Language Acquisition And Learning Theory

Front 1

Explain the importance of sequential memory in learning language.

Back 1

Sequential memory is the ability to remember details in a particular order. Many children have poor sequential memory, especially those with dyslexia. There are two types - visual and auditory.

Front 2

Visual sequential memory

Back 2

Visual sequential memory is required to recall letters, words, and numbers. Poor visual sequential memory causes reading, writing, spelling, and enumeration difficulties. Young children have difficulty learning the alphabet, shapes and numbers. Many have difficulty with recall of subjects presented to them visually. They often misspell, miscopy, and rearrange letters, words, and numbers. They have difficulty with relating a story in a logical order.

Front 3

Auditory sequential memory

Back 3

Auditory sequential memory deficits may also be present (visual sequential memory), which cause sequence errors when verbalizing long words and sentences.

Front 4

Define the innateness hypothesis in regards to language acquisition in children.

Back 4

Humans are born with an innate universal grammar.

Front 5

Define the motherese hypothesis in regards to language acquisition in children.

Back 5

The acquisition of language is dependent upon the language of the caretaker.

Front 6

Define the functional core hypothesis in regards to language acquisition in children.

Back 6

Children develop language by defining objects by their functional quality and then by applying conceptual features later.

Front 7

Define the semantic features hypothesis in regards to language acquisition in children.

Back 7

Children acquire a body of basic universal features that define objects. These features expand and become more sophisticated over time.

Front 8

Define critical age theory in regards to language acquisition in children.

Back 8

The critical period of language acquisition begins at age 2 and ends at age 12. This theory has been largely refuted.

Front 9

Explain the concepts of basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive-academic language proficiency (CALP).

Back 9

Children who acquire 2 languages simultaneously from infancy (simultaneous bilingual acquisition) tend to learn both languages with minimal deficiency. However, when a second language is introduced before the complete proficiency of the first language is gained, there is typically a decrease in deficiency of both languages for a time. Those children who immigrate into the US speaking a different language may take an average of 2 years to develop a proficiency in spoken English if there is normal exposure to the language.

However, these children may take 5 years to develop a level of academic proficiency in English. This gap between basic interpersonal communication skill and cognitive-academic language proficiency is an important realization when educating English-as-a-second-language students. These children are at risk of being labeled as having communication or speech disorders.

Front 10

Explain the information processing theory of cognitive development.

Back 10

The information processing theory is that children learn to think the same way that a computer processes information. Just like a computer, a human takes information, organizes it, stores it, and relates it in order to present it in a logical way by actions, speech, or writing. The theory holds that information gained from previous experience is translated or programmed, and this ability to encode and generalize information is central in problem solving. Furthermore, the information processing theory says that humans have a finite capacity for amount and type of information it can handle. The theory further purports that humans, especially children, can learn to improve the efficiency with which they process information and improve their ability to learn. This can be achieved by creating a more receptive learning environment that facilitates increased attention, organization, illustration, and repetition.

Front 11

Define the nativist theory of language acquisition and learning.

Back 11

Nativist theory holds that children have an innate or genetic ability to learn and organize language but need the presence of other people in order to learn language to its full potential.

Front 12

Define the behaviorist theory of language acquisition and learning.

Back 12

Behaviorist theory holds that the acquisition of language is similar to any learned behavior. Children are conditioned by positive or negative reinforcement to learn a language. Furthermore, a particular language is learned as a product of a particular environment.

Front 13

Define the social interactionism theory of language acquisition and learning.

Back 13

The social interactionism theory of language acquisition holds that language is acquired through interaction with the environment. This theory holds that language is learned by the drive to be social.

Front 14

Explain the important aspects of Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development.

Back 14

Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental physiologist who was well known for his work in developing his theory of cognitive development. He observed thousands of children and theorized that there were 4 stages of development.

Front 15

List the stages of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Back 15

1. Sensorimotor stage, 2. Preoperational stage, 3. Concrete operations stage, 4. Formal operations stage

Front 16

Define the sensorimotor stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Back 16

Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years): This stage begins with the development of reflexes, habits, and coordination. Children develop coordination, object permanence, and begin creativity.

Front 17

Define the preoperational stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Back 17

Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years): Child begins to use mental symbols to represent objects (symbolic functioning). Child can attend to only one aspect of a situation (centration) and is egocentric in his thinking.

Front 18

Define the concrete operational stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Back 18

Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years): Child is able to use logic appropriately.

Front 19

Define the formal operations stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Back 19

Formal operations stage (after age 11): Child begins to develop the ability to think abstractly.

Front 20

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during years 4 through 5.

Back 20

Uses complete sentences, future tense, possessive pronouns, and irregular plurals; able to use about 6,000 words and can understand about 9,000 words; understand simple time concepts; begins to define and inquire about words and concepts; able to tell stories and jokes; all speech comprehensible to others

Front 21

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during years 5 through 6.

Back 21

uses concepts learned from ages 4 to 5 with fewer grammatical errors; understands spatial relationships; uses superlatives, adverbs, and conjunctions to join complex sentences; understands explicative language

Front 22

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during years 6 through 7.

Back 22

has mastered most tense and plural forms and in using "-ing" ending words (gerunds); able to perform simple reading and writing

Front 23

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during years 7 through 8.

Back 23

able to converse at nearly adult level; able to retell a complex story with appropriate spacial content, social meaning, and figurative expressions

Front 24

List the important classes of semantic relations that children 18 to 24 months in the two-word phrase should be able to express verbally.

