How Many Words Should A Child Know?
February 2, 2009 at 12:13 pm | In Extra Stuff, Language Acquisition | Leave a CommentTags: studies, vocabulary estimates, vocabulary size
Comparing Estimates of Vocabulary Acquisition
Many estimates of vocabulary size exist, with variability being their one constant. The difficulties inherent in measuring vocabulary size have not stopped multiple researchers from coming up with their own numbers, some of which I’ve summarized below.
Despite the almost inevitable variation, the studies that support these estimates have told us some important things, such as…
- School age language acquisition occurs primarily through incidental experience more than formal teaching.
- Word learning shifts from concrete and functional to abstract and unusual. This shift occurs gradually from third grade through the high school years.
- Environment matters. Extreme environments extremely matter.
There are many more of these studies than even what I’ve listed, and while I’m not saying I’ve seen it happen, it is possible that people could cherry pick ones that most support the point trying to be made. Also, there is no consensus among anyone really, of what exactly counts for a word in these studies. Does examine, examines, examined, etc. count as different words or variations of the same word? Ultimately the numbers themselves aren’t as important as are examining what’s possible and what’s actually occurring. We know from these studies that it is possible to learn many, many words – at rates of up to 14 words a day according to at least two sources. Methods of teaching vocabulary – such as teaching categories, word webs, and using reading to facilitate vocabulary acquisition – can be helpful, but ultimately nothing works like an enriched experience.
Keep reading for more information about the sources of these studies.
The Click Factor
October 30, 2008 at 11:23 am | In Language Acquisition, Language Teaching | 2 CommentsTags: click factor, cues, data notation, measuring progress
We often seem to teach something for a long time before progress is made. Then, it all seems to click, and suddenly the target is achieved. In language, after this “click,” there is usually no need to continue teaching the structure. The click factor encompasses two frequently observed phenomena: 1) a student will use a target structure at a low percentage for some time, then suddenly use it at a high percentage. 2) a student will not use a target structure at all, until being taught, after which time the student will suddenly use it at a high percentage. There seem to be two reasons that this occurs. One is that children may go awhile without a real world need for a target structure. For example, Joe has been exposed to the word “she” in speech therapy, but with no sisters, and inconsistent correction from his parent on other occasions when the word “she” has been needed, he has continued to use “he” time and time again. One day he refers to his grandmother as “he,” and is corrected by his grandfather. Suddenly, it all clicks! He realizes the reason for previous frustration, he knows how to eliminate this frustration, and he begins using “she” correctly. If we’re all lucky, there’s quick generalization to other structures, and the goal of pronoun usage can be soon crossed off the SLP’s list. Continue reading The Click Factor…
Research Rehash – Patricia Kuhl Cracks the Speech Code
October 19, 2008 at 2:57 pm | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | Leave a CommentTags: distinguish, infants, learning language, Patricia Kuhl, research, statistical learning
A Summary of Patricia Kuhl’s Work:
Patricia Kuhl is co-director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. Her ongoing work, which began in the 1970’s, has altered how modern language theorists view the predisposition to language learning that infants are born with. Prior to her work most followed the Piagetian view that babies were social isolates not yet ready to learn. Kuhl’s research has changed this prevailing perception in a number of ways: 
- Human infants, as well as the young of other species such as birds, monkeys, and chinchillas, are born with an ability to distinguish between all sounds that exist in the particular language of that species.
- Human infants lose the ability to distinguish between sounds not in their language at about the same time that they begin producing varied babbling. Humans have evidently evolved a predisposition toward learning a specific language.
- Parents have evolved specific techniques for teaching language – most prominantly is the high pitched, simplified version of language called “motherese.” Kuhl’s research has shown a strong positive correlation between a child’s early language acquisition and the amount of “motherese” heard (or “parentese” as Kuhl diplomatically has called it).
- Interaction is crucial. Babies that are not interacting as much do not learn language nearly as effectively, even if they appear to be attending to caregivers.
- The explosion in language learning that takes place between six months and three years of age in typically developing children seems to be the result of a combination of a child’s innate ability to detect sound differences, a seemingly innate ability to apply computational strategies to make language learning more efficient (Kuhl calls this statistical learning), and a nurturing social setting.
A recent summary of Kuhl’s research backed opinions can be found here. A very interesting Seattle Times article on Kuhl and her work can be accessed here.
Honorable Mention Language Acquisition Studies
October 7, 2008 at 12:49 am | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | Leave a CommentTags: autism, critical period hypothesis, Language Acquisition, lenneberg, piaget, studies, theory of mind
I couldn’t decide on just one more language acquisition study, like I initially wanted to, so I’ll simply give out a few honorable mentions.
