Language - Trakya Üniversitesi

Language
Definition of Language
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
• A systematic means of communicating ideas or
feelings by the use of conventionalized signs,
sounds, gestures, or marks having understood
meanings
Steven Pinker The language instinct (1994)
• Language is a complex, specialized skill, which
deploys in the child spontaneously, without
conscious effort of formal instruction, is deployed
without awareness of its underlying logic, is
qualitatively the same in every individual, and is
distinct from more general abilities to process
information or behave intelligently (p.18)
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Language is systematic.
Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual.
The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.
Language is used for communication.
Language operates in a speech community or culture.
Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to
humans.
Language is acquired by all people in much the same way;
language and language learning have universal characteristics.
Language evolves within specific historical, social, and cultural
contexts.
Language learning and use are determined by the intervention of
biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and environmental factors.
Language, as a rule governed behavior, is described by at least
five parameters-phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, semantic,
and pragmatic.
Language is an agreement among participants in conversation.
Languages exist because users have agreed on the symbols to be
used and the rules to be followed.
First Language Acquisition
Language learning is an amazing feat-one that has attracted the
attention of linguists and psychologists for generations.
• How do children accomplish this?
• What enables a child not only learn words, but put them
together in meaningful sentences?
• What pushes children to go on developing complex grammatical
language although their early simple communication is
successful for most purposes?
• Does the child language develop similar around the world?
First Language Acquisition
The first three years: Milestones and
developmental sequences
• One remarkable thing about L1 acquisition is
the high degree of similarity in the early
language of children all over the world.
Researchers have described developmental
sequences for many aspects of first language
acquisition.
First Language Acquisition
The earliest vocalizations
are simply the involuntary crying that
babies do when they are hungry or
uncomfortable.Baby Crying Sound Effect
[High Quality, Free Download].mp4
First Language Acquisition
• Soon, however, we hear the cooing and gurgling
sounds of contended babies, lying in their beds
looking at fascinating shapes and movement around
them. cooing.mp4
• Even though they have little control over the sounds
they make in these early weeks of life, infants are
able to hear the subtle differences between
the sounds of the human languages.
• Furthermore, in cleverly designed experiments,
researchers have demonstrated that tiny babies are
capable of very fine auditory discrimination. For
example, they can hear the difference between
sounds as similar as «pa» and «ba».
First Language Acquisition
• Babbling:
Babbling (also called
twaddling) is a stage in child
development and a state in language
acquisition, during which an infant
appears to be experimenting with
uttering sounds of language, but not yet
producing any recognizable words.
• Babbling begins shortly after birth and
progresses through several stages as the
infant's
repertoire
expands
and
vocalizations become more speech-like.
Infants begin to produce recognizable
words usually around 12 months, though
babbling may continue for some time
afterward.Babbling .mp4baby talks with
cat on iPad.mp4
First Language Acquisition
• It will be many months before
babies’ own vocalizations begin to
reflect the characteristics of the
language or languages they hear
and longer still before they connect
language sounds with specific
meaning.
• By the end of their first year,
babies understand quite a few
frequently repeated words in the
language spoken around them.
They wave when someone says
«bye bye»; they clap when someone
says «pat a cake».Clap.mp4
First Language Acquisition
• As they reach the end of their
first year they utter their first
firsts. first words.mp4
• By the age of two, most children
reliably produce at least 50
different words and some produce
many more. About this time, they
begin to combine words into
simple
sentences
such
as
«mommy juice» and «baby fall
down».
These
sentences
are
called
«telegraphic» because they leave
out such things as articles,
prepositions, and auxilary verbs.
telegraphic 1.mp4telegraphic.mp4
First Language Acquisition
• Note:
We
recognize
telegraphic
utterances as sentences because, even
though function words and grammatical
morphemes are missing, the word order
reflects the word order of the
language they are hearing and the
combined words have a meaningful
relationship that makes them more than
just a list of words. Thus for an English
speaking child, «kiss baby» does not mean
the same thing as «baby kiss».
• By two years of age, children begin to
understand more sophisticated
language and they even start to form
questions and negatives
Ex: where my mitten?, what Jeff doing?
