Finding relations between input and outcome in language acquisition.

J. N. Bohannon, R. J. Padgett, K. E. Nelson, and M. Mark (see record 199601760-018) raised numerous points of disagreement with the analyses of J. L. Morgan, K. Bonamo, and L. L. Travis (see record 1995-24603-001) concerning children's use of parental recasts, responses potentially providing negative evidence. Claiming to show that the bivariate time-series analyses used by Morgan et al. were inherently flawed, Bohannon et al. argued that training studies offer a preferable means for examining contributions of language input. In this article, multiple weaknesses of training studies are noted; at best, such studies may yield information on the sufficiency of aspects of language input but can yield none on their necessity. The failure of Bohannon et al.'s time-series analyses to distinguish among varying models of recast function is shown to be attributable to confounding of parameters and idiosyncratic assumptions adopted in generating simulated data from these models. Contrary to Bohannon et al.'s assertions, bivariate time-series analyses of observational data may provide invaluable tools for discerning signs and magnitudes of relations among variables in language development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's language acquisition.

Child language acquisition has only recently become an important research topic for developmental psychologists, although the universal appearance of language during the second year of life has long fascinated philosophers. For normally developing children, language emerges spontaneously as a means of talking about what they know so that they can accomplish social goals important to them. Some children, however, need to be taught. This article reviews current issues in child language acquisition and suggests a research agenda for helping those children who have difficulty mastering the fundamentals of language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonemic awareness and letter knowledge in the child's acquisition of the alphabetic principle.

Studied acquisition of the alphabetic principle in preliterate children, 3–5 yrs. The dependent variable throughout was a forced-choice between, e.g., "mow" and "sow" as pronunciations for the written word mow after the child had been taught to read the words mat and sat. Reliable performance on this transfer task was only achieved by children who (a) understood two aspects of phonological organization—phonemic segmentation of the speech items and the identity of their initial segments, and (b) had learned graphic symbols for the sounds "m" and "s." Most children who demonstrated alphabetic insight with symbols in word-initial position were also successful at transfer when the symbols were word-final. Thus, phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge were needed in combination for acquisition of the alphabetic principle, and, once gained, alphabetic insight proved relatively robust. Implications for reading acquisition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling language acquisition in atypical phenotypes.

An increasing number of connectionist models have been proposed to explain behavioral deficits in developmental disorders. These simulations motivate serious consideration of the theoretical implications of the claim that a developmental disorder fits within the parameter space of a particular computational model of normal development. The authors examine these issues in depth with respect to a series of new simulations investigating past-tense formation in Williams syndrome. This syndrome and the past-tense domain are highly relevant because both have been used to make strong theoretical claims about the processes underlying normal language acquisition. The authors conclude that computational models have great potential to advance psychologists' understanding of developmental deficits because they focus on the developmental process itself as a pivotal causal factor in producing atypical phenotypic outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive development and the acquisition of language in three subcultural groups.

Investigated the relationship between cognitive development and language acquisition by administering a sentence repetition task and a discrimination, seriation, and numeration Piagetian task to a total of 67 black inner-city, white middle-class, and white rural children. Within each subcultural group, samples were drawn from each of 3 grade levels: kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Results indicate that when valid reconstructions from standard English to Negro nonstandard English forms were considered correct, the performance of black inner-city and white middle-class children was nonsignificantly different. However, significant differences between the 3 groups were found on function-word omission scores and Piagetian task scores. Analyses of covariance were performed using Piagetian task scores as the covariate and function word omission scores as the dependent variable. Results support D. I. Slobin's (1973) proposition that the acquisition of semantic notions in language is predictable from cognitive development. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The magic spell of language: Linguistic categories and their perceptual consequences.

Language is a tool that directs attention to different aspects of reality. Using participants from the same linguistic community, the authors demonstrate in 4 studies that metasemantic features of linguistic categories influence basic perceptual processes. More specifically, the hypothesis that abstract versus concrete language leads to a more global versus local perceptual focus was supported across 4 experiments, in which participants used (Experiment 1) or were primed either supraliminally (Experiments 2 and 3) or subliminally (Experiment 4) with abstract (adjectives) or concrete (verbs) terms. Participants were shown to display a global versus specific perceptual focus (Experiments 1 and 4), more versus less inclusiveness of categorization (Experiments 2 and 3), and incorporation of more rather than less contextual information (Experiment 3). The implications of this new perspective toward the language-perception interface are discussed in the context of the general linguistic relativity debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlation, causation, motivation, and second language acquisition.

