Language Aquisition, Learning and Education

How a child learns a language (ACQUISITION) is dependent upon how that culture views the abilities of the child.

ACQUISITION versus LEARNING (secondary)

General approaches to Language Acquisition

1.       Social interactionism

What are the language behaviors that nature provides innately and what are those behaviors that are realized by environmental exposure, which is nurture.

2.       Relational frame theory

The relational frame theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, Roche, 2001), provides a wholly selectionist/learning account of the origin and development of language competence and complexity. Based upon the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism, RFT posits that children acquire language purely through interacting with the environment. RFT theorists introduced the concept of functional contextualism in language learning, which emphasizes the importance of predicting and influencing psychological events, such as thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, by focusing on manipulable variables in their context. RFT distinguishes itself from Skinner's work by identifying and defining a particular type of operant conditioning known as derived relational responding, a learning process that to date appears to occur only in humans possessing a capacity for language. Empirical studies supporting the predictions of RFT suggest that children learn language via a system of inherent reinforcements, challenging the view that language acquisition is based upon innate, language-specific cognitive capacities.^[4]

3.       Emergentism

Emergentist theories, such as MacWhinney's competition model, posit that language acquisition is a cognitive process that emerges from the interaction of biological pressures and the environment. According to these theories, neither nature nor nurture alone is sufficient to trigger language learning; both of these influences must work together in order to allow children to acquire a language. The proponents of these theories argue that general cognitive processes subserve language acquisition and that the end result of these processes is language-specific phenomena, such as word learning and grammar acquisition. The findings of many empirical studies support the predictions of these theories, suggesting that language acquisition is a more complex process than many believe

Language Acquisition: Cultural Considerations

Stages:

1.       Sounding (up to 4 months)

2.       Babbling (up to 1 year)-phonetic system down

3.       One-Word Stage (holophrastic) (1-2 years)-pointing

4.       Syntactic (2-4 years)

By 5 years of age, children possess the basic structures of language. All the rest is learning new vocabulary & complex grammatical structures.

5.       Conversational Rule Acquisition (beginning, maintaining ending) Age 5-16

a.       Sensitive to context, topic, interests of communicators, etc (social variables)

                                                               i.      Depend upon COGNITIVE, LINGUISTIC & SOCIAL maturation

Universal Sequence: cross culturally

·         Consonants

o   Front to back (labial are first)

o   Voiced to voiceless

·         Vowels

o   Back to front

o   Low to high

·         Passive Language (always understand more than you can produce)

·         Syntactic Stage

o   Pivot class before open class

§  PC: ritualized greetings, deixis, this/that, possessives & adjectives

§  OC: nouns, verbs (content)

§  PC occurs with OC, or two OC (shows development of grammatical meaning)

·         Neg + sentence (negation)

·         Question words: what/Where (concrete), who, Why/when (abstract: causality, means, temporality)

·         Locatives

o   In/on/under

o   Beside

o   Back/front (inherent to object)

o   Between

o   Back/front (not inherent to object)

How does a child learn Language?

1.       Discover rule

2.       Generalized rule through analogy

3.       Over-generalize rule  (refine)-mouses, goed, doed, comed

4.       Internalize rule

Vocabulary Growth

·         Strategies

o   Broadening/narrowing the sense of reference of a word (mommy, cookie, fluffy(dog))

o   Coining words (summered, souping, make it bell)

Trained Monkey Phenomenon

(imitation-response elicitations)

M: Adam, ask the lady where she can find some toys

A: Lady, where you can find some toys?

M: Adam, ask the lady why she can’t run

A: Lady, why you can’t run?

A: Adam wants some juice?

M (correcting): Can Adam have some juice?

A: Can Adam have some juice? Adam can have cookie too?

Instructional Strategies by Cultures are based on:

1.       Teach prescribed rules of interaction

2.       Norms of communication behavior

3.       Confirm cultural beliefs about language learning and children

American style in Child  Rearing and Language:

·         Speak directly to the child in “baby talk”

·         Consider child someone to directly address-conversational partner

·         MC

o   Self-lowering (baby talk)-asking questions you already know answers to

o   Child-raising; treating child as an equal communicative partner

·         (As opposed to Papua New Guinea, where child is expected to learn how to communicate with larger social group).

