Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
What is Language (Linguistics)
1 Introduction to Language (Linguistics)
1. What is linguistics?
The scientific study of language.
2. What is language?
A cognitive system.
A conventional system of communication.
3. Natural language: language that develops naturally in normal humans (vs. artificial language).
4. Linguistics is NOT:
Learning to speak many languages;
Telling people their grammar ain’t no good;
Literature or style;
Or anything else—it is the scientific study of language.
5. Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Scientific study =
Observation;
Hypothesis formation;
Hypothesis testing;
Amending hypothesis.
1. What is linguistics?
The scientific study of language.
2. What is language?
A cognitive system.
A conventional system of communication.
3. Natural language: language that develops naturally in normal humans (vs. artificial language).
4. Linguistics is NOT:
Learning to speak many languages;
Telling people their grammar ain’t no good;
Literature or style;
Or anything else—it is the scientific study of language.
5. Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Scientific study =
Observation;
Hypothesis formation;
Hypothesis testing;
Amending hypothesis.
Content, Format, Aims and Objectives
CONTENTS AND FORMAT
This course provides an up-to-date introduction to the study of linguistics, the discipline that investigates and describes the language, acquisition, production, and comprehension of language. Now that this is the first time the students have this lesson linguistic terms and basics will be presented throughout the course. In addition, the relation between linguistics and second language teaching will be examined thoroughly, thus students will be expected to acquire a broader view on the matter. The course will also look at the language within the society, and will aim to enhance language awareness. The course consists of 14 weeks, three hours each.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The module has four main aims: (i) to provide students with an overview of theoretical models, experimental methods and current issues in linguistics in relation to foreign language teaching,(ii) to enable students to understand and assess current scientific debates in the field, (iii) to help students understand and appreciate the relationship between linguistic data and language learning and teaching theories and models, and (iv) to provide students with the necessary background for studying linguistics, discourse analysis or related topics at an advanced level.
STUDENT CONTRIBUTION
Students are expected to attend regularly, to participate as required, and to contribute actively to class discussions. Reading is expected in advance of a lecture, and will definitely be required afterwards so as to consolidate the understanding of the material and ideas presented in the lecture.
TEACHING METHOD
The course has a mixed lecture-plus-class format. The lectures will be kept reasonably informal, with opportunities for participation by the students. The classes will primarily involve working through selected exercise material.
This course provides an up-to-date introduction to the study of linguistics, the discipline that investigates and describes the language, acquisition, production, and comprehension of language. Now that this is the first time the students have this lesson linguistic terms and basics will be presented throughout the course. In addition, the relation between linguistics and second language teaching will be examined thoroughly, thus students will be expected to acquire a broader view on the matter. The course will also look at the language within the society, and will aim to enhance language awareness. The course consists of 14 weeks, three hours each.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The module has four main aims: (i) to provide students with an overview of theoretical models, experimental methods and current issues in linguistics in relation to foreign language teaching,(ii) to enable students to understand and assess current scientific debates in the field, (iii) to help students understand and appreciate the relationship between linguistic data and language learning and teaching theories and models, and (iv) to provide students with the necessary background for studying linguistics, discourse analysis or related topics at an advanced level.
STUDENT CONTRIBUTION
Students are expected to attend regularly, to participate as required, and to contribute actively to class discussions. Reading is expected in advance of a lecture, and will definitely be required afterwards so as to consolidate the understanding of the material and ideas presented in the lecture.
TEACHING METHOD
The course has a mixed lecture-plus-class format. The lectures will be kept reasonably informal, with opportunities for participation by the students. The classes will primarily involve working through selected exercise material.
Grading System
Final grade will be based on an oral and a written exam and composed as follows:
1. Individual or team project with final oral presentation (30%). Both project and presentation will have to be agreed upon with me.
2. Online exercises (15%)
3. Homework assignment (15%)
4. Final exam (40%)
1. Individual or team project with final oral presentation (30%). Both project and presentation will have to be agreed upon with me.
2. Online exercises (15%)
3. Homework assignment (15%)
4. Final exam (40%)
Language and Brain
Language and Brain
by Stephen Crain of the University of Maryland, College Park
The Domain of Study
Many linguistics departments offer a course entitled 'Language and Brain' or 'Language and Mind.' Such a course examines the relationship between linguistic theories and actual language use by children and adults. Findings are presented from research on a variety of topics, including the course of language development, language production and understanding, and the nature of language breakdown due to brain injury. These topics provide examples of what is currently known about language and the mind, and they offer insights into the central issues in this area of linguistic research.
Language is a significant part of what makes us human, along with other cognitive skills such as mathematical and spatial reasoning, musical and drawing ability, the capacity to form social relationships, and the like. As with these other cognitive skills, linguistic behavior is open to investigation using the familiar tools of observation and experimentation.