Examines 4 truisms about correlation, demonstrating that they are not always true. For example, under certain conditions, correlation can imply causation, though these conditions are seldom satisfied in most applications. Nonetheless, many people are interested in investigating individual differences, and in making inferences of the type that this individual difference variable is related to, mediates, moderates, or even causes or influences that individual difference variable. Generally speaking, the analytic procedures used involve the correlation coefficient in one form or another. The author proposes 4 steps that researchers can follow to accumulate evidence that increases one's confidence in the validity of a particular causal model. These steps are illustrated by reviewing research on individual differences in 2nd language acquisition. This approach is not conclusive, but it does force the examination of the implications of the model, thus leading to further insights and research. Although the focus here is on 2nd language acquisition, the generalizations apply to other areas of research that are concerned with individual differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Universals and individual differences: Disentangling two approaches to the study of language acquisition.

A"universal" orientation to language acquisition continues to influence current research on language development in ways that are not always appropriate or helpful to the study of individual differences and their causes. For example, a universal orientation has fostered research methods that treat children as linguistic replicates of one another. Also, a genetic contribution to individual differences in language development (via the combined influence of many genes) has not been widely considered because it is often confused with the idea of innate language universals or with single-gene Mendelian inheritance. These and other specific influences of the older universals paradigm on current research in language development are reviewed, and an alternative research framework is outlined that supplements traditional approaches to the study of language acquisition by providing a means to disentangle genetic and environmental influences on linguistic variability. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family experience and the child's development.

Discusses the evidence for 3 premises implicit in theories of human development: (a) the assumption that a particular set of conditions is inevitably associated with a fixed set of consequences for all children, (b) the continuation of psychological structures established early in life, and (c) the importance of the mother–infant bond. Data are presented that question the validity of these presuppositions. It is suggested that the form of early care that is best for the child—in the adaptive sense—is the one that leads to, or is productive of, the culture's favored qualities, and therefore, no regimen of early care is best for all psychological qualities. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of language in the development of the self I: Language acquisition.

The present essay discusses the aspects of the process of language acquisition in relation to the development of the self. Methodological issues are discussed; particularly the integration of maturational and environmental factors in the development of language. Theories of the development of transformational generative grammars point toward maturational aspects, but must be complemented by and integrated with the experience of evolving communication between child and caregivers. Progressive steps in the acquisition of language are discussed with specific reference to the influence of such developments on the concept of the self. Rudiments of a functional self are extant even from within the womb, and develop a conceptual and communicative capacity well before the onset of language. The functional and developmental gains acquired through the emergence of language are indicated in expanding and elaborating the scope and depth of preexistent capacities, and adding new and powerful dimensions to the experiential and expressive capacity of the self, especially in relation to self-awareness and a sense of identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The child's perception of the parent.

"Interviews were held with 217 children of both sexes whose ages ranged from 6-0 to 10-2. Their answers to questions related to their perception of their parents were obtained. Both girls and boys stated that fathers were less friendly and more dominant, punitive, and threatening than mothers. There was, however, a consistent tendency for the older children to be more likely than the younger children to view the parent of the same sex as more dominant and punitive. It was suggested that differential handling of boys and girls might partially account for this latter finding." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes and behaviour in second language acquisition: A social psychological interpretation.

Four behaviors involved in the acquisition of a 2nd language are achievement in the language, the decision to remain in the language program, behavior in the classroom, and social contact with members of the 2nd language community. In general, these behaviors have been considered in isolation of formal psychological models and of each other. The present authors review research relevant to each of these behaviors, examining them within the theoretical frameworks proposed by M. Fishbein (1967), Fishbein and I. Ajzen (1975), and K. Lewin (1951). It is suggested that a better understanding of the role of attitudes in 2nd language acquisition can be achieved by postulating a general motivational syndrome, the integrative motive, which involves a complex of attitudinal/motivational variables. This model is related to the formulations of Fishbein and Ajzen, and Lewin, and the general approach appears to have implications for situations concerned with the interplay of attitudes and behavior. (French summary) (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude, aptitude, and type of instructional programme in second language acquisition.

