Child Development 131 (3):

Language and Learning

Spring 2002

Dr. Weissman

Exam 2 Study Guide

Exam 2 will be administered on Tuesday, May ^16th during regular class time. The exam will consist of a mix of fill-in, multiple choice, short essay, and true/false questions, and will be worth a total of 100 points. You only need to bring a writing utensil to class.

A few questions to which I would know the answers if I were you

1.          What is the controversy over the relationship between language and thought? Where do Piaget, Vygotsky, Chomsky, and Whorf each weigh-in in this debate?

2.          There are some developmental concepts such as Object Permanence, Causality, Means-end, and Play that are used in cognitive research. How are these concepts used to discuss or explain language acquisition and development? Be able to develop ORIGINAL examples of each.

3.          What is the role of perception in language development? What things should a child be able to do in order for speech to proceed at a “normal” rate?

4.          What is the controversy over the relationship between language and thought? Where do Piaget, Vygotsky, Chomsky, and Whorf each weigh-in in this debate?

5.          What is Mean Length Utterance (MLU)? How do we calculate MLU?

6.          Be aware of the major characteristics of language use/development in each of the Stages of MLU development (i.e., Brown’s Stages). What has Brown said about his 14 described morphemes? Throughout the Stages, how is children’s language about time and reference developing? What are the sentence types that children use? What are embedded phrases and clauses, and when do children begin to use them?

7.          What are the three hypothesis regarding concept development in language learning? Be able to develop an ORIGINAL example for each.

8.          What are underextensions? What are overextensions (all three types)? Be able to develop an ORIGINAL example for each.

9.          What is the conversational context? What is the role of the parent and child in the conversational context? What is a preschool monologue?

10.      What topic knowledge and skills does a 1-year-old have? What about a 2- to 3-year-old, a 3- to 4-year-old, and a 5-year-old?

11.      How do we know that 3-year-olds are taking into account what their listener may or may not know?

12.      What are narratives? What are they used for? What does the development of narratives look like (for a 2-year-old, for a 3-year-old, for a child 5+)?

13.      What is fast mapping and how does it work?

14.      What are relational terms? Why might children have a difficult time learning them?

15.      What are the major developmental themes in pronoun acquisition and use.

16.      Describe the strategies that preschoolers and toddlers use to figure out the meaning of a word? How do adults facilitate this early word/language learning? What is the role of society or culture?

17.      What is Bilingualism and what is the relationship between bilingualism and cognition?

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