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Chapter 2

Chapter 2. The Science and Theory of Language Development. Focus Questions. This chapter is designed to answer the following questions: Who studies language development and why? What are some major approaches to studying language development?

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Chapter 2

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  1. Chapter 2 The Science and Theory of Language Development

  2. Focus Questions This chapter is designed to answer the following questions: • Who studies language development and why? • What are some major approaches to studying language development? • What are some of the major language development theories? • How do language development theories influence practice?

  3. Introduction: What is a Theory? • Claim that a ________that will either hold up over time or will not, based on the accumulated outcomes from careful scientific inquiry. • Relationship to language development: __________________________________________________________________________ • Should be _______using the scientific process.

  4. Introduction: Theory and Science • Science:__________________________ _________________________________ • Relationship to language development: __________________________________________________________________________ Theories provide the ____________________ _____________, and the _________ of scientific studies help us to _____________ theories over time.

  5. Who Studies Language Development and Why? Who: • Relationship between philosophers and researchers of the 21st century. • Disciplines: ________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________. • Lack of area “_______” by a given discipline

  6. Who Studies Langauge Development and Why, cont Why: • Basic research: ____________________ ___________________________________. • Further our understanding about language as a human phenomenon • Applied research: __________________ __________________________________________________________________________ • Address specific problems in society and inform practices relevant to language development

  7. Basic Research • Advance fundamental understanding of _________________________________. • _________, _____, and ______ theories about language development. • When outcomes consistently confirm a theory, the theory becomes ___________ __________________________________.

  8. Basic Research, cont: Multicultural Focus • Sociolinguistic research and civil rights issues: • _________________________________ _________________________________ • Purnell, Idsardi, and Baugh (1999): speech characteristics alone can stimulate housing discrimination

  9. Applied Research • Contributes to _____________ by testing the _______ of certain practices and approaches (Stokes, 1997) • Experimental research designs to examine the causal relationship between a ___________________________________________________________________________________________

  10. Applied Research, cont • Test practices concerning language development relevant to three main contexts: • Homes:___________________________________________________________________________ • Clinics:___________________________________________________________________________ • Schools:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  11. Goal of Speech Perception Studies • ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  12. Methods for Studying Speech Perception • Present auditory stimuli to participants and measure their response to the stimuli. • Digitization:____________________________________________________________________________________________________ • In utero heart rate and kicking response • Head Turn Preference Procedure

  13. Methods for Studying Speech Perception Cont. • Behavioral testing:_______________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ • Brain-imaging technologies: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) • Tonotopic maps: _______________________________________________________________

  14. Goal of Language Production Studies • ___________________________________ ___________________________________ • Examine emergent capabilities in form, content, and use • Normative research: ________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ • Chart typical language production

  15. Methods for Studying Language Production • Observational studies: examine children’s language use in _________ or _____________ contexts, usually using a tape recorder or other audio recording device • Naturalistic: ___________________________ _______________________________________ • Semi-structured: _______________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________

  16. Methods for Studying Language Production Cont. • Experimental studies: __________ _______________________________ _________________ • Examine different aspects of production: vocabulary, morphology, syntax, phonology, pragmatics • Pseudowords • Repeat sentences • Correct erroneous sentences

  17. Goal of Language Comprehension Studies • ________________________________________________________________________________________________

  18. Methods for Studying Language Comprehension • Pre-linguistic infants: ______________ (looking time) to a stimulus as a dependent measure of language comprehension • Older children: ________ as a dependent measure of language comprehension • Act out a series of sentences using ________

  19. Questions that Language Theories Should Attempt to Answer • How children go about learning their native language • Theoretically: _________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ • Practically: ___________________________ ______________________________________ • General helpfulness for providing an explanation of language development

  20. Questions that Language Theories Should Attempt to Answer Cont. • Adequate theory: __________________ ___________________________________: • What do infants bring to the task of ______ ______________? • What mechanisms drive ________________? • What types of input support the __________ _________________?

