Transcript Lecture 1 Early Language development

The Early Stages
Beginnings of Language
Development
What was the first word you learned? What
types of words would you expect children to
learn first? Rachel’s first words:
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Jasper
Socks
Daddy
Shoes
Juice
Bye-bye
More
Hello
ball
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Nana
Grandad
ta
poo
book
duck
Quack quack
Woof
hot
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Hiya
No
Yes
Please
Bot-bot
My
Toast
Marmite
jam
Stages of development …
• NB: Children do not all develop at the
same pace.
• However: Children all around the world
do pass through the same set of stages.
There is a universal pattern of
development, regardless of the language
being acquired.
Before birth …
• Evidence suggests that
even in the womb, the
growing baby
acclimatises to the
sounds of its native
language.
• Mehler 1988: French
new born babies were
able to distinguish French
from other languages.
Crying …
• First few weeks:
child expresses itself
vocally through
crying.
• Signals hunger,
distress or pleasure.
• Instinctive noise (so
not language).
Cooing …
• Also known as
gurgling or mewing.
• 6-8 weeks old.
• ‘Coo’, ‘ga-ga’ and
‘goo’.
• Child develops
increasing control
over vocal chords.
Babbling …
• Most important stage
in the first year.
• 6-9 months old.
• Sounds begin to
resemble adult sounds
more closely.
Babbling …
• Consonant and vowel
combinations: ‘ba’,
‘ma’ and ‘da’.
• Bilabial sounds most
common (i.e. using
the lips).
• When these sounds
are repeated =
reduplicated
monosyllable.
Babbling …
• These sounds have
no meaning.
• Baby makes far more
noise than before.
• Exercises and
experiments with its
articulators (parts of
the body that make
sounds).
Phonemic expansion …
• Phoneme: smallest
element of sound in a
language that can display
contrast and hence change
meaning or function of a
word, e.g. initial sounds
in ban and Dan.
• During babbling, number
of different phonemes
produced increases
(expands).
Phonemic contraction …
• 9-10 months.
• Number of phonemes
produced reduces to
those found in the
native language
(contracts).
• Baby discards sounds
not required.
Phonemic contraction …
• Evidence: noises
made by children of
different nationalities
starts to sound
different.
• Experiments: native
adults have
successfully identified
babies from own
country.
Intonation …
• Intonation patterns begin to resemble
speech.
• Common: rising intonation at end of
utterance.
• Other variations in rhythm/emphasis may
suggest greeting or calling.
Gesture …
• Although they do not yet have the power of
speech, desire to communicate indicated
through gesture.
• Example: point to object and use facial
expression, ‘What’s that?’.
• Beginnings of pragmatic development
(i.e. recognising that social context affects
meaning).
Understanding …
• Although child may
not begin to speak,
they might understand
meanings of certain
words.
• Word recognition:
usually evident by end
of first year.
• Common: names,
‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.
The first word …
• Somewhere around 12
months the child
makes its first
recognizable word.
Holophrastic stage
• Single word utterances e.g. teddy, mamma etc
• 60% of children’s first utterances are nouns e.g. ball, dog,
etc. Nelson found that these are often the names of
objects which are small and easily handled by a child, or
things that make a noise e.g. car
• Nelson (1973) identified three other categories including:
Actions / events e.g. cuddle, jump, Describing /
modifying words e.g. more, two, Personal / social words
e.g. hiya, wassat
Due to limited number of words, children may make
mistakes e.g. Underextension and overextension
Two-word Stage
• At around 18 months babies begin to combine
words to form two-word utterances
• Although their sentences are not complete, the
syntax is usually correct
• Utterances focus on key words, dropping
function words
• Inflection is used to get meaning across e.g. How
many different ways can you say ‘my car’ to give
it different meanings?
Telegraphic Stage
• 3 and 4 word utterances begin to be
produced
• Some will be grammatically correct, others
will miss out grammatical elements
• Like a telegram, key words are used
• A wider range of structures are formed e.g.
Interrogatives, commands and simple
statements
Post-telegraphic stage
• Children make rapid progress
• Their vocabulary widens considerably
• By 5 years most of the basic grammatical
rules have been learned, although some
take longer e.g. The passive
• More than one clause appears
New vocabulary …
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Acclimatised
Instinctive
Cooing
Babbling
Bilabial
Re-duplicated monosyllable
Phonemic expansion
Phonemic contraction