Chapter 7: Communicative Development: Learning to Use Language

Question 1

What is a Speech Act ?

Answer 1

A unit of language in which the speaker is attempting to describe something.
- we can separate the content of a sentence from its intended function and its effect
For example: requesting, describing, arguing

Question 2

What are the components of Speech Act Development

Answer 2

1. Locution: the form and literal meaning of what the speaker says
2. Illocutionary Force: what the speaker intends to perform with the speech act
3. Perlocution: the intended effect of the speech act.

Question 3

What is the importance of speech acts?

Answer 3

• speech acts enable us to ask separate questions about
  1. the development of the Childs communicative intentions
  2. the development of the forms of language
  3. the development of the ability to achieve desired effects

Question 4

Speech Act Theory of development

Answer 4

1. Perlocutionary phase (birth -10 months, not with intention to communicate)
2. Illocutionary phase (aware their behaviours can communicate , 10-12 months)
3. Locutionary phase (communicative intentions and adult like form, 12+ months)

Question 5

What are the two kinds of Competencies?

Answer 5

• linguistic competence (ability to produce and understand well-formed, meaningful sentence’s, master the systems of language
• Communicative Competence (the ability to use those sentences appropriately in communicative interaction)
  includes pragmatics, discourse and sociolinguistic processes

Question 6

What are some examples of communicative competence

Answer 6

• eye contact
• attention
• listening skills
• self-awareness
• language style
• personal space and body language
• matching energy

Question 7

Is linguistic or Communicative Competence developed first

Answer 7

• they are learned at the same time
• children learnt he system of language as they try to communicate their wants, thoughts and emotions to others, they learn to interact at the same time
• NOT learn linguistic system then apply

Question 8

What do children need to learn communicative competence

Answer 8

1. pragmatics- how to accomplish things with language (purpose)
2. Discourse- language in units larger than a sentence, participating in conversation (conversation and narratives)
3. Sociolinguistics - how language use varies asa function of sociological variables, knowing how to use language appropriately to the social situation (status, culture and gender)

Question 9

Two types of Discourse Development

Answer 9

• conversations : 3 or more people talking

- Narratives: one person talking, telling a story, forms of extended monologue

Question 10

What is discourse?

Answer 10

• communicative language usually involves sequences of connected sentences and interchanges among people

Question 11

What are Grice’s 4 maxims that people follow to be cooperative in communication

Answer 11

when a maxim is violated, some aspects of communication breakdowns and misunderstandings are likely to occur

1. Quality- being truthful, 3 year olds test this maxim
2. Quantity- saying enough information but not too much, ranting
3. Relation- stay relevant to the topic and discussion
4. Manner- be clear, brief orderly. Avoid obscurity and ambiguity

Question 12

What is connected discourse

Answer 12

• when considering communicative competence it is important to look at longer stretches of language

Question 13

Monologic vs. Dialogic Discourse

Answer 13

• monologic : one person

- Dialogic : involving two or more people

Question 14

What are the rules of Discourse

Answer 14

• discourse has rules over and above the regularities of phonology, semantics and syntax
• take turns and be cooperative

Question 15

What is added in connected discourse

Answer 15

• the speaker must make discourse coherent (relate each sentence in meaning to previous sentences), relates to relation maxim
• the speaker must make discourse Cohesive (must link utterances together with linguistic means), flow

Question 16

What is Piaget’s description of the Egocentric Child

Answer 16

• children are initially egocentric : language is centred on themselves
• children conversations were really collective monologues with children taking turns offering their own person speeches, not actually engaging with partners
• not only way of thinking about children’s early speech

Question 17

What is Private Speech

Answer 17

• talking to yourself, with no outside listener

- this speech is sometimes called Solitary Monologue

Question 18

When do children engage in private speech?

Answer 18

-early ages (cribs) till forever

Question 19

How does private speech help children’s language development

Answer 19

• private speech appears to be a form of language play that allows children to practice their linguistic skills

Question 20

Vygotsky and private speech

Answer 20

• argued that the primary function of private speech was for behavioural self guidance : meaning children and adults talk to themselves to help guide them through difficult tasks
• children are not engaging in conversational dialogs, they are talking for their own benefit
• adult speech can scaffold children’s skills in a task and the private speech produced predicts their later performance on the same task

Question 21

Early conversational skills in interaction with Adults

Answer 21

• in western cultures parents often engage in conversations with their prelinguistic infants, but these interactions are structured by the adults around the infant’s behaviour, the infant doesn’t really hold up their end of the conversation

Question 22

What is the fist conversation skill that children learn

Answer 22

• responding to other person’s speech, it is a form of turn-taking
• early on children tend to rely on actions as their responses, though this does not mean that that children truly understand what the right response is

