Reading List 2016; "Why do some children find language so hard to learn?"Dorothy Bishop
Reading list for talk "Why do some children find language so hard to learn?"
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
VIIIth International Conference of Language Acquisition
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
6-9th September
Reading List 2016; "Why do some children find language so hard to learn?"Dorothy Bishop
Reading list for talk "Why do some children find language so hard to learn?"
Dorothy V. M. Bishop
VIIIth International Conference of Language Acquisition
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
6-9th September
Communication before and after cochlear implantsHEARnet _
Questionnaires investigating communication choices were posted to parents of all 640 children who received the cochlear implant at the Royal Vic Eye & Ear Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Specifically this questionnaire [replicating Watson's (2007) study in the UK] investigated the factors that influence parents to choose either a visual/manual based approach (sign, sign language, total communication) or an auditory/oral based approach (oral-aural, auditory verbal) with their children, and whether the child's preferred communication approach had shifted over time.
Pragmatic language impairment in relation to autism and SLIDorothy Bishop
Bishop DVM. 2000. Pragmatic language impairment: a correlate of SLI, a distinct subgroup, or part of the autistic continuum? In: Bishop DVM, and Leonard LB, eds. Speech and Language Impairments in Children: Causes, Characteristics, Intervention and Outcome. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 99-113.
Otitis media with effusion: an illustration of ascertainment biasDorothy Bishop
Otitis media with effusion (OME) provides an example of how ascertainment bias can induce spurious correlations. Early work suggested it impacted children's language, but when unbiased samples are studied, the effect is absent or very small
Assessment of English Language Learners: A Bilingual ApproachBilinguistics
More easily identifying whether a child’s errors are due to typical development, second-language influence, or true impairment. This course provides video examples of these possible outcomes as they relate to articulation and language development.
Current demographic data is reviewed as well as future population trends. A framework is provided for evaluation that can be applied to many different languages. Facts and myths about bilingualism are also covered. This presentation concludes with case studies to demonstrate how to effectively apply all of the information.
Overcoming Behavioral Roadblocks in Speech-Language InterventionBilinguistics
Challenging behaviors can impede progress in speech therapy. We will discuss the evaluation of behaviors that impact communication development and provide research-based intervention strategies to guide speech-language pathologists in developing effective treatment plans. We will include case studies of clinical interventions that improve communication in children with behavioral needs.
Language acquisition entails the acquisition of several crucial linguistic components like phonology, morphology, syntax
and semantics. Individual elements merge seamlessly with each other giving birth to insightful communication whenever
needed. Among these varied but fundamental aspects necessary for any competent communicator, is adding on the vital aspect of tense marking
appropriately into conversations or text rendering accurately when an event occurred or will occur. We must appreciate this pivotal role played by
acquiring uency in using verb tenses by young children seeking effective communication alongside understanding its importance a bit more in
the language development process. The study attempts to investigate the acquisition of tense markers in typical children speaking Hindi with the
goal of assessing data from children in the age range of 6-8 years. Results suggested that tense markers increased with age. Almost half of the tense
markers were not fully acquired by the age of 8 years. The research also analysed various studies that uphold the ndings.
Communication before and after cochlear implantsHEARnet _
Questionnaires investigating communication choices were posted to parents of all 640 children who received the cochlear implant at the Royal Vic Eye & Ear Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Specifically this questionnaire [replicating Watson's (2007) study in the UK] investigated the factors that influence parents to choose either a visual/manual based approach (sign, sign language, total communication) or an auditory/oral based approach (oral-aural, auditory verbal) with their children, and whether the child's preferred communication approach had shifted over time.
Pragmatic language impairment in relation to autism and SLIDorothy Bishop
Bishop DVM. 2000. Pragmatic language impairment: a correlate of SLI, a distinct subgroup, or part of the autistic continuum? In: Bishop DVM, and Leonard LB, eds. Speech and Language Impairments in Children: Causes, Characteristics, Intervention and Outcome. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 99-113.