·         Interesting questions:

o   How do innate language capacities interact with culturally & linguistically significant aspects of upbringing?

o   Do cultural aspects of bilingual environments have impact on language learning?

§  Anti-chomsky to say that environment has this much or any impact on language learning, which is controlled by the LAD

§  Chomsky learn a UNIVERSAL GRAMMER (UG) despite “poverty of imput”-language is too complex to be explained by the limited signals that children get in the first year of life.

o   Sociolinguistics: not degenerate or poverty ridden input.  It is more about a GENERALIZED SET OF COGNITIVE MECHANISMS. SOCIAL INTERACTION plays a CRUCIAL ROLE

§  Language acquisition makes you a competent member of society

§  Being a competent member of society is realized through language

§  Children take an active role in constructing language capabilities that are USEFUL to them.

§  Peer-peer interactions need to be looked at in addition to adult/child interactions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lih0Z2IbIUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

 USA-Middle Class*

1. Repeat utterance with expansion (based on middle class values: care givers must instruct children carefully in language and conversational skills – OVERT TEACHING is the duty of the care giver.

2.       Modeling: commenting on semantic content (maintaining child’s word order when possible)

A: Adam milk!

M: Adam has some milk!

A: dat book nice!

M: That is a nice book, what is it about?

A: dat doggie!

M: The book is about a doggie! Good, Adam.

A: Good Adam!

*Others (WC) expect children will naturally learn to speak and do not engage in these behaviors with such frequency. They may instead expand on their own speech supplying REPETITIONS, and VARIANT SYNTAX of their own utterances.

M: What you eating there?

M: What do you have?

M: Are you eating something?

M: Jane, are you eating something?

M: What are you eating there?

Kaluli (PNG)

Children need to be directly instructed

Routines (Elema):

Utterance_______________________”say like that”

Kwara’ae (Melanesia)

Begin talking to infants and including them in conversations. Speak for them by translating their babbling. (overt)

Navaho

Begin talking to children when they say things that make sense (3) Otherwise ignore their words. All learning is passive. (Covert)

Japan

Based on the notion of ‘Omoiyari’- empathy for others, politeness is overtly taught. Teaching is through example and admonition (directives)

1.       Save face by non-expression of feelings

2.       Practice indirectness

3.       Avoid conflict in communication

4.       “lack of response” signals self absorption and is rude. Teach to always respond.

5.       Personal desires are kept in check (do not show emotions)

Samoan

Signal ling emotions and intentions is part of good communication. Have particles, pronouns and affixes which allow you to do this in language. Overtly taught in DIRECTIVES

1.       Learn by age 4: affect markers-express emotion (before neutral ways of expression)

MULTI-LINGUALS AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Children will pass through stages more slowly than monolinguals and will often lag in production. When they do produce they do so at a more “advanced” level. (cognitive advantages)

1.       Do not mix languages (no code noise)

2.       Speak later but in fuller form

3.       Can learn up to 12 languages with no “bleeding”

4.       Critical age is 5/12

GENIE THE WILD CHILD (watch video)

·         Despite exposure, children may fail to acquire language under certain social circumstances

o   Attitudes

o   Parents actions in using speech styles

o   Perceived abilities/preferences of children as they become speakers (by parents)

Language Subordination

Language is more than a way to communicate. It is an act of IDENTITY, an expression of who you are.

