Deck 9: Language Development

Question 1

Three of the following children are behaving in ways consistent with what information processing theorists have learned about children's early language capabilities. Which one is not behaving consistently with what researchers have learned about what children can and cannot do in the first few years of life?

A) Alec, who is 3 weeks old, seems more intrigued by classical music than by his mother's voice.
B) Bryn, who is 2 months old, seems to be more easily comforted by her father's voice than by the voice of a strange man whose voice has a similar pitch.
C) Claudia, who is 5 months old, pays more attention to her father when he talks to her using short, simple, sing-songy sentences.
D) Donald, who is 16 months old, knows what a teddy bear is but has never heard the word lion before. When his mother shows him three teddy bears and a stuffed lion and says, "Show me the lion," Donald hesitates and then points to the lion.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which one of the following statements is consistent with a sociocultural view of language development?

A) "Children initially use language primarily in their interactions with other people, but increasingly they also use it to help them think more effectively."
B) "From a very early age, children are motivated to learn how to speak, because speech enables them to interact with other people and, ultimately, to get what they want."
C) "Although children can learn the specific vocabulary and syntax of their native language only by hearing the people around them speak it, they seem to have some built-in knowledge of the form that any language should take."
D) "To foster children's language development, parents and other adults praise them first for making speechlike sounds ('Da-da'), later for saying recognizable words ('More!'), and still later for forming understandable sentences ('Can I have candy?')."

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which one of the following statements is consistent with a functionalist view of language development?

A) "Children initially use language primarily in their interactions with other people, but increasingly they also use it to help them think more effectively."
B) "From a very early age, children are motivated to learn how to speak, because speech enables them to interact with other people and, ultimately, to get what they want."
C) "Although children can learn the specific vocabulary and syntax of their native language only by hearing the people around them speak it, they seem to have some built-in knowledge of the form that any language should take."
D) "To foster children's language development, parents and other adults praise them first for making speechlike sounds ('Da-da'), later for saying recognizable words ('More!'), and still later for forming understandable sentences ('Can I have candy?')."

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Janis uses the term teddy to refer to all of her stuffed toys, including teddy bears, stuffed bunnies, stuffed birds, and even a stuffed lizard. In doing so, she is showing:

A) overregularization
B) overextension
C) underextension
D) too much dependence on defining features

Question 5

Which one of the following situations illustrates the phenomenon of overextension in semantic development? In each case, the word in question is in quotes.

A) Alvin doesn't understand why he can't build an "igloo" in the summer.
B) Brady thinks that all "igloos" are made out of Styrofoam.
C) Calvin denies that a palm tree is a "tree."
D) Daniel calls a tall sunflower a "tree."

Question 6

Three-year-old Robert is visiting the local zoo with his preschool class. When his teacher exclaims, "Look at the giraffe!" Robert first looks at the teacher's face and then follows her gaze to the strange creature she is looking at. Robert's behavior in this situation reflects:

A) semantic bootstrapping
B) functionalism
C) pragmatics
D) intersubjectivity

Question 7

Which one of the following statements is consistent with a nativist view of language development?

A) "Children initially use language primarily in their interactions with other people, but increasingly they also use it to help them think more effectively."
B) "From a very early age, children are motivated to learn how to speak, because speech enables them to interact with other people and, ultimately, to get what they want."
C) "Although children can learn the specific vocabulary and syntax of their native language only by hearing the people around them speak it, they seem to have some built-in knowledge of the form that any language should take."
D) "To foster children's language development, parents and other adults praise them first for making speechlike sounds ('Da-da'), later for saying recognizable words ('More!'), and still later for forming understandable sentences ('Can I have candy?')."

Question 8

Tina is an English language learner. She is learning in a regular third grade classroom. Her teacher and her classmates all speak English and she receives no instruction or assistance in her native language. Most likely Tina is learning in which of the following programs?

A) Immersion
B) Developmental bilingual education
C) Submersion
D) Structured English immersion

Question 9

Considering what we have learned from research regarding cognitive and linguistic development, we should expect elementary school children to have the greatest difficulty understanding the meaning of which one of the following words?

