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Early Language Learning by Ear or by Eye PaTTAN 2016 Training [email protected] Deborah Chen Pichler 1 Learning objecAves • Describe the early major milestones for English and ASL • IdenAfy paIern-seeking abiliAes that infants use to boot-strap themselves into language learning; • Describe benefits of early sign language exposure for deaf babies' future linguisAc development, based on research; • Re-examine claims in the popular media about speeding up or enhancing language learning for young children by using baby signs, avoiding bilingualism, etc.; • DisAnguish between various types of bilingualism and explain whether bilingualism hinders or helps language development, especially with a cochlear implant. Deborah Chen Pichler 2 Phonology Phonology focuses on the form of a word. Phonological rules dictate how small pieces combine to form a word. HS Loc k æ t Ori Mvt Deborah Chen Pichler 3 Lexicon Lexicon refers to vocabulary. Lexical learning involves mapping a word form onto a meaning. mapping © 2014, www.Lifeprint.com. Used by permission. Deborah Chen Pichler 4 Morphology Morphology focuses on processes of word formaAon. Morphemes are small units that contribute meaning to a word (e.g. affixes). Musician root affix root affix Shroyer, E. H. (1982). Signs of the Times. Gallaudet U. Press. Deborah Chen Pichler 5 Syntax Syntax focuses on structure of sentences. SyntacAc rules tell us how words combine to form phrases and sentences. S V O Deborah Chen Pichler 6 Discourse/PragmaAcs Discourse and pragmaAcs focus on language above the sentence level and in contexts, e.g. in conversaAons or narraAves. She? Them? She wasn’t as school yesterday because she was sick, so I played with them instead. Deborah Chen Pichler 7 Modality effects • How much is first language acquisiAon affected by the modality (signed or spoken) of the language? • Some potenAal areas where we might see modality effects: – Phonology (different channels) – Lexicon (high level of iconicity) – Morphology and syntax (high level of iconicity) Deborah Chen Pichler 8 Iconicity • DefiniAons vary, but generally, iconic forms are moAvated in some way: they look like what they mean. • Note that not all iconic signs are transparent; ohen we only noAce iconicity once we learn what a sign means. Can you guess what these BSL signs mean? From Perniss, P., Thompson, R., & Vigliocco, G. (2010). CRY AIRPLANE BATTERY AFTERNOON Deborah Chen Pichler 9 Input • Input is the language that a child is exposed to from the environment. It can include both direct and indirect input. • Normal (opAmal) language acquisiAon requires input that is: – fully accessible – early (generally before the age of 4-6) – natural language Deborah Chen Pichler 10 What do you think? Kahoot poll When do most babies (hearing) begin the process of language development? A. In the womb (before birth). B. At birth. C. Around 24 hours aher birth. D. Around a week aher birth. Use your iDevice to go to kahoot.it and enter the Game PIN for this poll! Deborah Chen Pichler 11 Rough Milestones for L1 AcquisiAon Signed or spoken birth ~1–3mo ~4–8mo ~12mo ~24mo Deborah Chen Pichler 12 GENERAL OBSERVATION #1 Babies are paIern seekers. They are sensiAve to and keep track of linguisAc paIerns in the input they see or hear. Deborah Chen Pichler 13 Infants prefer language paIerns over complex non-language paIerns speech white noise human singing instrumental music spoken words sine-wave speech tokens ASL pantomime Natural language is both complex and linguis9c; other non-language paIerns are just complex. Deborah Chen Pichler 14 Newborn language discriminaAon Mehler et al. 1988, inter alia √ French vs. Russian √ English vs. Japanese √ English vs. Italian x English vs. Dutch French infants (a few days to a few months old) can disAnguish French from other languages, or even two foreign languages, but not English vs. Dutch. Deborah Chen Pichler 15 Babies become increasingly language- specific and less language-general DiscriminaAon of sounds not relevant to babies’ target language diminishes by ~8-10 months… …just as their knowledge of linguisAc properAes of their language becomes more sophisAcated (Patricia Kuhl). Does this paIern also apply to sign languages? Deborah Chen Pichler 16 Krentz & Corina (2008) Study 1: Do 6- and 10-month old hearing infants prefer: (1) ASL (complex +linguisAc) or (2) pantomime (complex)? 6-month olds: Looked significantly longer at ASL than at pantomime. 10-month olds: No significant preference for either sAmuli. Deborah Chen Pichler 17 Krentz & Corina (2008) Study 2: Do 6-month old hearing infants prefer light movement paIern of: (1) ASL or (2) pantomime? 