• Asking someone to give up the way that they speak is asking them to give up their identity
• drop their allegiances to people, and places, and things
• The NEW RACISM (Yoshino)
• in the wake of ever tightening anti-discrimination laws, language and accent have become an acceptable excuse to publicly criticize, refuse to recognize and turn away those who do not speak standard.
• can't be racist, but can not hire someone because they speak black vernacular

Language and Ideology

• Foucault
• "any system of education is a political way of maintaining or modifying the appropriation of discourses, along with the knowledges and powers which they carry"
• formal initiation into linguistic prejudices (school)
• non-standard speaker consent and become complicit in th propaganda against their own interests
• the things they learn about their nonstandard language make them unhappy and uncomfortable
• the things they promise will improve if they give up nonstandard are seductive
• money, success, recognition, upward mobility
• Process
• language is mystified
• learning takes expert guidance and instruction
• authority is claimed
• we write well, we are experts who have studied. we will teach
• misinformation is generated
• your usage is inaccurate on historical, aesthetic and logical grounds
• targeted languages are trivialized
• your language is homey, quaint, ignorant, has narrow usage
• conformers are held up as positive examples
• if you conform you will go far...look at Danny
• non-conformers are vilified and marginalized
• willfully stupid, arogant, uniformed and deviant
• explicit promises are made
• employers will take you seriously, doors will open
• threats are made
• doors will remain closed, no one will take you seriously

The Individual's role in communication

• the "space" between two communicators is rarely neutral. It is usually colored by ideology
• CHOICES in COMMUNICATION (two way collaborative method)
• Clark: Principle of mutual responsibility
• the burden is conversation is usually on the listener, since they have to decipher meaning. The listener may choose to put more or less EFFORT into the decoding of meaning based on sociological and cultural factors 
• DECISIONS
• whether or not to participate
• intercultural competence is crucial to successful communication
• underlying motivation, hostility, solidarity, etc.
• interlocutors will work harder to find a communicative middle ground and foster mutual ineligibility when they are MOTIVATED socially and psychologically to do so.
• when it is perceived that doing so will afford a disadvantage, speakers will stop cooperating (no motivation)
• breakdown of communication is due to the NEGATIVE SOCIAL EVALUATION, not the accent in question=rejection of "communicative burden".
• the accents we hear go through LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY FILTERS
• we might totally reject the need to try to understand if the ideological value is low enough

What are some of the social valuations of the codes in our culture? Idiolect?

Prescriptive Grammer: Irregular Verbs

Rules For Using Irregular Verbs--AHHHHHH!

Understand the problem.

All verbs, whether regular or irregular, have five forms [often called principal parts]. These forms are the infinitive, simple present, simple past, past participle, and present participle.

The difference between a regular and an irregular verb is the formation of the simple past and past participle. Regular verbs are dependably consistent—the simple past ends in ed as does the past participle. 

Check out this chart:

Infinitive	Simple Present	Simple Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
to laugh	laugh(s)	laughed	laughed	laughing
to start	start(s)	started	started	starting
to wash	wash(es)	washed	washed	washing
to wink	wink(s)	winked	winked	winking

Irregular verbs, on the other hand, can end in a variety of ways, with absolutely no consistent pattern. 

Here are some examples:

Infinitive	Simple Present	Simple Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
to drive	drive(s)	drove	driven	driving
to feel	feel(s)	felt	felt	feeling
to put	put(s)	put	put	putting
to swim	swim(s)	swam	swum	swimming

Writers make two frequent errors with irregular verbs. They either add an incorrect ed to the end of an irregular verb or accidentally interchange the simple past and past participle. 

Read this sentence:

• Olivia feeled like exercising yesterday, so she putted on her bathing suit and drived to the YMCA, where she swum so far that only an extra large pepperoni pizza would satisfy her hunger.

What are the problems with this sentence? First, feeled should be felt. Next, putted needs to be put. The correct past tense form of drive is drove. And we must change swum to swam.

Know the solution.

To avoid making mistakes with irregular verbs, learn the very long chart below.

