpanzees learn to communicate through sign language and symbols.
D) As children acquire language, the brain becomes increasingly specialized for language processing.

Question 33

Language areas in the cerebral cortex

A) are found exclusively in the left hemisphere.
B) are fully lateralized at birth.
C) develop as children acquire language.
D) are not fully functional until adulthood.

Question 34

In studies of adults who had damage to their left hemisphere, __________ abilities suffered much more than __________ abilities.

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

Question 35

Research has shown that Broca's and Wernicke's areas of the brain

A) are not solely responsible for specific language functions.
B) are solely responsible for language comprehension.
C) cease functioning when the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex sustains damage.
D) help to support language plasticity in the cerebral cortex.

Question 36

The more "committed" the brain is to native-language patterns, the

A) better children's mastery of their native language.
B) more effectively children acquire foreign language.
C) more difficult it is for children to acquire reading skills.
D) greater the chance the child is ambidextrous.

Question 37

Mr. Li is a 50-year-old college graduate from China who just immigrated to the United States and is learning English. Jet is 3 years of age and just immigrated to the United States from China and is also learning English. Jet will complete high school, but not college. What can we ascertain about the second-language acquisition of these two individuals?

A) Jet will have greater English proficiency than Mr. Li only if he is raised in a non-Chinese-speaking household.
B) By the time Jet is an adult, he and Mr. Li will have comparable English-speaking skills.
C) Mr. Li will have greater English proficiency than Jet.
D) Jet will have greater English proficiency than Mr. Li.

Question 38

Recent research shows that Wernicke's area

A) controls tongue movements required for speech production.
B) is unrelated to language production or comprehension.
C) controls speech comprehension.
D) is more strongly associated with comprehension of nonverbal than of verbal sound.

Question 39

The most influential information-processing theories of language development are derived from research with

A) adopted infants.
B) connectionist, or artificial neural network, models.
C) toddlers who use ASL.
D) low-income and poverty-stricken children.

Question 40

The language abilities of individuals with Williams syndrome

A) are evidence that language is controlled by an innate LAD.
B) are not impaired in any significant ways.
C) indicate that language is not separate from other human mental abilities.
D) are very weakly correlated with working-memory capacity.

Question 41

When baby Madeline drops her teddy bear out of her crib, she reaches toward it and whimpers, prompting her mother to pick up the bear and hand it to her. This is an example of a __________ gesture.

A) protoimperative
B) sociolinguistic
C) protodeclarative
D) manipulative

Question 42

Games like pat-a-cake and peekaboo

A) tend to confuse children and may actually delay pragmatic development.
B) hinder the transition from preverbal to verbal communication.
C) foster infants' understanding of the turn-taking pattern of human conversation.
D) facilitate children's understanding of illocutionary intent.

Question 43

Ms. Lipscomb talks to her 4-month-old son using short sentences with distinct pauses between speech segments. She uses a high-pitched voice and exaggerated expressions, clearly pronouncing her words. Ms. Lipscomb is demonstrating

A) infant-directed speech.
B) baby talk.
C) cooing.
D) babbling.

Question 44

Research suggests that infants first use statistical learning abilities to

A) learn a foreign language.
B) locate words in speech.
C) establish joint attention with caregivers.
D) produce short sentences.

Question 45

Which of the following is the best example of babbling?

A) "oooo"
B) "mommy"
C) "go car"
D) "dadadadadada"

Question 46

Which of the following statements may explain why newborns are especially sensitive to their mother's voice and their native tongue?

A) Beginning at birth, infants are reinforced more for interacting with their mothers than their fathers.
B) They are born with a LAD.
C) They are repeatedly exposed to their mother speaking during pregnancy.
D) They interact primarily with their mother after birth, which biases them toward her voice and language.

Question 47

Baby Rosalita, born to English-speaking parents, is able to differentiate between the soft "p" and sharp "p" phonemes used to distinguish meaning in the Thai language. Her parents perceive both sounds as identical. Rosalita's parents are exhibiting

A) categorical speech perception.
B) semantic bootstrapping.
C) referential communication.
D) overregularization.

Question 48

Which of the following statements is true regarding learning native-language sound categories and patterns?

A) Findings indicate that categorical perception is unique to linguistic input.
B) Phonemes tend to be similar across all contemporary languages.
C) Compared to young infants, adults are sensitive to a much wider range of categories than exists in their own language.
D) Between 6 and 8 months, infants start to organize speech into the phonemic categories of their own language.

