Language Acquisition: Context, Process

1
Lecture

• Language Acquisition Context, Process Products
  Impact Implications of Deafness
• Schirmer (2000), Ch. 1 Language Development and
  the Goals of Language Instruction

2

• traditional focus upon language acquisition
  products vs. process
• cognition language language serves as an
  organizer and a representation of thought
• for language acquisition to occur, the childs
  language models must be consistent,
  comprehensible and tied to their interest and
  experiences (...the younger the child, the more
  immediate/concrete the ties must be)
• there appears to be a very similar progression of
  language functions acquired by the hearing and
  deaf child....some difference occur in the forms
  acquired....NO difference in the potential to
  learn language.

3

• most language acquisition studies have focused
  upon the perception and production of speech....
• impact upon parent when infant/toddler does not
  produce expected speech?
• parental knowledge re. how to adjust their
  mothereses to fit their childs language
  learning needs?
• potential source for the needed information,
  i.e., how to effectively interact with d/hh
  children?
• difference between homesign systems and
  language
• reflexive to signals to symbols (i.e., concrete
  to abstract)
• communication systems to languages
• conventionalization of communicative behavior

4

• MLU strategy for identifying where a child is
  within the lang. dev. process....not an effective
  measure
• p 9 The ways in which children combine semantic
  categories within sentences become more complex
  as they are able to produce longer utterances.
• why does this development occur?
• what communicative function do these increasingly
  adult-like language forms serve?
• what are the implications of this information for
  you and your d/hh students?

5

• p 10-14, Fig. 1.1 1.2 .....use to
• communicative function of the various
  linguistic forms....
• place students language skills within the dev.
  sequence
• identify/state/work towards language goals
• how would you actually do this?
• what communicative context could you establish to
  make such language work functional to the d/hh
  student?
• how would you know if you had been successful or
  not?
• p 15, Fig. 1.4 Definitions of Hallidays
  Language Functions conversational tasks,
• i.e., what you want to accomplish as a result of
  the interaction
• difficulty of using these functions due to
  their overlapping nature

6

• p 16 presuppositions ...child makes
  assumptions about what the partner knows or does
  not know...about the topic.
• Why is this skill so critical?
• How good/bad are many d/hh kids in doing this?
• How do hearing kids dev. this skill?
• Why dont d/hh kids dev. it better?
• What are the implications for you as a future
  teacher?
• p 17, Conversation brief, narrative
  description of the conversational model we are
  using in this course
• P. 18 Figure 1.5 Characteristics of Motherese

7

• p 19, Results have indicated that mothers are
  more attuned than fathers to the developmental
  level of their children.
• Why would this be so?
• What are the implications for your language
  assessment work?
• identify the individual with the most experience
  with the d/hh student...use them as a wise
  other concerning the students pattern/meaning of
  communicative behavior

8

• p 19, Adult Responses to Ungrammatical Forms
• respond to truth more than correctness of
  word/sentence form
• Why?
• Does this change with the age of the student?
• What are the implications for your language work?
• Is this the norm within most deaf ed. class
  rooms?
• p 19, Why should they learn more complex forms
  if their simpler language adequately serves their
  communication needs?
• a brief demonstration

9

• ...demonstration....why child acquires more
  complex language forms
• communicative intent
• milk
• more milk
• more warm milk
• milk in favorite cup....one with Mickey on it
• milk, favorite cup cookies!
• milk, favorite cup cookies you, tea party
  with me
• ....MUCH later If you have the time, lets grab
  a cup of espresso and a pastry at Susans after
  class.
• communicative function dictates linguistic form

10

• p. 20 Context of Parent-Child Communications
• Almost immediately after birth, mothers and
  their children begin to interact with one another
  (i.e., via the use of social routines/games) in
  ways that are remarkable like conversations.
  Gleason (1997).
• actually, it is the mothers that carry the burden
  for the conversational like interactions
• Why would this be one of the very first things
  that mothers would try to teach the infant?
• What are they actually learning here?
• conversational tasks
• What are the implications of this information?

11

• p. 21 Syntactic Development
• words, to phrases, to simple sentences, to
  complex sentences on first concrete topics and
  me tasks/functions to eventual abstract topics
  on our/your tasks/functions
• What type of words, phrases and simple sentences
  are learned first?
• real objects upon which action can be taken
• topics dictated by the child
• actions requested by the child of the caregiver
• the comprehensibility, consistency, immediacy,
  contextualness and recastingof the
  caregivers physical and communicative behavior
  increasing expectations
• What are the implications of this information?

12

• p. 24 Vocabulary Growth....one of the major
  sources...is reading.
• What is the last new word that you learned?
• In what context did that learning occur?
• To what topic did that word pertain?
• What are the implications of this information for
  your work with d/hh students?
• p 25 Defining a word involves metalinguistic
  processes...must be able to reflect on word
  meanings and use words to talk about words. (p
  28) By the time the (hearing) child is in the
  first grade...they have the rudimentary ability
  to reflect on (metalinguistic elements of
  language)...
• When would you use such knowledge as a teaching
  tool with d/hh students?

13

• p. 26, ...question-answer-evaluate....sometimes
  called question-answer routines.....have been
  found to be particularly difficult for deaf
  children...because the child expects
  communication to be conversational in nature and
  has difficulty following the logic of the
  question-answer routine.
• How frequently are such routines used with d/hh
  students?
• How are such routines different from those used
  by parents with their young children?
• What are the language development ramifications
  of such routines?
• What are the implications of this information for
  you as a future teacher of d/hh students?