@ Toengagein effective ‘verbal communication, these preschoolers must manage Frincpes of sound, meaning, Structure and evenday use How they accomplish this eat so apidly raises some of ‘the most paling questions about development (steven Ri ise Vers PART IIL © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT wus ablongancortatk CChildven’s amazing linguistic accomplishments raise puzzling questions about development, How are a vast vocabulary and intricate grammatical sys tem acquired in such a short time? Is Ianguage a separate capacity, with its ‘own prewied, special-purpose neural system in the brain? Or is it governed by powerful general cogoitive abiltes that humans also apply to other aspects of their physical and social worlds? Do all children ecquire language in the same way, or do individual and cultural differences exist? ‘Oar discussion opens with the fiery theoretical debate of the 1950s between, behaviorist B. E Skinner end linguist Noam Chomsky, which inspired « burst ‘of research into language development. Next we turn to infent preparatory sills that st the stage forthe child's frst words, Then, to fully appreciate the “diverse linguistic skills children master, we fellow the common practice of dividing languege into four components. For each, we consid, first, what, develops, then the more controversial question of how children acquire so much in so little time, We conclude with a discussion of the challenges and benefits of bilingualism mastering two langusges—in childhood, 8 Components of Language Language consists of several subsystems that have todo with sound, meaning, overall struct, and everyday use. Knowing language entails mastering each ofthese aspects and combining them into a flexible communication system. “The fist component, phonology, refers to the rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds. Ifyou have ever visited foreign country in which you did not know the Ianguage, you probably wondered how anyone could analyze the rapid flow of speech into organized strings of words, Yet in Englih, you easily apply an intricate set of rules to com- prehend and produce complicated sound patterns. How you acquired this ability isthe story of phonological development. ‘Semantics, the second component, involves vocabulary—the way underlying concepts ate cexpresed in words and word combinations. When young children fist use a word it often doesnot mean the same thing as it does to an adult. To build a versatile vacabular, preschoolers rust refine the meanings of thousands of words and connect them into elaborate networks of related terms ‘Once mastery of vocabulary is under way, children combine words and modify them in ‘meaningful ways. Gramma, the thied component of language, consists of two main parts: ‘sytax, the rules by which words are arranged into sentences, and morphology, the use of ammatical markers that indicate number, tense, case, person, gender, active or passive voice, and other meanings (the -s and -ed endings are examples in English) Finaly, pragmatics refers tothe rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communi- cation. To converse succesfully, children must take turns say on the same topic, and state their meaning cleary They aso must figure out how gestures, tone of voice, and context clarify ‘meaning. Farthermore, because society dictates how language should be spoken, pragmatics involves sociolinguistic knowledge. Children must acquire certain interaction rituals, such a= verbal greetings and leave-takings. They must adjust thei speech to mark important social relationships, such as diffecences in age and status, Finally, they must master their culture's narrative mode of sharing personally meaningful experiences with others. "As we take up the four components of language, you will see that they are interdependent. Acquisition ofeach felitats mastery ofthe others. 8 Theories of Language Development ‘During the fist half ofthis century, esearch on language development identified milestones that applied to children around the globe: All babbled around 6 months, sai ther first words368 V ites One-year-olds know the correct pronunciation of familiar words, fourteen ‘month-alds were shown ples Of fanilr objects (Such asa baby and dog) accompanied bya voice speaking the word fer one ofthe abject with elther eacrect pronunciation (Coa slight mispronurcla | tan Pay, ar consierable rlspeoruncition (aby) Babies looked longst atthe appropriate object when 2 ‘ord Was prenounced cr Feely Note that in each con~ Aiton, te spent looking at thecorect object exceed |] s0 percent inicating that babies could recognize tre |) ards wether or not thay were pronounced corset. (apes tam Sey el 2e02) ‘Mean Pescentage Looking Time conect onunenion —spoatncaten Miroruncnn ‘Accuracy of Pronunciation PART Ill © COGNITIVE AND LANGUASE DEVELOPMENT vw ablongiancomberk Phonological Development If you listened in on a 1- oF 2-jearold trying out her first handful of words, you probably would hear an assortment of intresting pronunciations— “nana” for “bane” “oap” for “Soap.” and “weddy” for “ready” 2 well as some wordlike utterances that do not resemble adult forms. For “translations” ofthese, ou must ask the child’ parent. Phonological development isa complex process that depends on the child's ability to attend to sound sequences, produce sounds, and combine them into understandable words and phrases. Between l and 4 years of age children make great progress at this task In trying to talk like people around them, young, childeen draw on their impressive capacity to distinguish the phonemic categories of their native language, which is well developed by the end of the fist year. They also adopt tempo- rary strategies for producing sounds that bring adult words within their eurreat range of phys ical and cognitive capabilities (Menn & Stoel-Gammon, 205). Let's see how they do so. The Early Phase Children’ ist words are influenced in part by the small number of sounds they can pronounce (ura & Echols, 1996; Vihman, 1996). The easiest sound sequences start with consonants, end ‘with vowels, and include repeated sjlabes, asi "Mamna"Dada,"“bye-byet"and “nigh-nigh’ (for “night night”), Sometimes young speakers use the same sound to representa variety of words, a feature that makes their speech hard to understand (Ingram, 1999). For example, one toddler substituted “bat” for as many as 12 different words, including "bad?"bark""bent? and “bite” ‘These observations reveal that exsly phonological and cemantic development are related. Languages cater to young children’s phonological limitations. Throughout the world, sounds resembling "Mama “Daday" and “Papa” refer to parents, so i isnot surprising that these are among the frst words children everywhere produce. Alo in child-directed speech, adults often use Simplified words to talk about thing of interest to toddlers. Por example rabbit becomes bunny” and train becomes “choo choo.” ‘These word forms support the child's first attempis to talk. ‘One-year-olds first learning to talk know how familiar words—such as dog, baby, and ball—-are supposed to sound, even when they mispronounce them, Researchers showed 14 rmonth-olds pairs of objects (such as a baby and a dog), accompanied bya voice speaking the word for one ofthe objects, with either corcect pronunciation (*baby”), slight mispronunci- ation ("vaby”), or considerable mispronunciation (“raby") (Swingley & Aslin, 2002). The tod dlers easily detected the correct pronunciation of words they had heard many times: They looked longer atthe appropriate abject when a word was pronounced correctly than when it ‘yas ether mildly or extremely mispronounced (see Figure 9.5). ‘Nevertheless, when learning a nev word, toddlers offen do not pick up the fine details of its sounds—a failure that contributes to their pronunciation erzors. In several studies, 4-month- olds were unable to associate two similar-counding nonsense words ("bik” and “dih’) with dif ferent objects, even though they easily detect the "b"—"d" contrast in sound discrimination tasks (Fennell & Werker, 2003; Stager & Werke, 1997). Why don't toddlers apply their impressive sensitivity to speech sounds when acquiring new wards? Astocating words with their referents places extra demands on toddlers limited working memories. Intent on. communicating, they facus on the word-refetent pairing while sacrificing the words sounds, which they encode imprecsely. ‘As toddlere vocabularies increase, they become better at using their perceptual abilities to distinguish similar-sound- ing new words, Once they acquire several sets of words that sound alike, they may be motivated to attend more closely to fine-grained distinctions between others, Appearance of Phonological Strategies By the mide ofthe second yea children move fom trying to pronounce wholesales and words to trying to pronounce cach individual sound within a word. As a ret they can beCHAPTER 9 © LINGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 369 TABLE 9.1 COMMON PHONOLOGICAL STRATEGIES USED BY YOUNG CHILDREN. TO SIMPLIFY PRONUNCIATION OF ADULT WORDS Repeating the Fst consorant-vowel in a multisyable word "1" becomes “di” “cooke” becomes “gege." Deleting unetresced sabes In a multlsyfable word sanana” becomes "oan" “gaffe” becomes “affe” Replacing fcatives hissing sounds) with stop consonant sounds "Sea" hecomes "aa" *say" becomes ay.” Replacing