Module 1: page 6 - 10

• Evidence from Neuroimaging Studies (ERP and FMRI)

  • young infants show greater activation in the left than right hemisphere when presented with a variety of acoustic signals, not only speech, and that the lateralization for speech becomes stronger as children’s language skills develop
• Evidence from Neuroimaging Studies (Optical topography or NIRS)

  • with newborns, have found that speech elicits greater left-hemisphere activation than does the same speech signal played in reverse
• Evidence from Language Aphasia (Aphasia in children)

  • In children who have already acquired language, left-hemisphere damage is more likely to result in aphasia than is right-hemisphere damage
  • the type of aphasia that children experience following left-hemisphere damage is different from the aphasia seen in adults.
  • Most likely to suffer nonfluent (Broca-type) aphasia
  • Wernicke is more common in adults
  • within the left hemisphere, developmental changes affect the way language functions are organized
  • children recover more quickly and more fully than adults.
• Evidence from Cases of Brain Injury Prior to Language

  • Brain damage in either the right or the left hemisphere prior to language acquisition can cause language delay
  •  the size of the lesion is more important than the location in predicting its effect. 
  • right hemisphere is more involved in language acquisition than it is in language functioning once language is acquired.
  • Language development is initially delayed, kapag 5 na, yung mga nagka-brain injury prior to language acquisition - nasa normal range pa rin score sa standardized test of language
• The Basis of the Left-Hemisphere Specialization for Language

  • Why left-hemisphere of the brain is specialized for language processing
  • Speed of neurons in the left-hemisphere fire matches the properties of language → alignment → process language efficiently
  • Can change during development and w/ expertise
  • LH is better at handling well-practiced routines
  • Ex: musicians processing music in a more analytical way
• Plasticity


  Ability of parts of the brain to take over functions they ordinarily would never serve
• Right hemisphere is never quite as good as the left at some aspects of language
• Plasticity of the immature brain


  Allows one part to take over the work of another
• Brain removes a portion it does not need
• Daily use of the left hemisphere for language appears to stabilize language in the left hemisphere and allows elimination of the redundant right-hemisphere capacity
• If the left hemisphere is damaged early in life

  The right hemisphere still has the capacity to take over language functions
• With age


  The right hemisphere's capacity to take over language functions declines
• • The Critical Period Hypothesis
  • a biologically determined period exists during which language acquisition must occur
  • Biologically determined deadlines
  • Critical period for imprinting in birds
  • Some species walk as soon as they hatch, following the first moving thing (usually the mother) they see until maturity → following mothers everywhere
  • The experience of following a moving object is necessary for imprinting, and it must happen within a few hours after hatching.
  • Language acquisition = age-limited potential
• First Language Acquisition After Infancy

  • "Wild Children”
  • Experiment to test critical period hypothesis
  • Depriving children of exposure to language during the normal period of language development (will later be provided then examine what occurs/differs) ⇒ unfortunate cases → Victor of Aveyron (behavioral characteristics associated with autism)
  • Early social isolation
  • when such children fail to acquire language, we cannot be sure whether the failure was due to the late start or to some impairment the child might have had previously.
• • “The Case of Genie”
  • “Genie’s mother” - 1970
  • Nearly blind, seeking help, recently managed to escape captivity by her mentally ill husband
  • → general social services office
  • With a 12-yr-old daughter, Genie → police took her → hospital → severe malnutrition
• • “The Case of Genie”
  • Genie
  • Spent her time alone, strapped to a potty chair in a small bedroom
  • Fed hurriedly, with minimal interaction, and no talk
  • Had no language when she was discovered
• • “The Case of Genie”
  • Dichotic listening tests
  • Right-hemisphere activity 
  • Genie was exposed to language late
  • Her grammatical limitations = grammatical deficiencies of patients who have recovered language after surgical removal of the left hemisphere
  • Genie acquired language with the right-hemisphere but it wasn’t as good at language as the left
  • =  age 13, a left hemisphere that has never been used for language has lost that capacity
• Late Acquisition of American Sign Language

  Children born deaf to hearing parents, having no language input at home (deaf-of-hearing children)
• If the young brain is better at language acquisition

  Deaf individuals who began to acquire sign language as older children should be less proficient than those who acquired it in infancy
• Adults who were first exposed to ASL after early childhood did not perform as well as those who had been exposed as infants, even after 30 years of using the language every day
• Newport (1990) suggests there is some benefit to being a young language learner
• Second First Language Acquisition in Internationally Adopted Children

  Do later start than normal affect language development?
• Adoptive families tend to be of higher socioeconomic status (SES) than average, and children adopted from China are almost exclusively girls
• Second Language Acquisition


  • Young children will acquire English quickly, when they become adults, they will be difficult to distinguish from native speakers of English
  • Adults will master the new language slowly, with difficulty, will never quite sound like native speakers
• Children have a unique, biologically based ability to acquire language
• Age of exposure effects

  The earlier one is exposed to a second language, the higher the level of proficiency one is likely to ultimately achieve
• It takes children longer to acquire a second language than most people realize, and even children do not always achieve native-like proficiency
• Language is…

  DEMPC

  
  

  • Distinctive
  • Pantao lang
  • Hiwalay sa iba pang wika - may kani-kaniyang sistema/structure/syntax
• Test of Mutual Intelligibility

  • 2 different languages are unintelligible
  • Alam mong iba na ang language spoken ng isang tao kapag hindi mo na naiintindihan
• Language is…

  DEMPC

  
  

  • Essential to human cooperation
  • Humans are social animals
  • Where there is human, there is language
• Language is…

  DEMPC

  
  

  • Mysterious
  • Arbitrariness of a language
  • After many decades of study, it won't be mysterious anymore
  • Nagbabago per generation pati yung dynamis ng language
  • Mystery din kung paano nagsimulang magsimula ang tao
  • Walang distinct theory ang makapagpapaliwanag
• Language is…

  DEMPC

  
  

  • Practical
  • We need language to live and survive
• Language is…

  DEMPC

  Central to human life
• Language is not…

  (Pinker, 2012)

  • Written language
  • <<< actual utterances
  • Proper grammar
  • Descriptive vs. prescriptive grammar
  • Thought
• What is Language?

  “Language is the systematic and conventional use of sounds (or signs or written symbols) for the purpose of self-expression.”

  • Systematic and conventional use - it is not random
  • May rules
  • Shared and agreed upon by speakers

  (Crystal 1995, quoted in Hoff 2014)