Why not me sleeping?, I don’t need pants
off
• By about three, children can
comprehend an amazing quantity of
linguistic input. Their speech and
comprehension capacity increases. They
start to play with language but
sometimes they may produce funny or
silly sentences.
Ex: Erase the window, headlights are lights
that go in the head
• This fluency and creativity continues
into school age. Children learn what to
say but also what not to say. They learn
the social functions of their language.
First Language Acquisition
Grammatical Morphemes
• In 1960s, several researchers focused on how
children acquire grammatical morphemes in
English. Roger Brown found that grammatical
morphemes were acquired in a similar sequence
1. Present progressive –ing (mommy running)
2. Plural-s (two books)
3. Irregular past forms (Baby went)
4. Possesive-s (Daddy’s hat)
5. Copula (mommy is happy)
6. Articles the and a
7. Regular past –ed (she walked)
8. Third person singular simple present –s (she runs)
9. Auxiliary be (he is coming)
First Language Acquisition
• Grammatical Morphemes
The Wug Test
The Wug tests proved that by
generalizing the patterns to
words they have never heard
before, children show that their
language is more than just a list
of memorized word pairs. Wug
Test.mp4wug test 2.mp4
First Language Acquisition
• Negation
Children learn the functions of negation
very early. That is, they learn to comment
on the disappearance of objects, to refuse a
suggestion, or to reject an assertion, even
at a single word stage.
First Language Acquisition
• Negation
Stage 1
Negation is usually expressed by word
«no», either all alone or as the first word
in the utterance.
Ex: No. No cookie. No comb hair. no.mp4
First Language Acquisition
• Negation
Stage 2
Utterance grow longer and the
sentence
subject
may
be
included. The negative verb
appears just before the verb.
Sentences expressing rejection
or prohibition often use «don’t».
Ex: Daddy no comb hair. Don’t
touch that.
First Language Acquisition
• Negation
Stage 3
The negative element is inserted into a
more complex sentence. Children add
forms of the negative other than «no»,
including words like «can’t», and
«don’t». However children do not yet vary
these forms for different persons or tenses.
Ex: I can’t do it. He don’t want it.
First Language Acquisition
• Negation
Stage 4
Children begin to attach the negative element to
the correct form of auxiliary verbs such as «do»
and «be».
Ex: you didn’t have supper. She doesn’t want it.
Even though their language system is now quite
complex, they may still have difficulty with some
other features related to negatives.
Ex: I don’t have no more candies.
First Language Acquisition
• Questions
• Wh- questions
There is a predictable order in
which the wh- words emerge.
What is the first wh- question word to
be used.
Where and who emerge very soon.
Identfying and locating people and
objects are within the child’s
understanding
of
the
world.
Furthermore adults tend to ask
children just these types of questions
in the early days of language
learning. For example: «where is
mommy?» or «who is that».
First Language Acquisition
• Questions
• Wh- questions
Why emerges around the end of the second
year and becomes a favorite question for the
next two years. why.mp4
Children probably discover that asking
questions beginning why gets adults to
engage in conversations and thus they ask
endless number of questions beginning with
why.
FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Questions
Wh- questions
Finally, when the child has a better understanding
of manner and time, «how» and «when» emerge.

Note: The ability to use wh- question words is
at least tied to children’s cognitive
development.
First Language Acquisition
 Word order in questions
Stage 1
Children’s earliest questions are single words or simple
two-three word sentences with rising intonation:
Cookie? Mommy book?
First Language Acquisition
• Word order in questions
Stage 2
As they begin to ask more questions, children use
the word order of the declarative sentece, with
rising intonation.
You like this? I have come?
FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Word order in questions
Stage 3
Gradually, children notice that the structure of questions is
different and begin to produce questions such as:
Can I go? Are you happy?

Note: Although some questions at this stage match adult
pattern, they may be right for the wrong reason. To describe
this, we need to see the pattern from the child’s perspective
rather than from the perspective of the adult grammar. We
call this stage fronting because the child’s rule seems to be
that questions are formed by putting something (verb or
question word) at the front of a sentence, leaving the rest of
the sentences in its statement form.
Ex: Is the teddy tired? Do I can have cookie?
Why you don’t have one? Why you catched it?
