Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Child language acquisition
- Genie
- locked in a room alone with no
one to talk to
- Curtis' work with Genie
- the critical period hypothosis- a
period when we are right for learning
languages
- used verbal labels to
recode her world
- she wanted new words for everything even though
some things don't have labels- "dark blue string"
- Curtis' observations about Genie's lexicon
- she used language to describe past events
- she knew words that younger children wouldn't
- he doubted the statement that were
was a deadline for aquiring language
- Noam Chomsky
- we aquire language from
being taught it and we were
born with the basics, they
are in our genes (nature)
- Eric Lenneberg
- agreed we were
born with the
basics but there's
a deadline for
applying the
principles
- if a first language
isn't aquired by
puberty it's
probably too late
- reflexive noises-"aaaaaaaaaa.
Used at the first 8 weeks of a
childs life
- the cooing stage-"coo/gaa/goo". Using the
tongue to produce vowels and consonants
at the age of 8-20 weeks
- verbal scribbling/vocal play- experimenting pitch,
volume and vowel sounds; "oooeeeaaa". 20-50
weeks old.
- babbling stage- sounds become less varied and more
frequent; "aababaadada".
- body gestures- shows that the child is understanding language but can't verbally express
it yet. 9 months old
- Melodic Utterance Stage- 9-18 months- children pick up melody, rhythm and intonation of their mother
tongue
- Holophrastic stage (one word) 12-18
months
- stage 2 - 18 months.
- telegraphic stage- 2-21/2 years. Says sentences
with up to 4 words in
- Hallidays Functions: instrumental stage- language used to satisfy material needs
- regulatory stage- language used to control others
- interactional stage- language used with no actual meaning, but to
maintain friendly relationships
- personal stage- emotional language to release stress
- heuristic stage- language seeking information
- imaginative stage-language of creative writing, poetry and games
- representational stage- language that communicates information or ideas
- performative stage- language that controls reality
- theorists
- B.F Skinner - Behaviourist / Imitation Theories
- propose: children acquire language through "operant conditioning", a form of behaviouist psychology which sees all human
behaviour as a process of learning from what works and what doesn't. Children start as a blank slate, then they learn to imitate adult
language, gaining positive reinforcement for getting language correct and negative reinforcement for getting it wrong. He tested his
theories of operant conditioning on rats and pigeons and watched how they responded to positive reinforcement. Criticisms: Chomsky
pointed out that all children of all backgrounds and languages tend to go through similar stages at the same time, which supports the
idea that language acqusition is innate. If imitation were taking places, these stages would happen at different times. Also children
produce utterances they've never heard before which suggests they have a built grasp of the rules of language. They produce
overgeneralisations which they won't have heard from adults.
- Poverty of stimulus suggests that the language children hear is so fragmented and grammatically non-standard that children can't copy it.
- Noam Chomsky / Nativist/Innateness Theories
- propose: all language have a universal grammar. Children have an inbuild LAD which enables them to extract the rules of language from the words they hear. Children are preprogrammed with the
underlying rules of grammar and need to be exposed to stimulus to activate their LAD. Children of all backgrounds tend to go though similar stages at the same time which proves that acqiuisition is innate.
He believes that the quality of language they hear from their parents isn't high enough quality for them to copy. They often produces "virtuous errors" which are understandable and logical mistakes.
- criticisms: there is too much emphasis on what's inbuilt and not enough on the importance of interactions between child and
carer. Over time Chomsky has developed his views from the most simple version of LAD. He proposes a "principles and
parameters" model with Pinker which consists of switches that will be turned off or on depending on children's exposure to
common rules of their native language.
- Jerome Bruner / Input/social Interactionist Theories
- propose: Input it vital in helping children acquire language. Interaction scaffolds
children's language development. He called his system LASS (language acquisition
support system). Parents and caregivers engage in colaborative and ritualised
exchanges with their children, even before language has fully developed into
meaningful words. They often expand and develop their children's utterances rather
than correcting them.
- criticisms: language language is said be innate because all children go through the same
stages at a similar time.
