L8 Language development

• Three characteristics of language development:

  1. Rapid rate – average one yr old= vocabulary of ten words. This expands to over 10,000 words in the next 4 years.
  2. Few errors. This is extraordinary as there are over 3 million ways to rearrange the words in any 10 word sentence.
  3. Passive mastery develops faster than active mastery – they understand better than they speak.
• • Early exposure to a language as a child is impactful – we otherwise become too specialised in our native language
  • Babbling may reflect how infants practise at gaining control over the motor mechanisms used for articulation.
  • Fast mapping = when children map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure
• Language milestones:

  • First words are at around 10-12 months
  • 18 months = around 50 words 
  • Generally learn nouns before words
  • 18-24 months = two-word phrases
  • 24-36 months = production of phrases
  • 4 years old = around 10,000 words
  • 11 years old = 40,000
  • 18 = 200,000
• Language development and cognitive development:

  • The orderly progression of language development may result from general cognitive development that is unrelated to experience with a specific language.
  • Infants may begin with one or two word phrases because their short term memories are so limited.
  • Or, the orderly progression may depend on experience with a specific language. This has more support from studies.
• Behaviourist explanations:

  • Children acquire language through operant conditioning. 
  • Certain vocalisations are reinforced for example ‘da da’
  • Maturing children also imitate speech patterns.
• Nativist explanations:

  • Humans have a particular aptitude for language development that is separate from general intelligence, and is best explained as an innate biological capacity.
  • The brain has a LAD – language acquisition device.
  • Criticised because they do not explain how language develops, they only explain why.
• Interactionist:

  • Processes of how innate, biological capacity for language combines with environmental experience.
  • Parents tailor their verbal interactions with children in ways that simplify the language acquisition process – e.g. speaking slowly and clearly.
• Study:

  4 day old babies of French speakers habituate to Russian, then hear a second voice speaking either Russian or French. They seem to prefer their native language, which shows how early infants start to learn.
• The vocabulary spurt:

  Slow acquisition until around 15 months then a sudden increase in acquisition. This is a qualitative change.
• Word learning biases help language learning. Mutual exclusivity = new label applies to new object. It applies to the whole object, not parts, extends to objects of the same shape and category.
• Piagetian approach: rejects behaviourism which has no ‘mental’ content and instead emphasises the importance of mental representation. This is general, not language-specific. Piagetians would point to the co-relation between language ability and measures of conceptual development.