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Child Language: Acquisition and Growth

Article · January 2006

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511803413 · Source: OAI

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 CHILD LANGUAGE
Acquisition and Growth
Barbara Lust

Human Development
CCE Research Update
 May 29, 2008

 Ithaca, New York

Why study language acquisition?

“There is no step more uplifting, more explosive,

more momentous in the history of mind design
than the invention of language. When Homo
Sapiens became the beneficiary of this
invention, the species stepped into a slingshot
that has launched it far beyond all other earthly
species in the power to look ahead and
reflect…”

Daniel Dennett 1996, Kinds of Minds, Basic Books, p.147

Why study language
acquisition?

“Language learning is doubtless

the greatest intellectual feat any
of us is ever required to perform…”
(Bloomfield, 1933)
 Tweetle Beetles

What do you know about tweetle beetles? Well…

When tweetle beetles fight, itʼs called a tweetle
beetle battle, and when they battle in a puddle, itʼs
a tweetle beetle puddle battle. And when tweetle
beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it
a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle. AND….

“Fox in Socks” by Dr. Seuss (1965)

Levels of Representation

Phonology - Sounds
Syntax - Sentences

Semantics - Meaning

 Language and Thought

 More than one language
6
at once
 childhood bilingualism/multilingualism
 By 2015, 30% of preschoolers in US

 will not have English as home language

 (Fix and Passel 2003)

Leading Questions:

 How much is built in?

How much is due to learning?

When does it begin?

How does it happen?

Does acquiring more than one

language at once hinder?

 II
How can one study it?

 The difficulties:

Tacitknowledge
Nothing tangible
Acquire before 3+ years of age
 II
How can one study it?

 An interdisciplinary field
 Linguistics

 Developmental Psychology
 Experimental Psychology

 Neuroscience

 i,e., COGNITIVE SCIENCE

What Book Attempts

 Field exploding with research:

 Cull that research: Scientific Methodology
 All levels of representation
Assess the state of the art with regard to

leading questions
Interdisciplinary
 Today
11

 What are some basic discoveries?

 Exemplify some active research

 Some recommendations for education in

the future
 Some recent new discoveries
12

 Neonates distinguish languages

 Neonates distinguish sounds

 4 month olds distinguish well formed

clause structure
 6-8 month olds pick out words

 12 months:

 firstwords produced
 sound distinctions related to native language
 Already know a lot about their language (s)
Examples of language acquisition
data: active research

1. Syntax and Semantics

2. Early word learning
3. Studies of developing bilingualism
 Method
14

 Work with 2-6 year olds

 In Cornell’s Early Child Care Center

 in collaboration with Elizabeth Stilwell,

director, and teachers

 with local nursery and other schools

 or in child’s home

 Work with Cornell students, graduate and

undergraduate
 Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

 An experimental study (Foley et al 1997, 2003)

 “Sloppy Identity”
Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

 Ernie touches the ground and Big Bird does too

 [Ernie [touches the ground]] and [BB [does [Ø]]

too]

(Foley, Nuñez del Prado, Barbier, & Lust 1997, 2003)

 Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

1. Ernie [[touches] the ground] and

Big Bird [[does] Ø]] too

2. [ NP1 VP1 ] and [ NP2 VP2 ] too

Reconstruction:
Ernie touches the ground and
Big Bird touches the ground
Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics
Given the sentence:

“Oscar bites his banana and Bert does too”

What does the sentence mean?

What does each one bite?

Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics
Four Possible Interpretations of:

“Oscar bites his banana and Bert does too.”

a. O bites Oʼs banana and B bites Bʼs banana

ii jj

b. O bites Oʼs banana and B bites Oʼs banana

ii ji

c. O bites Bʼs banana and B bites Bʼs banana

ij jj

d. O bites Eʼs banana and B bites Eʼs banana

ik jk
 Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics
Impossible Interpretations:

 *O bites Oʼs banana and B bites Eʼs banana (ii jk)

f. *O bites Bʼs banana and B bites Oʼs banana (ij ji)

g. *O bites Bʼs banana and B bites Eʼs banana (ij jk)

h. *O bites Eʼs banana and B bites Oʼs banana (ik ji)

i. *O bites Eʼs banana and B bites Bʼs banana (ik jj)

 Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

 O [bites [his (own) [banana]]] and B [does [too]]

 O [λx [x bites [x [banana]]] and B [λx [x bites [x

[banana]]]
Experimental Set-Up:
Act-Out Task
Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

ii jj = Sloppy interpretation: Bound Variable

Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics

ii ji = Strict interpretation
What this example shows:

Child has extremely complex syntactic and

semantic knowledge even before age of 3

Child can deal with ambiguity: Mapping from

one form to multiple possible meanings

 Child knowledge is grammatically constrained

Acquisition of Syntax and
Semantics
These characteristics hold for all languages:
For Example, Chinese
Early Word Learning

 Rate of acquisition:

 Many new words each day, e.g. 6-8 a day at

first, then 45 a day
Acquisition of Words
 12 months
 E.g., Lois Bloomʼs Allison:
 16 mos – 29 words
 19 mos – 61 words
 20 mos – 103 words

 24-36 months 1000

 5 years 10000
 6 years 14000
 Adult 50000-300000
(uncountable)
 EARLY WORD LEARNING

 The “over-extension”
phenomenon
 BG21097
Itʼs an Apple Age:1,9,15
 BG21097
Itʼs not an Apple! Age:4,1,26
31


What this shows:

Child creative
Child abstract

Child categorizing

Child not simply copying

But some form of experience necessary

These are all crucial factors in development

Summary of Major Discoveries

 Language Acquisition begins at birth,

even before first word

 Major accomplishments by 12 months

Basic accomplishment of full system by three

years

 All levels of representation being acquired at

once
Conclusions

Cannot explain early complex syntactic and

semantic knowledge without some biological
programming in a Language Faculty
Conclusions

 Yet child must acquire a specific language; to

do so must integrate learning

 Child using experience from birth, even

before, to build their theory of how language
works
Conclusions

 Learning is constrained, guided linguistically

 Child creative and constructive in use of

experience

 Not just copying

 Regarding bilingualism
37
or multilingualism
 Is bilingualism/multilingualism beneficial
to cognitive development?

 How does the young child manage to

acquire more than one language at once?

 Project Led by: Sujin Yang

 Test for Bilingual Cognitive
38
Advantages: Sujin Yang et al
 Executive Attention
 Ability to ‘manage cognitive processes’

 to work in the face of distraction

 inhibit certain distractions

 focus on others

 cognitive flexibility: deal with change

Early Childhood Bilingualism
(Yang; 2007; Yang & Lust, in preparation)

How do attention networks mature over the

Research early childhood period and would bilinguals
Question be different from monolinguals in a long-term
development?

▶ 129 children; 4, 5, & 6 year olds

Sample ▶ Balanced Korean bilinguals/ English monolinguals
The Attention Network Test (ANT)
 ANT Performance
 Significant bilingualism/age effects in accuracy & RT, ps < .001
Accuracy (%) RT (ms)

Monolinguals Bilinguals Monoliguals Bilinguals

** **

NOTE: * p < .05; ** p < .001

 How does the child acquire
more than one language?
42

 e.g., case studies

 e.g., young Hebrew-English case

 Young Israeli child brought to Cornell’s

ECC (NG081803)
 Hebrew at home; English at ECC

 Studied over 40 interviews (home and ECC)

 Age: 3.00.25-3.08 (years,months,days)