- Jean Piaget & Lev Vygotsky / Cognitive Theories
- They see language acquisition different to cognitive development. Piaget argued that
children needed to understand a concept before they could use the language terms that
referred to that concept. Vygotsky believed that language had 2 separate roles: one for
communication and one for the basis of thought. Language labels can help children
recognise differences between and within cateogries more clearly.
- criticisms: there are"fuzzy" areas in childrens language acquisition that don't relate to Piagets belief that
concepts come first and language afterwards. More people believe that language is more linked to the
cognitive development, like Vygotsky said.
- features of CDS
- high pitch & exaggerated itonation & stress
- repeated sentence frames
- interogatives and imperatives
- frequent use of child's name & absence of pronouns
- absence of past tense
- one word utterances
- simple sentences
- omission of inflections
- fewer verbs, modifiers & function verbs
- concrete & dynamic verbs
- expansions
- recastings
- Gentry's 5 stages of spelling
- 1. precommunicative (random shapes/no meaning)
- 2. semi phonetic (may only write the initial letter of the
word. they begin to understand directionality)
- 3. phonetic (they try to sound out everything they spell)
- 4, transactional (vowels are used in every syllable)
- 5,correct/conventional (basic
knowledge of the english spelling
system, word structure
- Barclay's 7 stages of writing development
- 1. scribbling- making random
marks on the pages which arn't
related to letters or words.
They're learning the skill of
holding the pen.
- 2. Mock handwriting: practise drawing
shapes, not possible to work out what
it represents.
- 3. mock letters: produce random letters, no
awareness of spacing or
matching sounds
- 4. conventional letters: match sounds with
symbols. Words are unlikley to be spaced
out. Start to use initial consonants to
represents words.
- 5. invented spelling: spelled phonetically
- 6. appropiate spelling: sentences
are more complex as they
become more aware of standard
spelling patters & writing
becomes more legible.
- 7. correct spelling: words are
spelled correctly.
- Kroll's 4 stages of writing development
- 1. The Preparatory stage (from 18 months)-
children develop motor skills & begin to learn the
basics of the spelling system
- 2. The Consolidation Stage (6-8 years)- children write in
the same way as they speak, use lots of colloquialisms,
use short declarative statements and familiar
conjunctions, not sure how to finish off a sentence &
they begin to express ideas in the form of sentences
- 3. The Differentiation stage (8-mid teens): aware
of difference between the conventions of spoken &
written language, they begin to understand the
different genres, they can structure their work and
can use more complex grammar, punctuation
becomes more accurate
- 5. The Integration stage (mid teens
upwards): writing is accurate, wide vocab,
accurate spelling, they understand that style
can change according to audience and
purpose. Narrative and descriptive skills
improve, can plot and set a story. They
develop a personal writing style.
- Rothery's findings about children's writing
- 1. observation/comment: the first sentence observes then the second evaluates.
- 2. observation: observing only
- 3. recount: similar to a narrative but the events
proceed smoothly whereas in a narrative, we
are kept uncertain regarding the outcome of
the story. Recounts are usually chronologically
organised.
- 4. Report: Gives a more factual
objective description of events or
objects.
- 5. Narrative: The complication has
be resolved for better or for worse.
It begins with an orientation which
gives a temporal or spatial setting
for events to follow. It's the
followed by a complication and
resolution. At the end there may be
a coda which states the point of
telling the story,
- adverbials
- time
- reason
- manner
- frequency
- place
- grammar
- a/an - indefinite article
- the -definite article
- phonology
- cat - ca : deletion
- bib - bi : deletion of the consonant
- bring - bing : reduction of the consonant cluster
- cat - dat : substitution
- dog - gog: assimilation (mixed up a letter already in the word)
- egg - egu : addition
- choo choo : reduplication
- banana - bana : deletion of unstressed syllables
- repetition of "s" : sibilance
- roll of "R" : rhotic
- lexis
- hypernyms: main catogary
- hyponyms: things in the catogary
- network building: start understanding
that words have connections
- synonyms: similar words
- antonyms: opposite words
- children's writing
- emergant writing: writing like
behaviour, making marks where writing
isn't fully formed
- environmental print: visual signs & meanings
- linearity: if words are written straight/wonky
- blending: merging phonemes to create words
- segmenting: break words down to make it more simple
- writing 'context bound' to
understand all the info fully