LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Almost every human child succeeds in learning language. The most complex skill that a human being will ever master. Nearly all
... [Show More] people succeed in learning this complex skill demonstrates how well language has adapted to human nature. Language is the complete expression of what it means to be human.
Basic Components of Human Language
1.Phonology
2.Semantics
3.Grammar:
4.Pragmatics:
5.Morphology:
6.Syntax:
phonology
The study of the sound system of a given language and the analysis and classification of its phonemes.
Semantics
The system of meanings that are expressed by words and phrases. In order to serve as a means of communication between people, words must have a shared or conventional meaning. Picking out the correct meaning for each new word is a major learning task for children.
Grammer
The system of rules by which words and phrases are arranged to make meaningful statements. Children need to learn how to use the ordering of words to mark grammatical functions such as subject or direct object.
Pragmatics
The field of study that emphasizes how language is used in specific situations to accomplish goals
Morphology
The study of word formation and structure.
Syntax
The grammatical arrangement of words in sentences;the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language,
Methods for Studying Language Acquisition
1. Recording and transcribing what children say.
2. Researchers can HABITUATE
3. Children can be shown pictures of toys along with their name
Methods for Studying Language Acquision
4. Children can be asked to answer questions,
5. repeat sentences
6. judgments about grammar.
Reasons for Studying Language Acquisition
Having obtained a set of data from children or their parents, researchers next need to group these data into measures of particular types of language skills, such as vocabulary, sentences, concepts, or conversational
abilities.
What is Language?
Language is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication.
Linguistics
The scientific study of language is called linguistics.
How Many Language are there?
Number of languages and dialects. estimates vary between around 6,000 and 7,000 languages
What does Human Language Rely on?
social convention and learning.
How did Language originate?
Language is thought to have originated when early hominins first started cooperating, gradually changing their primate communication systems as they acquired the ability to form a theory of other minds and shared intentionality.The use of language is deeply entrenched in human culture.
Where is Language processed in the brain?
Language is processed in many different locations in the human brain, but especially in Broca's and Wernicke's areas.
How do humans acquire language?
Humans acquire language through social interaction in early childhood. Children generally speak fluently when they are around three years old.
What are the social and cultural uses of Language?
Signifying group identity, social stratification, as well as for social grooming and entertainment.
Semiosis
To relate signs with particular meanings. Languages rely on the process of semiosis.
How are languages Systematic?
All languages have systems.
Phonological system
Governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes.
Universality of Linguistic Structures or Languages
All languages are systemic
All languages are conventional
All languages are redundant.
All languages change.
How are languages Conventional?
It means that everyone speaks the language the same way. All of a certain item has one name.
How are languages Redundant?
It means that all languages say the same things twice (e.g. subject-verb agreement.)
How do languages Change?
Languages never stay the same. New words are added, their is a loss of words, or both.
Syntactic System
A system of rules and structures which governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances.
Potential For Differences among Languages
Languages evolve and diversify over time, and the history of their evolution can be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had for the later stages to have occurred.
What is a Language Family?
A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family.
olondo European Language Family
English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Hindi.
Sino-Tibetan language Family
Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and many others
Semitic language Family
Arabic, Amharic and Hebrew
oBantu language Family
which include Swahili, Zulu, Shona and hundreds of other languages spoken throughout Africa.
What are the properties of Human Language
Human language has the properties of productivity, recursivity, and displacement.
First Language Acquisition
BABBLING (0.6-1.0, ma-ma-ma), 1 word HOLOPHRASES(1.0-2.0, baba, ka), 2 word UTTERANCES(2.0-2.6), TELEGRAPHIC 3-9 words, Mama sit down ground, ALMOST ADULT LIKE 3 to 5 years- I better go check & see what Papa's doing
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that affects the meaning of speech.
Morpheme
The smallest linguistic unit that has a meaning or grammatical function. Stem, prefix, suffix. Phonemes are combined to make Morphemes/ play, play+s, play+er+s, un+play+able, re+play+ed, play+ful+ly *adding morphemes changes the meaning
In terms of Phonemic awareness, What is a Phoneme?
A phoneme respresents each distinct "mouth move" a child makes in a word. For example, the word "pop" has three distinct phonemes or mouth moves: /p/ /o/ /p/. The word "chop" also has three mouth moves, but the first is made up of two letters: /ch/.
Phonemic Awareness
The ability to hear, identify,and manipulate the individual sounds, phonemes, in oral language.
Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?
Essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, because letters represent Sounds or phonemes. Without phonemic awareness, phonics makes little sense. Fundamental to mapping speech to print.
Give an example of why Phomemic Awareness is important.
If a child cannot hear that man and moon begin with the same sound or cannot blend the sounds into the word run, he or she may have great difficulty connecting sounds with their written symbols or blending sounds to make a word.
What is the best predictor of early reading Success?
Phonemic Awareness [Show Less]