Child Language Acquisition Test

1.      Place the following stages in the correct order:

Cooing     Babbling    Holophrastic    Two-word    Telegraphic    Post-telegraphic

2.      Match the theories with the theorists:

A    Nativist – children are born with a language acquisition device. They have an innate ability to acquire language	3     N. Chomsky
B    Cognitive – children develop their linguistic competence alongside their ability to understand the world around them	4     J. Piaget
C    Behaviourist – children learn primarily through imitation and patterns of positive or negative reinforcement from their carers	5     B. F. Skinner
D    Interactional – children learn through the input of their carers, correcting and supporting their linguistic development	1     J. Bruner
E    Critical period – children have a limited period during which their language can develop rapidly. After this, language development is much harder	2     E. Lenneberg

3.      A child refers to an apple, orange and grapefruit as ‘ball’.  What process is at work and what might be the reasons for this?

Over-extension – child sees similar shapes to an object she knows and overextends the term she knows to include these objects 

4.      A child refers to her boots as ‘shoes’ but will not use this term to describe any other shoes, apart from her own.  What process is at work and what might be the reasons for this?

Under-extension – child cannot relate the term she knows to any other similar item

 5.      A child says ‘I falled over’ or ‘I runned away’.  What process is at work and what might be
           the reasons for this?

Generalization – child applies regular rules to irregular verbs

6.      A child says ‘Daddy go work’ as his father leaves for work.  At what stage of development might we suggest the child is?  Which clause elements has the child used and which are missing?

Telegraphic stage – child has used subject verb and part of the prepositional phrase (to) work but has missed the auxiliary verb is going

7.      A child says ‘Me like ice cream’.  In what way is she/he using some elements of grammar correctly and in what ways is she making errors?

Correct syntax/ word order but misusing pronoun.  She uses first person object pronoun me instead of first person subject pronoun

8.      A child says ‘timney’ instead of ‘chimney’.  What process is at work and what might be the reason for this?

Substitution – child is replacing the ch sound with a simpler t sound

9.      A child says ‘ca’ instead of ‘cat’.  What process is at work and what might be the reason for this?

Deletion – child is either not hearing or not producing the last consonant sound ‘t’

10.      A child says ‘nana’ instead of ‘banana’.  What process is at work and what might be the reasons for this?

Deletion of unstressed syllable – child deletes ba syllable

11.      Michael Halliday researched functions of language in child development. What were the six functions and how might they be illustrated?  (Give an example for each function.)

·       Instrumental – to satisfy needs and wants: ‘Juice!’

·       Regulatory – to control others: ‘Lift me up, daddy’

·       Interactional – to create interactions with others: ‘Bye bye’

·       Personal – to express personal thoughts and opinions: ‘I no like custard’

·       Imaginative – to create imaginary worlds: ‘I’m a dragon – roarrr’

·       Heuristic – to seek information: ‘What’s that, mummy?’

·       Informative – to communicate information: ‘We had fish for lunch.’

12.      What are ‘wugs’?  Who researched them?  What did she discover?

Jean Berko

·       Using a made-up animal, she tested the children’s application of the ‘-s’ plural rule and found that nearly all of them applied it to a noun they’d never heard before

13.      Out of the average child’s first 50 words, the most common word class will probably be what?  Why might this be?

Nouns (mostly concrete nouns) – the most common items around the child and easily understood link between object and label

14.      In what ways might turn-taking be established between a carer and a child?

Suggestions are:

Conversations with child as if they are a full participant

Games such as peek-a-boo

Setting up question and answer structures in basic conversation

15.      List the ways in which a parent or carer can make their use of language easier for a child to understand.  What might this type of language be termed?

Child-Directed Speech (CDS), caretaker language, motherese, parentese

·       more pronounced intonation that draws attention to key morphemes or lexemes

·       simplified vocabulary that helps establish key words (‘dog’ rather than ‘pitbull terrier’)

·       repeated grammatical ‘frames’ that help draw attention to new elements within those frames (e.g. ‘What animal lives in a kennel?  What animal lives in a stable?  What animal lives in a sty?’)

·       simplified grammar – shorter utterances

·       tag questions used to initiate turn-taking

·       actions that accompany speech: pointing, smiling, shrugging shoulders etc.

·       more obvious lip and mouth movement to help younger children copy

16.      Who was Genie and what might she prove?

A ‘feral’ or ‘wild’ girl discovered by social workers in California in 1970.  At 13 her vocabulary was limited to 20 words.  Her case study is often used to support the Critical Learning Period Hypothesis, while others use it to support the Interactive Theory.

17.      Who was Jim and what might he prove?

A boy noted in the Devilliers & Devilliers study in 1978.  He was born to deaf parents and placed in front of a TV in the hope he would pick up language by watching it.  His language acquisition was hampered and it’s often used to support the Interactive Theory.

18.      Apart from the main theorists mentioned above, which other researchers could you refer to when talking about child language?

Some suggestions: Roger Brown, Steven Pinker, Jean Aitchison and David Crystal

19.      What do the initials L.A.D. stand for?

Language Acquisition Device

20.      At the telegraphic stage, children often combine content words in the correct sequence (syntax) but miss out certain grammatical words. Give two word classes (and an example of each) that children often omit.

Determiners (the, a)

Auxiliary verbs (is doing, am running)