Berk Ch09 Lecture

Chapter 9
Language Development
Child Development Ninth Edition ● Laura E. Berk
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Components of Language
Rules about structure and sequence of

Phonology speech sounds
Vocabulary – words and word

Semantics combinations for concepts
• Syntax – rules for sentences
Grammar
• Morphology – grammatical markers
Appropriate and effective

Pragmatics communication

Theories of
Nativist Interactionist
 Language  Inner capacities
acquisition device and environment
(LAD) biologically work together.
prepares infants to  Social context is
learn rules of important.
language.
 Universal grammar
3
Support for Biological
Language Preparedness
 Animal language
 Language seems to be unique to humans.
 Brain structures
 Regions predisposed to language processing
 Sensitive period
 During brain lateralization

Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas
Figure 9.1
Deaf Children’s Language
 Deaf children
develop language
even with:
 Minimal input
 Later than hearing
children, but do
develop
 Homesign
Figure 9.2
 Inconsistent input Adapted from Singleton & Newport, 2004.
 Extract rules
Language Development in
Children with Williams Syndrome
 Rare disorder
 Children born with low IQs, but strong
orientation toward the social world
 Good at memorizing but poor at
grammatical rule learning
 Cases indicate that language is not as
separate from other human mental abilities
as Chomsky’s LAD assumes.
Limitations of
Nativist Perspective
 No agreement on universal grammar rules

 Contradicts observation of development
 More experimentation, learning involved
 Theory lacks comprehensiveness
 Ignores quality of language input
 Ignores role of social experience

Interactionist Perspective
 Information-processing
theories
 Connectionist model
 Statistical learning capacity
 Brain studies
 Social interactionist theories
 Native capacity combines with
rich language environment
© Thomas Perkins | Dreamstime.com

Getting Ready to Talk:
Receptivity to Language
 Newborns sensitive to speech

 Especially mother’s
 Categorical speech perception
 Ability to distinguish phonemes
 Distinguish phonemes of own language
around 6–8 months
 Statistical analyzers and rule learners

Language Learning Video
Click here to view a video on the topic of language learning.

Infant-Directed Speech
 Short sentences
 High pitch
 Exaggerated
expression
 Clear pronunciation
© Anna Lurye | Dreamstime.com
 Distinct pauses
 Clear gestures
 Repetition
First Speech Sounds
 Cooing – 2 months
 Vowel sounds
 Babbling – 6 months
 Consonant–vowel
combination
 Universal timing
 Range expands
© Jin Peng | Dreamstime.com

Becoming a Communicator
 Joint attention
 Give-and-take
 Preverbal gestures
 Protodeclarative
 Protoimperative
 Word–gesture
combinations
© Ruslan Huzau | Dreamstime.com

Across Cultures Video
Click here to view a video on the topic of language development across cultures.
Parent–Child Interaction:
Impact on Deaf Children
 Deaf children with hearing parents not fluent

in sign language show delays in development
of language and make-believe play.
 Deaf children of deaf parents do not have the
same difficulty.
 Deaf children need access to deaf adults and
peers to experience natural language
learning.

Phonological Development
 Early phase:
 First words – can only pronounce few sounds

 Related to semantic development
 Understand more than can say
 Phonological strategies
 Later development
 Refine syllable stress patterns – related to
meaning

One-Year-Olds
Know Pronunciations
Figure 9.4
Adapted from Swingley & Aslin, 2002.
Phonological Strategies
 Minimal words
 Add ending consonant

 Adjust vowel length
 Add unstressed syllables
 Produce full word, correct
stress pattern
 May still need to refine
sounds
© Sam74100 | Dreamstime.com  Mostly complete by age 5
Early Semantic Development
 Comprehension before production
 Five-month lag
 First words linked to cognition, emotion
 Vocabulary spurt – 18 to 24 months
 Fast-mapping
 Form networks of related concepts

For Discussion:
Comprehension vs. Production
At all ages, language comprehension develops ahead of language

production. To illustrate this concept, discuss your own learning
experiences. For example, when acquiring a second language, you
comprehend words, phrases, and conversations with greater ease and
accuracy than when asked to produce the same words, phrases, and
conversations. In addition, although you may comprehend the key
elements in a lecture or assigned reading, you may have difficulty
reproducing these elements in a testing situation. Furthermore, as
pointed out in the text, recall is more difficult than recognition.
Therefore, if we rely solely on what children produce or recall, we may
greatly underestimate what they actually know or comprehend.

Vocabulary Growth Differences
for English and Italian Learners
Figure 9.5
Reprinted from Cognitive
Development, Vol. 10, No. 2, M. C.
Caselli et al., “A Cross-Linguistic
Study of Early Lexical Development,”
p. 172, copyright 1995, with
permission from Elsevier.

Individual Differences in
 Gender
 Temperament
 Language environment
 Language style
 Referential
 Expressive
© Oksix | Dreamstime.com

Quality of Home Literacy and Its
Effect on Vocabulary Development
Figure 9.6
Adapted from Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2006.