consonant sounds produced in the rear and palte area "KH" hecomas “ti” "goose" becomes “danse.” othe vocal tract with ones produced in the frontal area Replacing Baul sounds 1 or" with ides Cy” or “Wr ‘Lap becomes yap" ready” becomes “eddy” becomes “bada” Reducing 2 canzonant cluster toa single consonant Sourcesgram, 1386. hheard experimenting with phoneme patterns. One 21-month-old pronounced “Juice” as “du a “us “jus “sus” "205" “Fas “fas? “jus” and “tas within a single hour (Fes, 1997), This marks an intermediate phase of development in which pronunciation is party right and partly wrong. Because young children get more practice perceiving and producing ‘phoneme patterns that occu frequently in ther language, they pronounce words that con tain those patterns more accurately and rapidly. Words that are unique in how they sound are generally dificult to pronounce (Munson, 200), A close lok reveals that cildcen apply ‘sjstematic strategies to challenging words so that these words fit with their pronunciation ‘apatites yet resemble adult utterances, Although individaal difference exist in the precise strategies that childcen adopt (see Table 9.1 for exumples),chey follow a general develop ‘mental patern (Vihman, 1996). ‘At fist, childcen produce minimal words, in which they focus on the stressed syllable and try to pronounce its consonant-vowel combination (*du" or Su" for "juice”). Soon. they add ending consonants ("jus"), adjust vowel length (“beee” for “please”), and add unstressed syllables ("mite-do” for “tomato”. Finally they produce the full word with 3 correct stress patter, although they may sill need to sefine its sounds (“timemba’ for “remember? “pagetti”for“spaghett) (Desmuth, 1996; Saliis & Johnson, 1997). “The errors children make are similar across a range of languages, including Can. tonese, Czech, English, French, Italian, Quiché (a Guatemalan Mayan language), Spanish, and Swedish. But differences in rate of phonological progress exist, depending, on the com- plexity of a language’ sound system and the importance of certain sounds for conveying, meaning. Cantonese-speaking children, for example, develop more quickly than English- speaking children, In Cantonese, many words are single syllables, but a change in tone ofa syl- Jable can lead to a change in raeaning. Chinese children master this tone system by age 2 (So & Dodd, 1995). Among children ecquiting English, “y” is e late-appearing sound, whereas ‘Swedish childcen master it eaty. In English, “y” is relatively infrequent; in Swedish it is com- ‘mon and vital for distinguishing words (Ingram, 1999). ‘Over the preschool years children's pronunciation improves greatly. Maturation of the vocal tract and the childs active problem-solving efforts are largely responsible, since children's phonological errors are very resistant to adult correction. One father tried repeatedly to get his 24-year-old daughter to pronounce the word “music? bat each time she persisted with “joie” ‘When hee father made one las effort, she replied, “Wait ‘tl Tbig, Then I say ju-fc, Daddy!” Later Phonological Development Although phonological development is largely complete by age 5, afew syllable stress patterns that signal subtle differences in meaning are acquired in middle childhood and adolescence. For example, shen shown pairs of pictures and asked to identify which is the “greenhouse” and which i the “green houses" most childen recognized the correct label by thitd grade and “Clown becomes “conn “pay” becomes "pay." | Deleting the fra consonant ofa werd “ke becomes “ba” “more” becomes "muh" bottom” The phoncogcalstatesies young cilren app to chal lenging wor to eng them within their ronorcation ‘apace are sini aceozsa ‘ange of languages The 55 tematle pranuneiaton ercors this Spanish-speaking child rakes are probably uch ke thore of French orSuedsh youngsters370 Gk Yourself. - ck O | iy do toler fen al lop up the re dla of ew wats Sounds even hoigh ty ean | perceive those sounds? e REVIEW APPLY REFLECT Keep week-long og f words that you misproncunce or donot pranaunce fluent (you slow down to sy then, Are they words that convey complex concepts or words with sounds that are elatvely © infrequent in En © chiens pronunciation, aso affect the pronunciation of adults 1 As is father plated a bow of pasta onthe dinner table 2-year-od Luke exclaimed "So cious” Explain Likes C ee : PART Ill © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ‘ny sblongman come produced it between fourth and sixth grade (Atkinson-King, 1973). Changes in syllabic stress bier certain abstract words take on endings—“humid” to “humidity” “method” to“method- ical? —ore not mastered until adolescence (Camarata & Leonard, 1986). “Those late atainments are probably affected by the semantic complexity of the words in that hasd-to-understand words are more dificult to pronounce. Even at later ages, working simulta- neously on the sonnds and meaning of a new word may overload the cognitive system, causing, children to sucifce pronunciation temporarily until they better grasp the word’s meaning. oaical straten ‘or Ii your native tongue? Research indicates that these factors which affect @ Semantic Development Word comprehension begins in the middle ofthe frst year. When 6-month-olds listened to the words “Mommy” and “Daddy” while looking at side-by-side videos of their parents, they Tooked longer atthe video of the named parent (Tincoff & Jusezyk, 1999). At9 months, after heating a word paiced with an objec, babies looked longer at other objects in the same cate~ ‘gory than a those ina different category (Balaban & Waxman, 1987). On average children say ther first word around 12 months. By age 6, they have a vocabulary of about 10,000 words (Bloom, 1998). To accomplish this fea, children learn about 5 new words each day. ‘As these achievements reveal, children’s comprehension, the language they understend, develops ahead of production, the language they use, For example, toddlers follow many sim- ple directions, such as “Bring me your book” or“Don't touch the lamp,” even though they can hot yet expres all these words in their own speech. A S-month lag exists between children's ‘comprehension of 50 words (at about 13 months) and production of $0 words (around 18 months) (Menyuk, Liebergott, & Schultz, 1995). ‘Why is comprehension ahead of production? ‘Think back to the distinction made in Chapter 7 betveen two types of memory—recognition and recall. Comprehension requires only that children recognize the meaning of a word, whereas production demands that they recall, or actively retrieve ftom their memories, both the word and the concept for which it stands, Failuce to say a word does not mean that toddlers do not understand it. If we rely only ‘on what children say, we will underestimate their language progress. The Early Phase “to learn words, children must identify which concept each label picks out in their language community. Ask several patents to list their toddlers ist words. Notice how the words build fn the sensorimotor foundations Piaget described and on categories children form during thei frst 2 years (see Chapter 6). First words refer to important people (“Mama,” “Dada”, animals (“dog “cat”, objects that move (“ball “cay”“shoe"?, foods (“mills”“apple"), fami jar actions (“bye-byes" “mote” “up"), oF outcomes of familiar actions (“dirty "hot" *wet") is 50 words, toddlers rarely name (Flare, 2004; Nelson, 1973). As Table 9.2 reveals, in th things that jus si there, lke “table” or “vase.” Tn Chapter 6, we noted that certain eaely words are linked to specific cognitive achieve- ‘ments, Recall that about the time childeen master advanced object permanence problems, they use disappearance terms, ike “all gone” Success and failure expressions such as “There!” and “Uh-oh” appeat when toddlers can solve problems suddenly. According te one pair ofCHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 371 Sousa oe Words used toreferto the thing world” Apple bal bd, Boat, book, car, oak, Dad, dogo, ktty, ilk, Mama, sho, snow, track Action words Words that decrib demand) or accompany Bye-bye, go i ook, more, out op Object words 2 action or that express attention or demand attention State werds Words that refer to properties or qualties All gone bi, dirty, hot, mine, petty, outside ° (edifers) ——_oFthings or events teh uhh, wet Personalfsacial Words that express emotionalstates nd No, euch please, want yes thank you 8 words social celationshies Function words _ Words that fila selely ramnatical function ons to, what where “average pevenages regen based on samp of 18 Arca ods source any 1973. researchers,"Chikdren seem motivated to acquire words that are relevant to the particular cog nitive problems they are working on at the moment” (Gopnik & Meltzofi, 1986, p. 1057). Desides cognition, emotion influences carly word learning. At fit, when acquiring a new word for an abject, person, or event, 1¥-year-olds say it eutrally they nce to listen eaefully to learn, and expressing strong emotion diverts their attention. As words become better learned, toddlers integrate talking and expressing feelings (Bloom, 1998). “Shoe!” said one enthusiastic 22-month-old as her mother ted her shoelaces before an outing. At the end of, the second year, toddlers label their emotions with words like "happy"*mad;" and “sada ‘development we will consider in Chapter 10. Youung toddlers add 