A) however
B) somersault
C) swim
D) vehicle

Question 10

Which one of the following is typically not used with English language learners?

A) Submersion
B) Structured English immersion programs
C) Foreign language instruction
D) Bilingual education

Question 11

Roger uses the word ball only to refer to his favorite red ball with white stars on it. In doing so, Roger is showing:

A) fast mapping
B) overextension
C) underextension
D) pragmatics in his language usage

Question 12

Early explanations of language development rested heavily on the roles of modeling and reinforcement in learning language. Which one of the following children's utterances casts doubt on the idea that modeling and reinforcement are sufficient to explain how children acquire language?

A) "More!"
B) "No do dat no more!"
C) "Where are you going?"
D) "Peek-a-boo, I see you!"

Question 13

Four-year-old Brandon's father is an aeronautical engineer who often talks about his work at home. At preschool, Brandon uses the word trajectory as he plays with a toy racecar track. Although he uses the word correctly, you are fairly certain that he does not fully understand what it means. Brandon's behavior is evidence that:

A) Language comprehension always precedes language production.
B) Language comprehension sometimes precedes language production.
C) Language production always precedes language comprehension.
D) Language production sometimes precedes language comprehension.

Question 14

Which one of the following statements is consistent with B. F. Skinner's view of language development?

A) "Children initially use language primarily in their interactions with other people, but increasingly they also use it to help them think more effectively."
B) "From a very early age, children are motivated to learn how to speak, because speech enables them to interact with other people and, ultimately, to get what they want."
C) "Although children can learn the specific vocabulary and syntax of their native language only by hearing the people around them speak it, they seem to have some built-in knowledge of the form that any language should take."
D) "To foster children's language development, parents and other adults praise them first for making speechlike sounds ('Da-da'), later for saying recognizable words ('More!'), and still later for forming understandable sentences ('Can I have candy?')."

Question 15

Which of the following will be least effective for children who are learning a second language in traditional foreign language instruction?

A) Cultural awareness lessons
B) Community involvement lessons
C) Grammatical lessons
D) Oral communication lessons

Question 16

Which one of the following remarks addressed to 18-month-old José best illustrates infant-directed speech?

A) "José want juice?"
B) "José, come back here, you silly boy!"
C) "Would you like me to read you a bedtime story?"
D) "Oh my goodness, it's time to change your diaper, isn't it?"

Question 17

As you work with 3-year-old Effie, you keep track of all the new words she uses. You find that, on average, Effie uses two or three new words every week over a period of several months. Based on this information, Effie's language development:

A) Is slower than what you would expect for a 3-year-old
B) Is about average for what you would expect for a 3-year-old
C) Is slighter faster than what you would expect for a 3-year-old
D) Indicates exceptionally high intelligence

Question 18

As 2-year-old David and his father go into the family garden one day, Dad exclaims, "Look at all the wonderful daisies!" David infers that the only plants blooming in the garden must be called daisies. David's inference is an example of:

A) expansion
B) fast mapping
C) functionalism
D) semantic bootstrapping

Question 19

Gabrielle asks her mother, "When we go library?" Gabrielle's question is an example of:

A) a holophrase
B) overregularization
C) receptive language
D) expressive language

Question 20

Which one of the following statements most accurately describes what developmental theorists mean when they talk about a language acquisition device?

A) A built-in mechanism that makes language learning especially easy for human beings
B) A culture-specific symbolic system that encompasses all the syntactic rules of a particular language
C) A particular area of the human cortex that seems to "hold" all of the words that a child learns
D) A handheld computer that enables people who speak very different languages to communicate easily with one another

Question 21

Latisha correctly understands the sentence "The girl who was pushed off the slide by the bully has a broken arm." Considering trends in language development, you can guess that Latisha is probably at least:

A) 3 years old
B) 5 years old
C) 7 years old
D) 10 years old

Question 22

When looking at her new baby brother, 2-year-old Martina says, "Baby nap." Her mother responds, "Yes, the baby is taking a nap." Mom's reply is an example of:

A) expansion
B) overextension
C) telegraphic speech
D) interpreting a holophrase

Question 23

When 4-year old Morris hears his preschool teacher say, "Susan was punched by John," he thinks that Susan was the person who did the punching. Morris's mistaken belief is most likely due to the fact that young children:

A) Do not yet understand past tense
B) Have trouble with virtually all prepositions
C) Rely heavily on word order in interpreting what they hear
D) Tend to attribute undesirable characteristics (e.g., aggression) to the other gender

Question 24

Which strategy is most likely to be effective in promoting semantic development?