First Language Acquisition
• Word order in questions
Stage 4
Some questions are formed by subject-auxiliary inversion. The
questions resemble those of stage 3, but there is more variety in the
auxiliaries that appear before the subject.
Ex: are you going to play with me?
At this stage, children can have «do» in their questions in which
there would be no auxiliary in the declerative version of the
sentence.
Ex: Do dogs like ice cream?
Even at this stage, however, children seem to be able to use either
inversion or a wh- word, but not both (for ex: «ıs he crying?» but not
« why is he crying?».
Thus, we may find inversion in yes/no questions but not in
wh- questions .
First Language Acquisition
• Word order in questions
Stage 5
Both wh- and yes/no questions are formed
correctly
Ex: Are these your boots?
Why did you do that?
Negative questions may still be a bit too
much.
Ex: Why the teddy bear can’t go outside?
First Language Acquisition
• Word order in questions
Stage5
Even though performance on most questions
is correct, there is still one more problem.
When wh- words appear in subordinate
clauses or embedded questions, children
overgeneralize the inverted form that would
be correct for simple questions and produce
sentences such as:
Ask him why can’t he go out.
First Language Acquisition
• Word order in questions
Stage 6
They are able to correctly form all
question types, including negative and
complex embedded questions.
First Language Acquisition
The pre-school years
By the age four, most children can ask questions,
give commands, report real events, and create
stories about imaginary ones, using correct word
order and grammatical markers most of the time.
They begin to acquire less frequent and more
complex structures such as passives and relative
clauses.
First Language Acquisition
The pre-school years
• They develop their ability to use language in a
widening social environment.
• They use language in a greater variety of situations.
• They interact more often with unfamiliar adults.
• They begin to talk sensibly on the phone to invisible
grandparents.
First Language Acquisition
The pre-school years
• They
begin
to
develop
metalinguistic awareness, the
ability to treat language as an
object seperate from the meaning it
conveys.
• If children are awake for ten or
twelve hours a day, we estimate
that they are in contact with the
language of their environment for
20,000 hours or more by the time
they go to school.
First Language Acquisition
The School Years
• The ability to understand others and to use language grows.
• Learning to read gives a great boost to metalinguistic awareness.
• Reading reinforces the understanding that a word is seperate
from the thing it represents.
• They learn and practice ambiguity and make jokes about it.
• Growth of vocabulary. Vocabulary grows at a rate between
several hundred and more than a thousand words a year.
• Children learn registers.
First Language Acquisition Theories
• Behaviorism
- Behaviorism is a psychological
theory of learning which was very
influential in the 1940s and
1950s, especially in the United
States.
- The primary tenet of behaviorism
is that psychology should concern
itself with the observable
behavior of people and animals,
not with unobservable events that
take place in their minds.
Four of the principal protagonists
in behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov
Edward L. Thorndike
John. B. Watson
B.F. Skinner
Basic Tenets of the Theory
• Psychology should be seen as a science. Theories need to be supported
by empirical data obtained through careful and controlled
observation and measurement of behavior. Behaviorism is primarily
concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events
like thinking and emotion. Observable (i.e. external) behavior can be
objectively and scientifically measured.
• People have no free will – a person’s environment determines their
behavior.
• When born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate).
• There is little difference between the learning that takes place in
humans and that in other animals. Therefore research can be
carried out on animals as well as humans.
• Behavior is the result of stimulus – response (i.e. all behavior, no
matter how complex, can be reduced to a simple stimulus – response
association). Learning is viewed as the development of stimulusresponse associations through habit formation, habits being
developed by practice and reinforcement.
• All behavior is learnt from the environment. We learn new behavior
through classical or operant conditioning.
a)Classical Conditioning (Ivan
Pavlov)
• Learning is seen as a question of developing connections
(known as stimulus-response bonds) between events. The
process of developing connections is called conditioning.
• Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of
involuntary emotional or physiological responses such as
fear, increased heartbeat, salivation, or sweating, which
are sometimes called the respondents because they are
automatic responses to stimuli. Through the process of
classical conditioning, humans and animals can be trained
to react involuntarily to a stimulus that previously has no
effect or a very different effect on them. Pavlov’s dogs are
the best known example of the conditioning process.
