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Handout #1-Chapter 3Theories of Language AcquisitionMany theories which have strong implications for establishing environments that promote language development.1. Behaviorist TheorySkinner -defined language as the observed and produced speech that occurs in the interaction of speaker and listener. Thinking= the internal process of language.Adults provide the language model that children learn through imitation and is enhanced and encouraged by positive re-enforcement.2. Social Interaction and Language AcquisitionPositive interactions encourage practice, which helps continue the language development. As babies explore sounds, parents react with enthusiasm, which results in more exploration. Sounds are put together which adults soon label as words—ma-ma, da-da, and so it goes. Through such expansion and reinforcement and extension, language builds.The opposite is true, if caregivers find exploration of sound annoying and tell the child to hush up, language is not re-enforced (negative reinforcement)3. The Nativist TheoryChomsky, Lenneberg, McNeil–language develops innately.Children internalize the rules of grammar which enables them to produce an infinite number of sentences.Doesn’t depend on practice, reinforcement, modeling by adults.All humans are born with an LAD –and language acquisition device which is not literal but figurative-located in a specific part of your brain. 2All children learn language-so it must be innate.Language growth is dependent on maturation.As child mature, more complex language appears.Nothing in the environment accounts for language development.Language acquisition is motivated inside children; learning language is a natural ability.This theory not widely accepted now since it is recognized that the environment has a critical influence on language acquisition. Also, brain research has document specific areas of the brain that process language input and output.4. Piagetian and Vygotskian TheoryPiaget-children learn through their active and sensory experiences-children’s first words are ego-centric, or based on what they know and have experienced.(objects, actions, events).Vygotsky-social relationships-zpd and scaffolding-adults supply words and gradually withdraw. Adults help promote language development by encouraging, modeling, motivating and supporting them5. Constructivist TheoryChildren are the creators; language is an active and a social process. Children construct language (make errors-part of the process). The process is continuous and interactive, occurs in predictable stages but mediated by the uniqueness of each individual (forgotten often when they enter school where curriculum is focused on, not individual needs), play with language, practice it, experimenting with form (syntax) and meaning (semantics).Language development is also dependent on social and cultural backgrounds. 6. Halliday’s Theory of Language Development (he is a constructivist)Describes language development as a process by which children “learn how to mean.”Children’s language development is based on FUNCTION - what can be said, can be done. Language is learned when it is relevant and functional.All of these are theories. Current language acquisition theory recognizes the Constructivist theory as having a major influence but no one theory explains everything. In fact, information explained in each theory has some effect on language acquisition. What is also known is that children’s language grows according to their need to use it, their interests and the meaning it has for them. It is acquired by exploration and invention and is controlled by their maturity, the structure of the language and its conventions (cultural, social). It is also fostered by positive interactions between child and adult. Finally, brain research does support the fact that specific areas of the brain are responsible for language. Hart and Risley Home Backgeound StudyHart and Risley (1995) carried out a unique long-term investigation of the direct effects of home experiences on children’s development. They looked at the verbal interactions between parents and their children and analyzed monthly, 1-hour tape recordings taken from the age of about 10 months to 3 years. There were 42 families involved and these were classified into three main groups of:professional families, where parents were college professors (generally equivalent to UK lecturers),working class families, and families who were on welfare support.FINDINGS Hart and Risley’s first main findings were of progressive differences in the language abilities of the children from the three types of home background. Although children from all of the groups started to speak at about the same time and also developed good structure and use of language,their vocabulary as measured by the number of different words used, varied significantly.By age three, the observed cumulative vocabulary for children:in the professional families was about 1,100,for the working class families it was about 750,and for the welfare families it was just above 500.These developments happened alongside major differences in the language experiences of the children studied.