Back 24

Action-object (drive car); agent-action (boy sing); agent-object (mommy hat/mommy's hat); action-locative (go park); demonstrative-entity (that toy); entity-attributive (big horse); entity-locative (dolly chair); instrumental (verb and noun) (sweep broom); notice (bye kitty); nomination (that horse/that is a horse); recurrence (more cookie)

Front 25

Explain the important features of pragmatics in language development.

Back 25

Language function: children should be able to expand the ability to label and describe objects. They must develop conversational skills such as taking turns while speaking, maintaining topical conversation, and being logical. Language context should be coherent and intelligible as they grow older.
Pragmatics skills: There are several important pragmatic skills in language development. These include the ability to understand and use indirect speech and the ability to maintain effective discussion (discourse).

Both language function and pragmatic skills may be influenced by culture.

Front 26

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 12 to 18 months

Back 26

follows simple requests, requests objects, names 5-10 objects, language consists of mostly nouns, begins to express own emotions and experiences, begins to initiate conversation, uses single words (holophrases) to express objects, needs and actions

Front 27

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 18 to 24 months

Back 27

uses multiword responses (2 to 3 words), uses verbs and adjectives in combinations with nouns, can express up to 50 words and understand nearly 200 words by age 24 months, can use the personal pronoun (usually "me")

Front 28

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during birth to 3 months.

Back 28

vocalizes with cooing sounds; tracks voice or faces with eyes; reacts to loud noises or pain by turning head or crying; smiles in response to stimuli

Front 29

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 3 to 6 months.

Back 29

uses various vocalization sounds, which mature into multi-syllables; recognizes and responds to familiar faces

Front 30

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 6 to 12 months.

Back 30

understands a few words of simple commands, recognizes own name, communicates needs by gesturing to objects, attempts to imitate speech

Front 31

List the important classes of semantic relations that young children (12-18 months) in the single-word phase (holophrastic stage) should be able to express verbally.

Back 31

action (car GO); attribute (YUMMY cookie); denial (NO doggy): disappearance (wagon GONE); existence (THAT car); locative action (truck HERE); possession (dolly MINE); recurrence (MORE juice); rejection (NO milk)

Front 32

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 2 to 3 years.

Back 32

starts using plurals, personal pronouns, and regular past tense verbs (misuses irregular past tense verbs); can express about 500 words and understands about 3500 words; can use 3-4 word responses and can now ask simple questions; can follow 2-step requests; can state age, name, and some body parts; demonstrate some intent in the most aspects of communication

Front 33

Describe the normal developmental milestones of speech and language during 3 to 4 years.

Back 33

uses plurals, past tense, prepositions, pronouns, some irregular words, possessives, and conjunctions; starts to use and understand complex expressions and questions; able to use about 1,000 words and can understand about 4,000 words; understands comparative words and opposites; most speech comprehensible to others

Front 34

Explain the important features of semantics in language development.

Back 34

Vocabulary development: Important aspects of vocabulary development include the number of words used and understood. Also important in the familiarity with opposites, synonyms, homonyms, humor, and symbolic language. This development depends upon the extent of the child;s exposure.

FAST MAPPING
WORD RELATIONSHIPS

Front 35

Define fast mapping - one of the important features of semantics in language development.

Back 35

The idea of fast mapping refers to the ability of a child to gain knowledge of new words and concepts with a small number of exposure to them.

Front 36

Define word relationships - one of the important features of semantics in language development.

Back 36

Children in the early stages of speaking (1 to 2 years) may use OVEREXTENSIONS (eg: uses mama to refer to all women) or UNDEREXTENSIONS (eg: only the child's favorite train can be toy). The ability to categorize words is important in language development.

Front 37

Explain the concept of a morpheme.

Back 37

A morpheme is the smallest grammatical unit of language. It may be a word, prefix, or suffix. It is distinctive from phonemes in that it always has meaning. There are two major categories of morphemes: free and bound.

Several important varieties of morphemes are the inflectional type that mark plurality or tense, such as the endings "-s", "-ing", and "-ed."

Front 38

Define a free morpheme.

Back 38

A free morpheme is one that forms a word or can stand alone, like the words cat or pray.

Front 39

Define a bound morpheme.

Back 39

A bound morpheme is a grammatical unit that attaches to words to create other words but cannot form a word alone. An example of a bound morpheme is is the prefix "dys-" that forms the word dysfunction.

Front 40

Define a derivational morpheme.

Back 40

Derivational morphemes are those that produce additional word meanings when placed in front or at the end of words, such as "dys-" in "dysfunction" and "-ness" in the word "laziness."

Front 41

Explain the concept and importance of mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes.

Back 41

The mean length of utterance (MLU) in morphemes is an important tool in describing children's speech development. The MLU is calculated by dividing the number of morphemes by the number of utterance. To calculate MLU, choose 100 consecutive utterances and count all morphemes, even if used incorrectly. Do not count repeating words like "no, no." Do not count extraneous words like "um."

Front 42

Cooing

Back 42

Early infantile sounds produced in comfortable states, usually in response to smiling or talking by the mother; the sounds are described as primarily vocalic but some consonantal elements appear; occurs between 6-8 weeks of age

Front 43

Babbling

Back 43

1. Prelinguistic verbal conduct of infants during the second half of the first year of life, 2. Deliberate, volitional play and experimentation with sound by infants which begins about 4 months of age

Front 44

Jargon

Back 44

Verbal behavior of children, beginning at about 9 months and ceasing at about 18 months, which contains a variety of syllables that are inflected in a manner approximating meaningful connected speech; in advanced stages some true words may be heard

Front 45

Echolalia

Back 45

Tendency for an individual to to repeat without modification that which is spoken to him; normally occurs between 18 and 24 months of age and usually considered to be involuntary, but may voluntary repetitions