Deck 9: C: Language and Communication

Question 1

Your friend Angelina wants to know what she can do to stimulate her son Mario's development. What should Angelina do in her interactions with Mario and how should she structure his home environment to maximize his language development?

Answer 1

A good answer will be similar to the following:
Angelina should speak frequently to Mario. Parents who speak frequently with their children provide their children with more opportunities to learn words. Language development also is fostered when parents name objects or activities that are the focus of a child's attention. Reading books to a child increases the child's encounters with unfamiliar words, which leads to an increase in vocabulary. Also, asking Mario questions while reading to him will force him to identify the meanings of new words. The type of television shows that Mario watches may influence his language development. Watching television shows like Sesame Street in which Mario can actively participate and is challenged to use his emerging language skills probably will lead to improved language development.

Question 2

What are some of the rules that children use for learning new words?

Answer 2

A good answer will be similar to the following:
∙If an unfamiliar word is heard in the presence of objects that already have names and objects that do not, the word refers to one of the objects that doesn't have a name.
∙A name refers to a whole object, not its parts or its relation to other objects and refers not just to this particular object but to all objects of the same type.
∙If an object already has a name and another name is presented, the new name denotes a subcategory of the original name.
∙Given many similar category members, a word applied consistently to only one of them is a proper noun.

Question 3

Behaviourist theorists' claim that language is learned strictly through imitation and reinforcement has been challenged by other theorists who propose that an inborn mechanism helps children learn grammar. Give an example of a language phenomenon that behaviourists would have difficulty explaining and describe evidence that supports the notion of an inborn grammar-learning device.

Answer 3

A good answer will be similar to the following:
·One problem for behaviourist theorists is how to explain the fact that children produce novel sentences and grammar? Children produce sentences that are not simply imitations of sentences they've heard earlier.
·Evidence supporting the notion of an inborn language-learning device:
°Specific regions of the brain are known to be involved in language processing. The fact that specific areas in the brain have well-defined functions for language make it plausible that children have specialized neural circuits that help them learn grammar.
°Only humans learn grammar readily. If grammar is learned solely through imitation and reinforcement, then it should be possible to teach rudimentary grammar to nonhumans. Efforts to teach grammar to chimpanzees have failed, suggesting that children rely upon some type of inborn mechanism to master grammar.
°There is a critical period for learning language, based on cases of isolated children and from studies of individuals learning second languages. The period from birth to about age 12 is critical for acquiring language and mastering grammar, suggesting that the neural mechanisms involved in learning grammar may function only during infancy and childhood.

Question 4

Name and briefly describe the five different elements of language.

Question 5

Effective communication is important throughout life. Give three guidelines for effective oral communication.

Question 6

What can adults do during their interactions with children to promote children's language development?

Question 7

Compare and contrast phonology and morphology

Question 8

What is infant-directed speech and how is it related to infant language development?

Question 9

Children sometimes have distinctive styles of learning language. Name and describe two styles of learning language.

Question 10

Your sister and brother-in-law have a newborn baby and they are wondering when she will begin talking. They hope that it will occur soon, so they have begun saying mama and dada to their daughter. What can you tell them about the course of language development during the first year of life?

Question 11

What is "turn-taking" in language development?

Question 12

Your friends Kumi and Hugh have a six-month-old son, Joe. Kumi is a native speaker of Japanese and Hugh is a native speaker of English. They are thinking about raising Joe to be bilingual but they are wondering if there are any benefits or drawbacks to this. What can you tell Kumi and Hugh about the impact of bilingualism on language development?

Question 13

Describe infant speech perception during the first year of life.

Question 14

Your friends Tom and Susan have an 18-month-old daughter, Lynda, who has a vocabulary of approximately 50 words. Almost all of Lynda's words are names of objects, people, or actions. Tom and Susan wonder if this is normal. What can you tell them about the different language-learning styles?