Discovering Psychology: Language Development
Summary
TLDRThe video explores how children acquire language, examining both innate abilities and the role of social interaction in language development. It highlights Noam Chomsky's theory of the language acquisition device and contrasts it with the influence of parental communication. Experts discuss how babies move from making sounds to forming words and sentences, guided by both biological maturation and social cues. The video delves into the universal stages of language learning, emphasizing the importance of interaction, context, and cultural factors in the process of mastering language.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Language acquisition is a fundamental process in human development, with psychologists exploring whether it is innate or learned through imitation.
- 👶 Babies start learning language from birth, moving from simple sounds to a vocabulary of over 14,000 words by the time they reach school age.
- 🔄 Both nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) play crucial roles in language development, as argued by Noam Chomsky and other researchers.
- 🗣️ Chomsky introduced the idea of a 'language acquisition device' in the brain, which allows humans to learn any language through innate principles.
- 🤱 Social interaction is essential for activating language development, as children need to engage with humans, not just hear speech, to acquire language.
- 🎶 Parent-child interactions, like using 'motherese' (slow, repetitive, and musical speech), help babies decode language and its meaning.
- 🌍 The process of language acquisition is universal across cultures, suggesting biological maturation, similar to learning how to walk or eat.
- 🔤 Children learn symbols and how to use words to represent objects, actions, and desires, marking key developmental stages such as the one-word and two-word phases.
- 📜 As children develop, they begin to understand grammar and syntax, forming simple sentences by age two and becoming more grammatically accurate over time.
- 🗨️ Language also facilitates social interactions, with children learning the rules of conversation—like taking turns and polite responses—through dialogue with parents.
Q & A
What is the central topic of the video transcript?
-The central topic is language development in children, focusing on how they acquire language and the roles of nature and nurture in this process.
What are the key components of language acquisition mentioned in the transcript?
-The key components of language acquisition include the potential for an innate biological mechanism (the language acquisition device), the role of social interaction, and the developmental stages children go through in learning language.
What is Noam Chomsky's contribution to the study of language, as mentioned in the video?
-Noam Chomsky revolutionized the study of language by proposing the existence of a 'language acquisition device,' an innate neurological structure in humans that enables children to learn any language.
How does social interaction play a role in language development, according to the transcript?
-Social interaction is crucial because babies learn language by interacting with others, especially their parents. Babies need to hear language spoken directly to them in social contexts to acquire language effectively.
What is 'motherese' or 'parentese,' and why is it important?
-'Motherese' or 'parentese' refers to the special way parents speak to babies, using higher pitch, slower speech, and simpler sentences. This type of speech helps babies understand language by making it easier for them to decode sounds and meanings.
What is the role of biological maturation in language development?
-Biological maturation regulates the brain and the development of muscles needed for communication. The development of language follows a developmental timetable, similar to other biological processes like walking.
What are the stages of language development mentioned in the transcript?
-The stages include crying, cooing and gurgling, babbling, the one-word stage, the two-word stage, and the telegraphic stage, which is followed by more complex sentence formation as the child’s cognitive abilities develop.
What is 'universal adaptability' in language development?
-'Universal adaptability' refers to a baby's ability to distinguish and reproduce sounds from any language in the world. However, this flexibility is lost by the time the child turns one year old, as they become specialized in their native language.
What is the significance of the two-word stage in language development?
-The two-word stage is significant because it marks the child's ability to express common functions like locating and naming things, demanding, and describing actions. This stage helps children communicate more effectively with simple sentences.
How does the video describe the development of grammatical rules in children?
-The video explains that children acquire grammatical rules by observing language patterns, even forming regular grammatical structures on their own, such as using 'braked' instead of 'broke.' This process occurs naturally as children develop their language skills.
Outlines
🎤 Introduction to Language Development
The opening introduces the topic of language development, questioning whether language acquisition is an innate ability or learned through imitation. It highlights the fascinating journey from a child’s first sounds to complex language, framing language as central to human interaction and communication.
🧠 The Role of Nature and Nurture in Language Development
This section delves into the nature versus nurture debate. It discusses Noam Chomsky's theory of the 'language acquisition device,' a neurological structure believed to allow humans to learn any language. While the theory emphasizes biological readiness, the role of social interaction, particularly with parents, is acknowledged as crucial for language development.