It is wrong, however, to exaggerate the similarity between language and other cognitive skills, because language stands apart in several ways. For one thing, the use of language is universal--all normally developing children learn to speak at least one language, and many learn more than one. By contrast, not everyone becomes proficient at complex mathematical reasoning, few people learn to paint well, and many people cannot carry a tune. Because everyone is capable of learning to speak and understand language, it may seem to be simple. But just the opposite is true--language is one of the most complex of all human cognitive abilities.
The Language Instinct
Even outside the laboratory, one can make many interesting observations that one can make about the course of language development. Many of the most complex aspects of language are mastered by three- and four-year-old children. It is astonishing for most parents to watch the process unfold. What many parents don't realize is that all children follow roughly the same path in language development. And all children reach essentially many of the same conclusions about language, despite differences in experience. All preschool children, for example, have mastered several complex aspects of the syntax and semantics of the language they are learning. This suggests that certain aspects of syntax and semantics are not taught to children. Further underscoring this conclusion is the finding, from experimental studies with children, that knowledge about some aspects of syntax and semantics sometimes develops in the absence of corresponding evidence from the environment.
To explain this remarkable collection of facts about language development, linguists have attempted to formulate a theory of linguistic principles that apply to all natural languages (as opposed to artificial languages, such as programming languages). These principles, known as linguistic universals, offer insight into the acquisition scenario set out before us: why language is universal, why it is mastered so rapidly, why there are often only loose or incomplete connections between linguistic knowledge and experience. These features of development follow from a single premise--that linguistic universals are part of a human 'instinct' to learn language, i.e., part of a biological blueprint for language development.
There is another way in which knowledge of language and real-world experience are kept apart in the minds of children; they do not always base their understanding of language on what they have come to know from experience. For example, children do not combine the words of the sentence 'Mice chase cats' in a way that conforms with their experience; if they did, they would understand it to mean that cats chase mice, not the reverse. In other words, children are able to tell when sentences are false, as well as when they are true. This means that children use their knowledge of language structure in comprehending sentences, even if it means ignoring their wishes and the beliefs they have formed about the world around them.
Modularity
Research on adult language understanding is also concerned with the architecture of the mind and with the possibility that linguistic knowledge and belief-systems reside in separate 'modules'. To investigate the issue of modularity, studies of adult language understanding ask when different sources of information are used in processing sentences that have more than one possible interpretation. It is in the nature of language that many sentences are ambiguous. Yet, ordinarily, by the time a person reaches the end of an ambiguous sentence, only a single interpretation remains, the one that is consistent with the conversational context. In the absence of any context, e.g. in a laboratory setting, the interpretation that survives is often the one that best conforms with a person's general knowledge of the world.
Adopting a modular conception of the mind, some researchers contend that the preference for one interpretation over its competitors is initially decided on linguistic grounds (syntactic and semantic structure); real-world knowledge comes into play only later, on this view. The availability of different sources of information is difficult to determine, however, because the resolution of ambiguity takes place as a sentence is being read or heard, rather than after all the words have been taken in. In order to establish the time-course of various linguistic and nonlinguistic operations involved in language understanding, sentence processing is often measured in real time, by recording the movements of the eyes in reading, for example. The jury is still out on the question of the modularity of mind in language processing, but there are some suggestive research findings, and few researchers in the area would deny the contribution of linguistic knowledge in the process.
Another source of evidence bearing on the modularity hypothesis comes from studies of language breakdown. Language loss, or aphasia, is not an all-or-nothing affair; when a particular area of the brain is affected, the result is a complex pattern of retention and loss, often involving both language production and comprehension. The complex of symptons can be strikingly similar for different people with the same affected area of the brain. Research in aphasia asks: Which aspects of linguistic knowledge are lost and which are spared? The fact that language loss is not always associated with a corresponding loss of pragmatic knowledge supports the modularity hypothesis, bringing the findings of research on aphasia in line with those from the study of child and adult language understanding.
Source:
http://psikoloji.fisek.com.tr/psycholinguistics/Crain.html
by Stephen Crain of the University of Maryland, College Park
The Domain of Study
Many linguistics departments offer a course entitled 'Language and Brain' or 'Language and Mind.' Such a course examines the relationship between linguistic theories and actual language use by children and adults. Findings are presented from research on a variety of topics, including the course of language development, language production and understanding, and the nature of language breakdown due to brain injury. These topics provide examples of what is currently known about language and the mind, and they offer insights into the central issues in this area of linguistic research.
Language is a significant part of what makes us human, along with other cognitive skills such as mathematical and spatial reasoning, musical and drawing ability, the capacity to form social relationships, and the like. As with these other cognitive skills, linguistic behavior is open to investigation using the familiar tools of observation and experimentation.
It is wrong, however, to exaggerate the similarity between language and other cognitive skills, because language stands apart in several ways. For one thing, the use of language is universal--all normally developing children learn to speak at least one language, and many learn more than one. By contrast, not everyone becomes proficient at complex mathematical reasoning, few people learn to paint well, and many people cannot carry a tune. Because everyone is capable of learning to speak and understand language, it may seem to be simple. But just the opposite is true--language is one of the most complex of all human cognitive abilities.