Question 49

Which of the following statements is supported by research on categorical speech perception?

A) A preference for the overall sound pattern of one's native language to that of a different language emerges during the second half of the first year.
B) Young infants are sensitive to a much wider range of speech categories than exists in their own language.
C) At birth, infants organize speech into the phonemic categories of their own language.
D) The emergence of categorical speech perception in the first few days after birth is largely due to adult interaction.

Question 50

Baby Juan holds up his stuffed panda and points to it, making sure his father notices it. Juan is engaging in a __________ gesture.

A) protoimperative
B) sociolinguistic
C) protodeclarative
D) manipulative

Question 51

In some cultures, such as the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, adults rarely communicate with young children and never play social games with them, yet their children acquire language within the normal time frame. This suggests that

A) social interactionists' theories about language development are invalid.
B) adult molding of communication during the first year is not essential.
C) other individuals, such as older peers, mold early communication skills in these cultures.
D) gesturing is more important than verbalization.

Question 52

During the first year, sensitivity to language, cognitive and social skills, and environmental supports pave the way for the onset of

A) social gesturing.
B) spatial strategizing.
C) theoretical reasoning.
D) verbal communication.

Question 53

Eight-month-old Thea and her mother watch a grasshopper in their yard. Her mother labels the grasshopper and describes what it is doing. Thea and her mother are engaged in

A) telegraphic speech.
B) referential communication.
C) syntactic bootstrapping.
D) joint attention.

Question 54

Which of the following statements is supported by research on babbling?

A) Babies only begin babbling if they consistently hear human speech.
B) Females typically begin babbling before males.
C) Babies have a limited repertoire of babbled sounds, depending on their IQ.
D) Deaf infants not exposed to sign language will stop babbling entirely.

Question 55

According to research on language development, when do children begin to detect the internal structure of sentences and words?

A) almost immediately after birth
B) by the time they are 7 months old
C) in the second half of the first year
D) when they are between 12 and 14 months old

Question 56

Which of the following statements is true about infant-directed speech?

A) Parents who use infant-directed speech are deliberately trying to teach infants to talk.
B) Infants are more easily bored by infant-directed speech than other forms of communication.
C) Most researchers advise parents to avoid using infant-directed speech, as it has been linked to language delays in early childhood.
D) Toddlers' first words and phrases are usually ones they hear often in their caregivers' infant-directed speech.

Question 57

_________ of all deaf children have hearing parents who are not fluent in sign language.

A) Very few
B) One-third
C) Half
D) The vast majority

Question 58

Mothers' exaggerated pronunciation in infant-directed speech is strongly associated with

A) mild language delays in toddlerhood.
B) advanced false-belief understanding in preschoolers.
C) 6- to 12-month-olds' increasing sensitivity to the phonemic categories of foreign languages.
D) 6- to 12-month-olds' increasing sensitivity to the phonemic categories of their native language.

Question 59

Cooing in infancy refers to

A) strings of different speech sounds.
B) repeated consonant-vowel combinations.
C) vowel-like noises.
D) strings of several identical sounds.

Question 60

To distinguish between sounds such as "la" and "ra," adults

A) analyze the speech stream into phonemes.
B) carefully follow morphological rules.
C) rely on universal language markers.
D) rely on their LAD.

Question 61

Three-year-old Kailyn says "dawbuddies" when referring to strawberries. Her father repeatedly corrects her mistake, but

A) his attempts are unsuccessful because she will not learn the correct pronunciation until she matures.
B) his attempts are unsuccessful because the word "strawberries" has too many syllables for a 3-year-old to pronounce clearly.
C) it will take 1 to 2 weeks of constant practice until she can pronounce the word correctly.
D) his attempts are unsuccessful because this type of mispronunciation is symptomatic of a speech disorder.

Question 62

Mr. Chidie chases his 2-year-old son, Fana, saying, "I'm going to geech you!" When he catches Fana, he tickles him. Fana replies, "Geech, Daddy, geech!" in an attempt to receive another tickle. Fana's connection of the term "geech" with tickling is an example of

A) fast-mapping.
B) shading.
C) syntactic bootstrapping.
D) semantic bootstrapping.

Question 63

Replacing __________ is a common phonological strategy used by young children to simplify pronunciation of adult words.