👶 Social Interaction and Language Learning
Babies are born with a neurological capacity for language, but social interaction is essential for development. This section explains how infants learn language contextually, through daily interactions. Parents aid this process by speaking slowly, clearly, and with repetition, making it easier for babies to decode language and link words to meanings.
🎶 Universal Melodies in Parent-Child Communication
Parents around the world use melodic speech, known as 'motherese' or 'parentese,' to communicate with infants. These melodies convey emotions and intentions before words are understood. The research shows similar melodic patterns across different languages, suggesting a universal way of communicating with infants before they grasp actual language.
🗣️ Stages of Early Language Development
Language development progresses through identifiable stages, starting with crying, babbling, and then the 'one-word stage.' Children gradually learn to use symbols and words to represent objects and actions. Parents play a key role in helping children connect words with meanings, a process that is crucial for future language use.
💬 From Two-Word Phrases to Grammar
By 18 months, children begin using two-word phrases, expressing basic needs and actions. This marks the beginning of grammar acquisition, where they start forming simple sentences. Children naturally apply grammatical rules, such as correct word order, and attempt to regularize language, even when faced with irregular patterns like past tense verbs.
👥 Social Rules of Conversation
Children learn social rules of conversation, such as turn-taking and polite expressions like 'thank you.' These conversational skills are crucial for effective communication. Parents teach children these norms through everyday interactions, helping them use language in socially appropriate ways, preparing them for more complex social engagements.
🌍 The Fundamental Role of Language
Language is portrayed as essential to human life, connecting individuals to the world and each other. Without language, access to ideas and social interaction would be severely limited. The section previews the next focus on perception, emphasizing how language allows humans to interpret and reshape their understanding of the universe.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Language Acquisition
💡Innate Ability
💡Nature vs. Nurture
💡Social Interaction
💡Babbling
💡Motherese/Parentese
💡Universal Grammar
💡Developmental Timetable
💡Symbolic Representation
💡Grammar and Syntax
Highlights
Language development starts as soon as a baby is born, with children progressing from first sounds at birth to speaking their first words around their first birthday.
By the time they start school, children typically have a vocabulary of over 14,000 words and speak almost like adults.
Noam Chomsky's theory introduced the concept of a 'language acquisition device,' suggesting that humans are born with an innate ability to learn language.
Chomsky's idea that humans have a neurological structure dedicated to language revolutionized the study of language acquisition.
Social interaction plays a crucial role in activating the language acquisition device, highlighting the importance of parents in teaching communication.
Research shows that very young babies prefer human voices to other sounds and are upset when a familiar voice is paired with a stranger's face.
Babies don’t learn language just by hearing it; they need active engagement and interaction with others to develop language skills.
Parents modify their speech when talking to babies, using a higher pitch, simpler sentences, and repetition, which helps babies understand language.
Babbling in infants is essential as it allows them to practice making sounds and reproducing syllables, crucial for language development.
The 'universal adaptability' of infants allows them to distinguish and reproduce sounds of any language, but this flexibility is lost by their first year.
Children's first meaningful conversations often consist of one-word phrases and grow into two-word stages by 18 months.
By the age of two, children form simple sentences, often following the grammatical rules of their native language, even when they create new forms like 'braked' or 'falled.'
Regardless of the language spoken, children universally use action-object word orders, showing an innate sense of grammar.
Through social interactions, children learn conversational rules, such as turn-taking and responding correctly to others in dialogue.