The Language Instinct
Even outside the laboratory, one can make many interesting observations that one can make about the course of language development. Many of the most complex aspects of language are mastered by three- and four-year-old children. It is astonishing for most parents to watch the process unfold. What many parents don't realize is that all children follow roughly the same path in language development. And all children reach essentially many of the same conclusions about language, despite differences in experience. All preschool children, for example, have mastered several complex aspects of the syntax and semantics of the language they are learning. This suggests that certain aspects of syntax and semantics are not taught to children. Further underscoring this conclusion is the finding, from experimental studies with children, that knowledge about some aspects of syntax and semantics sometimes develops in the absence of corresponding evidence from the environment.
To explain this remarkable collection of facts about language development, linguists have attempted to formulate a theory of linguistic principles that apply to all natural languages (as opposed to artificial languages, such as programming languages). These principles, known as linguistic universals, offer insight into the acquisition scenario set out before us: why language is universal, why it is mastered so rapidly, why there are often only loose or incomplete connections between linguistic knowledge and experience. These features of development follow from a single premise--that linguistic universals are part of a human 'instinct' to learn language, i.e., part of a biological blueprint for language development.
There is another way in which knowledge of language and real-world experience are kept apart in the minds of children; they do not always base their understanding of language on what they have come to know from experience. For example, children do not combine the words of the sentence 'Mice chase cats' in a way that conforms with their experience; if they did, they would understand it to mean that cats chase mice, not the reverse. In other words, children are able to tell when sentences are false, as well as when they are true. This means that children use their knowledge of language structure in comprehending sentences, even if it means ignoring their wishes and the beliefs they have formed about the world around them.
Modularity
Research on adult language understanding is also concerned with the architecture of the mind and with the possibility that linguistic knowledge and belief-systems reside in separate 'modules'. To investigate the issue of modularity, studies of adult language understanding ask when different sources of information are used in processing sentences that have more than one possible interpretation. It is in the nature of language that many sentences are ambiguous. Yet, ordinarily, by the time a person reaches the end of an ambiguous sentence, only a single interpretation remains, the one that is consistent with the conversational context. In the absence of any context, e.g. in a laboratory setting, the interpretation that survives is often the one that best conforms with a person's general knowledge of the world.
Adopting a modular conception of the mind, some researchers contend that the preference for one interpretation over its competitors is initially decided on linguistic grounds (syntactic and semantic structure); real-world knowledge comes into play only later, on this view. The availability of different sources of information is difficult to determine, however, because the resolution of ambiguity takes place as a sentence is being read or heard, rather than after all the words have been taken in. In order to establish the time-course of various linguistic and nonlinguistic operations involved in language understanding, sentence processing is often measured in real time, by recording the movements of the eyes in reading, for example. The jury is still out on the question of the modularity of mind in language processing, but there are some suggestive research findings, and few researchers in the area would deny the contribution of linguistic knowledge in the process.
Another source of evidence bearing on the modularity hypothesis comes from studies of language breakdown. Language loss, or aphasia, is not an all-or-nothing affair; when a particular area of the brain is affected, the result is a complex pattern of retention and loss, often involving both language production and comprehension. The complex of symptons can be strikingly similar for different people with the same affected area of the brain. Research in aphasia asks: Which aspects of linguistic knowledge are lost and which are spared? The fact that language loss is not always associated with a corresponding loss of pragmatic knowledge supports the modularity hypothesis, bringing the findings of research on aphasia in line with those from the study of child and adult language understanding.
Source:
http://psikoloji.fisek.com.tr/psycholinguistics/Crain.html
Brain Development and Mastery of Language
Brain Development and Mastery of Language in the Young Years
Parents of young children, and professionals working with them, watch with anticipation the developmental milestones, or indicators that a child is picking up the skills expected at a certain age. In the first year of life that focus is typically on motor skills, then in the second year attention shifts to language development.
This development of communication through language is an instinctive process. Language is our most common means of interacting with one another, and children begin the process naturally. Neurobiologist Dr. Lise Eliot writes that "the reason language is instinctive is because it is, to a large extent hard-wired in the brain. Just as we evolve neural circuits for eating and seeing, so has our brain, together with a sophisticated vocal apparatus, evolved a complex neural circuit for rapidly perceiving, analyzing, composing, and producing language."
We also know, however, that the experiences provided in a child's environment are critical for the development of language. It is this interplay of nature and nurture that results in our ability to communicate, but the process of learning language begins with how the brain is structured.