1 their vocabularies slowly, at pace of 1 to3 words per week. Gradually, the number of words lerned accelerates, The increase is much more rapid in comprehension than in production, a illustrated by English and Talian learners’ vocabulary grovth between 8 ‘and 16months, shown in Figure 9.6 (Caselli etl, 1995). Because rate of word learning between rd “an cmnenen Mean Kumber of Word: English and italian leargers’ veeabulary ‘routh between 10 and 24 menths. Tre Increace in vocabulary Seis former rapid Incamprehension than In production Rate ‘of wort eaming gradual accelerates, (Grama et 1985 "AC Ceti Agetn Monts yo ves astern Ce Surpner, pap proet372 PART III # COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT vexaonginan contbert 18and 24 month is so impresive (1 oF 2 words per day) many researchers conclude that tod- less undergo a spur jn vocabulery—a transition between a slow and faster learning phase ‘once the number af words produced reaches 50 t 100 Recent evidence, however, indicates that 4 vocabulary spur characterizes only a minority of young children (Gangee & Bren, 2004). ‘Most show steady, continuous inezease in rat of word leaching tht persists through the pre- school yess, when children add as many 289 new words per day How do young childeen build their vocabularies so quicly? An improved ability to cet vize experience (See Chapter 6), rerieve words from memary, and pronounce new words is Inyoled (Dapreto & Bjork, 2000; Geshotf Stowe & Smith, 1997)-In addition, a biter grasp ‘of others intentions, evident in toddlers imitation around 18 months (sce page 228), supports rapid vocabalary growth because it helps toddlers fignre out what others are talking about (Bloom, 2000; Tomasello, 2003) Furthermore as todlers’ experiences broaden, they have a ‘wider range of interesting objects and evens label For exemple, children approaching age 2 more often mention places to go ("pak "store") and vehicles "track? "fire engine) "bike". ‘And as they construct a clearer self-image they add more words that zfe to themsves ("me “mine? “Katy” and to theic own and other’ bodies and clothing (eyes? “mouth” *jacker) (Cart, 2008). Researchers have discovered that children can connect a new word with an underlying concep after onlya brief encounter proces called fat-mapping, When a adult labeled en ly shaped plastic ring with th nonsense word"koob" during a game, children as Young a: 2 picked up the word’s meaning (Dollaghan, 1985), Even 15- to 18-month-olds comprehend new labels erarkably quickly Bur they need more repetitions of the word's use aerse several situations than preschoclers who better remember end categorize speech-based information (Akhtar & Montague, 1999) During the preschool years, children become increasingly adept 2 fastemapping tivo or more new words encountered in the same situation (Rice, 1990; Wilkinson, Ross, & Diamond, 2003), + INDIVIDUAL AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES © Although the average age at whieh children produce their fist words 12 months the range is large, rom 8 to 18 montis—va ation that results from a complex blend of geneti and environmental influences. Many stud ies show that gies ae slighty ahead of boys in vocabulary growth until 2 years of age, when boys gradually catch up (Rezick & Goldfield, 1992). The most common biologic expana- tion i gil foster at of physical maturation believed to promote eater development of the left cerebral hemisphere, Besides the chil’ sx, temperament makes diferenes. Tddlers who ace reserved and cautious often wait unl they understand a great deal before tying to speak. ‘When they finally do spec, their vocabularies increase rapidly, although they remata slightly behind thse aemates in language kills during the preschocl years (Spere ct al, 2004). “The sutrouning language environment, too, conrbuesw these differences Mothers tall ‘nich more to toddlerage gris than to boys, and parents converse less often wi shy than ith sociable children (Leaper, Anderson Sanders, 1998; Patterson & Fisher 2002) The more words Caregivers us, the greater the number integrated into the chiles vocabulary (Weizman & Snow, 2001). Because lw-SH5 children experience les verbal stimulation in thst homes than higher. SBS children, their vocabularies tend to be smalls regards of sex and ethnicity. nan observa- tional study of mothers interacting wit their 2-yar-ols, amount and quality of maternal conversation filly accounted for SES diferences in childrens vocabularies Limited parent-child storybook reading—an activity conducive to vocabulary growth—probably contibated to per Siting, smaller vocabularies inthe low-SES preschoolers at age 4 Hot 20032, 200), CChilen also heve unique ties oferty language learning, Most toddlers use a referential styles thle vocabularies consist mainly of words that refer to objects. A smaller numberof to: ers use an expressive style; compared with referential children, they produce many more social formulas and pronouns, such as“stopij?thank you?“done” and “Twant it? Recall from the opening ofthis chapter, Eins ealy use of largely exprssvesyle words, Toddlers language styles reflect eri ea about the functions of language Rferental style children think Words ‘ue for naming things whereas expressvestyle children believe words are for aking about peo ple’ feelings and aceds. The vocabularies of referenial-stple children grow faster because allan- ‘guages contain maay more ebjct labels than soil phrases Bats eta, 194 Nelson, 1973),CHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 373 ‘What accounts for a toddlers choice ofa particular language style? Rapidly developing, referentis-styie childeen often have an ‘expecially active interest in exploring abjects. They also eagerly imitate their parents frequent naming of objects, and their parents imitate back—a strategy that supports swift vocabulary growth by helping childven cemember new labels (Masue & Rodemaker, 1999), Bepressive-style children tend to be highly sociable, and theie parents more often se verbal routines (“How are you?” “Is ‘no trouble") that support socal relationships (Goldfeid, 1987). ‘The two Tanguage styles are also linked to culture, Whereas fobject words are particularly common in the vocabularies of English-speaking toddlers, social routines are more numerous among Chinese, Japenese, and Korean toddlers. When mothers speech is examined, it reflects this difference. Perhaps because their culture emphetizes the impoztance of group membership, Asian mothers teach social routines as soon as their children begin te speaks (Choi & Gopnik, 1995; Fernald & Marikavsa, 1993; ‘Tardif, Gelman, & Xu, 1999). When we consider the findings as @ whole, early vocabulary development sapports the social interactionist emphasis on the combined impact of chil- ddren’s inner dispositions and ther linguistic and social worlds, @ tn Western soites,many mothers tess object labels to young language lamers Imcontas, these acan mothers of Botswana ‘TYPES OF WORDS ¢ Three types of words—object, action, and state—are most com _espond verbally te le ‘mon in young childcen’s vocabularies. Careful stady of each provides important information ° totes glances an vocl= about the eourse of semantic development. izations to other prope not tozsplorationof eects > Object and Action Words, Many young language learners have more abject than action Be uatuotot fle words in their begianing vocabularies (AU, Dapeett, & Song, 1994; Casli eta, 1995). 1f actions are an especially important means through which infants fad out about their word, then why this early emphasis on naming objects? ‘One reason is that nouns refer to concepts (such as abl, bird, or dog) thet are easy to pe ccive. When adults label an object they fequently help the child discern the word’s meaning by showing and repeating the label. As a result, toddlers readily match objects with their appropriate labels. a contrat, verbs require more complex understandings —of relationships between objects and actions, For example, go involves a person going somewhere, fx person fixing something, n addition, when aduits use verbs, the actions to which they refer usually ace not taking place (Gleitman & Gleitman, 1992). When « parent says the word move, most likely nothing present is moving, Instead, ke is referring to past event (“Someone moved the bord”) ora future event ("Let's move the bowl”) Nevertheless the linguistic environment affects toddlers’ relative use of object and action ‘words. As noted in our discussion of early language-learning tes, English-speaking. moth- cs often name objects for ther children. In one study, they rarely prompted 20-month-olds to produce verbs. Instead they often used verbs to get tadders to perform actions (*Can you spin that whee”). Consequently, the toddlers comprehended more verbs than they produced (Goldfield, 2000}. In Chinese, Japanese and Korcan, nouns are often omitted entitely from adult sentences, and verbs are stressed. Asa result, Asian toddlers typically produce action words first and use them more often than their English-speaking counterparts (Kim, MeGregor, & Thompson, 2000; Tardif, Gelman, & Xu, 1958). > State Words, Between 2 and 214 years, children’s use of state (or modifier) words expancls to inchide labels for attributes of objects, such as size and color ("big “red”) as well s pos- session (“my toy” "Mommy purse"). Words referring to the