Otto, Chapter 2: Learning and Language (22-51) Hennings, Chapter 3: Language and Children's Language Development (80-109

1. Otto, Chapter 2: Learning and Language (22-51)Hennings, Chapter 3: Language and Children's Language Development (80-109) Teaching Language Arts (EDU-105) Shannon Phillips

2. Behaviorist (B. F. Skinner) • Operant conditioning • Stimuli, events, and responses interact to create associations with language (reading, writing, listening, etc.) • Schematic networks create maps and memories to assist recall (memory) • Language is taught through reinforcement (positive and negative)

3. Behaviorist (cont.) • If children take active roles in language learning, they form better connections to learning. • Imitation, repetition, and imitative speech • Modeling (prosodic features, too!) • Dramatic play (telephone, role play, puppet shows, other activities?) • What are examples of behaviorist language acquisition (words, tone)? Can you connect to semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic knowledge?

4. Nativist (Noam Chomsky) • Emphasizes “innate human capabilities” (25)—People have the ability and need to communicate in their biological structure • Focus: Cognitive structures the help move from the semantic to syntactic knowledge

5. Universal Grammar—Language Acquisition Device • Universal Grammar: Rules that are necessary and present in all languages to allow for communication—brain can understand the structure in any language • Language acquisition device (LAD)—Why and how we teach grammar • Children’s need to learn how to communicate makes them active participants and they undergo constant hypothesis testing to learn.

6. What Can You Include in the Classroom to Apply Nativist Theory? • Provide opportunities to use and explore language to encourage hypothesis testing and activate language acquisition devices (LAD) HOW? • Make large amounts and varieties of children’s literature available • Workstations for inner speech and socialized speech activities (communicate, draw, invent, listen, and write)

7. Cognitive Developmental (Jean Piaget) • Language is acquired as maturation occurs and cognitive competencies (i.e., brain or synapses) develop

8. Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor Stage (Infancy-2 years) • Receptive language stage moving to expressive language stage • Activities that focus on movement and the five senses (Baby Einstein and Lamaze products—black and white/mirrors, LeapFrog, and Dora) • Range is no language knowledge (trial and error nature of crying and cooing) to phonetic and semantic knowledge (Otto, 2002, p. 26-7) • Object permanence helps them understand how to manipulate • Schemata—beginning to recall and project (signs and symbols) to concepts • Interpersonal communication = key • Preoperational Stage (2-7 years) • Activities that encourage children to engage in symbol making and symbol manipulation • Imitate adult language and behavior • “think[ing] with words” (Hennings, 2002, p. 87)

9. Stages of Cognitive Development • Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 ½ years) • Object manipulation, role play, and direct experience helps children make connections • Reality and fantasy, similarities and differences, ability to categorize improves • Concrete to generalizations about reality—critical thinking • Formal Operations (11/12 years and older) • Movement from concrete to generalization and abstract understanding

10. Interactionist (Lev Vygotsky) • Emphasis is on the primary role of sociocultural interaction • “In teaching language, we are essentially teaching thought” (qtd. In Henning, 2002, p. 84). • What is the role and benefit of language acquisition support system (LASS)? • Emotional responses develop into ability to communicate them in socially responsible ways

11. Interactionist (cont.) • Provide wide range of social interactions in which oral and written language are used in developmentally appropriate activities • Create a positive emotional context for social interactions • Social interaction is critical for language acquisition.

12. Vygotsky and Piaget Agree:Thinking and Language are Tied Piaget • Language dev. // Cognitive dev. Vygotsky • Language dev. // Cognitive dev.

13. Communicate and Think Figure 3.1 (Hennings, 2002, p. 83) Halliday’s Functions of Language (83) • Instrumental: “I want” • Regulatory: Control the behavior of others • Interactional: Social • Personal: Self-awareness and expressiveness (“Here I come …”) • Heuristic: Questioning … “Why?” • Imaginative • Informative: Adult thinking Toddlers (18 months) can get 1-6 but communicate them later.

14. Experiential Learning—Inner Speech to Socialized Speech (Piaget and Halliday) • Hennings, p. 85 and Otto, pp. 31-2 • What is the role of experience in concept development? • Direct experience: Referent present • Vicarious experience: Referent not present • Describe literature as direct and vicarious experiences.

15. Distancing Components of Symbol Formation Addressor Addressee Object/Action/Referent Symbol (word/picture) Eye Contact Shared References Gestures Touch Animated Speech (Verbal Cues) Communication Loops Adult-to-Child Speech Verbal mapping Expansion Questioning Mediation Concept Labels

16. Discuss these concepts in relation to scaffolding. Linguistic scaffolding pattern • Questioning • Expansion (Recasting) • Repetition (Reinforcement)

17. Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding Allows children to become • independent learners who can grasp higher learning concepts • behaviorally, can help them understand social morays better • Control language and behavior internally rather than someone else controlling their behavior • Adults can divide attention better • Setting: Informal and Formal • Routine(s) • Mediation

18. Describe How an Adult Can Give Over Control of Interaction/Learning Completing a Puzzle Reading a Book

19. Our Role • Learning activities at home and at school should reflect consideration of a child’s developmental needs • Physical • Emotional-social • Cognitive-linguistic • Creating a developmentally appropriate learning environment