The brain is structured for language. Neuroscientists tell us that a baby is born with millions and millions of brain cells, all he or she will ever need. Each brain cell has branching appendages, called dendrites, that reach out to make connections with other brain cells. The places were brain cells connect are called synapses. When electrical signals pass from brain cell to brain cell, they cross the synapse between the cells. When synapses are stimulated over and over, that pattern of neural connections is "hard-wired" in the brain. It becomes an efficient, permanent pathway that allows signals to be transmitted quickly and accurately. Advances in brain-imaging technology in recent years have confirmed this process. New technology has allowed us to see that there are physical differences in a child's brain that has been appropriately stimulated, versus one that has suffered lack of stimulation. Those connections that are not stimulated by repeated experiences atrophy, or fade away. It is truly a use-it-or-lose-it situation.
We know that reorganization of the connections between brain cells after birth is highly impacted by experiences provided by the child's environment. Therefore, parents play an invaluable role in influencing the child's cognitive, language, motor, and social emotional development. It is through providing repeated, positive experiences for their child that parents have a lasting impact on their child's brain development.
Beneficial habits. Good nutrition and healthy routines are important to the brain's developmental process. Brain cells are covered with a fatty substance called myelin that insulates the neural pathways to provide for efficient signal transfer. Infants must receive sufficient fat in their diets provided by breast milk or formula prepared in the proper strength. For this reason it is vital that parents do not water down formula. Also, babies need lots of sleep, because their brains need to experience both deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep for proper development. Establishing routines for eating and sleeping are among the most important things parents can do to assist healthy brain development in their child.
Critical periods for learning language. Critical periods, or windows of opportunity, in brain development accommodate the development of specific skills, language being one of these. During certain times in the child's life, the brain is active in forming connections for specific abilities. While critical periods are prime times for the development of specific neural synapses, skills can still be learned after a window of opportunity has closed, but with greater time and effort. It is during these critical periods that lack of stimulation or negative experiences can have the most impact. Parents can support their child's brain development for language during these times by providing experiences that allow the child to practice emerging skills. Opportunities during the course of the day to engage in face-to-face interaction, hear language being spoken, listen the written word read aloud, and practice associating objects with words provide language experiences without undue stress or over stimulation.
One of the first windows of opportunity for language comes early in life. We know that infants start out able to distinguish the sound of all languages, but that by six months of age they are no longer able to recognize sounds that are not heard in their native tongue. As infants hear the patterns of sound in their own language, a different cluster of neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain responds to each sound. By 6 months of age, infants will have difficulty picking out sounds they have not heard repeated often.
Windows of opportunity for language development occur throughout life. The window for syntax or grammar is open during the preschool years and may close as early as 5 or 6 years of age, while the window for adding new words never closes completely.
Language development begins early. Researchers now tell us that an infant is able to respond to sound 10 weeks before birth, learning the mother's voice and the sound pattern of the language he speaks prenatally through bone conduction. A baby takes comfort in hearing his mother's voice after birth, therefore a mother's lullaby can be very calming, especially if the mother sang to the baby during pregnancy.
While a newborn doesn't use words, he is definitely able to communicate. He can look into his father's or mother's face in a way that tells them he wants to hear their voices. By crying he is able to let them know when he is hungry, cold, needs a diaper change, or has other needs to be met.
An infant's brain responds best to a type of speech called parentese, which adults use naturally when speaking to babies. Parentese uses short, simple sentences, prolonged vowel sounds, more inflection in the voice, and a higher pitch than the speech used when talking to another adult. Studies have shown that when parents spoke parentese, the baby was able to connect words sooner to the objects they represent.
Parents provide the means of learning language. Brain development information simply reinforces much of what early childhood experts have been suggesting for years. The development of language is tremendously influenced by parent-child interactions. In the first year, it is important to talk, sing, and read to the baby often so he can learn the sounds of his native language. In addition to learning the sounds of speech, during the first six months a child's brain begins to learn which mouth movements go with the sounds. That is the reason it is important to have lots of face-to-face conversations with the baby as the parent interprets the world around him. Cooing, and then babbling are milestones in language acquisition. Babies like to mimic what they hear. By speaking to the child and imitating the child's sounds, a parent not only teaches the child sound patterns but encourages taking turns, a process necessary for conversation. Studies have shown that children whose parents spoke to them more often know many more words by age 2 and scored higher on standardized tests by age 3.
In the second year of life, the brain organizes the connections for language when the child sees pictures in a book and hears the parent give names for the pictures at the same time. Parents and other primary caregivers can help language development at this age by reciting nursery rhymes, songs, and poems throughout the day. Activities such as using a mirror to point out and name facial features are also helpful at this age. Ideal times for story telling and reading are quiet, relaxed moments before naptime or bedtime.
Between 24 and 35 months of age the brain is getting better at forming mental symbols for objects, people, and events. This is directly related to the growing ability to use many more words and short sentences.
Delays in language can have a variety of sources. When parents suspect such delays it is always prudent to check with a professional. Repeated ear infections in the first few years delay expressive language. It is always important to watch for signs of ear infections in a young child, such as not turning to sound, pulling one ears, reluctance to suck, resistance to laying down, and having an upper respiratory infection.