functions of objects (“dump truck,"*pickup truck") appear soon after (Nelson, 1970). When state words are related in meaning, genera distinctions (which are easier) appear before more specific ones. Thus, among words referring to the size of objects, children frst acquire big-small, then rall-short, high-low, and long-short, and finally wide-narraw and deep-shallow. The same is true for temporal terms, Between ages 3 and 5, children first374 Cognitive develoent Infuences young children’s mastery af state (er modifier) ‘words This Hid i ey to £39 "onthe spon ard “in” the cup before she says ~undet” the sand. ult ab lng of object locations wl halpher master thas terms PART III © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT ‘wuabiongrancomberk master now versus then and before versus afer, followed by today versus yesterday and lomorrow (Stevenson & Polit, 1987). State words refering tothe locaton of objects provide addtional examples of how cognition influences vocabulary development. Before age 2, children can eas- ily imitate an adults action in puting an object in or on another object, but they hve trouble imitating the placement of one object under another. These terms appear in children’s vocabularies in just this order, with al three achieved around Ba years of age (Chat, 1983) Because state words refer to qualities of objects and actions children can use them to express a wide vatiety of concepts. As preschoolers master these words, their language becomes increasingly exible # UNDEREXTENSIONS AND OVEREXTENSIONS © When youngchildren frst learn words, they often do not use them just as adults do. They may apply words too narrowly, an error called underextension. For example, at 16 months, my younger son used the word “bear®to refer only toa special teddy bear to which he had become attached, A more common error between 1 and 27 yeats is overextension—-applying. word toe broader collection of ebjects and events than is appropriate, For example, ‘toddler might use the word “car” for buses trains, trucks, and fre engines. “Toddlers’ overextensions reflect their rermarkable sensitivity to categorical rela tions They apply a nevr word to a group of similar experiences, such as“ dog” fora furry, four-legged animal or “open to mean opening a door, peling fruit, and unty- ing shoe laces, Furthermoze, the toddler who refers to trucks, trains, and bikes as, “cats is likely t point to these objects correctly when given their names in compre hhension tasks (Naigls & Gelman, 1995). This suggests that children often overextend deliberately because they have difficulty recalling or have not acquired a suitable word. In addition, when & word ishard to pronounce toddlers frequently substitute a related one they can say (Bloom, 2000; "een, 1994). As vocabulary and pronunciation improve, overestensions disappear, * ORD COINAGES AND METAPHORS + To fil in for words they have not yet learned, children as young as age 2 coin new words based on ones they already know. At fist children tse the technique of compounding, For example, a child might say “plant-man? for a gar~ ddener. Later they convert verbs into nouns and nouns into verbs, asin one child’s use of “nee dle ie” for mending something. Soon after, children discover more specialized word coinage techniques, such as adding -er to identify the doer of an action—for example, “erayones” for 4 child using crayons. Children give up coined words as soon as they acquire conventions! labels for theie intended mesnings (Clack, 1995). Stl, these expressions reveal a remarkable, rale-governed approach to language. Preschoolers also extend language meanings through metaphor. For exaunple,one 3-yeor-old described a stomachache as “fire engine in my tummy” (Winner, 988). The metaphors young preschoolers use and understand are based largely on concrete, sensory comparisons “clouds are Pillows? “leaves are dancers” Once their Vocabulary and knowledge of the world expend, they Iake noa-sensory comparisons, such as “Friends are like magnets" (Karadsheh, 19915 Keil, 1986). Metaphors permit children to communicate in especialy vivid and memoreble ways. Later Semantic Development Between the start and end of elementary school, vocabulary increases fourfold, eventually exceeding 40,000 words. On average, school-age children lam about 20 new words each daysa tate of prov exceeding that of eal daildnood (sce Figure 9.7). n dition to fast-mapping, {choolage children enlarge their vocebularies by analyzing the structure of complex words From happy and decide, they quickly derive the meanings of happiness and decision (Anglin, 1993). They ako figure out may more word meanings from context (Nagy & Scott 2000). "Ava eitler ages, children benefit Flom engaging in conversation rh more expert speakers ‘specially wen their partners we complex words and explain them (Weizman & Snov 2001). Bat because written langage conta a far more diverse end complex vocabulary than spoken lan- ‘guage, reading contributes enormously to vosbularygrowih in middle childhood and adoes-CHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT cence, Children who engage in as litte as21 minutes of independent reading per day sre exposed to nearly milion words per year (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998). [hs thei knowledge expands and becomes better organized (see Chapter 7), school-age children think about and use words more precisely. Word definitions offer examples of this change. Five- and 6-year-olds give concrete descriptions that refer to functions or appearance—for example, knife “when you're cutting carrots" bicycles" got wheels, a chain, and handlebars.” By the end of elemen- tary school, synonyms and explanations of categorical relationships appear—-for example, inife“Something you could cat with. A saws lke a knife, It could also bbea weapon” (Wehren, De Lisi & Arnold, 1981). This advance reflects older cl dens ability to deal with word meanings on an entirely verbal plane. They can ‘add new words to their vocabulary simply by being given a definition, School-age children’s more reflective and analytical approach to language permits them to appreciate the multiple meanings of words. For example, they recognize that many words, sich as coo! or neat, have psychological as well physical meanings: “What @ cool shirt!” or “That movie was really neat!” This grasp of double meanings permits 8-1 10-year-olds to comprehend subtle men- tal metaphors, such as “sharp as a tack" and “spilling the beans” (Nippold, Taylor, & Baker, 1996; Wellman & Hickling, 1994). It also leads to a change in children’s humor. By the mic-clementiry school years, riddles and pans that go back and forth berween diferent meanings of « key word are common, such as “Hey, did you take a bath?* *Why, is one miss ing?” (Ely & McCabe, 1994). ‘The capacity for abstract thinking permits adolescents to add such words as counterint itive and philosophy to their vocabularies. They also become masters of sareasm and irony (Winner, 1988). When his mother fixes dish for dinner that he dislikes, a 16-year-old might quip, “Oh boy, my favorita!” School-age children sometimes realize that a sarcastic remark is insincere itis sai in an exaggerated, mocking tone of voice. But adolescents and adults need oly notice the discrepancy between a statement and its context to grasp the intended mean. ing (Capeli, Nakagawa, & Madden, 1990). Im addition, adolescents can better grasp figurative language. Proverbs—especially those that express subtle attitudes—are among the most challenging, They can be used to comment (Blood is thicker than water”), interpret (“His bark is worse than his bite”), advise (“Humility often gains more than pride”), warn (“OF idleness comes no goodness”), and encourage (“Every cloud has a silver lining”). And they make sense only in certain situations. “Too many cooks spoil the broth’ is good advice when someone offers to help balance @ checkbook buat bad advice when that person offers to assist with cleaning up 2 classroom (Nippold, 2000). Reading proficiency fosters understanding of proverbs, which improves greatiy during adolescence (Nippold, Allen, & Kirsch, 2001). And a better grasp ofthe mean ing of figurative language enables teenagers to appreciate adult literary works. Ideas About How Semantic Development Takes Place Research shows that adult feedback facilitates semantic development. When adults go beyond correcting and explain ("Thats not a car, Isa truck. See, it has a place co put things in”), ted dlees are more likely to move toward conventional word meanings (Chapman, Leonard, & Mervis, 1986). Stil, adults cannot tell children exactly what concept each new word picks out. For example if an adult points to a dog and calls ita “doggie” the word may refer to four- legged animals, the dog(s shaggy ears, or its barking sound. Therefore, the child's cognitive processing must play a major role Number of Words + THE INFLUENCE OF MEMORY * Young children’s fst-mapping is supported by a spe- cial part of working memory, a phonological store that permits us to retain speech-based information. The mote rapidly 4-year-olds can recall a just-presented sequence of nonsense ‘words (a measure of phonological memory skill), the lager thei current vocabulary and the greater their vocabulary growth over the following year (Gathercol, 1995; Gathercole et al, 199). This suggests that a child with good phonological memory has a better chance of trans {erring new words to long. term memory and linking them with relevant concepts. 