Types of Early Words
• More objects than actions

Object
• Objects are easier concepts, adults
and rarely name verbs
Action • Influenced by culture and language
• Modifiers or labels for attributes –
size, color, possession
State
• Learn general distinctions before
specific

Early Semantic Development
 Underextensions
 Overextensions
 Word coinages
 Metaphors
© Miroslav Ferkuniak | Dreamstime.com

Elementary Age
Semantic Development
 Big vocabulary increase

 Fast-mapping continues
 Analyze word structure
 Use words precisely,
understand multiple
meanings – metaphors,
puns
Figure 9.7
Adapted from Anglin, 1993.
Adolescent
 Abstract terms
 Sarcasm, irony
 Figurative language
 Proverbs
 Literature appreciation
© Hongqi Zhang | Dreamstime.com

Factors Contributing to
 Adult feedback
 Cognitive processing
 Working memory – phonological store
 Strategies
 Lexical contrast
 Mutual exclusivity bias
 Shape bias
 Syntactic bootstrapping
 Social information
Early Grammatical
Development
 Telegraphic speech
 2-word combinations
 High content words
 Simple sentences
 3-word sentences
 Follow adult rules piecemeal,
gradually refine and generalize
 Affected by language
environment
© Aleksieieva Larisa | Dreamstime.com

Awareness of Subject–
Verb–Object Word Order
Figure 9.9
From Y. Gertner, C. Fisher, & J. Eisengart, 2006, “Learning Words and Rules: Abstract Knowledge of Word
Order in Early Sentence Comprehension,” Psychological Science, 17, p. 686. Reprinted by permission.

Development of
Grammatical Morphemes
 Structural complexity
affects order acquired
 Overregulation
 Applying rules without
appropriate exceptions
© Tellophoto | Dreamstime.com

Complex Grammatical Forms
• Nonexistence
Negatives • Rejection
• Denial
• Rising intonations
• Subject–verb inversion
Questions
• Correct yes–no questions precede wh-
questions
• Connectives
• Embedded sentences
Other Complex • Tag questions
Constructions • Indirect object–direct object
• Passive sentences

Views on Grammar
Development
Product of • Semantic bootstrapping

Cognitive • Direct observation of language
Development structure
• Categories for bootstrapping

Inborn Capacities
• Language-making capacity
• Adults correct indirectly with

reformulations
Environmental • Asking for clarification
Support • Recasts
• Expansions

Pragmatic Development
 2-year-olds can
have effective
conversations
 Early childhood –
turnabout
 Middle childhood
 Shading
 Illocutionary © Galina Barskaya | Dreamstime.com
knowledge
Testing for Referential
Communication Skills
Figure 9.11
Adapted from Hurewitz et al., 2000.
Development of
Narrative Skills
 Leapfrog narratives – 4 years

 Few evaluations
 Chronological narratives – 4½ to 5 years
 Classical narratives – 6 years
 Narrative styles learned from adults
 Topic-associating style
 Haiku style

Speech Registers
 Social routines
 Polite language
 Children sensitive
to speech
registers early:
4–7 years
 Important to social © Phartisan | Dreamstime.com
acceptance
Metalinguistic Awareness
 Ability to think about language as a system
 4- and 5-year-olds have early

understanding
 Flowers in middle childhood
 Phonological awareness associated with
reading success
 Morphological awareness
 Advanced in bilingual children

Learning Two Languages
Learn both • No problems with language

at the same development
time • Good at both by preschool
• Takes 3 to 5 years to be as good as

One, then
same-age native speakers of second
the other language
Both offer cognitive advantages of bilingualism.
 Attention, reasoning, concepts, flexibility
 General language skills

Types of Bilingual Education
 Language immersion
 Strong in Canada
 English-only
 Favored in U.S.
 Bilingual education
 Support and instruction in native language
while learning English

For Discussion:
Examining Genetic and Environmental
Influences on Language Development
Chapter 9 presents a wealth of research on factors

contributing to children’s language development. List
genetic and environmental influences on language
development. Consider advances in vocabulary, grammar,
and pragmatics. How does this information support the
interactionist perspective on language development?

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Chapter 9

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rules about structure and sequence of

Vocabulary – words and word

Appropriate and effective

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 No agreement on universal grammar rules

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© Thomas Perkins | Dreamstime.com

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Newborns sensitive to speech

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Click here to view a video on the topic of language learning.

© Jin Peng | Dreamstime.com

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Deaf children with hearing parents not fluent

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 First words – can only pronounce few sounds

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Add ending consonant

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

At all ages, language comprehension develops ahead of language

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

• More objects than actions

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© Miroslav Ferkuniak | Dreamstime.com

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Big vocabulary increase

© Hongqi Zhang | Dreamstime.com

© Aleksieieva Larisa | Dreamstime.com

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Product of • Semantic bootstrapping

• Categories for bootstrapping

• Adults correct indirectly with

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Leapfrog narratives – 4 years

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 4- and 5-year-olds have early

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learn both • No problems with language

• Takes 3 to 5 years to be as good as

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 9 presents a wealth of research on factors

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Any public performance or display,

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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