*In professional families, children heard an average of 2,153 words per hour;*In working class families 1,251 words per hour and*In welfare families only 616 words per hour.Extrapolating these figures to cover 4 years of experience would give:*11 million words heard by a child in a professional family,*6 million for a child in working class family* 3 million for a child in a welfare family.The biggest concern was the differences (Meaningful Differences-the book they wrote) between the top and bottom group since language acquisition and vocabulary knowledge have a direct effect on reading ability-such as decoding, fluency and comprehension and literacy acquisition.Hart and Risley also identified a number of key features of positive verbal interaction which could be applied to all of the families. They found that these could be grouped into five main categories of parent behaviours:? ‘They just talked’ -generally using a wide vocabulary.?‘They tried to be nice’-using high rates of approval and few prohibitions.?‘They told children about things’- language had a high information content.?‘They gave children choices’- children were asked about things, rather than simply being directed.?‘They listened’- responding to what children said rather than just telling them what to do or making demands.When these were combined together into a single index of parenting, Hart and Risley found that at the end of the study this had a strong relationship with children’s general linguistic and intellectual development.Some of the Latest Research Regarding Support of Language AcquisitionPo Bronson and Ashley Merryman have written a book entitled NurtureShock (2009) in which they have a chapter that reviews some of the latest research regarding language acquisition.The following points are of interest:Baby Einstein-why it doesn’t work. Baby Einstein videos do not work because the children have to become neurally committed to a language. The Einstein videos have audio tracks with many different language phonemes with the thought that children would learn a lot of different languages. However, the opposite is true. Being committed to one language at 9 month of age actually predicts that the child will actually be more advanced in language at 3 years of age. With a weaker connection, the child does not progress as quickly and this seems to have a lasting effect.Also, children do not learn language from audio or video tapes. They learn language from a real human being. The more complex aspects of language such as phonetics and grammar are not acquired from TV exposure.Baby DVDs don’t delay neural commitment; they have virtually no effect on auditory processing.The voice-overs in the Baby Einstein videos were not related to the video track; therefore the children could not associate the sounds with any lip-reading or facial signals-elements that are absolutely necessary for children to see if they are going to learn to talk.Research still supports the findings from the original Hart and Risley study. However, there are differences found as to why children in the educated population have differences in acquisition of language. A new researcher-Tamis-LeMonda (see summary of research and conclusions below) reports:The central focus is not to be to push language into the baby’s ear, but it is for the parent to notice what is coming from the baby and to respond accordingly: the relationship dance.Responses are not so much about talk, although that is still very important-all the strategies that have been mentioned, but in the early years it is a touch, a well-timed loving caress.Responses also have to be immediate to explorations and vocalizations.It is not how often a caregiver initiated a conversation, but whether the caregiver responded.Description of objects, labeling still very important.However, do not over-stimulateResearch conducted by Michael Goldstein also documents that responses to a child’s voiced sound (not cough, raspberry, grunt) affects the child’s language acquisition. The turn-taking in responses is important since it drives the vocal development. [Parentese]Be careful not to overdo-children’s brains need time to recoup. Sometimes, they do need to babble on their own.High quality childcare does provide the required responses.Follow the child’s lead. Do not label things the child is not looking at. Gazes and vocalizations or gazes and pointing of the child should help you decide what to label. Do not intrude-let the child show curiosity and interest. But also do not ignore what the child is looking at-child takes the lead. If you don’t you may actually mislabel what the child is trying to figure out. Pretending the child is saying words when he’s just making a sound can really cause problems.Schwade’s research has lead to several interesting facts:Using motionese-shaking an object as you say the name-attracts the baby’s attention and effects language positively-but only up until about 15 months, after which the motion is no longer needed.Hearing language from multiple speakers is advantageous. If one person repeats a word it is not necessarily true that the child will learn the word. However, if a variety of people said the word, the child was more likely to learn it. Also of interest might be the article:Parents’ role in fostering young children’s learning and language development by CATHERINE S. TAMIS-LEMONDA, PhD and EILEEN T. RODRIGUEZ, PhD published on-line in the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development ................
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