375 A Estimated vocabulary from grades 1 to. Rate of ors Sey get during the schoct years exceeds tht ofealy Elche. adoptcion Aa,CHAPTER 9 © LANIGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 377 n part ) and then points to a part of it (“That's a beak’), 3-year-olds realize that beak isa not the whole bird (Saylor, Sabbagh, & Bald 2002). Adults also inform chiléren directly about word meanings. Consider an adult who says, “Thetsoap is made flye” Relying on the phrase made of preschoolers interpret ijeto refer to te soap's material qualities rather than the dish on which the soap rests (Desk, 2000), When 1no social cues or direct information is available, children as young a age 2 demonstrate remarkable flexibility in theie word-learning strategies. They teat a new word applied to an already labeled object esa second nate forthe abject (Dedk & Maratsos, 1998). Children acquite vocabulary so efficiently and accurately that some theorists believe that they are ‘exclusivity (Woodward & Markman, 1998). Critics point out that a small set of bu tly biased to induce word meanings using certain principles, such as mutual fixed principles are not slficient to account for the varied flexible manner in which children draw fon any useful information available to master vocabulary (Deék, 2000). And many word: learning strategies cannot be innate, since children acquiring diferent languages use different approaches to mastering the seme meanings. For example, English-speaking children rely on syntactic bootstrapping to tll the difference between one object ("This isa dx"), multiple ‘objects ofthe same category (“Those are dae Lee, & Belanger, 2001). In Japanese, all nouns at and a proper name (“This is Dax") (Hall ‘reated the same syntatiesly (“This is das"), Nevertheless, Japanese preschoolers find ways to compensate for the missing syntactic ‘cues, learning just & quickly as their Prglish-speaking agemsates (Imai & Harya, 2001). ‘An alternative perspective is that word learning is governed by the same cognitive strategies that children apply to nonlinguistic stim, These strategies become more effective as children’s knowledge of categories, vocabulary size, and sensitivity to social cues improve (Hollich, Hirsh Psek, & Golinkofi, 2000; ‘out new word mesnings when soveral kinds of information are available. Researchers have just -kson & Bloom, 1997). Preschoolers are most successful at figuring, begun to study the multiple cues children use for diferent types of words, and hovr their com: bined strategies change with development (Saylor, Baldwin, & Sabbagh, 2005; 8 lor & Sabbagh, 2004). We still have much to discover about how children's inner capacities join with diverse pat teins of information inthe environment to yield the phenomenal pace of semantic development: Gk Yourself REVIEW APPLY APPLY CONNECT Using your knledge of phorlogjcal and semantic development, explain why tama” and “Dadar are usualy among cir’ frst words katy st words nuded 'see?jve an "har you” and hs vocabulgy re oe dri Ne seeded yenr Wat yo anguge lang ai she ispiay and wat fctors might have contd tie sage 20 month than ays “andy” hen ses tons, pele, marbles cough dopa anc Ghowlate Kisses re Hatha reing ers andom or syteair Why ae tty on aeap Wea of conmmenicatng? : a4 tsplan or chien’ trategles fo wo earring support an Interactions perspective a lage development j 8 Grammatical Development Studying childcen’s grammar requires that they use more than one word in an utterance Researchers have puzzled over the following questions about grammatical development: Do children build a consistent gramanar ceerabling that of adults elatively easily and quickly, or do they acquire moze complex forms litle by litle? Are language-specific strategies, general cognitive strategies, o both involved in children’s progress? What isthe role of adult teach ing_-in particular, corrective feedback for grammatical ercorst As we chart the course of grammatical development, we wil consider evidence on these issues,378 PART Ill © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT srinaaongan comibere TABLE 9.3 COMMON MEANINGS First Word Combinations EXPRESSED BY CHILDREN'S Sometime between 1M: and 2¥4 years, as productive vocabulary ‘TWO-WORD UTTERANCES approaches 200 words, children combine two words, such a5 SELLE] “Momny shoe’ “go car” and “more cookie? These two-word utterances are called telegeaphic speech because, lke telegram, ‘Agent-actlon “Tommy hit" they focus on high-content words and leave out smaller, less orate recom Soe ee hein cles eaag nen ee ening bape a angie ord eke sch a ag and omy nea Pease ane pt pegs ‘ery sh seen une rife cad snel greta ewer Actonhain attaining Seed che tse inue bn me tat testis elon 198 Children the world aver use two-word utterances to express Possessor-possestion “My tuck" wide variety of meanings (see Table 9:3). Are they applying 2 consistent geammar? According to one view, a more complete, etorenbty gba tnd perhaps ali grammar les beind these to-word sxe Demonstrative-entity, “ihat doggie” tences (Gleitman et al., 1988; Pinker, 1994; Valian, 1991), Con- Hace noted tect “Mra 7Struck «Stent with this de, children often use the se constricion vo ee ee txpes diferent propositions. Fr example, child might ey, Res ‘More mie “Mommy cookie” when he sees his mother cating # cookie and Nonexistence-nonexistent also when he wants his mother to give him a cookie. Perhaps the rapped oct _’No sit *No mre nike ‘more elaborate structures ace present inthe child's mind, but he ‘cannot yet produce the longer word string. ‘Other researchers argue that two-word sentences are largely made up of simple formulas, such as“more +X" and “eat +X" swith many different words inserted in the X position. Toddlers rarely make gross word-order ‘errors, such as saying “chair my” instead of “my chaie” But their word-order regularities are usually copies of adult word pairings, as when an adult says, “How about more sanduvich?” or "Let's see if you can ent the berries?” (Toraselo & Brooks, 1999), ‘When childven entering the two-word phase were taught several noun and verb nonsense words (for example, meek fora doll and gop for a snapping action), they ‘easily combined the new nouns with words they knew wel, as in “more meek” But as Figure 9.8 shows, they seldom formed word combinations with the new verbs (Cromasello et al., 1997). This suggests that they did not yet grasp subject-verb and ‘yezb-object relations, which are the foundation of grammar. In sum as they begin to combine words, children are absorbed in figuring out ‘word meanings and using thie limited vocabularies in whatever way possible to get their thoughts across (Maratsos, 1998). Soon, however, children grasp the basic structure oftheir language. From Simple Sentences to Complex Grammar In the thied year, three-word sentences appear in which English-speaking children Non Yeo follow a subject-verb-object word order. Children learning other languages adopt Tape of Novel Word the word orders ofthe adult speech to which they are exposed, For example, for “It {is broken. a German child says, Kaputis dec” literally translated ¢s"Broken sit”). Source Bro 1973 ‘Mean Number of Word Combinations ‘A[SEERGEELEESGESSEGTD Berween ages 2s and 3, children create sentences in which adjectives, articles, Number of nord combinations with nouns, webs, and prepositional phrase start to conform toan adult structure ind ‘novel nounsand verbs produced by cating that they have begun to master the grammatical categories of ther language 12 te 25 month of Ate arimaite Nevertheless, studies of children acquiring diverse languages, including Dutch, neni of seve rou ard vera nar English, Hebrew, Inuktitut (spoken by the Inuit of Arctic Canad), Taian, ‘ew nouns wth otherwords Gey knew, Portuguese, and Russian, reveal that their frst use of grammatical rules is piece- ‘well However, they seldom formed word mieal—applied to only one or a fev verbs, not across the board. As children listen ‘combinations wit the ne verbs,s19- for familie verbs in adult discourse, they expend their own utterances containing ‘esting that thee two-word utterances sing tat the wdttances hoe yetbo,draving on adult ge a thelr model (Alen, 1996; Gatherese weprot ened onsues vot aad Shut, & Soo, 1985 Lieve, Pine & Baldn, 1997; Stoll, 198). One el for webigiet ectes wha the Eample, added the preposition with othe ve opew ("You open with scisoe") amano ct 309 Dut not to the word hit (*He hit me sick”)CHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Percentage of Chiléen ‘Age in Yeors Preschoolers refine ind generalize their easly grammatical forms gradually. In a number ‘of investigations, English-leaing children were teste for their ability to generate novel sen- tences that conformed to besic English syntex. They had to use a new verb in the subject-verb-object form after heating it ina diffeent construction, such as passive ("Ernie is getting gorped by the dog”). The percentage of children who performed well (when esked ‘what the dog was doing, they could respond, “He's gorping Ernie”) rose steadily with age. But as Figure 9 shows, not until 3 to 4 could the majority of children apply the fundamental subject-verb-object structure broadly, to newly acquired verbs (Tomaselio,2000, 2003). + DEVELOPMENT OF GRAMMATICAL MORDHEMIES + As the examples jut cited sug: 2st once children form three-word sentences, they add grammatical morphemes!