A) an ending vowel syllable with a consonant
B) glides with liquid sounds
C) individual sounds with unstressed syllables
D) fricatives with stop consonant sounds

Question 64

__________ are more often produced by Chinese than U.S. babies as their first words.

A) Sound effects
B) Animals
C) Common objects
D) Action words

Question 65

Three-year-old Serena refers to a squirrel as a "rabbit," but points correctly to a squirrel when given the word squirrel in a comprehension task. Serena probably has

A) difficulty discriminating between squirrels and rabbits.
B) difficulty recognizing squirrels.
C) difficulty pronouncing the word squirrel.
D) a hearing disability.

Question 66

Cross-cultural research on semantic development shows that

A) English-speaking toddlers are more likely than Asian toddlers to acquire action words in their beginning vocabularies.
B) children in many cultures have more object words than action words in their beginning vocabularies.
C) Asian toddlers are more likely than English-speaking toddlers to use object words.
D) toddlers more readily understand extensions of action words to new contexts than extensions of object words.

Question 67

Two-year-old Nerea uses the word "ball" for anything round, including the moon, a globe, and a light fixture. She is making an __________ error.

A) overextension
B) overregularization
C) underregularization
D) underextension

Question 68

Research on styles of early language learning suggests that referential-style children often

A) have parents who use verbal routines designed to support social relationships.
B) have highly sociable personalities.
C) have an especially active interest in exploring objects.
D) spend a lot of time watching people.

Question 69

Which of the following words is most likely to be among a toddler's first spoken words?

A) "skip"
B) "ball"
C) "tree"
D) "chair"

Question 70

Phonological development is largely complete by age

A) 3.
B) 5.
C) 7.
D) 8.

Question 71

Recent evidence indicates that most children

A) do not experience a significant vocabulary spurt until they enter kindergarten, when vocabulary increases by 50 to 100 words per week.
B) experience a vocabulary spurt during the toddler years, learning as many as 5 to 10 new words per day.
C) experience a vocabulary spurt between ages 7 and 8, learning between 50 and 100 new words per day.
D) show a steady, continuous increase in rate of word learning throughout the preschool years, adding as many as nine new words per day.

Question 72

The speed and accuracy of toddlers' __________ of spoken language increases dramatically over the second year.

A) comprehension
B) seriation
C) recognition
D) production

Question 73

__________-style toddlers think words are for naming things, whereas __________-style toddlers believe words are for talking about people's feelings and needs.

A) Referential; expressive
B) Objective; social
C) Receptive; expressive
D) Expressive; referential

Question 74

When 6-month-olds listen to the words "Mommy" and "Daddy" while looking at side-by-side videos of their parents, they

A) always look longer at their mother.
B) always look longer at their father.
C) look longer at the video of the named parent.
D) look longer at the parent who feeds them most often.

Question 75

Which state-word distinction is most likely to appear first in a child's vocabulary?

A) "today-tomorrow"
B) "big-small"
C) "wide-narrow"
D) "now-then"

Question 76

One-year-old Alex uses the word "hat" to refer only to his favorite blue baseball cap. Alex is demonstrating an __________ error.

A) overextension
B) overregularization
C) underregularization
D) underextension

Question 77

Fourteen-month-old Reese points to a picture of a dog in his book when prompted by his family. When his 3-year-old cousin asks him to "find the goggie," Reese points to the dog. Reese's actions indicate that he

A) understands how the word "dog" is supposed to sound.
B) does not really grasp the concept of the word "dog."
C) has strong word-object-association skills.
D) may display speech problems when he is older.

Question 78

In middle childhood, many deaf children of hearing parents achieve poorly in school, are deficient in social skills, and display impulse-control problems. Meanwhile, deaf children of deaf parents escape these difficulties. This is likely because hearing parents

A) lack experience with visual communication.
B) often become frustrated and give up on exerting any control over their deaf children.
C) usually do not benefit from social support and training in how to interact with their nonhearing children.
D) do not have access to medical services for children with special needs.

Question 79

As 3-year-old Settje acquires language, __________ will develop ahead of __________.

A) association; recognition
B) recall; comprehension
C) production; reception
D) comprehension; production

Question 80

Which of the following toddlers would you expect to have the most advanced vocabulary?

A) Claire, a shy girl
B) Clarisse, an outgoing girl
C) Carlton, a shy boy
D) Carter, an outgoing boy