Question 1

Which of the following statements about infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds is true?

Accepted Answer

Newborns have an innate ability to discriminate between a wide range of speech sounds, even those they have never heard before, which is a foundational aspect of language acquisition.

Question 2

The period before approximately age 5 is considered the________ period for language development.

Accepted Answer

The period before approximately age 5 is considered the critical period for language development, during which the brain is particularly receptive to acquiring language skills.

Question 3

The characteristic intonation patterns, tempo, rhythm, and cadence with which a language is spoken are referred to as:

Accepted Answer

Prosody refers to the patterns of rhythm, stress, and intonation in speech, which includes the tempo, rhythm, and cadence of a language.

Question 4

Of behavioral tests and measurements of ERPs, ____have demonstrated that infants are able to discriminate among sounds not found in their native language.

Accepted Answer

Both behavioral tests and measurements of ERPs have shown that infants can discriminate among sounds not found in their native language, indicating their ability to perceive phonetic contrasts universally.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about children who are exposed to two languages from birth is NOT true?

Accepted Answer

Children exposed to two languages from birth typically do not confuse the grammar of the two languages; they can differentiate and use the correct grammar for each language.

Question 6

Adults perceive speech sounds:

Accepted Answer

Adults perceive speech sounds categorically, meaning they are sensitive to phonemic contrasts that are relevant in their native language, while they may not distinguish contrasts not used in their native language.

Question 7

Liana, a 6-month-old infant, Joshua, a 9-month-old infant, and Sadie, an 11-month-old infant, all live in English-speaking homes in English-speaking communities. Which of the babies is likely to be best at discriminating among sounds that are found in Mandarin Chinese but are not found in English?

Accepted Answer

Infants are generally better at discriminating non-native sounds at younger ages. By 6 months, Liana is likely to still have this ability, which tends to decline as infants grow older and become more attuned to the sounds of their native language.

Question 8

Research has demonstrated that 7-month-old infants who were less able to detect differences not important in their native language in comparison to the differences important in their native language scored ______on some tests of language skills at later ages than did infants whose detection ability was equal for both sets of differences.

Accepted Answer

Infants who focus more on differences important in their native language tend to develop better language skills later, as they are honing in on relevant linguistic cues.

Question 9

Which of the following statements is an indicator that babbling by older infants depends on experience?

Accepted Answer

French adults distinguishing between babbling by babies from different language backgrounds suggests that babbling is influenced by the linguistic environment, indicating that it depends on experience.

Question 10

Infants' sensitivity to the distributional properties of the speech they hear helps them:

Accepted Answer

Infants' sensitivity to the distributional properties of speech helps them segment continuous speech into distinct words, aiding in word recognition.

Question 11

Infants are sensitive to which of the following properties of their native language?

Accepted Answer

Infants are sensitive to stress patterns, distributional properties, and distinctions between speech sounds in their native language, which helps them in language acquisition.

Question 12

Experiments conducted by Anne Fernald on 8-month- olds' comprehension of the meaning of the emotional tone of their mothers' speech indicated that:

Accepted Answer

Anne Fernald's experiments showed that 8-month-old infants behave as if they comprehend the emotional tone of their mothers' speech, indicating an understanding of emotional cues.

Question 13

Which of the following statements about the results of Janet Werker's research on 6- to 12-month-old infants' ability to distinguish between speech sounds that are not important in their native language is true?

Accepted Answer

Janet Werker's research found that younger infants (6 to 8 months old) can distinguish between speech sounds not present in their native language, but this ability declines by 10 to 12 months as they become more attuned to the sounds of their native language.

Question 14

Which of the following statements is the best advice for parents who want their child to learn a second language?

Accepted Answer

Exposing a child to a second language as early as possible takes advantage of the critical period for language learning, when the brain is most receptive to acquiring new languages.

Question 15

Johnson and Newport's study of the English proficiency of Korean and Chinese immigrants in the United States demonstrated that knowledge of English grammar was associated with:

Accepted Answer

Johnson and Newport's study found that the age at which individuals began learning English was a significant factor in their proficiency, particularly in grammar, with younger learners achieving higher proficiency.

Question 16

Which of the following phrases does NOT describe a characteristic of babbling by older infants?

Accepted Answer

Babbling by older infants is influenced by their linguistic environment, so it is not independent of experience.

Question 17

Which of the following speech sounds is least likely to be uttered by an infant who has not yet begun to babble?

Accepted Answer

Infants typically start with simpler vowel sounds like "aaah" and "oooh" before they begin to babble with more complex consonant-vowel combinations like "gaga".

Question 18

Which of the following statements about infant- directed speech is NOT true?

Accepted Answer

Infant-directed speech is beneficial but not necessary for language mastery; children can still learn language without it.

Question 19

Which of the following statements about infant- directed talk is true?

Accepted Answer

American mothers are known to use more exaggerated forms of infant-directed talk compared to mothers in some other cultures, characterized by higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation.

Question 20

Which of the following statements is evidence of a critical period for language development?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following statements is evidence...

Quiz 6: Development of Language and Symbol Use