6-month olds: Less interested overall than in Study 1 Looked longer at pantomime light paIern Deborah Chen Pichler 18 Krentz & Corina (2008) • What does Study 1 tell us? – 10-month olds may be losing their sensiAvity to visual linguisAc paIerns (no sign language exposure to sAmulate it). – OR 10-month olds are more socio-cogniAvely sophisAcated and understand that both mime and ASL are aIempts to communicate. • What does Study 2 tell us? – Important linguisAc paIerns of ASL are encoded in more than just movement and locaAon; HS and facial expression also important Deborah Chen Pichler 19 Krentz & Corina (2008) Take-home message “…preference for language in early infancy is not speech specific, but rather reflects an interest in human language, spoken or signed.” Even without exposure to sign languages, human babies seem to recognize in ASL the same kind of structured paIerns found in spoken language. All babies are sensiAve to these amodal paIerns. David Corina Ursula Krentz Deborah Chen Pichler 20 SegmenAng the speech stream Hearing babies use various linguisAc cues to break the speech stream into smaller chunks. Don’t break my glasses, Lea! English does not start words with clusters t+b or k+m. Child’s name or (phonotacAc cues) other familiar words (lexical cues) IntonaAon drop and pause at end of phrase (prosodic cues) Deborah Chen Pichler 21 Cues for segmenAng sign stream? • What kind of cues to sign-exposed babies use to break up the sign stream into smaller chunks? • Good candidates for cues: – Lexical cues (familiar signs like MOM, DAD) – Prosodic cues (rhythm, pauses, nonmanuals) – PhonotacAc cues (rules about what combinaAons are allowed in a single sign) Deborah Chen Pichler 22 Fenlon et al. (2007) Deaf and hearing adults • Deaf and hearing adults in UK watched BSL and Swedish SL narraAves, instructed to press a key whenever they saw a sentence boundary. • Both groups used prosodic cues (eg.by head movements, holds) to determine sentence boundaries see also Mesh (2012) • Prosodic cues were sufficient even when subjects: – were watching an unfamiliar SL – did not know any SL at all (no grammaAcal cues) • Nonsigners not gesturally naïve because these visual prosodic cues also exist in gesture Deborah Chen Pichler 23 Brentari et al. (2010) • QuesAons – Are both signers and nonsigners able to use prosodic cues to idenAfy phrase boundaries and word boundaries? – How much of this ability is due to experience with gesture and/or sign, and how much is there from birth? • Do we learn sensiAvity to visual prosodic paIerns from gesture, or are we born with it? Deborah Chen Pichler 24 Brentari et al. (2010) • Showed ASL sentences in child-directed sign to Deaf signing and hearing nonsigning adults, and hearing nonsigning babies at 9 months old – CDS amplifies prosodic paIerns – 9 month-olds hearing babies have beIer vision than younger babies • If babies are familiarized with a string of signs grouped together as an intonaAonal phrase, will they be able to recognize that same string when it is embedded in a different sentence? Deborah Chen Pichler 25 Brentari et al. (2010) Familiariza<on phrase: Baby sees a string of words signed as a single prosodic phrase, over an over GREEN VEGETABLES RABBITS EAT THEM GREEN VEGETABLES RABBITS EAT THEM GREEN VEGETABLES RABBITS EAT THEM Deborah Chen Pichler 26 Brentari et al. (2010) Experimental phrase: Baby sees a two signed statements. Both include the familiar string of words, but only one groups the words together as a prosodic phrase. FOOD WITH COLOR MANY FATHER’S GARDEN HAVE MANY ANIMALS PREFER. GREEN GREEN VEGETABLES. RABBITS VEGETABLES RABBITS EAT THEM. EAT THEM TASTE-SO-GOOD. TASTE-SO-GOOD. WOW! WOW! Deborah Chen Pichler 27 Brentari et al. (2010) • Result: Babies looked longer at the uIerance that kept their familiarized phrase together as a single prosodic unit. • Conclusions: – Babies are already sensiAve to cues relevant to segmenAng sign languages, even without much exposure to gesture (or sign). – This sensiAvity persists at 9-months of age even without sign exposure. Why? Lack of compeAng grammaAcal system? Deborah Chen Pichler 28 Pu|ng it all together Take-home messages Results suggest that prosody is a major tool for idenAfying boundaries in sign language, even more important than lexical or grammaAcal knowledge (or exposure to sign language!). Jordan Fenlon “…sensiAvity to the cues relevant to sign language …is not language- specific [and] may persist unAl infants are 9 months old when infants are not in a signing environment.” Diane Brentari Deborah Chen Pichler 29 But what about deaf babies? • Next step: What about deaf or sign-exposed babies? How sensiAve are they to prosodic paIerns in their naAve sign language? a foreign sign language? First we need to know how prosodic paIerns differ across natural sign languages. Can you idenAfy different sign languages by their rhythms and intonaAon? Let me know by taking the fun surveys at hIp://signlanguagesurveys.weebly.com/ Shane Blau, Gallaudet PhD student Deborah Chen Pichler 30 GENERAL OBSERVATION #2 The major developmental milestones for L1 ASL and English are the strikingly similar1, although some modality effects exist. 1 Assuming opAmal input. Deborah Chen Pichler 31 Some paIerns in L1 sign phonology Babies exposed to ASL produce manual babbling, comparable to vocal babbling.