Otitis media with effusion: an illustration of ascertainment biasDorothy Bishop
Otitis media with effusion (OME) provides an example of how ascertainment bias can induce spurious correlations. Early work suggested it impacted children's language, but when unbiased samples are studied, the effect is absent or very small
Assessment of English Language Learners: A Bilingual ApproachBilinguistics
More easily identifying whether a child’s errors are due to typical development, second-language influence, or true impairment. This course provides video examples of these possible outcomes as they relate to articulation and language development.
Current demographic data is reviewed as well as future population trends. A framework is provided for evaluation that can be applied to many different languages. Facts and myths about bilingualism are also covered. This presentation concludes with case studies to demonstrate how to effectively apply all of the information.
Overcoming Behavioral Roadblocks in Speech-Language InterventionBilinguistics
Challenging behaviors can impede progress in speech therapy. We will discuss the evaluation of behaviors that impact communication development and provide research-based intervention strategies to guide speech-language pathologists in developing effective treatment plans. We will include case studies of clinical interventions that improve communication in children with behavioral needs.
Language acquisition entails the acquisition of several crucial linguistic components like phonology, morphology, syntax
and semantics. Individual elements merge seamlessly with each other giving birth to insightful communication whenever
needed. Among these varied but fundamental aspects necessary for any competent communicator, is adding on the vital aspect of tense marking
appropriately into conversations or text rendering accurately when an event occurred or will occur. We must appreciate this pivotal role played by
acquiring uency in using verb tenses by young children seeking effective communication alongside understanding its importance a bit more in
the language development process. The study attempts to investigate the acquisition of tense markers in typical children speaking Hindi with the
goal of assessing data from children in the age range of 6-8 years. Results suggested that tense markers increased with age. Almost half of the tense
markers were not fully acquired by the age of 8 years. The research also analysed various studies that uphold the ndings.
Foreign-language experience in infancy Effects ofshort-termShainaBoling829
Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects of
short-term exposure and social interaction on
phonetic learning
Patricia K. Kuhl*, Feng-Ming Tsao, and Huei-Mei Liu†
Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning, and Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Mailstop 357920, Seattle, WA 98195
Communicated by Michael M. Merzenich, University of California, San Francisco, CA, May 13, 2003 (received for review March 19, 2003)
Infants acquire language with remarkable speed, although little is
known about the mechanisms that underlie the acquisition pro-
cess. Studies of the phonetic units of language have shown that
early in life, infants are capable of discerning differences among
the phonetic units of all languages, including native- and foreign-
language sounds. Between 6 and 12 mo of age, the ability to
discriminate foreign-language phonetic units sharply declines. In
two studies, we investigate the necessary and sufficient conditions
for reversing this decline in foreign-language phonetic perception.
In Experiment 1, 9-mo-old American infants were exposed to
native Mandarin Chinese speakers in 12 laboratory sessions. A
control group also participated in 12 language sessions but heard
only English. Subsequent tests of Mandarin speech perception
demonstrated that exposure to Mandarin reversed the decline
seen in the English control group. In Experiment 2, infants were
exposed to the same foreign-language speakers and materials via
audiovisual or audio-only recordings. The results demonstrated
that exposure to recorded Mandarin, without interpersonal inter-
action, had no effect. Between 9 and 10 mo of age, infants show
phonetic learning from live, but not prerecorded, exposure to a
foreign language, suggesting a learning process that does not
require long-term listening and is enhanced by social interaction.
Language acquisition poses profound questions about thehuman mind and brain that have prompted an ongoing
debate (1). Recently, experimental studies on young infants
suggest a new view of the language acquisition process that goes
beyond classic theories.
Studies show that, during the first year of life, infants acquire
detailed information about the regularities of their native lan-
guage (2–5). Moreover, there is increasing evidence that infant
learning relies on sensitivity to the statistical properties con-
tained in language input. By 6 mo, infants recognize native-
language phonetic categories based on the distributional char-
acteristics of the speech they hear (6, 7). Between 6 and 8 mo,
infants segment words from ongoing speech by detecting tran-
sitional probabilities between syllables (8, 9) and extract the
arithmetic regularity of syllable combinations from sentences
(10). At 9 mo of age, infants are sensitive to the phonotactic rules
governing words, responding to the probability of occurrence of
phonetic sequences (11, 12). By the end of the first year of life,
infants’ perception of speech has been d ...