A) Encouraging underextension in the preschool years
B) Showing several examples of words
C) Allowing children to make up their own meanings for words to encourage invention and creativity
D) Allowing children to use words incorrectly in the early elementary grades to promote linguistic self-efficacy

Question 25

After playing in the snow, 5-year-old Raul complains, "My feets are cold." Raul's comment shows:

A) fast mapping
B) overregularization
C) overextension
D) semantic bootstrapping

Question 26

Seven-year-old Emma thinks that "Too many cooks spoil the broth" is only about cooking soup. Her inability to recognize the more general meaning of the expression:

A) Is typical for her age-group
B) Reveals preoperational reasoning
C) Reflects delayed pragmatic development
D) Indicates that instruction in such expressions would definitely be in her zone of proximal development

Question 27

Reuben says "Jooz!" as he stretches his arms in the direction of his juice bottle. Reuben's utterance can best be described as an example of:

A) expansion
B) a holophrase
C) telegraphic speech
D) Universal Grammar

Question 28

While playing outside with his 3-year-old son David, Sam Johnson sees a fancy car speed by on their normally quiet street. "Look at that Lamborghini," he says, pointing toward the car. David has never heard that word before. The rules of fast-mapping predict that he will think it refers to:

A) The driver of the car (a proper name)
B) A unique part of the car, such as the door, for which he has no established name
C) The action of the car - speeding
D) The whole car

Question 29

Which of the following is not an approach to teaching a second language?

A) bilingual education
B) immersion
C) subtractive bilingualism
D) submersion

Question 30

Even though he teaches history rather than English, Mr. Stahl wants to support his seventh-grade students in their syntactic development. Which one of the following strategies, although possibly beneficial in other respects, is least likely to promote his students' syntactic development?

A) Teach students a wide variety of sentence structures that they might use.
B) Teach students the differences between similar words (e.g., that vs. which, lie vs. lay) and when to use each one.
C) Engage students in many formal writing activities, and give them regular feedback about punctuation and grammar.
D) Teach students how to take notes more efficiently by capturing ideas in short phrases rather than complete sentences.

Question 31

Three of the following aspects of language development appear during the elementary school years or even earlier. Which one are we not likely to see until youngsters are in junior high or high school?

A) Following accepted social conventions for beginning and ending conversations
B) Adapting a spoken message to the age of the listener
C) Using context clues to interpret a speaker's message
D) Understanding proverbs

Question 32

Most children in the early elementary grades think that being a "good listener" is:

A) Asking the speaker a lot of questions
B) Remembering what the speaker says
C) Sitting quietly and do not interrupt the speaker
D) Being able to tell somebody else what the speaker has said

Question 33

Valentina receives instruction in her first language during her language arts lessons. She receives instruction in English in her other subjects. Most likely, which of the following approaches has her school chosen to teach a second language?

A) Foreign language instruction
B) Immersion
C) Submersion
D) Structured English immersion

Question 34

If you were to describe the nature of syntactic development, you would be most likely to say that it involves:

A) Developing a large vocabulary
B) Learning how to put words together into comprehensible sentences
C) Understanding the social customs that surround language use in one's culture
D) Acquiring an ability to make discriminations among very similar-sounding words

Question 35

Which one of the following statements best illustrates telegraphic speech?

A) "No!"
B) "Want cookie."
C) "You're being silly."
D) "I love you, Mommy."

Question 36

At what age do children begin to realize that what people say may not be the truth?

A) Ages 15-18
B) Ages 11-14
C) Ages 7-10
D) Ages 3-6

Question 37

Given what we know about the language development of elementary school children, three of the following errors might be observed in a class of second graders. Which one is not likely to be observed?

