Tutorial Slides Week 4

Question 1

Language Acquisition

Answer 1

• Language is acquired during childhood through a series of stages
• Each stage has its own unique features
• These stages of language acquisition are UNIVERSAL
• -Children in ALL cultural groups progress through the stages of language acquisition in the same sequence

Question 2

Stages of Language Acquisition of Language

Answer 2

• Prelinguistic Speech
  
  • Crying.
  • Cooing.
  • Babbling.
• Linguistic Speech
  
  • Holophrastic speech.
  • Two word utterances.
  • Telegraphic speech.

Question 3

Biological Basis for Language Acquisition

Answer 3

• Language Acquisition is universal and invariant in sequence
• This indicates that language is biological in nature
• Evidence exists to demonstrate that environmental input is also a significant factor in language development

Question 4

Simplified Language

Answer 4

• Snow (1972)
• Language used by adults in interactions with young children is qualitatively and quantitatively different to that used conversing with adults.
• Adults simplify their language significantly when talking to young language learners.

Question 5

Parentese

Answer 5

• The simplifications characterising the language directed by adults toward young language learners.
• deVilliers and deVilliers (1979)
• NINE linguistic patterns typify parentese
• Parentese PLUS grammatical corrections were found to be important for language acquisition.

Question 6

9 Features of Parentese

Answer 6

1. Simple and short sentences.
2. Exaggerated intonation contours in speech.
3. Long pauses between sentences.
4. Stress on most important words in sentence or clause.
5. Frequent repetitions.
6. Prompting:
   
   • Rephrasing the sentence if it appears that the child has not understood.
7. Echoing:
   
   • Repeating what the child has said, especially if an incomplete sentence or phrase.
8. Expansion:
   
   • Child’s sentence or phrase is restated in a more linguistically sophisticated form.
9. Recasting:
   
   • Child’s sentence is rephrased in a different way, while still maintaining the same meaning.

Question 7

Morphemes

Answer 7

• Smallest grammatical unit in a language.-
• Two types:
  
  • Free → function as words (e.g., tree).
  • Bound → Found as parts of words, always with a root (e.g., ed to form past tense).
• Example: Un-touch-able (3 different morphemes)

Question 8

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

Answer 8

• Calculate mean length of utterance:
• Count the number of morphemes in the child’s speech.
• Count the number of utterances (units of speech bound by silence, could be a sentence) she makes.
• Divide the number of morphemes by the number of utterances.

MLU = N Morph/N Utter

Question 9

MLU Description

Answer 9

• Measure of child’s linguistic productivity.
• Higher MLU is taken to indicate a higher level of language proficiency.