Language Development (AP Psychology Review: Unit 3 Topic 5)

[0:00]The last time on this channel, we talked about cognitive development. And today we're going to review communication and language development. Remember, language is a shared system of symbols that represent objects, actions, and ideas. These symbols can be spoken words, written text, or even gestures. As a society, we have a shared, mutually agreed upon understanding of what each symbol means and what the rules are for the language. Now, we can break language down into a couple of different components. But before we do that, remember to take out your guided notes. You can find the notes that I made for the video in the description down below. Remember, you need to be active in your learning, not passive. All right, let's start by breaking down language by focusing on the smallest units of sound. Which are phonemes. These are often the first sounds an infant makes. This is the 'b' sound in bat or the 'm' sound in mom. Phonemes do not have any inherent meaning but play a critical role in early language development. Being able to distinguish phonemes helps with pronunciation since phonemes serve as building blocks for spoken language. Next there is morphemes, which are the smallest unit of meaning in a language. A morpheme can be a whole word, a prefix or a suffix. For example, dog is a morpheme, but so is ED added to a word like walked. This is because when we add 'ed' to the end of walk, it changes the meaning, indicating past tense. Morphemes help us know how words are formed and allow us to understand their meaning and changes. Speaking of meaning, the next concept is semantics, which is the meaning behind words and sentences. Semantics are what explain how we interpret language. Remember, semantics are different from morphemes. Semantics are about interpreting the meaning behind the word and the sentence. While morphemes are about the structure of the words and how they are constructed. Semantics help an individual understand how the different words in a sentence combine together to form meaning. For instance, the boy kicked the ball. This conveys meaning about the action of kicking, which is done by the boy on the object, the ball. Semantics here help us understand that the boy is the subject, the kicking is the action, and that the ball is the object. On the other hand, we can also see morphemes in action here as well. For example, the word kicked has two morphemes. Kick, which is the root, meaning the action of kicking and -ed, a suffix indicating past tense. Now, with semantics, we can see there is surface structure semantics, which is the literal meaning of words, and deep structure semantics, which is the underlying meaning of a sentence. Lastly, we have grammar and syntax. Grammar is a set of rules that govern how words can be combined, so grammar is the set of rules that the language follows. While syntax on the other hand is specific rules for arranging words and phrases into sentences. Syntax allows people to figure out who did what to whom in a sentence. Think of grammar as the overall system of rules for a language, and think of syntax as a subcategory of grammar, specifically dealing with sentence structure. Now, when looking at different languages, we can see that each language has their own set of rules. For example, in English, the syntax tells people to put adjectives before nouns. But in Spanish, the syntax tells people to put adjectives after nouns. Now, language we can see is generative, which means that it allows for the creation of an infinite number of sentences and ideas. So, you can create a sentence that nobody has ever said before and people who speak your language can still understand it. For instance, the luminous pancake floated serenely above the tulip field, humming a melody only squirrels could comprehend. Quack! This allows language to continuously adapt to the times and allows individuals to communicate new concepts, ideas, stories, and personal thoughts. Now, when it comes to language development, we can see that people across all cultures follow similar patterns. Using both nonverbal gestures and processing through specific stages of formal language development. Nonverbal gestures would be pointing or waving to communicate. Generally, we can see that nonverbal gestures allow an individual to communicate when words are not yet available. Eventually though, individuals develop verbal language and they gain the ability to verbally communicate their wants and needs. There are four stages of language development that you want to be familiar with. The first occurs when an infant is around two to three months old. This stage is known as the cooing stage. Here the infant makes soft repetitive vowel sounds like ooh and ah. This is the infant's way of practicing their mouth and tongue movements that will be needed for speech later on. When the infant is around four to six months old, they will enter the next stage, which is the babbling stage. This is when infants will start combining consonants and vowels. Now the infant will start to say things such as baba or gaga. During this stage, the infant is in a critical period. The infant will experiment with the sounds of their language. Over time the infant will start to narrow down to the specific sounds of the language or languages that they hear the most. Now, around 12 to 18 months, the child will enter the next stage, which is the one-word stage. During this stage, the child will start to say words such as mom, dad, or ball. Here the words the child is saying often represent an entire idea. For example, milk might mean I want milk, or it could mean I dropped my milk. Single words that are used to communicate a larger meaning are known as holophrases. This is when words will refer to different objects, people, or individual needs. Each word here is conveying a bigger meaning or idea than the word itself. Lastly, there is the two-word stage, also known as telegraphic speech stage. This stage generally happens around 18 to 24 months. During this stage, a child can start to connect two or three-word phrases together. Short phrases such as "I want milk" or "daddy go." This stage is known as the telegraphic speech because the child just uses the essential words without extra grammar. Kind of think of it like an old telegram message. Need milk.... Stop..... Send help... Stop..... Children during this stage start to form mini-sentences and they start to pick up on grammar structures. At the end of the day, we can see that language development is universal. Babies around the world all move from cooing to babbling to one word, to telegraphic speech. This suggests that there is a critical period for language development. So, when it comes to learning a language, it is important that infants be exposed as early as possible to a language. If a person is not exposed to a language during their critical and sensitive periods, it can be difficult to learn a language later on. Now, whenever an individual is learning a new language, they are going to make mistakes. It doesn't matter if the child is learning their first language or an adult is learning their second, third, or fourth. One mistake that often happens is overgeneralization. This is when an individual who is learning a new language applies grammar rules too broadly. For instance, when learning English, an individual might say mouses instead of mice, or goed instead of went. Overgeneralization happens because the learner understands some of the rules of the language and is trying to test those rules out on different words and sentences. This shows that the learner is learning. Over time, they'll figure out the different expectations and exceptions to the rules and will reduce their mistakes. Now, don't worry, to make sure that you're understanding all these concepts, not only do I have a couple of quick review questions here in the video, but I also created a practice quiz to help you review and practice all of these different concepts. You can find the full practice quiz in my ultimate review package. Just click the link in the description of this video. As always, I'm Mr. Sin. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time online.