Classical Conditioning [cc].mp4Classical Conditioning at
BGSU.mp4Classical Conditioning - AP Psych Video
(1).mp4
• Neutral Stimulus: Stimulus not connected to a response.
• Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Stimulus that automatically
produces an emotional or physiological response.
• Unconditioned response (UR): Naturally occuring
emotional or physiological response.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Stimulus that evokes an
emotional or pyhsiological response after conditioning.
• Conditional Response (CR): Learned response to a
previously neutral stimulus.
Operant Conditioning (B .F.
Skinner)
• Operant conditioning was developed by B.F
Skinner in 1937 and deals with the modification
of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior.
His work was based on Thorndike’s law of effect.
• Operant behavior operates on the environment
and is maintained by its consequences.
• Reinforcement and punishment, the core
tools of operant conditioning, are either positive
(delivered following a response), or negative
(withdrawn following a response).Changing
Behavior with Operant Conditioning.mp4
• Reinforcement: Use of consequences to
strengthen behavior. Behavior which is
reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e.
strengthened); behavior which is not
reinforced tends to die out-or be
extinguished (i.e. weakened).There are two
types of reinforcement.
1. Positive reinforcement: Strengthening
behavior by presenting a desired stimulus
after the behavior.
2. Negative reinforcement: Strengthhening a
behavior by removing an aversive stimulus.
The Differences Between Classical and Operant
Conditioning
• One of the simplest ways to remember the differences between
classical and operant conditioning is to focus on whether the
behavior is involuntary or voluntary. Classical conditioning
involves making an association between an involuntary
response and a stimulus, while operant conditioning is about
making an association between a voluntary behavior and a
consequence.
• In operant conditioning, the learner is also rewarded with
incentives, while classical conditioning involves no such
enticements. Also remember that classical conditioning is
passive on the part of the learner, while operant conditioning
requires the learner to actively participate and perform some
type of action in order to be rewarded or punished. The
difference between classical and operant conditioning - Peggy
Andover.mp4
Example Number 1
• Every time someone flushes a toilet in the
apartment building, the shower becomes very hot
and causes the person to jump back. Over time, the
person begins to jump back automatically after
hearing the flush, before the water temperature
changes.
• This example is classical conditioning because
jumping away from hot water is an automatic
response.
• The hot water is the US
• The jumping back is the UR
• The toilet flush is the CS
• The jumping back to the flush alone is the CR
• Example Number 2
• Your father gives you a credit card at
the end of your first year in college
because you did so well. As a result, your
grades continue to get better in your
second year.
• This example is operant conditioning
because school performance is a
voluntary behavior.
• Example Number 4
• You eat a new food and then get sick because of
the flu. However, you develop a dislike for the
food and feel nauseated whenever you smell it.
• This example is classical conditioning because
nausea is an automatic response.
•
•
•
•
The flu sickness is the US.
The nausea is the UR.
The new food is the CS.
The nausea to the new food is the CR.
• A lion in a circus learns to stand up on a
chair and jump through a hoop to receive a
food treat.
• This example is operant conditioning
because standing on a chair and jumping
through a hoop are voluntary behaviors.
• The food treat is a positive reinforcement
because it is given and it increases the
behavior.
• Example Number 7
• A professor has a policy of exempting students
from the final exam if they maintain perfect
attendance during the quarter. His students’
attendance increases dramatically.
• This example is operant conditioning because
attendance is a voluntary behavior.
• The exemption from the final exam is a negative
reinforcement because something is taken away
that increases the behavior (attendance).
Behaviorism and first language
acquisition
• Children
learn language through a
process of stimulus (hearing, input) and
response (our trials). Correct responses
are rewarded, as is our correct language
use, which increases over time.
• Language learning is the result of
imitation, practice, feedback on
success, and habit formation.
Behaviorism and first language
acquisition
• Traditional behaviorists hypothesized that when
children imitated the language produced by those
around them, their attempts to reproduce what they
heard received «positive reinforcement». This
could take the form of praise or just successful
communication.
Thus
encouraged
by
their
environment, children would continue to imitate
and practice these sounds and patterns until they
formed habits of correct language use. According
to this view, the quality and quantity of the language
the child hears, as well as the consistency of the
reinforcement offered by others in the environment,
would shape the child’s language. This theory gives
great importance to the environment.

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