Define Key terms
Introduction and First Language Acquisition
1. High amplitude sucking (HAS): A technique used to study infant perceptual
abilities; typically involves recording an infant’s sucking rate as a measure of
its attention to various stimuli.
2. Reduplicated babbling: Babbling in which consonant-vowel combinations
are repeated, such as “ba-ba-ba.”
3. Nonreduplicated babbling (variegated): babbling in which young children
vary the consonant-vowel sequences used; for example, “ba-da-ga.”
4. Overextension: A child’s use of a word for objects or items that share a
feature or property; for example, using “dog” to refer to all animals with four
legs.
5. Underextension: A child’s use of a word with a narrower meaning than in the
adult’s language; for example, “dog” to refer only to the family’s pet
6. Morphemes: smallest meaning-bearing unit of language (e.g., word units, like
“dog,” and grammatical inflections, like the plural “-s.”)
7. Mean length of utterance (MLU): Measurement used to calculate the
development of children’s grammar; number of morphemes divided by
number of total utterances.
8. Input: the language to which an individual is exposed in the environment.
9. Nativitism: A theoretical approach emphasizing the innate, possibly genetic,
contributions to any behavior.
10. Empiricism: Theoretical view that emphasizes the role of the environment
and experience over that of innate ideas or capacities.
11. Behaviorism: Theoretical view proposing that learning principles can explain
most behavior, and observable events, rather than mental activity, are the
proper objects of study
12. Universal Grammar (UG): The innate principles and properties that
characterize the grammars of all human languages; also used to describe the
theoretical view associated with this concept.
13. Interactionism: Theoretical viewpoint that recognizes the role of experience
and the environment, as well as the contribution of innate capacities
14. Child-directed speech (CDS): Special speech register used by adults and
older children when speaking to younger children and infants. Characteristics
include exaggerated intonation and considerable repetition.
15. Emergentism: Theoretical view proposing that phenomena of language are
best explained by reference to more basic non-linguistic factors and their
interaction (e.g., physiology, perception, processing, input properties, etc.).
16. Connectionism: Theoretical view proposing that language is learned through
exposure to input allowing the construction of associations among units, i.e.,
sound sequences, words, sentence patterns, etc.
17. Object permanence: The understanding that an infant gains during the latter
part of the first year that objects continue to exist even though they may no
longer be visible.
18. Metalinguistic awareness: Ability to reflect on language as an object.
19. Transfer: Influence of the L1 in using the L2, or vice versa.
20. Overgeneralization: The use of a rule or structure in contexts in which it is
not appropriate; for example, “I hurted my arm.”
21. Formulaic sequences/ expressions: Phrases that learners learn and use
as a whole unit, without analyzing into individual units (e.g., “How are you?”
used as a single unit).
Language Learning context
1. Subtractive bilingualism: A language learning situation in which the majority
language is learned at the expense of the native language of minority
language speakers.
2. Bilingual education: Schooling in two languages.
3. Immersion instruction: A form of bilingual education in which students are
taught through the medium of a second language, along with some instruction
through their L1.
4. Dual language instruction: Language education in which children who are
native speakers from each of the target language communities, both majority
and minority language speakers, share the classroom.
5. Additive bilingualism: Language learning situation in which learning a
second language is not at the expense of development of the L1; both
languages are supported and valued.
6. Heritage language: Language acquired by individuals raised in homes where
a dominant language in the larger society, such as English in the US, is not
spoken or is not exclusively spoken.
7. Content-based Instruction: An approach where language learning is
intergrated with content learning, meaning students learn a subject matter
through the medium of a second language. This promotes the use of
language in a meaningful context.
8. Content and Language Integrated Learning: This approach involves
teaching a subject through a second language, with the dual focus of learning
both content and language. This method is popular in European contexts.
Theoretical Perspectives: Past and Present
1. Cross-linguistic influence: This term refers to instances of phonological,
lexical, grammatical, or other aspects of transfer from one language to
another.
2. Interlanguage: A term for the language produced by a learner that differs in
systematic ways from that of a native speaker.
3. Developmental error: An error in learner language which does not result
from transfer from the first language, but which reflects that learner’s gradual
discovery of the second language system.
4. Parameters: A small set of alternatives for a given grammatical feature; for
example, whether a complement, such as a preposition, precedes or follows
the main element, such as the noun of a noun phrase.
5. Output: The language produced by the learner.
6. Language Acquisition Device (LAD): A element taht UG linguists originally
proposed as an innate component, or mental organ, to account for language
acquisition.
7. Controlled processing: In an information-processing view ,controlled
processing characteririzes new skill learning; it is comparatively slow and
effortful, and is limited by short-term memory constraints.
8. Automatic processing: In an information-processing view, this occurs when
a skill becomes practiced adn can be carried out relatively rapidly and without
conscious effort or short-term memory limitations.
9. Declarative knowledge: Knowledge that something is the case, as in
knowling a grammatical rule.
10. Procedural knowledge: The knowledge of how to do something; underlines
automatic performance.
11. Recast: Rephrasing an L2 learner’s incorrect utterance correctly.
12. Negotiation for meaning: Process in which learners and competent
speakers interact in various ways, making adjustments in their speech until
understanding is achieved.
13. Negative feedback: Drawing attention in some way to the L2 learner’s
incorrect utterances.
14. Intake: The part of the input that the learner notices.
15. Perceptual salience: The noticeability of a feature (e.g., if a given feature is
given more emphasis in an utterance, it is more perceptually salient.)
16. Implicit learning: Learning without awareness of what is being learned.
17. Explicit learning: Learning with explicit awareness of what is being learned.
18. Implicit knowledge: In SLA, knowledge of the L2 that underlies the learner’s
performance, but of which he or she is not explicitly aware.
19. Explicit knowledge: In SLA, knowledge of the L2 (vocabulary, grammar
rules, etc.) of which learners are explicitly aware.
20. Scaffolding: In a sociocultural approach, the role played by teachers, peers,
and others in supporting thelearner’s development to get to a more advanced
stage.