A) Annie asserts quite adamantly that an ostrich is not a bird.
B) Benny says, "Chocolate ice cream is gooder than vanilla ice cream."
C) Connie speaks mostly in one word "sentences".
D) Danny complains that his bicycle is "broked."
)

Question 38

Three of the following statements about infants' early listening abilities are true. Which one is false?

A) Newborn babies show no preference in listening to languages.
B) By 5 months of age, infants show some partiality to their own name when they hear it in speech.
C) By 9 months of age, infants prefer hearing the language of their own culture rather than the language of other groups.
D) By 2 years of age, toddlers have difficulty hearing subtle differences in speech that are not important in their native language.

Question 39

Two-year-old Zada always hears the word pretty just before a word that refers to a concrete object (e.g., "pretty flower," "pretty lady," "pretty picture"). Although she does not yet know what an adjective is, at an intuitive level she understands that pretty is a "describing" word. Zada's understanding reflects:

A) expansion
B) functionalism
C) semantic bootstrapping
D) acquisition of a grammatical word

Question 40

As she watches her grandfather, 3-year-old Audrey asks him, "What you are doing?" Which one of the following most accurately describes the incorrect format of Audrey's question?

A) It reflects a normal step in the development of question syntax.
B) It is an example of overregularization, which is common in preschoolers.
C) If she makes such mistakes frequently, she may have Williams syndrome.
D) It suggests that she may have a slight hearing impairment.

Question 41

Three of the following are suggested strategies for promoting children's expressive language skills. Which one is not recommended?

A) Insist that children never "stretch" the truth in any way.
B) Encourage children to describe recent events in their lives.
C) Tell children if you don't understand what they're trying to tell you.
D) Teach infants gestures they can use to make their needs and desires known.

Question 42

Sometimes the sociolinguistic behaviors that are expected at school are quite different from the behaviors that children have acquired at home. When this happens, children may initially:

A) Experience culture shock
B) Engage in figurative speech
C) Show considerable wait time
D) Show deficits in metalinguistic awareness

Question 43

In North America, which approach appears to be most effective for teaching English speakers a second language?

A) Let them talk with native speakers of the language, who should alternate between using English and the other language.
B) Teach it to them before kindergarten if possible, because they quickly lose their ability to learn a second language fluently after that.
C) Immerse them in the second language, having them hear and speak it exclusively in all classroom activities.
D) Wait until they reach adolescence so that they can better grasp the subtleties of the new language.

Question 44

Which one of the following aspects of language development is evident even in 6-month-olds' behavior?

A) Expansion
B) IRE cycles
C) Turn taking
D) Holophrases

Question 45

Thirteen-year-old Otto tells his friend, "Your jeans are way awesome, dude." Otto's statement reflects the fact that:

A) Teenagers sometimes use a distinct dialect when talking with one another.
B) Understanding and use of figurative language increases in adolescence.
C) Adolescents gain increasing awareness of other people's personal space.
D) Most pragmatic development occurs in adolescence and early adulthood.

Question 46

Which one of the following most accurately describes the development of narratives in children's speech?

A) Early narratives appear around age 2¹/₂ or 3.
B) Most children are incapable of producing narratives until around puberty.
C) Narratives become increasing complex during the elementary school years.
D) Children's early narratives are largely fictional, but they become increasingly reality-based as youngsters move through the middle school and high school grades.

Question 47

Research regarding learning a second language yields which one of the following conclusions?

A) The ability to learn a second language is greatest before age 4.
B) Learning a second language is not recommended after age 8.
C) The ability to learn a second language increases with age until adulthood, when it starts to decline.
D) Learning a second language can lead to higher achievement in reading.

Question 48

Three of the following are factors that affect children's ability to understand what others say to them. Which one is least likely to affect their listening comprehension?

A) Schemas and scripts related to common objects and events
B) Early training in correct pronunciation
C) Working memory capacity
D) Prior knowledge

Question 49

Which one of the following is the best example of pragmatics in language?

A) Julie waits until her friend has finished talking before she begins to speak.
B) Morris understands the underlying meaning of "A stitch in time saves nine."
C) Sheena knows that the plural of man is men, not mans.
D) Isaiah recognizes the double meanings in many of the puns he hears.