Response 1Discussion 1 Week 9 Main PostQuestion 1 Descrmickietanger
Response 1
Discussion 1 Week 9 Main Post
Question 1: Describe one advantage for child and adolescent development in a multilingual environment?
There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about multilingual environments. One of the biggest stereotypes is that when children and adolescents are raised in multilingual environments, their cognitive development will be hindered because two or more languages will confuse their brains (Souto-Manning, 2006). Despite these popular beliefs, empirical research shows that this is not the case. According to Souto-Manning (2006), humans have the ability to learn infinite languages, and knowing one language is advantageous for learning another one with more ease. Very early in their development, infants and toddlers are like sponges and are able to be receptive to and absorb language easily. However, as we age, language acquisition is more difficult and takes more time and energy to learn. From personal experience, I was in multilingual Spanish classes in Jr. High and High School. I took four years of Spanish and only know the basics and I am not fluent. However, some of the students were raised in multilingual families growing up and were able to speak both languages with little effort. This example illustrates that from early development, children can become very efficient in multiple languages and have an advantage at language acquisition and comprehension. Parents and teachers can create positive atmospheres where children and adolescents naturally can interact with one another and enrich their vocabulary and better appreciate the cultural context of other languages (Souto-Manning, 2006). Research shows that bilingual children and adolescents have an advantage with thinking about more than one way about a concept and can be better problem solvers (Souto-Manning, 2006). Personally, if I ever have children, I would love to have them raised in a multilingual environment if possible.
Question 2: What is one challenge for a child or adolescent growing up in a multilingual environment?
One challenge in particular for children and adolescents who are socialized in a multilingual environment is their perceptions of others in the classroom. English language learners (ELL) perceive that their non-English language learners (non-ELL) have higher academic success (Leclair, Doll, Osborn, & Jones, 2009). ELL students become frustrated when they are not able to learn English as well as their non-ELL peers and prefer classrooms of their origin (Leclair et. al., 200). Children and adolescents constantly compare themselves to their classmates and when they see their peers are doing better than them, it increases their frustrations. Just imagine being a child that moves to a new school in the United States from a South American country and being in a class where all your peers speak English better than you. These frustrations are real and can have negative implications on positive development.
Question 3: What ...
Early Sensitivity to Language Context in a Trilingual Toddler
1. • Figure 1. English was the
predominant language in which
questions were posed to the
child, although more than half
of the questions were given in a
non-English language.
• Figure 2. Despite the language
of adult questions, the majority
of the child’s responses were in
English.
• Figure 3. Of the 482 responses
that could be analyzed, the
child matched the language of
the speaker 295 times, with the
majority of the matches
occurring in English.
• Figure 4. The “Other” category
includes ambiguous responses
and non-responses.
• Figure 4. The number of
mismatches for Japanese and
Mandarin are approximately
double that of matches as
opposed to English, where
matches outweigh mismatches.
Early Sensitivity to Language Context in a Trilingual Toddler
James Lee Psychological and Brain Sciences Speech and Hearing Sciences Indiana University - Bloomington
Children who simultaneously acquire more than one language from birth
must learn to use each language differentially and appropriately with
different interlocutors. Pragmatic differentiation has been reported as
early two years of age in studies of children growing up in bilingual
households (Nicoladis & Genesee,1996).
This preliminary investigation explores how early in development language
sensitivity is present in a single trilingual child. Of particular interest is
whether the capacity to respond to adult questions in the language of the
speaker emerges simultaneously across all three languages or if
variations in language input play a role. We hypothesized that the child
would use each language appropriately in proportion to its relative
dominance, rather than appear as a monolithic development.
Method
Table 1. Coding of Adult Questions and Child Responses
Results Results
75.5%
11.2% 11.4%
1.9%
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
English Japanese Mandarin Mixed
MeanProportion
Language of Child’s Response
Figure 2. Child Responses by Language
References
1. DeLoache, J.S. & DeMendoza, O.A. (1987). Joint picturebook interactions of mothers and 1-year-old children. British
Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 111-123.
