Language Development

Module 17

Module Overview• Building Blocks of Language• Language Acquisition• Language Stages

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Building Blocks of Language

Module 17: Language Development

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.

• The artist painted me on the porch.

Grammar - Context

• The artist painted me on the porch.

• The artist painted me on the porch.

• The artist painted me on the porch.

Structure of Language

Language Acquisition

Module 17: Language Development

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

Language Stages

Module 17: Language Development

Language Acquisition Stages

• Three-step process:–Babbling–One-Word Stage–Two-Word Stage

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”

Overgeneralization

The End