  21. What do Infants Bring to the Task of Learning Language? • Nature versus nurture debate: infants arrive in the world _____________ to acquire language vs. infants learn language through _______________ and do not come into the world with innate language capabilities • Most theories of language development lie somewhere in between the _______ and __________ ends of the continuum

  22. Major Theories of Language Development • “Nurture-inspired:” __________________; humans gain all knowledge through experience • “Blank slate” • “Nature-inspired:” ____________; much of our knowledge is innate and genetically transmitted, rather than learned by experience • Underlying language system is in place at birth

  23. “Nuture-Inspired” Theories: Behaviorist Theory • B.F. Skinner (1904-1990): all learning is the result of ____________________ • Operant conditioning: _______________ ____________________________________ • Language is not a ________________ • _________ in the environment elicit verbal responses, or language from children • Each step in the process serves to _______ ___________________________________

  24. Theory to Practice: Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) • Principles of operant conditioning: stimulus, response, and reinforcement • Can be intensive and time-consuming • Requires training in ABA • May require several hours per week of one-on-one therapy • Discrete trial training (DTT): _________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ • Application in building language skills

  25. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: Social Interactionist Theory • Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934): ___________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ • All human knowledge exists first on a _____ _______ and then on a _________________ • Language as a uniquely human ability that exists independent of general cognition starting at about ______________.

  26. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: Cognitive Theory • Jean Piaget (1896-1980): genetic epistemology, the study of the development of knowledge • Series of _____________ that children experience; emphasized that achievements in _________ must occur ________________ _____________________ • Language: ability that follows closely behind children’s_____________________________

  27. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: Cognitive Theory Cont. • “Cognition hypothesis:” ____________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ • Children as active agents in constructing their understanding of language • Egocentric: ____________________________ ______________________________________ • True dialogue once children are able to take the _________________

  28. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: The Intentionality Model of Language Acquisition • Children’s abilities in _____________, _____________, _______, __________, and ___________ develop in tandem • Child is responsible for driving language learning __________ • Children learn language when what they have in mind differs from what others around them have in mind, _______________________ ___________________________________

  29. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: The Competition Model • Language development draws heavily on the _____________ • Multiple language forms compete with one another until the _____________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________ • Overgeneralization:_____________________________________________________________________________________________

  30. “Nurture-Inspired” Theories: Usage-Based Theory • Children learn language because they have __________________ • Emergence of intentionality during the first year of life • “Intention reading:” ________________ ____________________________________ ____________________ • Corresponding to the increasing capacity of the infant to engage communicatively with others

  31. “Nature-Inspired” Theories: Modularity Theory • Organization of the brain’s cognitive infrastructure as comprising a series of _________________________________ _________________________________ • __________ that is localized to domain-specific processors that are encapsulated in their functions from other processors • Language development in different areas is driven forward by __________________

  32. “Nature-Inspired” Theories: Universal Grammar • Noam Chomsky (1965): system of grammatical rules and constraints consistent across all the world’s languages • Language acquisition depends on an ______, ____________ that is dedicated to language, and not other forms of learning • Language Acquisition Device • Language is _________________________ • Born with linguistic competence; mistakes and omissions in speech are indicative of performance difficulties and not a lack of competence

  33. “Nature-Inspired” Theories: Syntactic Bootstrapping • Syntactic bootstrapping: __________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________ • Focused specifically on ______________ • Children arrive at the task of language learning with knowledge of syntactic categories and utilize it to ____________ _________________________________________________________________________

  34. “Nature-Inspired” Theories: Semantic Bootstrapping • Semantic Bootstrapping: ________________________________________________________________________________________________

  35. “Nature-Inspired” Theories: Connectionism • Attempt to visually approximate the inner-workings of the brains, and model and simulate the mechanisms responsible for language growth in relationship to input • Models: simulations that are composed of 2 important elements within a larger network: nodes and connections • Nodes:________________________________________________________________

  36. Linking Theory to Practice • It is important to determine: • _______________________________ ________________________________ • ________________________________ ____________________________ • _______________________________ ___________________

  37. Teaching English as a Second Language: Theory and Practice • Principles of instruction: • ________________ • ________________ • ________________ • Audiolingual Method • _____________________________________ • Silent Way • _______________________________________ ________________________

  38. Practices Informed by Theories of Language • Prevention:inhibit ____________ from emerging and reduce the need to resolve such difficulties later in life • Fostering phonological awareness in young children • Intervention and remediation: _________________ used to help individuals who exhibit difficulties with some aspect of language development

  39. Practices Informed by Theories of Language Cont. • Enrichment: process through which teachers, clinicians, and other adults provide children with an __________________ environment that both builds upon existing skills and promotes the development of new and more advanced language abilities • Learning Language and Loving It- The Hanen Program for Early Childhood Teachers and Educators

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