2. Nicoladis, E. & Genesee, F. (1996). A longitudinal study of pragmatic differentiation in young bilingual children. Language
Learning, 46, 439-464.
3. Tare, M. & Gelman, S. A. (2010). Can You Say It Another Way? Cognitive Factors in Bilingual Children’s Pragmatic
Langauge Skills. Journal Of Cognition & Development, 11(2), 137-158.
Mentored by Dr. Lisa Gershkoff
Participant
One male trilingual child simultaneously exposed to three languages:
Mandarin from the mother, Japanese from the father, and English from the
surrounding environment.
• Age at start of study = 19 months;19 days
• Age at end of study = 29 months; 8 days
Procedure
The child and his parents visited the laboratory approximately every 3
weeks. Parent reports of language exposure outside the lab were
obtained at each session. Videotaped sessions consisted of spontaneous
free-play and book reading with both parents and an English-speaking
experimenter. Data from the final 10 of 20 sessions are presented.
Coding
Sessions were transcribed using Computerized Language Analysis
(CLAN). Adult questions were coded for speaker, language, and type of
question (DeLoache & DeMendoza, 1987).
o “Wh” questions – “what do you want?” | “kore nan daroo?”
o Yes-No questions – “do you want the mice?” | “上面有馬嗎?”
o Tag questions – “you’re looking for that, right” | “你穿穿看好不好?”
o Other – “hot?” | “小豬喔?”
Child responses were coded for type of language. Non-responses and
ambiguous responses were noted but not further analyzed.
Total Number of Questions & Responses
Adult Questions = 1468
Child Responses = 644 (44%)
Unambiguous Responses analyzed = 482
Matched Responses = 295 (61%)
Acknowledgements: Thanks to current and former members of the Trilingual group, the Baby Language Lab, Kaitlyn Crawford, Dr. Tessa Bent, the
participating child and his parents.
This research was supported by the Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute and the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute and the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology
Conclusions
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
19;19 20;10 21;0 21;22 22;12 24;14 25;3 26;29 27;26 29;8
MeanProportion
Age in Months and Days
Figure 6. Language Input Outside the Laboratory
English Japanese Mandarin
Introduction
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
19;19 20;10 21;0 21;22 22;12 24;14 25;3 26;29 27;26 29;8
MeanProportion
Age in Months and Days
Figure 5. Matched Response by Age
English Japanese Mandarin
71.2%
13.2% 15.6%
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
English Japanese Mandarin
MeanProportion
Language of Child's Response
Figure 3. Child-To-Adult Language Matches
Matched Responses by Age
• Figure 5. The child consistently matched the Mandarin language of his
mother throughout the study but it was not until 24 months of age that
he showed a sudden increase in matching the Japanese language of
his father.
• In this single case study, one child demonstrated the ability to choose
between three languages according to the linguistic knowledge of the
speaker as early as 19 months of age.
• Given that both parents used English in addition to their native language
outside the laboratory, English appears to be the child’s dominant
language and this is reflected in how he responds inside the laboratory.
• Contrary to other reports of pragmatic differentiation in bilingual children
(Tare & Gelman, 2010), we found an uneven developmental pattern,
making it unlikely that metacognitive understanding is responsible for
developments in sensitivity to language context.
• Future analysis is underway to examine the size of the child’s
vocabulary in each language as an alternative explanation for the
differences found here.
Language Input Outside the Lab by Age
• Figure 6. Child-to-adult language matches shown in Figure 5 do not
reflect the language input received outside the lab, suggesting that other
factors are operating on the child’s sensitivity to language context.
UNAMBIGUOUS
CHILD RESPONSES
ADULT
QUESTIONS
LANGUAGE
MISMATCH
LANGUAGE
MATCH
42.1%
23.7%
31.9%
2.2%
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
English Japanese Mandarin Mixed
MeanProportion
Language of Adult Questions
Figure 1. Adult Questions by Language
34.0%
11.3% 9.9%
1.5%
23.3%
17.0%
64.6% 65.4%
73.1%
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
English Japanese Mandarin
MeanProportion
Language
Figure 4. Type of Child's Response
Match Mismatch Other