—small ‘mores that change the meaning of sentences, as in “John's dog” and “he is eating” English speaking 2- and 3-year-olds acquire these morphemes in a regular sequence, shown in Table 94 (Brown, 1972; de Villiers & de Viliers, 1973). Given the dificult ofthe task, however theie cerors are surprisingly fo (Maratso, 1998), i ic ee ES zs 4. Ves present progressive ending (i “He singing” 2. Prepostion “on” on hose 3. reposition “in” “inwagen” 4% Nou paral es") cats 'S. Veoh iogulr past tense “He rant it broke” 6. Noun possessive “Dadyshat” 7. Ves uncontractile "be" form used with adjective, preposton or noun pisse “areas lepy” 8 Articles“ and the" “Rookie.” *Thebuney.* 9, Vethreguiar past tense ending (ee “He Wicket" 10. Verb present tense hid person singularregusr ending “Her Hhes it” 12. Aualary verb uncootracite "be" farms ace you eating?” 12. Verb contractible be" forms used with adectv, preposition or nour phrase “ets insider *Theye sleepy? +4 Aulagy ver contractile be forms He's coming” Doge's eating” Source tone, 173. ‘morplemes te smalls at of menangia speech any futher Avision votes the meaning or produces mingles uns, Both "dog" and" are morphemies "sis rental morph, Percentage of citren in ‘ferent studies who could tea naw verb isthe sub- Ject-verb-object form after hating iin apotber cone struction, Each dot in the ‘raph cepresentsthe fangs ‘of one sty. te aity to use the new verb—anincieator of {he chiles capacity to apoly| the sbject-verb-abject structure brosdyrose Steadly with age children mastered this fundamental, ‘rarmmatical constuction ‘today. eon Tana, $00 “Dovoung cae ave dat sae Center Copin 7p. 23 ited by pemasin of Psesene) TABLE 9.4 ORDER OF ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES ‘, Veeb present tens, third person singular regular ending “She has fem havela cook” “He does [from dol a goad jb.”380 PART Il © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT rablongmancomberk ‘What explains this sequence of development? Two characteristics of morphemes play Important roles. The first is structural complexity. For example, adding the ending -ing or sis structurally less complex than using forms of the verb fo be. In the latter the child must express cortect tense and also make the subject and verb agree (“am coming” versus “They are coming"). And children learning English express location (the prepositions in and on) sooner than children learning Serbo-Croatian in which structures for location are more com~ plex (lohaston & Siobin, 1979). Second, grarnmatical morphemes differ in semantic complex ji, or the number and difficulty of the meanings they express. For example, adding -5to a ‘word requires only one semantic distinction—the difference between one and more than one. In contrast, using fo be involves many mor, including an understanding of person, number, and time of occurrence (Brown, 1973; Stobin, 1982). ‘Look again at Table 9.4, and you wil ee that some morphemes with irregular forms are acquired before those with regular forms. For example, children use past-tense regular verbs, such as ran and broke, before they acquire the regular -ed ending, But once children grasp 2 regular morphological rule, they extend it to words that are exceptions, a type of error called ‘overregularization. “My toy car breaked” and “We each have two foot” ae expressions that start to appear between 2 and 3 years of age and persist into middle childhood (Marcus et al., 1992), The extent to which children overregulaize varies greatly aeross words. Tey less often sake the error on frequently used verbs. One 21-year-old neatly always produced the irre; slar past tenses of go and say—"I went thece? "I sad that” For rarely used verbs, however the ‘error rate can be higher than 50 percent (Maratsos, 2000) This child frequently overregular- ined grow (“I growed tll”) and sing™*(*She singed Jingle Bells”). ‘Why do chikicen show this inconsistent pattern? Because they hear frequently used icreg- ular forms often in adult speech, they probably leatn those by rate memory. For less common. irrogulars, children alternate between corcect and overregularized forms for many months or ‘even several years. According to one view, the two forms compete with one another, and as children hear more instances in others’ speech, the itregular form eventually wins out (Maratsos, 2000). A second view is that oversegularization reveals an early, rule-governed approach to language (Pinker & Ullman, 2002). At times, preschoolers overregularize well- learned exceptions—for example, when they say ‘ated, “felled” or “feets” Bybee & Slobin, 1982). In these instances, perhaps their memory for iregular morphemes fil, so they call on the rule, and overtegularization results, Development of Complex Grammatical Forms ‘Once children master the auxiliary verb tobe, the door is open to-a variety of new expressions. ‘Negatives and questions are examples 4s NEGATIVES « ‘Three types of negation appear inthe following order in 2/-to year-olds learning languages as diferent as Cantonese, English, and Tamil (spoken in India): (1) nonex istence, in which the child remarks on the absence of something (No cookie” or “All gone crackers”); (2) rejection, in which the chile expresses opposition to something (No take bath) and (3) denial in which the child denies the truthfulness of something (“That not my [etey”) (Bloom, 1970; Clancy, 1985; Vaidyanathan, 1991; Tam & Stokes, 001). “These early constructions probably result fom imitating parental speech, When parents, ‘express nonexistence or rejection, they often put nat the beginning of the sentence: “No ‘more cookies” or No, you can't have another cracker” Around 3 to 34% years, children add ausiliary verbs and become sensitive tothe way they combine with negatives, As a xesult, cor rect negative forms appeat:“Thete arent any more cookies" (nonexistence), "I don’t want @ bath’ (rejection), and“That isn't my kitty” (denial) (Tager-Flusberg, 2005) ‘© QUESTIONS « Like negatives, questions first appear during the arly preschool years and develop in an orderly sequence. English-speaking children, as well 2s those who speak many fother languages, can use rising intonation to convert an utterance into a yes/no question: “Mommy baking cookies?” As s cesul, they produce such expressions quite early. Correct question form in English requires that childeen inyert the subject and auxiliary verb. In wh- questions—ones that begin with what, where, whic, who, when, why, and how—CHAPTER 9 ® LANGUAGE DeveLonMENT 381 the wh word mus sso be placed at the beginning ofthe sentence. When first creating questions, 2-yeat-olds use many formulas: “Where's 0" “What's X2" "Can I x2" (Dabrowska, 2000; Tomasello, 1992), Preschoolers’ question asking remains quite variable for the next couple of years. An analysis of one child's questions revealed that he inverted the subject and verb when asking certain questions but not when asking ‘others. As result, he produced some incorrect constructions (“What she will dot” "Why he can got”) while also using correct forms (“How do you like i@" “What do you waat?") The correct expressions were ones he hheard most often in his mother’s speech (Rowland & Pine, 2000). As with other aspects of grammar, children seem to master the question form piecemeal and gradually. Among English, Korean-, and Tanil-speaking preschoolers, correct question form appears first fer yes!no questions and later for wh- ques- tions (Clancy, 1989; Vaidyanathen, 1988). The latter are semantically and structurally more difficult, Among wh- questions, what, where, and who tend to be asked before how why, and when, which are harder to under stand and answer (de Viliers, 2000). + OTHER COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS + Between ages 3% and 6, children produce more complex constructions, and thee usage increas: inely conforms tothe rules of their language. First, connectives eppear that join whole sentences ("Mom picked me up, and ve went to the “canbe wth eu? ths park’) and verb phrases ("I got up ad ate breakfast”). The most general connective, adi young buy seams eas ith ‘sed fest, fllawed by connectives expressing more specific meanings, such as then and when athe psslon he cn muster for temporal relations, because ands for causal relations, if for conditionals, and but for fothvorean-and t0glsh- epposton (Bioom et a, 1980). spkingpescheats Tater, children produce embedded sentences (“I think he will come’) tag questions rasteryes/ne questions ("Dads going to be home soon, isn't he?) indicect object-diect object stractures (“He before question which showed his fed the present”), and pasive sentences ("The dog was parted by the ge”). As_ sre satanic a tue the preschool years draw to a close, children use most ofthe grammatical structures oftheir {aly more sic, native language competenty(Tager-Flasberg, 2005). outta Later Grammatical Development During the school years, children's mastery of complex constructions improves. The passive voice isan example. Atall ages, children produce more abbreviated passive statements (“It got broken? or "They gotlost”) than fl passives ("The glass was broken by Mary”). During mid dle childhood and eatly adolescence, children use the passive voice—inclnding fll passive