Motherese, a special form of speech used with infants, involves melodic intonations that help convey emotions and intentions, transcending cultural and linguistic differences.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
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how do we learn to talk are we born with
some innate ability for acquiring
language okay
or do we imitate our parents did he fall
down how do we go from this to this
without ever taking a lesson language
development
this time on discovering psychology
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well I'm sure I'll be talking to you
over the next month doing peach your
modesty too much did you discuss the
diversion with director Casey no well it
is a huge huge contract and we have some
major differences essence of language is
human interaction as speakers of
language we share our own personal
reality with others as listeners we
share in their realities by studying how
children learn to use language in social
communication psychologists hope to
discover truths about the human mind and
about society and culture as well they
seek to understand how this special
ability has evolved in our species are
we born with a built-in readiness to use
language how do we learn how to use
words and structure sentences in
coherent ways what role do parents play
in teaching children how to communicate
what makes baby talk it's this as soon
as the baby is born an amazing process
begins a process which we all take for
granted the development of communication
and language with amazing speed children
go from making their first sound at
birth to speaking their first words
sometime around their first birthday and
by the time they start school children
speaking almost like adults with the
vocabulary of over 14,000 words
but how do they do it what is the
process by which language is acquired
how much do we owe to nature our genetic
inheritance and how much do we owe to
nurture the environment in which we
learn until recently it was assumed that
the process was all nurture a children
learned language by imitating others
mainly their parents that language was a
learned skill but in 1957 MIT linguist
Noam Chomsky revolutionized the study of
language by questioning this assumption
we look at the very difficult empirical
problem of explaining how it is that a
young child with very limited
information available to him acquires a
system of language and knowledge of
language that enables him to produce and
understand these this vast number of new
sentences gene Baur Co Gleeson a
psychologist at Boston University is an
expert in language development Chomsky
and his followers believe that human
beings come into the world with what
they call a language acquisition device
which is an actual neurological
structure in the brain they haven't
specified where it is but they they tell
us that the language acquisition device
makes it possible for children to learn
any language anywhere and that only
human beings have the language
acquisition device and that the language
acquisition device makes it possible for
infants and for young children acquiring
language to know what the deep structure
of the meaning is of language because
the principles are innate ideas about
the biological capacity for language
sparked the creation of an entirely new
field called developmental
psycholinguistics but many psychologists
believe that social interaction between
child and parent
also has a major role to play in the
development of language social
relationships may be necessary to
activate Chomsky's language acquisition
device research has shown that very
young babies prefer human voices to
other sounds and human faces to other
images even at only a few weeks of age
they get upset when their parents voice
is paired with the face of a stranger
the role of social interaction in
language development has been a major
focus of Berko Gleason's work who's that
mommy that mean we know that human
babies are born with special mechanisms
in their brain or special parts of their
brain that are dedicated to the
development of language that it has
special capacities that only humans seem
to have but having a special
neurological capacity does not guarantee
the acquisition of language in order for
language to develop babies have to
interact with other human beings they
have to hear language spoken to them
they can't just learn language hearing
it spoken around them or hear language
spoken on television and acquire it they
have to interact with other people
social interaction really isn't the
basis of language development in
children come on paddy-cake paddy-cake
babies typically learn language from
what's going on around them they don't
learn language abstractly that is a baby
will hear language embedded in context
and understand what the intention of the
speakers are partly because the baby
already knows what's happening in other
words if the mother holds up a bottle
and says here's your milk the baby
understands to begin with that the
mother is talking about the milk because
she's holding the milk up and showing it
to the baby the baby then begins to be
able to decode the intention of the
speaker's because the intentions are
embedded in the context of what's going
on in the baby's life
that's right if you watch mothers and
little babies together you see that
mothers do some very typical things that
help the baby to acquire language in
english-speaking households for instance
babies are spoken to by parents or by
mothers much more slowly than they would
speak to other people
parents enunciate very clearly when they
talk to little babies sentences are
short and simple
they're full of repetition people say
see the book that's the book it's a nice
book they make it much easier for the
baby to decode what the language is than
if the baby simply had to listen to
adults talking about politics at the
dinner table this was a perfect example
of a mother talking to a young child a
princess she's talking in a much higher
voice than she talks to other people
she's talking slowly she's talking about
the things that the baby is looking at
right at this moment she's doing a
really interesting thing which is she's
imputing meaning to the baby for
instance the baby points up in the air
and says baby and the mother is looking
around saying where's the baby as if the
baby is really talking about a baby as
the mother is really trying to make