Eric Lenneberg and the critical period hypothesis - In 1967 Eric Lennneberg released a widely influential book based on his research popularizing the notion that if language is not learned before an early age – usually estimated at 4 to 6 years – a child’s ability to learn any language becomes greatly compromised, or disappears altogether. Though this research has been advocated for and debated against by linguistic giants such as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, the evidence from Lenneberg and others is flimsy, draws extensively from widely divergent examples of feral children, and is largely theoretical.
Research hasn't proven this chimp knows what's you're thinking
Theory of Mind – Theory of Mind describes the ability to infer the mental states of others. D.G. Premack and G. Woodruff initally espoused Theory of Mind in their seminal 1978 paper, “Does the Chimpanzee have a theory of mind?” Research by Wimmer and Perner in 1983 used a famous false belief task to test study participants’ abilities to put themselves in others’ shoes. Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan M. Leslie, and Uta Frith published research in 1985 suggesting that children with autism have deficits in theory of mind. Research in this area has been widespread, divergent, and often theoretically powerful.
Jean Piaget – The study of his own three children formed the basis for much of Piaget’s work. Not strictly language, per se, but his view of language acquisition was extremely influential, while the middle ground belief (in terms of nature versus nurture) of cognition’s intertwining with language is probably closer to the truth than anything else currently out there. Good info exists here and here. This information is especially informative.
I can’t not mention Broca, Vygotsky, or Kegl’s study of Nicaraguan sign language.
Daniel Everett and the Pirahã
October 3, 2008 at 11:13 am | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | Leave a CommentTags: blog, daniel everett, everett, language acquisition study, piraha
Although Everett has been studying the Pirahã (pronounce pee-da-ha) Amazonian tribe, and their unique language since the 1970’s, his work remained relatively obscure until 2005, when an article he’d published on his website was then published in Cultural Anthropology. According to Everett’s studies, the Pirahã’s language lacks many aspects of language that linguists argue are basic necessities of a universal grammar, such as color concepts, perfect tense, quantity concepts, and numbers over two. Why? According to Everett, their hunter-gatherer lifestyles have such little use for these concepts, that words to convey them simply don’t exist. This research, which overtly repudiates the Chomskyian theory that has dominated the study of language for decades, has been called by Steven Pinker, “A bomb thrown into the party.”
The coverage of this study has greatly expanded recently, exemplified by this New Yorker article. Language Log has some excellent links concerning the Piraha.
Roger Brown’s Stages – 1973
September 30, 2008 at 11:14 am | In Language Acquisition | 1 CommentTags: 1973, Language Acquisition, mlu, roger brown, stages, study
Brown described five stages of language development based on a child’s mean length of utterance (MLU). His research demonstrated that MLU was a better predictor of what linguistic structures a child was able to use than was chronological age. This research, which examined three children whom Brown dubbed Adam, Eve, and Sarah, was the ultimate explanation of language acquisition for years. The complexity of Brown’s description has also, unfortunately, painted language acquisition as a complicated morass of agent+actions, entities+locatives, recurrences, and nominatives that quite frankly, has turned off many students (especially speech-language pathology students) from this entire area. The structural analysis of language samples based on Brown’s language description is a staple of the SLP college experience often remembered with revulsion. Despite this, the influence of this study can not be denied. Neither can it’s untouched accuracy in describing the process of language development.
The best online description of Brown’s work is at Caroline Bowen’s speech therapy site.
The Hart-Risley 30 Million Word Gap Study – 1995
September 30, 2008 at 10:53 am | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | 2 CommentsTags: 30 million word gap, hart and risley, Language Acquisition, study
After decades of collaborating to increase child language vocabulary, Betty Hart and Todd Risley spent 2 1/2 years intensely observing the language of 42 families throughout Kansas City. Specifically, they looked at household language use in three different settings: 1) professional families; 2) working class; 3) welfare families. Hart and Risley gathered an enormous amount of data during the study and subsequent longitudinal follow-ups to come up with an often cited 30 million word gap between the vocabularies of welfare and professional families by age three. This number came from the data that showed welfare children heard, on average, 616 words per hour, while children from professional families (essentially children with college educated parents) heard 2153 words per hour. The longitudinal research in the following years demonstrated a high correlation between vocabulary size at age three and language test scores at ages nine and ten in areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, and reading comprehension. This study was subsequently used to fuel the fire of arguments for early childhood programs such as Head Start.
For an excellent summary of this study, read this. A good comment on this study and poverty’s influence on education can be found here.