statements—more often (Horgan, 1978). Older children also apply the passive voice to a wider range of nouns and verbs. Pre~ schoolers comprehend the passive best when the subject of the sentence isan animate being and the verb is an action word ("The boy is kssed by the gil”). Over the school years, children textend the patsive form to inanimate subjects, such as hat (“The hae was worn by the man”), and experiential verbs, such as see or know (“The dog was seen by the cat") (Lempert, 1990; Pinker, Lebeau, & Frost, 1987). What accounts for this developmental trend? Recall that action is salient to young children in mastering vocabulary, a bias that may affect their mastery of complex grammar as well But language input is also influential, English-speaking adults rarely use fall and experiential pas- sives in everyday conversation, In languages in which adults use these forms aften, such as ‘inuktiut (spoken by the Inuit people), chikdren produce them easier (Allen & Crago, 1996), Furthermore, with training, English-speaking preschoolers readily produce fall passives. But childsen younger than age 344 do not use the passive construction flexibly (Brooks & “Tomasela, 1999). ‘Another grammatical achievement of middle childhood is advanced understanding of infinitive phrases, such asthe difference between “Jobn is eager to please” and “Jolin is easy to please” (Chomsky, 1969). Like gains in vocabulary, appreciation ofthese subtle grammatical384, @ toms preschoolers benefit greatly From partic Pang in dalegues about storybooks. By providing this experienc, this teacher Shows these cilren how to ommureatsin-a clear nae- rative ate, therby promat- ing both lnoguage ar er~ acy development. (Sta Dna Phot PART III © COGNIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT nvnablongman comer @ Pragmatic Development Jn addition to mastering phonology, vocabulary, and grammar, children must learn to use lan _guage effectively in social contexts, For a conversation te go wellpaticipants mus take turns, stay on the same topic state their messages clearly, and conform to cultural rues that govern, how individuals are supposed to interact. During the preschool year, childcen make consid ease headway in mastering the pragmatics of language Acquiring Conversational Skills ‘Young children are already skilled conversationaliss. In face-to-face interaction, they initiate verbal exchanges, make eye contact, respond appropriately to their partner's temarks,and take turns (Bloom et al, 1996; Pen & Snow, 1999). The number of turns over wich childeen can sustain interaction and their ability to maintain a topic over time increases with age, but ever: year-olds are capable of effective conversation (Snow et al, 1996). ‘Additional conversational strategies are added in early childhood, One ofthese is the turn about, in which the speaker not only comments on what has just been said but also adds @ request to get the partner to respond again, Because 2-year-olds cannot generate many words jn each turn, they seldom use turnabouts, but children do so increasingly over the next feve years (Goelman, 1986). Between ages 5 and 9, more advanced conversational strategies appear, such as shading, in which a change of topic is initiated gradually by modifying the focus of discussion (Wanska & Bedrosian, 1985). Effective conversation also depends on understanding illocutionary intent—that is, what speaker means to say, even ifthe form of the utterance is not perfectly consistent with it. By age 3, children comprehend a variety of requests for action not directly expressed as requests, such as “J need a pencil” or "Why don't you tickle me?” (Garvey, 1974). Daring middle childhood, illo cautionary knowledge develops further. Por example aftr forgetting to do his chores, an 8-year old understands that when his mother says,"The garbage is beginning to smell she really means, “Take thet garbage out!” Appreciating form-intention pairings like this one requires children to ‘make subtle inferences that are beyond preschoolers cognitive capacities (Ackerman, 1978). ‘Still, sueprsingly advanced conversational abilities are present at a very early age, and adults patient, sensitive interactions with young children encourage and sustain them, “Throughout this chapter, we have seen examples of how adult-child conversation fosters lan- guage development, Whether observed at home or in preschool, tis consistently related to gen feral measures of language progress (Hart & Risley, 1995; NICHD Early Child Care Research "Network, 2000a), Dialogues about storybooks are particularly effective. They expose children to great breadth of language knowledge, including how to communicate in a clea, coberent narrative stylo—a skill that undoubtedly contributes to the association between joint story ‘book reading and literacy development (see Chapter 7, page 30). Low-SES preschoolers benefit especially. Those who experience daily reading at home or in child care, compared with those who de not, are greatly advanced in language comprehension and production (White- hnurst et al, 1994) Shared reading with parents is particularly powerful, pethaps because parents are better able than teachers to ead to the child ‘often and to tailor their conversations to the chiles interests and abilities (Lonigan & Whitehurst, 1998). Finally the presence ofa sibling enhances young children’s conversa- tional skills. Toddlers closely monitor interactions between their twin or older sibling and parent, and they often try to join in, When they do, the conversations last longer, wit each paxtiipant taking more turns (Barton {& Strosberg, 1997; Barton & Tomastlo, 1991). As they listen to conversa sions, younger siblings pick up important skis, such as use of personal pro~ nouns ("Y" versus you"), which are more common inthe ealy vorabular- ies of late-born than of first-born siblings (Oshima-Takene, Goods, & Derevensky, 1996). Finally, whem interacting with two young children as ‘opposed (0 just one, middle-SES English-speaking mothers made more statements aimed at regulating socal exchanges, including ones that sus tained the conversation. And older siblings’ remarks 10 their youngerCHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DevELOPIMENT brother o sister overshelmingly focused on regulating inter- action: “Do you lke Kenmid® "OK, your turn” (Oshima. Takane & Robbins, 2008). This eraphais probably con. tributes to younger siblings at conversing with others ‘Communicating Clearly “To communicate effectively, we must produce clear verbal messages and must recognie when messages we receive are clear so we can ask for more information These aspects ‘of language ae called referential communication skills, ‘Typical, hboratory tasks designed to asess cles ally commaniest early present them with chllenging situations in which they most describe toa lstener one objet among a group of similar objects For example in one study, 3- to LO-jear-cs were shown several eightobjectazzays. In cach, the objects wete sina in sie, shape and color. Most 3- year-olds gave ambiguous descriptions. When asked for carifcation, they reid heavily on ges- tures, such s pointing, Te ability to send clear messages maproved steal with age (Deutch & Pechnsnn, 1982) ‘When preschoolers are given simpler tasks or engage in face-to-face interaction with falar people, they adjust their speech to thie isteners perspective quite wel But consider ‘what happens when young children talk onthe phone. Her tan excerpt af one ¢year-olds phot conversation with his grandfather: ‘Gundjaher How old will you bet Jol: Dis many. (Holding up four fges) Gnodjasher ht Jolin: Dis many. [Agni holding up four fingers] (Wasren & Tate, 1982, pp, 259-250) Preschooler’ referential communication is ess mature in highly demanding situations in which they cannot see their steers’ reactions or rely on typical converational sis, ch as agstores and objects to talk about. But when asked to tll aistener how to sala simple pur- Tle, 3 10 6-year-olds give more specifi directions over the phone than in person, indicating that they realize the need for more verbal description on the phone (Cameron & Le, 1997) Between ages 4 and 8, both conversing and giving dretions over the phone improve greatly. “Telephone tak provides an excellent example of how preschoolere’ communication skis depend on the demands ofthe situation Children’s ability to evaluate the adequacy of messages they receive alo improves with age ‘Around age 3 preschooler start o ask other to darify ambiguous messages. At ist, children recognize when a message provides a poor description of a conerete object (Ackerman, 1953). iy ater can they tell waen a message contains inconsistencies, For exemple wen reveorchers showed 4 and 5-yearolds the scene in Figute9.10 and instructed, “Put the fog onthe book in the box” preschoolers could not resolve the ambiguity: Most put a fog on the empty book rather than inthe box, even though they used similar embedded phrases fn their own speech (The fog on the Book went to Mrs. Squils house") (Hurst ct al, 2000). This task requies the istenee to attend to and integrate two competing rep sentation, Yet eal from Chapter 6 that preschools tend to focus on only lone aspect ofa situation (here, the ist peepostional phrse) Parthermare, 0 succeed children reas engage in comprehension monitoring (se Chapter 7)— a skill that improves during middle