Language Development - an Overview - Assignment Example

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT {Insert student’s name} {Insert university’s name} {Insert university's name} June 14, 2013 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 1. Babbling (a) Hoff (2011) defines babbling as part of process that takes place during the pre-speech development stage. Infants starts to babble between 16 and 30 weeks whereby they start to play with their vocal tracts. Additionally, they enter the expansion stage whereby they begin to produce vowel-like and constant-like sounds. At the aforementioned stage infants seems to have full control of their sounds repertoires an aspect that makes them to be in a position to combine different sounds into long and complex ones. (b) When infants start to produce long and complex series of sounds different kinds of babbling start to emerge. When infants come at the end of the expansion stage where they produce a series of long sounds, a kind of babbling called marginal emerges. At the marginal stage infants produce additional noises such as growls, squeals and variety of friction sounds. Velar sounds such as [k] and [g] are produced by the infants between 2 to 3 months. However, at 6 months consonant like sounds which are mainly articulated at the front of the mouth such as [d], [m], [b], and [n] are produced. Canonical babbling is another form of babbling whereby infants begins to combine vowel-like and consonant-like mostly in series that entails elements of true syllables and this takes place at the age of 6 and 9 months. This kind of babbling is also called reduplicated babbling where sounds such as [tatata] are produced. According to Hoff (2011) deaf students fail to produce reduplicated babbling hence it is important in differentiating deaf children from non-deaf ones. After the canonical babbling, non-reduplicated or variegated babbling emerges. At this stage the range of consonants and vowels produced by the infants expand. Unlike the repetitive series that are witnessed in the canonical babbling, infants start to combine different consonant+ vowel+ consonant and consonant +vowel syllables into various series and be in a position to add prosody for them and as a result come with jargon. Hoff (2011) adds that some infants are able to produce more jargons than others. (c) Babbling is important in the speech development because it helps infants to the sounds of the target language. Furthermore forms of babbling such as reduplicated assists in detecting hearing impairment on children for instance deaf children do not produce reduplicated babbling while non-deaf ones do. (d) Just like babbling, when vegetative sounds are being produced, the vocal cords of an infant vibrates an aspect that makes the air flow via the vocal apparatus started and stopped. Hoff (2011) points out that the single sounds production stage are introduced by the vegetative sounds, an aspect that pave way for production of complex sound series in babbling stage. (e) According to Hoff (2011) Sounds that infants produce at the age of 16 months is influenced by the input. For example, students in a Spanish background produce different sounds from those in English/Arabic background. De boysson-Bardis and other as cited in Hoff, (2011, pp.119), as early as 9 months, the babbling is characterized by different features of consonants and vowels and the mentioned is similar in different linguistic backgrounds. However, through comparing infants in Swedish, Japanese, English and French backgrounds linguistic backgrounds, babbling indicates that placement of vowels as well as consonants resemble the native language hence proves the hypothesis babbling drift hypothesis. Additionally, babbling resembles the phonetic characteristics of the input language hence environment plays a role in babbling. 2. Early speech development (a) Hoff (2011) points out that the biological abilities and development of a child plays a critical role in early speech development. Physical developments impact on the developmental changes that take place in the vocalization of the infant over the first year. Physical growth of not only the vocal tract but also of the brain development, neurological development structures are essential in vocalization as they are responsible for vocal productions of an infant. The vocal tracts of infants are smaller as compared to those of adults. For instance, the mouth of the infant is filled with the tongue an aspect that limits movement. However, as the facial skeleton continue to grow, movement ranges increases and hence a variety of sounds are produced. Additionally, development of sensory receptors and muscles makes infants to have more control on sound production. Nonetheless, in the lexical domain, is impacted upon by the language processing speed as well as the child’s phonological memory. On the other hand, the environmental input that a child is exposed is important in the early speech development. In reference to phonological development, environmental input is important as adult’s speech shapes phonological development in regard to prosodic characters and speech segments. Consequently, social feedback and vocal output also influences a child’s phonological development. It is important to note that vocabulary rich environment contributes towards rich lexical development. (b) Brain stem controls the vegetative and crying sounds of an infant. According to Hoff (2011), the child’s brain structure concedes with development of the vocalization of an infant. For instance the limbic system is responsible for cooing at the age of 6 to 8 weeks. Additionally, as the limbic system develops further, the infants develops laughter at the age of 16 weeks hence it can be pointed out that it contributes to babbling as the child continue to grow. (c) Environmental factors such as language input and social feedback influences a child’s early language development. For instance, if a mother exposes her child to constant talking, the child is likely to have a wider sound repertoire due to imitation. 3. Context bound words a- Hoff (2011) defines context-bound word as any word that is tied to a given context. At the age of 9 to 12 months of age, children starts to use context bound words such as cat, milk etc. For instance when a child makes use of the word such as cat it only refers to their cat and not any other cat this is because it seems the child is extracting a narrow meaning of the word cat in a particular context and is not in a position to realize that a cat is any domestic animal. (b) -To determine whether a word is context-bound or not, analyze its use in different situations or contexts. For instance, the word mother can be context to describe females in the pictures, television, then the word is not context bound. Nonetheless, if the child is in a position to use the word mother to describe only to his/her mother then the word mother is not context-bound. (c) -According to Hoff (2011) there are similarities and differences between context-bound, overextensions and under-extensions. Context-bound words are used in a given or specific environment. On the other hand, overextensions are used in distinct contexts and are not a representation of an actual meaning. An instance is whereby a child uses the word cat to refer to all domestic animals. On the other hand, under-extension can take place when a child uses the word cat to refer only to black cats. In other words, it is narrow use of the real meaning of the word. Additionally, when a child uses the word cat to refer to only their cat and not any other cat, it is regarded as under-extension. Similarity between over-extensions, under-extensions and context-bound words is that they disappear gradually as a child continues to develop cognitively. (d)- I disagree with the perception that context-bound words need not to be counted as real words. This is because children make use of context-bound words due to limited exposure to words and experience to different objects and situations. It is evident that as they grow up and gain more experience and exposure, children are able to relate words to different objects and contexts. However, despite using the context-bound words, they are in a position to comprehend the meaning. Hence, context-bound words are real words. Reference: Hoff, E (2011) Language Development, 5th edn, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, USA. Read More