High Fives… Language Acquisition Studies – “Wugs”
September 28, 2008 at 2:14 pm | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | Leave a CommentTags: 30 million word gap, berko gleason, hart and risley, language acquisition study, studies, vocabulary, wugs
Over the next few days I will be describing some of what I feel are the language acquisition studies marked by their significance to both our current knowledge of language acquisition as well as historical impact upon subsequent research in the field. Without any adieu, and with no particular order, here they are.
image from (http://jean.berko.gleason.googlepages.com/home)
Jean Berko Gleason’s “Wugs” – 1958
Berko Gleason and colleagues presented pictures of imaginary creatures to children. The pictures were given labels such as “wug,” made up by the researchers. The children were then presented with varieties of the make believe creatures to test their ability to apply linguistic rules. The famous example is “This is a wug.” (1 wug) “What are these?” (More than one.) Very young children had difficulty, but children by age 4 or 5 could usually label the plural “wugs,” and most importantly – could do it without ever having heard the word used before. These sorts of pictures were also used to test other aspects of syntax acquisition, such as possessives and verbs. The nativists have long used this as evidence that language is not memorized. A shortened explanation of what I think is going on can be found here.
Continue reading High Fives… Language Acquisition Studies – “Wugs”…
What Happens When We Learn – And When We Don’t
September 17, 2008 at 11:13 am | In Language Acquisition, Language Disability | Leave a CommentTags: Language Acquisition, Language Development, language difficulty, learning language
A child with a deficit in a skill typically has not discovered the power of that skill. Thus remains the initial opening for novelty. I believe that children are often more open to suggestion than we often give them credit for. In other words, initially discussing the benefits of a skill can be an extremely effective introduction to the teaching of a skill. However, because complex language is not yet a favored method of input for children in language therapy, these explanations can be brief. Why are working on verbs? Because every sentence has them, and with them you can talk about what anything does. Why practice comparatives and superlatives? Because with them we can greatly increase our powers to describe. And it always helps to relate these introductions in personal ways. Statements such as, “With superlatives you can tell me that you are a faster runner than your brother.” tend to work well.
Continue reading What Happens When We Learn – And When We Don’t…
Does Thought Precede Language?
September 5, 2008 at 1:44 pm | In Extra Stuff, Language Acquisition | Leave a CommentTags: Bloom, language, Language Acquisition, Sapir Whorf, thought
In this article from Nature magazine, psychologist Paul Bloom discusses research suggesting that 
infants are born with the ability to distinguish phonology and certain aspects of meaning. He specifically discusses a study that suggested babies are born with the ability to distinguish between loose fits and tight fits. In English we lose this distinction, while in the Korean language the distinction is maintained with two separate verbs. This research (and research like it) involves showing 5 month olds things like a ring around a post that is initially tight, until they bore of it and look away. The researchers then show them the varying instances of the same or the converse – like a ring fitting loosely around a post. If the babies seem more interested in the contrast they are said to be innately predisposed, which is in fact what happens. For the study’s authors, Paul Bloom, and even St. Augustine, this kind of thing is considered evidence that we are all born with cognitive precursors to language – a variation of the famed Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
Read on for my take… Continue reading Does Thought Precede Language?…
Research Rehash… (1996)
August 21, 2008 at 11:13 am | In Language Acquisition, Research Rehash | Leave a CommentTags: acquire, babies, bates, elman, language, Language Acquisition, research
Babies can learn! Elizabeth Bates and Jeffrey Elman published results of their studies showing that eight month old infants were able to learn differences in syllables after two minute exposures. According to the article published in Science Magazine, the study “…contradicts the widespread belief that humans cannot and do not use generalized statistical procedures to acquire language.”
This and many similar studies indicate that infants may be born with an innate desire to learn language, rather than an innate language faculty. The article can be found here.
More on the Functional Units of Language
August 18, 2008 at 11:19 am | In Language Acquisition | 1 CommentTags: functional units, Language Acquisition, morphology, phonetics, semantics, syntax
In a previous post I briefly discussed how parts of language are used to accomplish specific things. These parts can then be combined to accomplish complex things. Here is a chart of a few of these specific parts and their functions.
Birds learn “language”
August 12, 2008 at 11:31 am | In Language Acquisition | Leave a CommentTags: Language Acquisition, Language Development, language disorders, research
Research conducted at Rutgers University has shown that Zebra finches rewire the “language” parts of their brains in response to being placed with different birds with different types of song. Scientists have known that birds learn their song similarly to how humans learn language – through hearing, imitation, and feedback. Their brains show similar plasticity with nerves involved in language learning. Specific nerves bundle together when learning specific songs, as birds learn to attend to specific notes. These nerves separate when the birds are placed in isolation. For more details, read the rest of the story here: Tuning Into a New Language on the Fly (Science Daily)
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