Administered a battery of tests, including the Student Attitude Questionnaire, Modern Language Aptitude Test, and Canadian Achievement Test in French, to English-speaking 9th graders taking French courses which were either traditionally oriented (n = 78) or audiolingual (n = 93). Data were analysed separately for each sample by means of factor analyses. Considerable agreement was found between the factor structures for the 2 samples. Results support R. Gardner and W. Lambert's 2-process approach to the study of 2nd-language acquisition. Several obtained differences in French performance are discussed with reference to the kind of course to which Ss were exposed. (French summary) (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The child's understanding of commitment.

We investigated 5- to 10-year-old children's understanding of the conditions under which a person becomes committed to carrying out an intended action in a series of three experiments. We asked subjects to pass moral judgment on story protagonists for not carrying out an action that, if it were carried out, would have prevented a friend's misfortune. In a commitment story the protagonist agreed to act, whereas in a no-commitment story the protagonist only predicted that he would act without understanding that his friend would later rely on this action. Up to the age of 9 years children thought both protagonists equally reprehensible for not acting. By varying the no-commitment story, a developmental sequence emerged in the understanding of when failure to act need not be reprehensible. Even the youngest children did not blame the protagonist if he never had the intention to act or if he was prevented from acting by external force. By the age of 7 years, they did blame the protagonist if he kept his intention to act a secret. Although children from a very early age have the concept of commitment, the understanding of the interpersonal conditions for becoming committed develops later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do early talkers become early readers? Linguistic precocity, preschool language, and emergent literacy.

25 children, selected for verbal precocity at 20 mo of age, participated in a longitudinal study investigating predictors of later language and literacy skills. Although children remained verbally precocious, there was a low incidence of precocious reading. Exposure to instruction in letter names and sounds was a significant predictor of children's knowledge of print conventions, invented spelling, and phonological awareness at age 4? yrs. Frequency of story reading in the home and child engagement in a story reading episode at age 24 mo were significant predictors of children's language ability at age 2? yrs and 4? yrs and knowledge of print conventions at age 4? yrs. It is concluded that story reading with parents as well as literacy instruction contributes to the development of emergent literacy in verbally precocious children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational variables in second language acquisition: A study of Francophones learning English.

Assessed the motivational characteristics of Francophones learning English as a 2nd language. A total of 304 Grade 10 and 11 Montreal Francophone students responded to a battery of attitude and motivation scales (e.g., attitudes toward English Canadians, parental encouragement, and opportunity to use English). The correlations among these scales were factor analyzed together with indices of intelligence, and achievement in French, mathematics, and English. Results tend to support the generalization that an individual's motivation to learn a 2nd language is dependent upon favorable attitudes toward the 2nd language community (i.e., an integrative motive). However, while Ss' intentions to continue studying English were related to an integrative motive, actual competence in the 2nd language seemed to be more closely related to a dimension of motivation which is best described as self-confidence derived from prior experience with the language. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New age-linked asymmetries: Aging and the processing of familiar versus novel language on the input versus output side.

This research demonstrates 3 new age-linked asymmetries between identifying versus retrieving phonological information. Young and older adults read aloud familiar isolated words (e.g., mind) and novel pseudowords (e.g., mond) in a production task and identified lexical status for identical stimuli in a comprehension task. Young adults made fewer errors than older adults in production but not comprehension (an age-related input-output asymmetry), and they produced pseudowords but not words with fewer errors than older adults (a lexical-status asymmetry). The lexical-status asymmetry also occurred for response onset times but not for output durations (an onset-output asymmetry). All 3 asymmetries were predicted under the transmission deficit hypothesis (D. G. MacKay & D. M. Burke, 1990) but contradict theories such as general slowing that cannot explain why aging affects some types of information processing more than others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)