The History of Child Language Studies

8/4/2019 The History of Child Language Studies

1/12

Click to edit Master subtitle style

4/14/12

By :Yuniar

The History Of Child LanguageStudies


2/12

4/14/12

Introduction

Ingrams textbook has the terms method,description and explanation as a subtitle.This course is designed to teach a little about

each of these terms and how they interact toproduce a record of first language acquisition.A simple approach to teaching first languageacquisition would simply provide a descriptionof childrens language through the first threeyears of life. There are certainly many

textbooks on language acquisition that takethis approach.

One limitation of focusing solely on description

is that the description is provided without ahistorical background. Ingram identifies three


3/12

4/14/12

Table Historical Approaches

Diary Studies Large Sample Longitudinal

Age Stern (1924) Nice (1925) Brown (1973)

0-1;0 Preliminary stage ALS MLU

1;0-1;6 First period 1 single word stage single-word utterances

1;6-2;0 Second period early sentence stage 1-1.99 Stage I: semantic roles

3;0 Third period 2-2;6 3.5 short sentence stage 2-2.49 Stage II: inflection

2.5-2.99 Stage III: modality

4;0 Fourth period 2;6+ 5 complete sentence

stage

3-3.99 Stage IV: embedding

4+ Stage V: coordination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Morse_Nicehttp://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/01.15/PsychologistRog.htmlhttp://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/01.15/PsychologistRog.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Morse_Nice


4/12

4/14/12

Ingram identifies these historical periodsin terms of both the methods common during

the time as well as their theoretical approach.

Method Theory

Diary Studies unifying principles

Large Sample behaviorist

Longitudinal linguistic rule

acquisition


5/12

4/14/12

Three Major Periods of ChildLanguage Studies

A. Diary Studies: baby biographies (1876-1926)

1. Method: parent observer, inductive,unsystematic, diverse

2. Description: major diaries- Taine 1877, Darwin1877, Stern & Stern 1907 Die Kindersprache,major journal Pedagogical Seminary edited byG. Stanley Hall; later diaries: Leopold 1939-49

on Hildegard, Lewis 1936, 51 on K.


6/12

4/14/12

3. Theory: nativist, if any (see Taine 1877,quote, p. 9)

We only help it [the child: DI] to catch them[general ideas: DI] by the suggestion of ourwords. It attaches to them ideas that we do notexpect and spontaneously generalizes outsideand beyond our cadres. At times it invents notonly the meaning of the word but the worditself... In short, it learns a ready-made

language as a true musician learnscounterpoint or a true poet prosody; it is anoriginal genius adapting itself to a formconstructed bit by bit by a succession oforiginal geniuses; if language were wanting, thechild would recover it little by little or would


7/12

4/14/12

B. Large Sample Studies (1926-1957)

1. Method: large number of subjects, cross-

sectional, systematic, small samples per child,quantitative analysis.

2. Description: major studies- M. Smith (Iowa), D.McCarthy & M. Templin (Minnesota); Templin

1957

3. Theory: behaviorist, if any, e.g., Bloomfield1933 on word acquisition (see p. 19). (AlsoSkinner 1957)

child vocalizes [da]

child imitates similar adult words, e.g. doll as [da]

child associates sound to context

child displaces to broader context


8/12

4/14/12

C. Longitudinal and Experimental Studies

(1957- present)1. Method: 3 children, regular visits, 2 observers,

recorded and transcribed.

2. Description: major studies- Brown 1973 onAdam, Eve, Sarah, Bloom 1970 on Eric, Gia,Kathryn, Braine 1963 on Gregory, Andrew,Steven. Chomsky (see p 24): multiple methods;competence vs. performance


9/12

4/14/12

II. Theory: two approaches (p. 27)

a)Child Language: data oriented, inductive, focus on what

children doovergeneralizations, local strategies, dynamicgrammarconstructionist

b)Language Acquisition: theory oriented, deductive, focuson what children do not doconstraints, rich interpretations,static grammarmaturationist

c)These approaches offer different perspectives onrestructuring in child grammari. Constructionist approacheslimit restructuring and make it subject to environmentalconditions.

ii. Nativist approaches suggest two posibilities:

1.Strong Inclusion Hypothesis (p. 70)childs grammar isadult-like, no learning

2.Restructuring Hypothesisdue to rare input or maturation,

again no learning


10/12

4/14/12

Assessment: we need to combine themethodological rigor of Child Language

research with the theoretical orientation ofLanguage Acquisition, i.e. CL needs moretheory, LA needs more data.

What is required is a real theory of child

language acquisition, one that predictslanguage development

Current theories describe rather than explainlanguage acquisition, c.f. Brainard 1978

They lack independent evidence to supportthem

They do not make interesting predictions

They ignore semantics and pragmatics


11/12

4/14/12

III. Current methods of datacollection

c.f., Demuth Collecting spontaneous production data in McDaniel etal. (1996), Methods for Assessing Childrens Syntax.

It is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each method

A. Spontaneous language sampling

1. Strengths

a. Provides a general picture of all the childs linguistic abilities

b. May reveal unexpected or novel features of child language,including errors, omissions and overgeneralizations

c. Documents language environment (Input)

2. Weaknesses

a. Transcription and analysis of language samples is time-consuming

b. It is easy to miss rare constructions, e.g., passives, relativeclauses

c. Variation between children requires more than one subject


12/12

4/14/12

B. Parental diaryhistorically the first method

1. Strengthresearcher is familiar with thechild and the childs language

2. Weaknesstends to be unsystematic

C. Experimental approaches

StrengthCan collect a great deal of data on a

targeted linguistic feature WeaknessMay not be ecologically valid; may

fail to collect data on related features, context;the method may not apply to all languages