Module 17: Language Development Building Blocks of Language
Language • Our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning. • Importance of language in the “information age”
Phoneme • In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit. • English has about 40 phonemes. • A young baby produces all the phonemes of all the languages of the world.
Morpheme • In language, the smallest unit that carries meaning. • May be a word or part of a word • English has about 100, 000 morphemes.
Grammar • System of rules governing how we can combine phonemes, morphemes and words to produce meaningful communication.
Grammar - Context • The artist painted me on the porch.
Grammar - Context • The artist painted me on the porch.
Grammar - Context • The artist painted me on the porch.
Structure of Language
Module 17: Language Development Language Acquisition
Noam Chomsky (1928 - ) • Linguist who argues that children have a predisposition to learn language; • as though their brains are hardwired to learn vocabulary and the rules of grammar.
B. F. Skinner and Language • Psychologist who argued that children learn language through association, imitation and reinforcement. – Association : linking certain sounds with certain people – Imitation – Reinforcement or punishments
Babbling • Babies spontaneously babble phonemes. • Will babble all the phonemes of the world • Will begin to babble only the phonemes of the child’s native tongue at about 1 year of age
Babbling
One-Word Stage • Child uses one word to convey a complete thought or idea
One-Word Stage
Two-Word Stage • Two word sentences showing an appreciation of the rules of grammar
Two-Word Stage
Overgeneralization • Child will generalize grammar rules so they apply the rules too broadly. • Example: “I dugged in the sandbox” rather than “I dug in the sandbox”