Speaking two languages at home. Hearing two languages spoken at home is a real advantage to the child. If a child hears two languages from birth, he will maintain the ability to hear the sounds of both and be able to speak each language with the accent of a native speaker. If parents each speak a different language, it is helpful if the child hears the same language consistently from the parent who is its native speaker. If, for example, the mother is a native English speaker and the father a native Spanish speaker, it will be less confusing for the child to hear each parent speak in his or her native language. The child may mix the languages in his own speech initially, but will typically sort it out by around 2 ½ years of age. Then he will separate the words belonging to each language and know which language to use with which parent. By 7 years of age, the child is likely to be able to cope with the two language systems without a problem, using both vocabulary and grammar appropriate for his age.
If a child enters a preschool and is first exposed to a second language after the age of 3, she will still be able to acquire the second language easily because she knows the rules of communication. In 3 to 7 months the child will begin to understand the second language. After about 2 years she will be able to carry on a fluent conversation. Young children learn a second language more easily than adults because the window of opportunity for learning language is still open for them. Helping the child build her self confidence during the time she is learning a second language is very important. Music is a great way to help the child learn words and phrases in the new language. Talking slowly, clearly, and simply is also helpful. It is also important for parents to continue speaking to the child at home in her native language because it continues to lay the foundation for the second language by providing the basic rules of communication. Also, the parent-child interaction might suffer if the parents speak less to the child in an attempt to use the second language.
Support for parents as their child learns language. Parents play a key role in helping their child learn language. Programs that give parents child development information can help parents understand how to nurture their child's growing language skills. They offer research based suggestions for parents at each stage of development. Parents as Teachers is an example of a parent support and information program, and is one of the models supported by IDRA's Reconnect Project. Parents and professionals can visit the Parents as Teachers Web Site at PATNC.org for more information about the program and suggestions for supporting their child's language development.
Resources:
Barnet, A.B. & Barnet, R.J., The Youngest Minds, Parenting & Genes in the Development of Intellect & Emotion. New York: Simon & Schuster,1998.
Begley, S., Your Child's Brain. Newsweek, 55-62, 1996.
Begley, S., How to Build a Baby's Brain. Newsweek, 28-32, 1997.
Gopnik, A., Ph.D., Meltzoff, A.N., Ph.D., Kuhl, P.K., Ph.D., The Scientist In The Crib, What Early Learning Tells Us About The Mind. William Morrow & Co., 1999.
Johnson, G., Building a Better Brain for Baby. New York Times, 1-6, 1994.
Eliot, Lise, What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years. New York: Bantam Books, 352, 1999.
Nash, M., Fertile Minds. 1997.
Shonkoff, J.P., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. National Academy Press: Washington D.C., 2000.
Elaine Shiver, MSSW is a Program Director for the Mental Health Association in Texas where she coordinates training and technical assistance for Parents As Teachers programs in the state.
Parents of young children, and professionals working with them, watch with anticipation the developmental milestones, or indicators that a child is picking up the skills expected at a certain age. In the first year of life that focus is typically on motor skills, then in the second year attention shifts to language development.
This development of communication through language is an instinctive process. Language is our most common means of interacting with one another, and children begin the process naturally. Neurobiologist Dr. Lise Eliot writes that "the reason language is instinctive is because it is, to a large extent hard-wired in the brain. Just as we evolve neural circuits for eating and seeing, so has our brain, together with a sophisticated vocal apparatus, evolved a complex neural circuit for rapidly perceiving, analyzing, composing, and producing language."
We also know, however, that the experiences provided in a child's environment are critical for the development of language. It is this interplay of nature and nurture that results in our ability to communicate, but the process of learning language begins with how the brain is structured.
The brain is structured for language. Neuroscientists tell us that a baby is born with millions and millions of brain cells, all he or she will ever need. Each brain cell has branching appendages, called dendrites, that reach out to make connections with other brain cells. The places were brain cells connect are called synapses. When electrical signals pass from brain cell to brain cell, they cross the synapse between the cells. When synapses are stimulated over and over, that pattern of neural connections is "hard-wired" in the brain. It becomes an efficient, permanent pathway that allows signals to be transmitted quickly and accurately. Advances in brain-imaging technology in recent years have confirmed this process. New technology has allowed us to see that there are physical differences in a child's brain that has been appropriately stimulated, versus one that has suffered lack of stimulation. Those connections that are not stimulated by repeated experiences atrophy, or fade away. It is truly a use-it-or-lose-it situation.
We know that reorganization of the connections between brain cells after birth is highly impacted by experiences provided by the child's environment. Therefore, parents play an invaluable role in influencing the child's cognitive, language, motor, and social emotional development. It is through providing repeated, positive experiences for their child that parents have a lasting impact on their child's brain development.