 Project led by: Yarden Kedar

 with ECC director Elizabeth Stilwell and teachers; and undergraduates:
Kristen Pallonetti, Brian Druyan, Julia Rosenberg, Erica Shreck
 Now she is here
43
NG081803_1 Age: 3.0.25
 Now I am Playing
44
NG081803-1 Age: 3.0.25
 Barnie is Hebrew
45
NG 081803-1 Age: 3.0.25
 Eight Months Later at home:
46
NG081803-38 Age:3.08.12
 Because it’s Mine
47
NG081803_38 Age: 3.08.12
 Hebrew for Grandma: Switch
48
NG081803_37 Age: 3.08.12
 Language Translation
NG081803_37 Age: 3.08.12
49
 Now I’m bilingual in school
50
NG081803_37 Age:3.08.09
 I Can Speak Both
51
NG081803_37 Age: 3.08.09
 Bilingualism: conclusions
52
 Any child can learn more than one
language
 Will do so naturally if surrounded by the

languages

 Earlier the better

 Children benefit cognitively from learning

more than one language

 No evidence it hinders acquisition of first

language
 How can educational
53
contexts help?
 Surround child with as much rich language
and language exchange as possible
 Surround with language through literacy

 Surround with more than one language

 Maintain home language
 Conclusions
54

 With language acquisition,

 the child teaches us

 we don’t teach the child

Conclusions

The Mystery remains

 References
56

 Diamond, A. et al. 2007.Preschool Program

Improves Cognitive Control.Science. vol
318.1387-1388.
 Espinosa, L. 2008. Challenging Common Myths
about Young English Language Learners. FCD
Policy Brief. Advancing PK-3. No.8.
 Golinkoff, R.M. and K. Hirsh-Pasek, 1999.How
Babies Talk. Penguin Books.
 Lust, B. 2006. Child Language. Acquisition and
Growth. Cambridge Univ Press.
 Pearson, B.Z.2008. Raising a Bilingual
Child. Random House.
Toward the Future

 Virtual Center for Language

Acquisition
 www.clal.cornell.edu/vcla
Partnership with the Library
Truly International and Intercultural
On- and Offsite Collaboration
Research and Education Merge
 Acknowledgements
62

 James Gair
 Elizabeth Stilwell
Acknowledgements:
 Claire Foley
 Suzanne Flynn
 Zelmira Nuñez del Prado
 Isabella Barbier
 Fang Fang Guo
 Yu Chin Chien
 Chi-Pang Chiang
 Matt Klein
 Maria Blume
 Cliff Crawford
 Katerina Boser
 Jung Hoon Son
and.........
 The Cornell Language Acquisition Lab
Grants
 National Science Foundation. Planning Grant: A Virtual Center for
Child Language Acquisition Research (BCS-0126546, Barbara Lust
and Founding Members). BCS-0535569 NSF Developmental and
Learning Sciences Program
 National Science Foundation. IIS-0437603 Small Grant for
Exploratory Research: Planning Information Infrastructure through a
New Library-Research Partnership (Janet McCue, director of Cornell
Albert Mann Library and Barbara Lust). NSF Science and
Engineering Information Integration and Informatics
Acknowledgements- Grants
 Cornell:
 CISER Seed Grant: Building an Interdisciplinary Infrastructure to
Foster Collaboration among Research Scientists in the Language
Sciences: Proposal to Create Instrument-based Virtual Linguistics
Laboratory for the International Study of Language Acquisition and
Neural Plasticity.
 FABIT (Faculty Innovation in Teaching) Awards. "Integrating Digital
Multimedia resources in two interdisciplinary language
development courses" and “A VRE (Virtual Research
Environment) for Language Acquisition and Cognitive Science. “
 New York State Hatch grant. "Cornell Language Acquisition Lab:
Building an Electronic Library of Words of the World's Children".
 Seed Grant from Cornell Einaudi
Center for International Studies
 Exploring Activation of an Internation component in a Virtual Center for the
Study of Language Acquisition

PI: Barbara Lust, Professor,

Department of Human Development
co-PI: Sujin Yang

 Today, in this digital age, the possibilities for international collaboration have
expanded exponentially. By incorporating the possibilities of
cyberinfrastructure which have become available to the sciences, research
and education can now exploit an international dimension in ways not
possible before. At this time, the Cornell Language Acquisition Lab has
begun to build a Virtual Center for Language Acquisition
(VCLA:www.clal.cornell.edu/vcla) in order to begin to exploit these new
possibilities.

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