Infinitive	Simple Present	Simple Past	Past Participle	Present Participle
to arise	arise(s)	arose	arisen	arising
to awake	awake(s)	awoke or awaked	awaked or awoken	awaking
to be	am, is, are	was, were	been	being
to bear	bear(s)	bore	borne or born	bearing
to beat	beat(s)	beat	beaten	beating
to become	become(s)	became	become	becoming
to begin	begin(s)	began	begun	beginning
to bend	bend(s)	bent	bent	bending
to bet	bet(s)	bet	bet	betting
to bid [to offer]	bid(s)	bid	bid	bidding
to bid [to command]	bid(s)	bade	bidden	bidding
to bind	bind(s)	bound	bound	binding
to bite	bite(s)	bit	bitten or bit	biting
to blow	blow(s)	blew	blown	blowing
to break	break(s)	broke	broken	breaking
to bring	bring(s)	brought	brought	bringing
to build	build(s)	built	built	building
to burst	burst(s)	burst	burst	bursting
to buy	buy(s)	bought	bought	buying
to cast	cast(s)	cast	cast	casting
to catch	catch(es)	caught	caught	catching
to choose	choose(s)	chose	chosen	choosing
to cling	cling(s)	clung	clung	clinging
to come	come(s)	came	come	coming
to cost	cost(s)	cost	cost	costing
to creep	creep(s)	crept	crept	creeping
to cut	cut(s)	cut	cut	cutting
to deal	deal(s)	dealt	dealt	dealing
to dig	dig(s)	dug	dug	digging
to dive	dive(s)	dived or dove	dived	diving
to do	do(es)	did	done	doing
to draw	draw(s)	drew	drawn	drawing
to drink	drink(s)	drank	drunk	drinking
to drive	drive(s)	drove	driven	driving
to eat	eat(s)	ate	eaten	eating
to fall	fall(s)	fell	fallen	falling
to feed	feed(s)	fed	fed	feeding
to feel	feel(s)	felt	felt	feeling
to fight	fight(s)	fought	fought	fighting
to find	find(s)	found	found	finding
to flee	flee(s)	fled	fled	fleeing
to fling	fling(s)	flung	flung	flinging
to fly	flies, fly	flew	flown	flying
to forbid	forbid(s)	forbade or forbad	forbidden	forbidding
to forget	forget(s)	forgot	forgotten or forgot	forgetting
to forgive	forgive(s)	forgave	forgiven	forgiving
to forsake	forsake(s)	forsook	forsaken	forsaking
to freeze	freeze(s)	froze	frozen	freezing
to get	get(s)	got	got or gotten	getting
to give	give(s)	gave	given	giving
to go	go(es)	went	gone	going
to grow	grow(s)	grew	grown	growing
to hang [to suspend]	hang(s)	hung	hung	hanging
to have	has, have	had	had	having
to hear	hear(s)	heard	heard	hearing
to hide	hide(s)	hid	hidden	hiding
to hit	hit(s)	hit	hit	hitting
to hurt	hurt(s)	hurt	hurt	hurting
to keep	keep(s)	kept	kept	keeping
to know	know(s)	knew	known	knowing
to lay	lay(s)	laid	laid	laying
to lead	lead(s)	led	led	leading
to leap	leap(s)	leaped or leapt	leaped or leapt	leaping
to leave	leave(s)	left	left	leaving
to lend	lend(s)	lent	lent	lending
to let	let(s)	let	let	letting
to lie [to rest or recline]	lie(s)	lay	lain	lying
to light	light(s)	lighted or lit	lighted or lit	lighting
to lose	lose(s)	lost	lost	losing
to make	make(s)	made	made	making
to mean	mean(s)	meant	meant	meaning
to pay	pay(s)	paid	paid	paying
to prove	prove(s)	proved	proved or proven	proving
to quit	quit(s)	quit	quit	quitting
to read	read(s)	read	read	reading
to rid	rid(s)	rid	rid	ridding
to ride	ride(s)	rode	ridden	riding
to ring	ring(s)	rang	rung	ringing
to rise	rise(s)	rose	risen	rising
to run	run(s)	ran	run	running
to say	say(s)	said	said	saying
to see	see(s)	saw	seen	seeing
to seek	seek(s)	sought	sought	seeking
to send	send(s)	sent	sent	sending
to set	set(s)	set	set	setting
to shake	shake(s)	shook	shaken	shaking
to shine [to glow]	shine(s)	shone	shone	shining
to shoot	shoot(s)	shot	shot	shooting
to show	show(s)	showed	shown or showed	showing
to shrink	shrink(s)	shrank	shrunk	shrinking
to sing	sing(s)	sang	sung	singing
to sink	sink(s)	sank or sunk	sunk	sinking
to sit	sit(s)	sat	sat	sitting
to slay	slay(s)	slew	slain	slaying
to sleep	sleep(s)	slept	slept	sleeping
to sling	sling(s)	slung	slung	slinging
to sneak	sneak(s)	sneaked or snuck	sneaked or snuck	sneaking
to speak	speak(s)	spoke	spoken	speaking
to spend	spend(s)	spent	spent	spending
to spin	spin(s)	spun	spun	spinning
to spring	spring(s)	sprang or sprung	sprung	springing
to stand	stand(s)	stood	stood	standing
to steal	steal(s)	stole	stolen	stealing
to sting	sting(s)	stung	stung	stinging
to stink	stink(s)	stank or stunk	stunk	stinking
to stride	stride(s)	strode	stridden	striding
to strike	strike(s)	struck	struck	striking
to strive	strive(s)	strove	striven	striving
to swear	swear(s)	swore	sworn	swearing
to sweep	sweep(s)	swept	swept	sweeping
to swim	swim(s)	swam	swum	swimming
to swing	swing(s)	swung	swung	swinging
to take	take(s)	took	taken	taking
to teach	teach(es)	taught	taught	teaching
to tear	tear(s)	tore	torn	tearing
to tell	tell(s)	told	told	telling
to think	think(s)	thought	thought	thinking
to throw	throw(s)	threw	thrown	throwing
to understand	understand(s)	understood	understood	understanding
to wake	wake(s)	woke or waked	waked or woken	waking
to wear	wear(s)	wore	worn	wearing
to weave	weave(s)	wove or weaved	woven or wove	weaving
to wring	wring(s)	wrung	wrung	wringing
to write	write(s)	wrote	written	writing