Question 50

LaWanda understands that a single sentence can sometimes be interpreted in two or more ways. For example, she realizes that the sentence "I know more beautiful women than Miss America" has two possible interpretations: "I know women who are more beautiful than Miss America is" or "I know more beautiful women than Miss America knows." LaWanda's appreciation for the double meanings of some sentences reflects:

A) Pragmatics
B) Overextension
C) Figurative language
D) Metalinguistic awareness

Question 51

Ms. Mills holds up a picture of a dog and asks her first graders, "What letter does this word start with?" Most of the students yell out, "D!" "You're absolutely right," Ms. Mills responds, "the word dog begins with a D." This interaction can best be described as:

A) Decoding
B) Immersion
C) An IRE cycle
D) An authentic activity

Question 52

Which one of the following best illustrates babbling as developmental theorists typically use the term?

A) "Eeeeeeeeee."
B) "Buh-buh-buh-buh."
C) "Allgone milk."
D) Roscoe often talks to himself as he plays by himself in the sandbox.

Question 53

Becky often interrupts other people to finish their sentences for them. Her conversation partners find this behavior annoying. In the terminology of language researchers, Becky:

A) Lacks metalinguistic awareness
B) Is invading her partners' personal space
C) Shows less syntactic development than her peers
D) Is violating the sociolinguistic conventions of her culture

Question 54

Given what we know about children's language development, which one of the following problems is typical for the grade level?

A) A first grader pronounces the word rabbit as "wabbit."
B) A fourth grader seems unable to put verbs in the past tense.
C) A seventh grader says, "The sheeps are in the meadow."
D) An eleventh grader has trouble understanding passive sentences.

Question 55

Which one of the following is the best example of playing the dozens?

A) "I've told you that a million times already!"
B) "How can you think I hate you? I love you, man!"
C) "That's so stupid. You must have rocks in your head!"
D) "Your sister's so fat that the circus uses her for a trampoline."

Question 56

Mr. Wong tells a joke in his fourth-grade class: "An eye doctor fell into the lens- grinding machine and made a spectacle of himself." The humor of the joke rests, of
Course, on the double meaning of the word spectacle. With respect to children's
Language development, such word play is most likely to:

A) Confuse and frustrate children
B) Enhance children's metalinguistic awareness
C) Enhance children's pragmatic development
D) Enhance children's ability to construct narratives

Question 57

Three of the following are differences that teachers and other practitioners may find among children from some cultural backgrounds. Which behavior is probably not the result of a child's cultural background per se?

A) Some children often touch the people they are talking to.
B) Some children may be accustomed to "talking back" to authority figures when they disagree.
C) Some children may look down at their feet as a way of showing respect for authority figures.
D) Some children may walk away without saying anything when they want to be alone rather than with other people.

Question 58

Six-year-old Raymond, who is African American, seems to be a very bright boy. He began reading simple picture books when he was four years old, and he can solve many one-digit addition and subtraction problems in his head. Yet on his first day of school, when his new teacher asks him where he lives and whether he has any brothers or sisters, he looks down at his feet and gives his answer. With the textbook's discussion of cultural differences in verbal interaction in mind, identify the most likely explanation of Raymond's behavior.

A) He has been taught that saying anything at all to adults is rude.
B) He is accustomed to speaking only in chorus with other children.
C) He has been taught not to look adults directly in the eye.
D) He has learned that to be polite, he must allow a wait time of a minute or more.

Question 59

Five-year-old Sarah tells her kindergarten teacher, "We had dinner at Mark's house last night." The teacher has no idea who Mark is but responds, "How nice! Did you have a good time?" This interaction reflects which one of the following developmental trends?

A) Telegraphic speech typically precedes adultlike grammar.
B) Young children tend to be heavily reliant on context clues when interpreting other people's messages.
C) Children have difficulty with figurative speech throughout the preschool and elementary school years.
D) When talking to others, young children often fail to take their listeners' knowledge and perspectives into account.

Question 60

If you wanted to enhance children's and adolescents' ability to understand what other people say, you might use three of the following strategies. Which one would you be least likely to use?