Beneficial habits. Good nutrition and healthy routines are important to the brain's developmental process. Brain cells are covered with a fatty substance called myelin that insulates the neural pathways to provide for efficient signal transfer. Infants must receive sufficient fat in their diets provided by breast milk or formula prepared in the proper strength. For this reason it is vital that parents do not water down formula. Also, babies need lots of sleep, because their brains need to experience both deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep for proper development. Establishing routines for eating and sleeping are among the most important things parents can do to assist healthy brain development in their child.
Critical periods for learning language. Critical periods, or windows of opportunity, in brain development accommodate the development of specific skills, language being one of these. During certain times in the child's life, the brain is active in forming connections for specific abilities. While critical periods are prime times for the development of specific neural synapses, skills can still be learned after a window of opportunity has closed, but with greater time and effort. It is during these critical periods that lack of stimulation or negative experiences can have the most impact. Parents can support their child's brain development for language during these times by providing experiences that allow the child to practice emerging skills. Opportunities during the course of the day to engage in face-to-face interaction, hear language being spoken, listen the written word read aloud, and practice associating objects with words provide language experiences without undue stress or over stimulation.
One of the first windows of opportunity for language comes early in life. We know that infants start out able to distinguish the sound of all languages, but that by six months of age they are no longer able to recognize sounds that are not heard in their native tongue. As infants hear the patterns of sound in their own language, a different cluster of neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain responds to each sound. By 6 months of age, infants will have difficulty picking out sounds they have not heard repeated often.
Windows of opportunity for language development occur throughout life. The window for syntax or grammar is open during the preschool years and may close as early as 5 or 6 years of age, while the window for adding new words never closes completely.
Language development begins early. Researchers now tell us that an infant is able to respond to sound 10 weeks before birth, learning the mother's voice and the sound pattern of the language he speaks prenatally through bone conduction. A baby takes comfort in hearing his mother's voice after birth, therefore a mother's lullaby can be very calming, especially if the mother sang to the baby during pregnancy.
While a newborn doesn't use words, he is definitely able to communicate. He can look into his father's or mother's face in a way that tells them he wants to hear their voices. By crying he is able to let them know when he is hungry, cold, needs a diaper change, or has other needs to be met.
An infant's brain responds best to a type of speech called parentese, which adults use naturally when speaking to babies. Parentese uses short, simple sentences, prolonged vowel sounds, more inflection in the voice, and a higher pitch than the speech used when talking to another adult. Studies have shown that when parents spoke parentese, the baby was able to connect words sooner to the objects they represent.
Parents provide the means of learning language. Brain development information simply reinforces much of what early childhood experts have been suggesting for years. The development of language is tremendously influenced by parent-child interactions. In the first year, it is important to talk, sing, and read to the baby often so he can learn the sounds of his native language. In addition to learning the sounds of speech, during the first six months a child's brain begins to learn which mouth movements go with the sounds. That is the reason it is important to have lots of face-to-face conversations with the baby as the parent interprets the world around him. Cooing, and then babbling are milestones in language acquisition. Babies like to mimic what they hear. By speaking to the child and imitating the child's sounds, a parent not only teaches the child sound patterns but encourages taking turns, a process necessary for conversation. Studies have shown that children whose parents spoke to them more often know many more words by age 2 and scored higher on standardized tests by age 3.
In the second year of life, the brain organizes the connections for language when the child sees pictures in a book and hears the parent give names for the pictures at the same time. Parents and other primary caregivers can help language development at this age by reciting nursery rhymes, songs, and poems throughout the day. Activities such as using a mirror to point out and name facial features are also helpful at this age. Ideal times for story telling and reading are quiet, relaxed moments before naptime or bedtime.
Between 24 and 35 months of age the brain is getting better at forming mental symbols for objects, people, and events. This is directly related to the growing ability to use many more words and short sentences.
Delays in language can have a variety of sources. When parents suspect such delays it is always prudent to check with a professional. Repeated ear infections in the first few years delay expressive language. It is always important to watch for signs of ear infections in a young child, such as not turning to sound, pulling one ears, reluctance to suck, resistance to laying down, and having an upper respiratory infection.
Speaking two languages at home. Hearing two languages spoken at home is a real advantage to the child. If a child hears two languages from birth, he will maintain the ability to hear the sounds of both and be able to speak each language with the accent of a native speaker. If parents each speak a different language, it is helpful if the child hears the same language consistently from the parent who is its native speaker. If, for example, the mother is a native English speaker and the father a native Spanish speaker, it will be less confusing for the child to hear each parent speak in his or her native language. The child may mix the languages in his own speech initially, but will typically sort it out by around 2 ½ years of age. Then he will separate the words belonging to each language and know which language to use with which parent. By 7 years of age, the child is likely to be able to cope with the two language systems without a problem, using both vocabulary and grammar appropriate for his age.