childhood and adolescence, Narratives Conversations with adults about past experiences contebute to dramatic gains in chiens biity to produce well-organized, detailed, expressive narratives (see page 292 in Chapter 7). When asked to relates personally important event, 4-year olds typically produce brief renditions called leapfiog narratives ‘cause they jump fiom one event to another in a dsorganied fashion Between t¥Aand 5, children stat to produce chronological narratives, in which @ Parent toiling dlalogues seem tooffer a unique contort or acqiing the pragnatiesaflanguage The torn thisfarly may hocome especialy skiled at Jelceg in conversitons and ‘adapting her speesh to the feeds of er stores Va ‘Scene used to test for ref ‘erential communication shils. wen an ada Instructed “Putte reg on the book nthe boo? 4nd ‘Siyear aka could nt resolve tbe ambiguity between the phrases “cn the book and vim the box" They stuck to the firstinferenc and put cone of the frogs onthe ‘erpty book Not ul mile hile ean chien inte ‘rate the tao competing rea- fesentations by seectng the frog onthe book and pacing Tela the box (ep Maas a 200),1 Farily mealies provide rich experiences In istering to and tling personal stories. Pechaps because of thelr mastery of narrative, clildren who regulary eat reals with tel parents are vanced in language nd Ineraey development Stgwacngh Phloeehy PART IIL © COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT vosuablangmanceracte they place events in temporal sequence and build to a high point: "We went to the lake. Then we ished and waited Paul teaited, and he got a huge catfish.” Around age 6, chronologi cal naratives extend into clasie narratives, in which children ‘add a resolution; “After Dad cleaned the catfish, we cooked it fand ate it all up!” (Peterson & McCabe, 1983). Preschoolers limited working memories are pactly respon sible for their restricted narratives. In addition, young children ‘often presume more shared knowledge than their listener bes, 40 they offer ltl orienting information about events, such as time, place, and participants. Preschoolers narratives also con~ tain feyrevaluations—-comments about how and why events took place and about their own and other’ thoughts feelings, nd intentions. During middle childhood, orienting informa- tion, detailed descriptions, and connectives that lend coherence to the story ("nest “then, “sof “finally") increase, And eval ative comments rise dramatically becoming common by age 8 09 (Bliss, McCabe, § Miranda, 1998; Fy, 2005). When parents tse the claborative strategy discussed in Chapter 7 to help young children construct nacratives, preschoolers produce more organized, detiled, and evavative persona stores (se page 292), Fecause children pick up the narative styles of parents and other significant adults in their fives, their nazrative forms vary widely across cultures. As noted in Chapter 8, instead of rlat- ing a single experience from beginning to end, African-American children often use a rpic- ‘associating syle, blending several similar anecdotes. As a result, their neeratives are usually Tonger and more complex than those of North American white chddeen (Champion, 2003). Japanese children also connect events witha common theme, using structure that resembles haiku, a culturally valued poetic form (Minami, 1996) "The ability to generate clear oral nerratives contributes to literacy development, enhanc ing reading comprehension and preparing children for producing longer, more explicit weit~ ten narratives. Families who regularly eat meals together heve childcen who are advanced in Janguage and literacy development, perhaps because mealtimes offer many opportunities to listen to and relate personal stories (Beals, 2001), Sociolinguistic Understanding ‘Language adaptations to socal expectationsae called speech registers. As ealy a the preschool years children are sensitive to them, In one study, 4-10 7-year-olds were asked to act out roles Ihith band puppets Bven the youngest childeen showed that they understood the stereotypic fa- tures of differen socal postions. They used more commands when playing socially dominant land male roles, such as teacher, doctor, and father. When playing less dominant and feminine Toles, sich as pupil, patent, and mother they spoke more politely and used more indirect requests (Andersen, 1992, 200). "The importance of register adjustments is reflected in how often parents teach social rou tines, sueh as politeness Infants ate encouraged to wave “bye-bye” before they can grasp the igesture’s meaning. By age 2, when children fil to say *pleasc” and “thank you" or “hi” and ‘oad: bye” parents usually model and demand an appropriate response (Beckes 1990)- ‘Some cultures have elaborate systems of polite language. In Japan, for example, politeness affects many aspects of verbal and nonverbal communication, which vary with gender, ag, Social status, and familiacty of speaker and listener. Japanese mothers and preschool teachers ‘Constantly model and teach these expressions, so children acquire a large repertoire of polite forms eatly in the preschool years (Nakamura, 2001). For example, when greeting customers in a make-believe storeeven I-year-olds use the polite greeting “Irasshaimase! “Welcome!” Two. and 3-yeatolds use more complicated polite speech, such as “Mata ofe-kudasai” ("Please come again”). And 3- and 4-year-olds make considerable headway in acquiring the ‘complex honorific/humble language of Japanese society. “Although cultures vary in their emphasis on polite language, parents everywhere seem to realize that a child can get by vthout perfectly correct pronunciation, grammar, and a largeCHAPTER 9 © LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT vocabulaty. But failing to use socially acceptable speech car lead to scoun and rejection, caus ing a childs message not to be received a ll Gk Yourself . 387 REVIEW Sure Fndos inating that ait conversations promote preschoolers agate sis a5 well 5 general language progress APPLY What pragmalic skls ae evident in Erin's ulterances, presented in the introduction to this chapter?” Naw did Ern’s parents and brother encourage her pragmatic development? CONNECT | What cognitive advances contribute to the development of referential communication? REFLECT. List examples of speech registers that you use in dally fe, What chidhood experiences might have influenced your mastery ofthese registers? $ Development of Metalinguistic Awareness Older childrens linguistic achievements relet their moze anulyticl approach to language. ‘This ability to think about language es asjstem scaled metalinguisticawareness. Reserchers have been expecially intrested in when it emerges and the rle it plays in a variety of lan- suage-tlated accomplishments Consider the fllowing exchange between a mother and her 4-yeat-old childs Childe Whats tate Mother: 1s typewiter. Chi fowning] No, youte the typewriter that’ ypewrite, (Kat Smith et al, 1886) As the childs remark illstrates, metalinguistic awareness begins in eatly childhood, Tis pr. ‘schooler,conscious of word endings expected -rto signify an enimate agent, ike baker or dance. ‘Around age 4, childeen know that word labels are arbitrary and not part ofthe objects to ‘which they refer. When asked ifn object could be called by a different name in a new language, they say "yes? They also can make some basic syntactic judgments—for example, that # pup- pet Who says,"Nose your touch’ or “Dog the pat,” is saying his sentences backwards (Chaney, 1992). And by age 5 children havea good sense ofthe concept of word” When an adult read” ing a Story stops to ask, “What was the last word I sad?” they almost alvays answer correctly for all parts of speech. They do not say “on-the-floor” instead of “oor” or "is instead of “a” (KatmilofF-Smith et al, 1986). These early metalinguistic understandings are good predictors ‘of vocabulary and grammatical development (Smith & Tager-Flusberg, 1982). ‘Nevertheless fll lowering of metalingustic kills does not occur until middle childhood, as cognition advances and teachers point out features of language in reading and writing activites. Between ages 4 and 8, children make great strides in phonological avnreness. ‘Whereas preschoolers are sensitive to rhyme and other changes in word sounds, third graders ‘ean identify all the phonemes in a word (Bhri et al, 2001). Around age 8, children also can judge the grammatical correctness of a sentence even if its meaning is false or senseless (Bialystok, 1985). In addition, metalinguistic knowledge is evident in elementary school chil~ ‘dren's improved ability to define words and appreciate their multiple meanings in puns, ri dles, and metaphors—skills that continue to improve into adolescence. ‘Metalinguistic awareness strengthens as language use becomes more automatic, freeing children from the immediate linguistic context so they can think about how messages axe ‘communicated. Recall from Chapter 7 that phonological awareness predicts success at read ing and spelling. Training children in phonological awareness is a promising technique for encoucaging cary literacy development. ‘As we will see next, bilingual children are advanced in metalinguistic awareness, a6 well as other cognitive ells. But before we conclude with this topic, refer to the Milestones table on. age 388, which provides an overview of language development,