Developmental Psychology Language Development Game

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Developmental PsychologyLanguage Development Game

• Outline of Concepts in Game
• Phonemes
• Whole-Object Constraint
• Word / Naming Explosion
• Over-Extension Under-Extension
• Pragmatics
• Developmental Theories of Language

k h grobman - devpsy.org
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How the Game Works
Your goal is to form a language. Since we only
have a class period, your language will use a
very limited world (i.e., shapes of varying size
and color) and a very limited set of phonemes
(i.e., 5). To illustrate your competence as
using your language, one person should be able to
describe a picture while another person produces
it. Though this world is far less complicated
then ours, communication is still
complicated. Lets try (in English).
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Your World
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Rules of the Game
During the game, you can only speak with your
groups phonemes. During time-outs you can
speak English but you can not talk to your
group-mates about the game. You can take notes
(with English) to help reduce the working memory
demands of the game. But do not show anybody
what you wrote. At the end of class, well have
each group showcase their ability to communicate
in the same way we just did with English.
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Your Phonemes
Your group gets to use 5 phonemes. Each group
has a unique set. Heres a sample that does not
match any actual group ch chair, beach,
nature affricate u soon, through,
boot monophthong This means you get the sounds
/ch/ and /u/. You do not get the sound /t/ even
though a t is in bold. The words in the middle
illustrate the use of the phoneme. The right
column tells you the type of phoneme its how
your mouth, tongue, and vocal cords move. You can
combine your phonemes in any way. For example,
you might create a word that sounds like,
chooch.
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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What are Phonemes?
Phonemes are basic units of sound in a language.
Everybody says particular phonemes slightly
differently, but when you say a different
phoneme, you say a different word. (e.g, ch is
a different phoneme from th as chug is
different from thug.)
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Getting Ready to Play
Pull out your lists of phonemes. Remember these
are the only phonemes you can use in the
game. Now pull out a single item from your
world. When the game begins, say something using
your language before you take anything else out
of the envelope.
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your
world.
The following chart helps you pace 45 minutes of
game play, including all time-in and time-out
portions. With the instructions before play and
competition after play, the game can last one and
one-half hours. Remember your row column in
the chart below for next time-in. The current
time-in should last from 00 to 07 20 to
27 40 to 47 05 to 12 25 to 32 45
to 52 10 to 17 30 to 37 50 to
57 15 to 22 35 to 42 55 to 02
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Whole Object Constraint
One thing that facilitates childrens word
learning is the biases (i.e., assumptions) they
have when they hear new words. We will see
several examples of this in our next class when
we discuss fast mapping. Children behave
according a whole object constraint. They assume
that a novel word refers to the entire object we
are paying attention to, rather than about a part
or a quality of the object. Did you follow the
whole object constraint within your group?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your
world.
The current time-in, from the same row and column
as before, should last from 11 to 18 31 to
38 51 to 57 16 to 23 37 to 43 56
to 03 22 to 28 41 to 48 01 to
08 27 to 33 46 to 53 06 to 13
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Language Explosion
Between speaking our first words (about 12mo -
16mo) and starting to put together sentences
(about 20mo - 30mo), we go through a period where
we acquire a vast number of words (15mo -
22mo). As children approach 2 years of age, they
experience a language explosion. They learn
about 10 to 20 new words each week. Most of
those words are nouns. Did you experience a
language explosion during the game? Were most of
the words you created nouns?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your
world.
The current time-in, from the same row and column
as before, should last from 22 to 29 42 to
49 02 to 09 27 to 34 47 to 54 07
to 14 32 to 39 52 to 59 12 to
19 37 to 44 57 to 04 17 to 24
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Over-Extension Under Extension
An over-extension or under-extension of a words
meaning, is a particularly common error for
children as they learn new words. An
over-extension is to use a word to refer to more
than its intended referent. For example, a child
may say ball to refer to balls, marbles,
balloons, and eggs. An under-extension is to use
a word to refer to less than its intended
referent. For example, a child may only refer to
her teddy-bear as bear rather than recognizing
that everybody elses teddy-bear and real bears
are also bears. Were over-extensions or
under-extensions a particular common error for
you during the game? Or was another kind of
error more common?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your
world.
The current time-in, from the same row and column
as before, should last from 33 to 40 53 to
00 13 to 20 38 to 45 58 to 05 18
to 25 43 to 50 03 to 10 23 to
30 48 to 55 08 to 15 28 to 35
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun. The
spy sees the police officer with the
binoculars. Who has the gun, the police officer
or the spy? Who has the binoculars, the police
officer or the spy?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun. The
spy sees the police officer with the
binoculars. Who has the gun, the police officer
or the spy? Who has the binoculars, the police
officer or the spy?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Pragmatics
The spy sees the police officer with the gun. The
spy sees the police officer with the
binoculars. Notice how the grammar of the two
sentences is exactly the same. The ability to
use background knowledge and context to
understand language is called pragmatics. Like
children, did you eventually develop pragmatics
(in this game)?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time In!
Speak only with phonemes from your language and
try to communicate about the objects in your
world.
The current time-in, from the same row and column
as before, should last from 44 to 51 04 to
11 24 to 31 49 to 56 09 to 16 29
to 36 54 to 01 14 to 21 34 to
41 59 to 06 19 to 26 39 to 46
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Language Development Theories
Three broad kinds of developmental theories
explain language acquisition. Nativism special
innate abilities, that may include a language
module, where acquiring language is different
from other learning Interactionism language is
fundamentally a social experience Connectionism
Language is acquired through the regularities in
our experience and exposure. Did you experience
in todays language game illustrate to you how
one theory might be supported or refuted?
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Time to test your Language
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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Testing your Language Development
Divide your group into two sub-groups, talkers
and listeners. The listeners get an envelope
of the shapes. They should face away from the
blackboard. The talkers face the blackboard
and tell the listeners what to make, using
their language. No group should look at what the
others are doing. Ill provide the drawing on
the next slide. Then we will compare how close
each group was to reproducing the picture.
k h grobman - devpsy.org
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A Picture
k h grobman - devpsy.org