If a child enters a preschool and is first exposed to a second language after the age of 3, she will still be able to acquire the second language easily because she knows the rules of communication. In 3 to 7 months the child will begin to understand the second language. After about 2 years she will be able to carry on a fluent conversation. Young children learn a second language more easily than adults because the window of opportunity for learning language is still open for them. Helping the child build her self confidence during the time she is learning a second language is very important. Music is a great way to help the child learn words and phrases in the new language. Talking slowly, clearly, and simply is also helpful. It is also important for parents to continue speaking to the child at home in her native language because it continues to lay the foundation for the second language by providing the basic rules of communication. Also, the parent-child interaction might suffer if the parents speak less to the child in an attempt to use the second language.
Support for parents as their child learns language. Parents play a key role in helping their child learn language. Programs that give parents child development information can help parents understand how to nurture their child's growing language skills. They offer research based suggestions for parents at each stage of development. Parents as Teachers is an example of a parent support and information program, and is one of the models supported by IDRA's Reconnect Project. Parents and professionals can visit the Parents as Teachers Web Site at PATNC.org for more information about the program and suggestions for supporting their child's language development.
Resources:
Barnet, A.B. & Barnet, R.J., The Youngest Minds, Parenting & Genes in the Development of Intellect & Emotion. New York: Simon & Schuster,1998.
Begley, S., Your Child's Brain. Newsweek, 55-62, 1996.
Begley, S., How to Build a Baby's Brain. Newsweek, 28-32, 1997.
Gopnik, A., Ph.D., Meltzoff, A.N., Ph.D., Kuhl, P.K., Ph.D., The Scientist In The Crib, What Early Learning Tells Us About The Mind. William Morrow & Co., 1999.
Johnson, G., Building a Better Brain for Baby. New York Times, 1-6, 1994.
Eliot, Lise, What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years. New York: Bantam Books, 352, 1999.
Nash, M., Fertile Minds. 1997.
Shonkoff, J.P., From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. National Academy Press: Washington D.C., 2000.
Elaine Shiver, MSSW is a Program Director for the Mental Health Association in Texas where she coordinates training and technical assistance for Parents As Teachers programs in the state.
Slide Rule Sense
Slide Rule Sense: Amazonian Indigenous Culture Demonstrates Universal Mapping Of Number Onto Space
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2008) — The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published May 30 in the journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not linear but logarithmic. The findings illuminate both the nature and the limits of the human predisposition to measurement, a foundation for science, engineering, and much of our modern culture.
The research was conducted with the Munduruku, an Amazonian indigenous culture with a limited vocabulary of number words and spatial terms, little or no formal education, and little or no experience with maps, graphs, and rulers.
Munduruku adults and children spontaneously placed numbers on a line in a compressed, logarithmic function, such that smaller numbers appeared at greater spatial intervals. The study suggests that a propensity to relate numbers to space is universal, but that the mapping of successive integers and constant spatial intervals, as on a ruler, is culturally variable and linked in part to education.
The research was conducted by Stanislas Dehaene, professor of cognitive psychology at the College de France in Paris; Elizabeth Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; Veronique Izard, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Harvard; and Pierre Pica of Paris VIII University in Paris.
"Our findings suggest that humans have a predisposition to relate two fundamental domains of knowledge: knowledge of number and of space," Spelke says. "The Munduruku are able to place numbers on a line in a systematic way that educated adults employ as well, under certain conditions. This convergence suggests a universal relationship between numbers and space. Nevertheless, the Munduruku do not map numbers onto a line at equal intervals, as we do when we measure objects. Both universal cognitive abilities and culture-specific experiences therefore seem to contribute to the development of a linear number line and the activities that it makes possible: measurement, mathematics, and science."
The researchers studied the ability of 33 Munduruku adults and children to map numerical representations on to a line, with "1" located at the left end of the line, and "10" at the right. In tests of larger numbers, "10" was at the left, and "100" at the right. After presentation of a number stimulus, such as spoken number word in Munduruku or Portuguese, or a visual array of dots or sequence of sounds, the Munduruku indicated the number's appropriate location on the line. The test was presented on a solar-powered laptop deep in the Amazon.
In most cases, the Munduruku placed numbers on the line in a systematically compressed function, devoting more space to smaller numbers than to larger ones. Variation did exist in the amount of participants' education, and some individuals were more familiar with Portuguese than others. Those with more than three years of education tended to place numbers indicated by Portuguese spoken words at equal intervals on the line. However, those same individuals showed a compressed mapping for arrays of dots and for spoken Munduruku words, as did all of the other Munduruku participants.
Munduruku adults and children were also compared to Boston-area adults, who were given a similar set of tests. The Boston-area participants showed linear or nearly linear mappings in all the conditions of the study when they were presented with dot arrays that were small enough to count or with number words. Nevertheless, adults in Boston also showed a compressed mapping when presented with sound sequences or with arrays of dots too large to count. These findings suggest that a compressed mapping of number onto space continues to exist in adults despite years of experience with counting, arithmetic, and measurement.
"It appears that we, as humans, can access two different methods of numerical mapping," says Dehaene. "The logarithmic, ratio-based method is the most intuitive; we inherit it from our primate evolution and we still access it in the absence of precise mathematical tools. Through education, we also acquire a linear mapping. However, this does appear to be a cultural construct."