A) Encourage them to listen closely to every word and to take other people's messages literally.
B) Present only small amounts of information at a time, especially when working with young children.
C) Assess children's understanding of messages by asking questions.
D) Show them how some kinds of messages (e.g., television commercials) are designed to persuade them to behave in certain ways.

Question 61

Zack is a high school student with a speech disorder. Which one of the following characteristics is least likely to be associated with his disability?

A) Zack's reading skills are among the lowest in his class.
B) When asked to speak in front of a group, Zack blushes and looks uncomfortable.
C) Zack shows no interest in contemporary music; in fact, he doesn't even listen to the radio.
D) Zack has difficulty with writing assignments.

Question 62

Which of the following pairs of youngsters best illustrates the idea of diversity with respect to different dialects?

A) Telly was born in Greece, and Fritz was born in Germany. Fritz has an easier time learning English than Telly does because German uses the same alphabet that English does, whereas Greek does not.
B) Ralph speaks English as it is spoken in rural Mississippi; Kyle speaks the English of inner-city Chicago.
C) Margaret speaks English fluently; Anna knows fewer words and speaks in simpler sentences because she immigrated from Romania only six months ago.
D) Elena speaks Spanish and Maria speaks Portuguese; the two languages have similar vocabulary and syntax because of their shared Latin roots.

Question 63

Imagine you are a high school teacher who has several students who speak a dialect other than Standard English. If you follow the textbook's recommendation for handling this situation, you will:

A) Teach them to speak and write Standard English exclusively, and as quickly as possible.
B) Allow them to use their own dialect or version of English exclusively in all school classes and activities.
C) Strongly discourage them from speaking their dialect, even when they are off school grounds.
D) Ask them to use Standard English in formal situations (e.g., persuasive essays) but encourage them to use their own dialect in other situations.

Question 64

When children are born with severe hearing impairments, they are often taught American sign language or some other manual language. Some parents regularly use a manual language to communicate with these children. When a manual language is used regularly in the home, children with hearing impairments show language development that:

A) Is significantly delayed compared to that of hearing children
B) Is similar to that of children who are raised with little or no exposure to any language
C) Follows a distinctly different sequence of development than is true for the development of spoken language in hearing children
D) Closely resembles the typical sequence and timing of spoken language development in hearing children

Question 65

A child says to you, "My momma she be happy about my good report card." This child appears to:

A) Have grown up in Northern Ireland and so is using idioms typical of that country
B) Be using African American English, a dialect with some grammatical constructions different from those of Standard English
C) Have had little exposure to language during a critical period in her language development
D) Have a speech disorder that sometimes results from environmental toxins (e.g., lead-based paint)

Question 66

A fourth-grade teacher wants to do what's best for a student named Lily, who has difficulties with articulation and is sometimes difficult to understand. Which one of the following strategies is most likely to facilitate Lily's language development?

A) Regularly engage Lily in classroom conversations and ask for clarification when her meaning isn't clear.
B) Avoid calling on Lily in class so she will not feel embarrassed about speaking in front of her peers.
C) Finish Lily's sentences for her when she stutters so she doesn't have to struggle so much to make herself understood.
D) Encourage the other students to pretend they understand Lily even if they don't, so that she will gain confidence in speaking.

Question 67

Two 15-year-olds, John and Martha, are deeply engaged in conversation. If typical gender differences in language hold true for John and Martha, we would expect that:

A) John would focus on providing information in a fairly blunt manner, whereas Martha would focus on maintaining the relationship through tact and courtesy.
B) John would be focused on demonstrating his superior verbal ability, whereas Martha would be focused on commending John for his strength and agility.
C) Martha would be subtly trying to teach John new things, whereas John would be trying to demonstrate how much he already knows.
D) Martha would do most of the talking and John would be tuning out a lot of what she says.

Question 68

When a child is born congenitally deaf, it is especially important that his or her family uses some form of manual language beginning early in the child's life. Why is this so?
Developmental Trends Table
The table below describes language-related behaviors of children and adolescents in five different age ranges. For each youngster, the table indicates whether the behavior is typical or unusual for the age group, suggests developmentally appropriate responses to the behavior, or both. Apply what you've learned about assessing developmental progress in language to fill in the empty cells in the table.
Assessing Developmental Progress in Language