clear to the baby that language has the
meaning if you say something people are
going to try to interpret it the mommy
so both nature and nurture are at work
in the development of language
competence but there's also another
critical process at work here research
has shown that every child in every
culture goes through some of the same
sequences the same stages of speaking
its native language this universal
process suggests that there is also some
form of biological maturation at work as
in walking or eating what a child can do
with language at any given time depends
on a developmental timetable this
timetable regulates the maturing of the
brain and certain muscles in the mouth
and throat that are needed for
communication the first stage in
acquiring language may be crying it's
our first act of communication babies
cry because they're hungry or tired or
cold or in pain and the sound they
produce usually provokes the desired
social response other comparable sounds
are coos and gurgles to begin around the
second month the second stage of
language development is the babbling of
syllable like sounds babbling is
important because it allows a baby to
practice making sounds to group them
together and to vary them by adding in
two nations at this point an infant can
distinguish sounds of any language and
can reproduce them this ability is
called universal adaptability but by the
time a child is one-year-old and has
lost this flexibility child becomes a
specialist in its own native language
distinguishing and reproducing only
those sounds which are common to that
language
children's first conversations however
our wordless they interact with their
parents by alternating and coordinating
sounds and intonation and in turn
parents use melodic intonation x'
usually reserved for soothing arousing
or warning the baby into nations that
are absent from ordinary adult
conversation this special kind of speech
is known as mother ease or parent ease
do you have a feeling that she's
communicating with you now already and
Fernald of stanford university has
studied this phenomenon in many cultures
around the world long before infants are
speaking a language or understanding a
language they're communicating very
actively with their parents their
understanding their parents in our
research were very interested in how
this pre verbal communication gets
established and what we're doing is
recording in cultures around the world
the kinds of daily episodes that are
very common in the life of an infant
okay let's see if we can get a big smile
now so far we've looked at a number of
European languages French Italian German
British English as well as American
English and we've also looked it at a
Nigerian language called house' as well
as a japanese oh yeah
what we're finding is that the melodies
of mothers and fathers speech in these
situations are very similar and we're
hypothesizing that it's the melody is a
message that the musical contour of the
voice is carrying the meaning to the
infant long before language is during
the work and babies are not yet
attending to words or to linguistic
units of information but they're reading
something about the mother's emotions
her intentions her feelings through
the kinds of melodies that she uses oh
my girl this device here is an
oscilloscope up to a pitch extractor
which will allow us to look at the
melodies or the intonation of pitch
contours that are used in the mother's
voice when she's speaking to a pre
verbal child let me give you a couple of
examples in American English if you
wanted to praise the baby to let the
baby know that you're happy about
something that he or she's done
you'd say good boy yeah good up-and-down
and this is the typical pattern we're
finding so you see the pitch starts low
goes up to a crescendo and down again in
Italian we find a very similar melody
bravissima bravissima and German you'd
say yeah sure though I'll go with Max to
das again we see here this rise fall
pattern the melody that goes up and then
down again up in the down again reaching
a very high pitch peak at the top we're
finding this rise fall pattern in every
European language we've looked at and
also in our recent recordings in
Japanese oh another thing that
frequently happens in a baby's life is
that the mother says no the child's
about to head for a light or a
electrical outlet where there's some
danger possible or to head over the
stairs and for the mother will say no no
stop that no using a short sharp and a
vocalization that's much lower in
frequency in French it would be no no cd
formed you again short and sharp and
staccato in quality in German the same
sort of thing 9 9 MUX to need short and
sharp and not smooth play the praise
contour was again here we're finding
universal melodies in Japanese as well
as the European languages in the kinds
of intonation or pitch contours that the
mothers are using to convey this message
to a baby who does not yet understand
the words
it's very important that we go beyond
this to look at at other kinds of
cultures with very different attitudes
toward babies toward the expression of
emotion in order to really test our
hypothesis about universality I have two
children have practiced the elemental
aspects of speech they're ready for the
third stage of language development
which comes toward the end of the first
year the one word stage how the earliest
words are part of a behavioral ritual
such as saying hi or bye the next set of
words are those that express
relationships of various kinds first
come relationships between objects and
actions such as saying ball to mean
throw it or get it then come
relationships between objects such as
saying fishy when pointing to an empty
tank with fish once swam and finally
come words that are meant to effect
events such as again or more when a
child wants another push again
what is this one what is that and the FA
that's an airplane
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[Applause]
when children learn to use words like
ball or fishy or again they're really
learning how to use symbols words after
all stand for something else the objects
or actions being described and symbols
can only be used with any degree of
proficiency when a number of mental
abilities have matured sufficiently
sometime in the second year of life to
use words and symbols the child's memory
must be able to store images or memory
codes of events and objects and be able