Question 23

When do children begin to develop skills for initiating topics in conversation

Answer 23

• typically within the first year of life
• as they get older they initiate more topics, more likely to use language (as opposed to gesture) to initiate topics
• the topics they initiate change, younger children are more like to introduce topics about themselves, they they talk about their surrounding environment, and then introduce topics about absent items

Question 24

Repairing Miscommunication

Answer 24

• not all communication is successful and it is important to be able to repair communication failures
• this starts the first time children first start talking, they notice and try to repair miscommunications
• younger children are more likely to repeat a failed message while older children are more likely to revise it

Question 25

How do children first tell stories

Answer 25

- in conversational settings - adults scaffold children's narratives by introducing topics and probing for information - stories move from general descriptions of familiar events to specific stories from their life

Question 26

What is Elaborative Scaffolding

Answer 26

- adults ask leading questions that help the child move the narrative forward - better, helps children tell richer narratives and better development of skills

Question 27

What is Repetitive Scaffolding

Answer 27

- adults repeatedly ask for the same kind of information

Question 28

Childrens request forms (imperatives)

Answer 28

- in the telegraphic stage children can request directly view imperatives ("more juice") or indirectly by identifying a problem ("carol hungry") - modals: please, "would you push this"

Question 29

What are registers

Answer 29

- speech styles associated with different settings or listeners - all languages have multiple registers and mastery of a language requires children to learn how to adjust their speech in different situations (speaking in a nice or polite way to authority and more casual to peers)

Question 30

When do children start using registers

Answer 30

- by age 5 children regularly change the voice quality, sentence structure, content of talk and vocabulary depending on puppet they were using - more imperative forms

Question 31

Gender-Typed Language Use

Answer 31

- by pre-school age (3) , boys and girls speak differently - boys: more assertive, simple imperative forms, and interrupting others more often - in conflict: boys more likely to issue directives and threats, girls more likely to try to negotiate settlement

Question 32

What explains the initial development of communicative intent

Answer 32

- appears to be innate, biological disposition of our species - strongly influenced by early environmental factors such as maternal responsiveness

Question 33

What explains the variety of communicative functions children express

Answer 33

- individual differences in cognitive style influence how children communicate

Question 34

What is Sociolinguistic Development influenced by

Answer 34

- influenced by cognitive skill and contextual cues - children often receive direct instruction for some aspects of sociolinguistics - for example: parents often direct children to use the appropriate register (polite speech, manners)

Question 35

Gender-Typed Language Use

Answer 35

- by pre-school age, boys and girls speak differently - boys: more assertive, simple imperative forms, and interrupting others more often - in conflict: boys more likely to issue directives and threats, girls more likely to try to negotiate settlement

Question 36

What explains the initial development of communicative intent

Answer 36

- appears to be innate, biological disposition of our species - strongly influenced by early environmental factors such as maternal responsiveness

Question 37

What are the specific deficits in children with social communication disorder

Answer 37

- communicate for social purposes and appropriate to the social context - change communication to match the context or needs of the listener - follow rules for conversation and storytelling - understand non-literate or ambiguous language - understand what is not explicitly stated

Question 38

What is Sociolinguistic Development influenced by

Answer 38

- influenced by cognitive skill and contextual cues - children often receive direct instruction for some aspects of sociolinguistics - for example: parents often direct children to use the appropriate register (polite speech, manners)

Question 39

Politeness

Answer 39

- indirect requests are perceived as more polite than direct ones - seen in children as young as three years

Question 40

What are Social Communication Disorders

Answer 40

- characterized by difficulties with the use of verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes - primary difficulties are in social interaction, social cognition and pragmatics

Question 41

What is the best way to help a child with ASD

Answer 41

- change our behaviours and attitudes towards it (we dont want to change the person) - appreciate the difference's between human beings

Question 42

What other conditions that social communication disorders can occur with

Answer 42

- intellectual disability - developmental disabilities - learning disabilities - spoken language disorders - written language disorders - ADHD - traumatic brain injury - aphasia - dementia - right-hemisphere damage - ASD

Question 43

What are the Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Answer 43

- challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviours, speech and nonverbal communication

Question 44

Signs a child or adult with Autism spectrum disorder may have problems with social interactions and communication skills

Answer 44

- fails to respond to his or her name - resists cuddling and holding - poor eye contact, lacks facial expression - doesn't speak or has delayed speech

Question 45

What is the best way to help a child with ASD

Answer 45

- change our behaviours and attitudes towards it (we dont want to change the person) - appreciate the difference's between human beings

Question 46

Autism Spectrum Disorder and what it looks like at different ages

Answer 46

- by 6 months: few or no big smiles, limited eye contact - by 9 months: little or no back and forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions - by 12 months: little or no babbling, little or no back and forth gestures - by 16 months : very few or no words - by 24 months: very few or no meaningful, two-phase words