Unit 9 Memory Thinking Language Day 6 Language

Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & Language Day 6: Language • Essential Question – How do thinking and language influence each other? • Objectives (write this down!): – I can: Explore various theories used in language acquisition. • DAILY COMMENTARY (in a spiral notebook!): • How many languages to do speak? How did you learn to speak? • Is language acquisition effortful or automatic?

Unit 9: Memory, Thinking, & Language Day 6: Language • Today: DC Notes Video (Partial) Theories of language development – Classwork dialoge – – • For Tonight: – Read pages 418 -428 – RJ

Language, our spoken, written, or gestured work, is the way we communicate meaning to ourselves and others. M. & E. Bernheim/ Woodfin Camp & Associates Language transmits culture. 3

Language Structure Phonemes: The smallest distinct sound unit in a spoken language. For example: bat, has three phonemes b · a · t chat, has three phonemes ch · a · t 4

Language Structure Morpheme: The smallest unit that carries a meaning. It may be a word or part of a word. For example: Milk = milk Pumpkin = pump. kin Unforgettable = un · for · get · table 5

Structuring Language Phonemes Basic sounds (about 40) … ea, sh. Morphemes Smallest meaningful units (100, 000) … un, for. Words Meaningful units (290, 500) … meat, pumpkin. Phrase Composed of two or more words (326, 000) … meat eater. Sentence Composed of many words (infinite) … She opened the jewelry box. 6

Grammar is the system of rules in a language that enable us to communicate with and understand others. Grammar Semantics Syntax 7

Semantics is the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. For example: Semantic rule tells us that adding –ed to the word laugh means that it happened in the past. 8

Syntax consists of the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences. For example: In English, syntactical rule says that adjectives come before nouns; white house. In Spanish, it is reversed; casa blanca. 9

Identify the level of language acquired • Koko the gorilla was trained by Francine Patterson to use sign language. The Gorilla Language Project reports that Koko can use 1000 different signs, and can understand 2000 words. Koko is now creating statements by blending three to six words. Comprehension? Phonology? Morphology? Syntax?

Identify the level of language acquired • In 1952, researcheres Hayes and Hayes tried to teach their chimpanzee, named Vickie, to speak the English language. Vickie learned how to make four sounds, and never did produce anything that sounded much like language.

Identify the level of language acquired • Alex, an African grey parrot, was trained by Irene Pepperberg. Alex can say 70 words, including nouns, verbs and adjectives. Alex can also identify colors and textures, can use numbers from one to five, and can report if objects are the same or different.

Identify the level of language acquired • Herman, Richards, and Woltz (1984) trained dolphings to undestand hand commands. Their dolphins can understand five=sign strings, as well as some rules of language. For instance, their dolphins Phoenix and Akeakamie, understand the order words have to be in to perform a certain command.

Identify the level of language acquired • Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee, was trained by Herbert Terrance to understand sign language. Terrance was skeptical of many former chimp experiments. Nim learned 125 signs, but Terrance realized that Nim seemed to simply be responding to signs that the researchers prseented rather than understanding their meaning.

Language Development Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images Children learn their native languages much before learning to add 2+2. We learn, on average (after age 1), 3, 500 words a year, amassing 60, 000 words by the time we graduate from high school. 15

When do we learn language? Babbling Stage: Beginning at 4 months, the infant spontaneously utters various sounds, like ahgoo. Babbling is not imitation of adult speech. 16

When do we learn language? One-Word Stage: Beginning at or around his first birthday, a child starts to speak one word at a time and is able to make family members understand him. The word doggy may mean look at the dog out there. 17

When do we learn language? Two-Word Stage: Before the 2 nd year a child starts to speak in two-word sentences. This form of speech is called telegraphic speech because the child speaks like a telegram: “Go car, ” means I would like to go for a ride in the car. 18

When do we learn language? Longer phrases: After telegraphic speech, children begin uttering longer phrases (Mommy get ball) with syntactical sense, and by early elementary school they are employing humor. You never starve in the desert because of all the sand -which-is there. 19

Stage & Age of Language Development 20

Explaining Language Development 1. Operant Learning: Skinner (1957, 1985) believed that language development may be explained on the basis of learning principles such as association, imitation, and reinforcement. 21

Explaining Language Development 2. Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959, 1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it cannot be explained through learning principles, and thus most of it is inborn. – Chomsky says everyone has a “Language Acquisition Device” 22

Explaining Language Development 3. Statistical Learning and Critical Periods: Well before our first birthday, our brains are discerning word breaks by statistically analyzing which syllables in hap-py-ba-by go together. These statistical analyses are learned during critical periods of child development. 23

David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images Michael Newman/ Photo Edit, Inc. Eye of Science/ Photo Researchers, Inc. Genes, Brain, & Language Genes design the mechanisms for a language, and experience modifies the brain. 24

Language & Age Learning new languages gets harder with age. 25

What to work on now • Complete any missing assignments – Log into power school if you need to – Check with classmates if you don’t know what an assignment is • Check with me only after you have checked with a classmate • PLEASE remain focused and working – prove to me that I can rely on you to use this time wisely