to retrieve them with the appropriate
words that symbolize them
at the same time the child must also
understand how to manipulate tools to
make things happen these tools can be
people as well as objects in fact
parents are the most significant tool
the child learns to manipulate to
achieve its goals and language is the
most effective way to manipulate them
next comes the two-word stage okay then
no matter what their native language all
normal children around the age of a
year-and-a-half begin to use two-word
phrases to express a number of common
function locating and naming things
demanding and desiring things describing
actions and situations questioning
modifying and qualifying finally in the
last formal stage of this early
development the telegraphic stage
two-year-olds form simple sentences
mostly of nouns and verbs thank you -
Brittany thank you the sentences like
laurels articles and tenses but they do
maintain the typical word order of actor
first action second and object last
after the age of two as a child's mental
abilities develop early restriction and
how much information he or she can get
into one coherent statement are lifted
by the age of four or five the child is
using language in much the same way as
an adult does its biggest task during
these early years has been to discover
the underlying regularities in the way
adults use language the rules of grammar
and syntax
dan slobin is a psycho linguist at the
University of California at Berkeley
slogan has studied how old children
acquire a system of grammatical rules on
their own without imitating the people
around them for the past twenty years or
so we've been sending teams of
researchers out all over the world to
jungles cities villages recording speech
of little children to see how it is that
children begin to acquire their native
languages and we found by now that
regardless of what kind of language it
is what kind of social setting the child
is learning under two-year-olds are
beginning to apply the grammatical
structures of the languages that they
hear a noise in your photos school and
what are you doing alright school I
think for example in English we follow
very strict word order
we always first talk about what we're
going to do and then what we're going to
do it too so we say give me a cookie
drink the milk show me your hand first
word is always the word about the action
the second word is the word about the
object now that division between action
and object word seems to be quite
Universal in languages and children pick
that up quite early in English they also
quite early in their own towards speech
pick up that word order pattern so even
if they're saying things that are quite
short and simple English children will
say things like I want cookie they won't
say cookie I want they'll say more milk
not milk more they'll first talk about
the action and then they'll talk about
the object so they're already speaking
dramatically now for you to ask your
ordinary parent in the street how their
child learned to talk they would
probably say he just imitated what's the
problem well one problem is if you
listen to what children say they often
say things that they couldn't have
imitated so the children might say a
child they might say something like I
break the glass or I fall down now the
adults don't say things like braked and
falled but the child does and if you
hear a child saying things like breath
and falled this means that the child has
worked out the pattern for forming the
past tense in English
English doesn't always follow that
pattern but the child has decided that
once you find a pattern it's neat to
stick with it so that even if one
doesn't say braked or falled the child
doesn't hear it for a long time the
child will use this pattern so for a
long period for about the ages of three
to five children are very persistent in
trying to build a regular kind of
grammar we see this across all languages
wherever languages show bits that are
irregular children try to make them fit
their own regular pattern they have an
uncanny sense of how a grammar should be
structured going forward you have
what is the name of your team so now
we're six years old and we've acquired a
highly sophisticated language to help us
navigate through all the complex
environments in which we have to
function well what happens when we bump
into other people who are also
navigating their way through social
situations how do we coordinate our
intentions with theirs to avoid
conflicts and to gain the ends we both
want how do we learn the rules of
conversation
[Music]
according to psycho linguists most
dialogues are highly structured forms of
social communication and they include
three essential features that must be
understood and shared by both parties
the first is opening conversations in
ways that signal the willingness to
converse the second is understanding the
unwritten rules for taking turns and the
third is closing conversations by mutual
agreement when these seemingly simple
acts are not carried out properly
the result is confusion and even
distress
[Music]
but that going to a city parents teach
their children the rules of dialogue in
a number of ways they engage them in
conversations they ask questions and
seek replies they teach them what to say
after someone has said or done something
such as thank you or yes please these
are early social activities not only
help children to use language to gain
their own ends but also enable them to
assist others in achieving their goals
talking to the banana lady huh your food
ready without a stable structure of
social verbal interaction they wouldn't
be able to use language in ways that are
conversationally correct children have
to be taught how to collaborate with
other conversational ism what would life
be like without language it would be
life without access to the world of
ideas without any connection to the
hearts and minds of other people
language is fundamental to our very
humanity
but before we communicate our sense of
the world we have to perceive it in our
next program we're going to focus on
perception as the critical link between
the solitary isolated organism and
everything else that exists perception
enables us to experience the universe as
it is and to redesign it as it might be
not to mention persuading others to see
it our way the many worlds our
perception next time I'm Philip Zimbardo
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