Previous studies, conducted by the same researchers, have shown that the Munduruku are sensitive to geometry, and understand the differences between different shapes or angles.
Very young children have also been shown to access a logarithmic scale for number mapping, and animals compare numbers in accord with their ratios rather than their interval relationships. In contrast, linear numerical mapping is a uniquely human ability, not shared by animals, and develops in children between the ages of 5 and 7. Because Munduruku adults show the same logarithmic mapping as preschool children, it appears that education and culture-specific experience, rather than universal developmental processes, underlie the emergence of the linear mapping.
The research was supported by the Institut Nationale de la Sante et de la Recherché Medicale (INSERM), the National Institutes of Health and the McDonnell Foundation.
Source:
Harvard University (2008, May 30). Slide Rule Sense: Amazonian Indigenous Culture Demonstrates Universal Mapping Of Number Onto Space. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 9, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/05/080529141344.htm
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2008) — The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published May 30 in the journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not linear but logarithmic. The findings illuminate both the nature and the limits of the human predisposition to measurement, a foundation for science, engineering, and much of our modern culture.
The research was conducted with the Munduruku, an Amazonian indigenous culture with a limited vocabulary of number words and spatial terms, little or no formal education, and little or no experience with maps, graphs, and rulers.
Munduruku adults and children spontaneously placed numbers on a line in a compressed, logarithmic function, such that smaller numbers appeared at greater spatial intervals. The study suggests that a propensity to relate numbers to space is universal, but that the mapping of successive integers and constant spatial intervals, as on a ruler, is culturally variable and linked in part to education.
The research was conducted by Stanislas Dehaene, professor of cognitive psychology at the College de France in Paris; Elizabeth Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology at Harvard University; Veronique Izard, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Harvard; and Pierre Pica of Paris VIII University in Paris.
"Our findings suggest that humans have a predisposition to relate two fundamental domains of knowledge: knowledge of number and of space," Spelke says. "The Munduruku are able to place numbers on a line in a systematic way that educated adults employ as well, under certain conditions. This convergence suggests a universal relationship between numbers and space. Nevertheless, the Munduruku do not map numbers onto a line at equal intervals, as we do when we measure objects. Both universal cognitive abilities and culture-specific experiences therefore seem to contribute to the development of a linear number line and the activities that it makes possible: measurement, mathematics, and science."
The researchers studied the ability of 33 Munduruku adults and children to map numerical representations on to a line, with "1" located at the left end of the line, and "10" at the right. In tests of larger numbers, "10" was at the left, and "100" at the right. After presentation of a number stimulus, such as spoken number word in Munduruku or Portuguese, or a visual array of dots or sequence of sounds, the Munduruku indicated the number's appropriate location on the line. The test was presented on a solar-powered laptop deep in the Amazon.
In most cases, the Munduruku placed numbers on the line in a systematically compressed function, devoting more space to smaller numbers than to larger ones. Variation did exist in the amount of participants' education, and some individuals were more familiar with Portuguese than others. Those with more than three years of education tended to place numbers indicated by Portuguese spoken words at equal intervals on the line. However, those same individuals showed a compressed mapping for arrays of dots and for spoken Munduruku words, as did all of the other Munduruku participants.
Munduruku adults and children were also compared to Boston-area adults, who were given a similar set of tests. The Boston-area participants showed linear or nearly linear mappings in all the conditions of the study when they were presented with dot arrays that were small enough to count or with number words. Nevertheless, adults in Boston also showed a compressed mapping when presented with sound sequences or with arrays of dots too large to count. These findings suggest that a compressed mapping of number onto space continues to exist in adults despite years of experience with counting, arithmetic, and measurement.
"It appears that we, as humans, can access two different methods of numerical mapping," says Dehaene. "The logarithmic, ratio-based method is the most intuitive; we inherit it from our primate evolution and we still access it in the absence of precise mathematical tools. Through education, we also acquire a linear mapping. However, this does appear to be a cultural construct."
Previous studies, conducted by the same researchers, have shown that the Munduruku are sensitive to geometry, and understand the differences between different shapes or angles.
Very young children have also been shown to access a logarithmic scale for number mapping, and animals compare numbers in accord with their ratios rather than their interval relationships. In contrast, linear numerical mapping is a uniquely human ability, not shared by animals, and develops in children between the ages of 5 and 7. Because Munduruku adults show the same logarithmic mapping as preschool children, it appears that education and culture-specific experience, rather than universal developmental processes, underlie the emergence of the linear mapping.
The research was supported by the Institut Nationale de la Sante et de la Recherché Medicale (INSERM), the National Institutes of Health and the McDonnell Foundation.
Source:
Harvard University (2008, May 30). Slide Rule Sense: Amazonian Indigenous Culture Demonstrates Universal Mapping Of Number Onto Space. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 9, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/05/080529141344.htm
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