In addition to learning the chart above, you must also understand the difference between the simple past and past participle.

A simple past tense verb always has just one part. You need no auxiliary verb to form this tense. 

Look at these examples:

• Because dinner time was near, my dog Oreo bit the spine of Moby-Dick and pulled the novel off my lap.
• Since Denise had ignored bills for so long, she wrote out checks for an hour straight.
• Despite the noise, jolts, and jerks, Alex slept so soundly on the city bus that he missed his stop.

Many multi-part verbs, however, require the past participle after one or more auxiliary verbs. 

Read these sentences:

• Raymond had bitten into the muffin before Charise mentioned that it was her infamous chocolate-broccoli variety.

had = auxiliary verb; bitten = past participle

• Once Woody has written his essay for Mr. Stover, he plans to reward himself with a packet of Twinkies.

has = auxiliary verb; written = past participle

• Cynthia might have slept better if she hadn't watched The Nightmare on Elm Street marathon on HBO.

might, have = auxiliary verbs; slept = past participle

For regular verbs, knowing the distinction between the simple past and past participle is unnecessary because both are identical. 

Check out these two sentences:

• Diane giggled as her beagle Reliable pushed his cold wet nose into her stomach, searching for cookie crumbs.

giggled = simple past

• Until the disapproving Mrs. Whitman elbowed Latoya in the ribs, the young girl had giggled without stop at the toilet paper streamer attached to Principal Clemens's shoe.

had = auxiliary verb; giggled = past participle

When you choose an irregular verb for a sentence, however, the simple past and past participle are often different, so you must know the distinction.

Here are two examples:

• Essie drove so cautiously that traffic piled up behind her, causing angry drivers to honk their horns and shout obscenities.

drove = simple past

• Essie might have driven faster if she hadn't forgotten her glasses and saw more than big colored blurs through the windshield.

might, have = auxiliary verbs; driven = past participle

In addition, past participles can function as adjectives in sentences, describing other words. When you use a past participle in this manner, you must choose the correct form. 

Read these sentences:

• The calculus exams given by Dr. Ribley are so difficult that his students believe their brains will burst.
• Delores discovered the stolen bologna under the sofa, guarded fiercely by Max, her Chihuahua.
• The written reprimand so shamed poor Pablo that he promised his boss never again to throw a scoop of ice cream at a customer.

Remember that you can always consult a dictionary when you have a question about the correct form of an irregular verb.