Developmental Psychology: Language Development
11th /12th Grade
Objectives: Students will acquire an understanding of the
formation of language through a short activity and apply how language develops
form young children.
Background required: None
Materials needed: colored shapes pre-cut enough for several groups to have two sets or so,
Bell Ringer: Language Development Game: Students
learn to acquire language without and prior language aside from the ability to
produce phonemes. This game is meant to be a fun and engaging introduction. It
gives students an active role in their learning and it gives the instructor
many opportunities in future class sessions to refer back to their experience.
The basic idea is create an
imaginary word where you students are in a community without language. Of
course, an entire imaginary world would take so long to devise a language for,
it's not at all feasible during a single class. So we simplify the word, by cutting
out many different shapes in different colors and sizes. To demonstrate the way
language works, you should stand at the front of the room and make a picture
with your shapes on the board. As you do this a volunteer student is at the
opposite wall of the classroom with an identical collection of shapes. The
student doesn't turn around but he tries to make the same picture as you. The
only way he can do this is by listening to you say what you're doing. You speak
in English and you point out to the students how complicated it is: you need to
talk about shapes and colors and relative positions and so on. We couldn't even
do it perfectly and we're using English.
The students are given the exact
same goal except they may not use any English! All they can use are
phonemes (explain what they are and give a preview to infants development of
phonemes)! To make the task a more constrained, the class will break into small
groups and each will be given a unique list of phonemes. They are reminded that
they're not allowed to use any English so they can't simply say,
"Ugoo" means "red."
Students are given two packets of
shapes, and list of their groups’ phonemes. A list of all English phonemes and
sample groups are at the end. They can do whatever they want so long as they
don't speak a natural language and they only use their phonemes. Call
"time in" to start these rules and "time out" for our brief
pauses for mini lectures.
Your students will probably look at
you completely dumbfounded! Some groups will probably figure out how to start
but if not you will have to give them their first word. Simple walk up to a
group, look at their phoneme list, combine two phonemes, point to a single
shape they have and say the phoneme combination you made. That gets a group
started because they invariably take your word as the name of the shape. Of
course, you never gave them that interpretation so why did they think that?
This is actually your first "time-out" for a mini-lecture/discussion
of the "whole-object constraint."
Whole
Object Constraint
Place any object that is mainly a
single color on your table (exp: a pencil or the overhead projector) and call a
time out. With everyone's attention point to the object and say something
arbitrary (exp: goobar). Ask, "by a show of hands, how many of you thought
"goobar" means [pencil - or your object] (most hands go up) Ask,
"by a show of hanfs, how many of you though "goobar" means
[yellow - or metal - or some prominent quality of your object]. (few hands go
us). Ask the rhetorical question, "Why do you think you naturally believed
the word means the object and not, for example, the object's qualities."
Developmental psychologists have noticed children make the same assumptions you
did when they're first learning words. It's called a "whole object
constraint" because without any special information we think a new word
means the whole object and not its part or qualities. When you started playing
the game, did you use the whole object constraint? (short discussion) Call time
in.
Language
Explosion
As children get close to two years
of age, the start to learn words incredibly fast: about 10 to 20 new words a
week! Many of these words are names for things like nouns. When you were
playing the game, did you have a language explosion? Did you have a time when you
suddenly acquired learned many more words? (short discussion)
Over-Extension
& Under-extension
When children learn words, it can be
really difficult figuring out just what a word means. For example, a child
might use the word "bear" only to talk about her favorite teddy bear.
But lots of teddy-bears could be called "bears" so what she did is an
"underextension." Another example might be a child who uses the word
"car" to describe his family's car, all the other cars, trucks,
bicylces, and even tricylcles!" What he did is anm
"overestension." Do you find yourself making over-extensions or
underextensions as you figured out your language?"
Pragmatics
Write the following sentence on the
board before calling time out: "The spy sees the police officer with the
gun." Ask students, "By a show of hands, how may of you think the
police officer has the gun?" (most hands go up) Now write directly
underneath your sentence, the following sentence: "The spy sees the police
officer with the binoculars." Asks students, "By a show of hands, how
many of you think the spy has the binoculars." (most hands go up). Then
look puzzled and ask, "By a show of hands, how many of you think the
police officer has the binoculars." (few hands go up) Say something like,
"Okay, I'm confused. This sentence (point to top sentence) has exactly the
same grammar and almost all of the same words as this sentence (point to bottom
setence). How come most of you felt the prepositional phrase "with the
gun" means the police officer has the gun BUT you also felt the
prepositional phrase "with the binoculars" means the spy has the
binoculars?" (draw out from the class how they're using background
knowledge. This will happen very naturally because you'll get responses like
"because cops carry guns" and "the spy is seeing and binoculars
are used to see far away." Give the following explanation and ask the
following question: "So you used your background knowledge about police
officers, spies, guns, and binoculars to understand the sentences. How we understand
language by using the context and our background knowledge is called
"pragmatics." Have you used any pragmatics so far while you were
playing the game?" (short discussion) Call time in.
Nativism
(As you finish up the game) How was
playing the game? (they'll probably tell you it was challenging). Say something
like, "Isn't it amazing that a two year old has a vocabulary of several
hundred words and even a simple grammar. At the same time she can't even tie
her own shoes!!! How do children learn language so rapidly? Many developmental
psychologists who study language take a nativist perspective. Remember learning
the basic developmental theories the first week of this class including
nativism, the idea that children start life with basic concepts. One nativist
idea of Noam Chomsky's is children have a module, a special part of the mind,
that's entirely devoted to learning and using language.
Allot some time at the end of class
for each group to show their langauge to the entire class. For each group, half
of the students are speakers at one board and the other half are listeners at
the other half. I've seen students have a wide range of responses. Those who
weren't trying very much during the game just kind of fumble through this
activity or find 'short-cuts' that ignore the spirit of the game. Other
students who were really trying have gotten really excited when they see how
much they were able to communicate. My personal feeling is to let this activity
be self-reinforcing where the whole class indicates informally how they feel
about each group's performance. For example, I always express how impressed I
am with their pictures and when they take those 'short-cuts' I just say,
"lame!!!"
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Sample Groups:
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Reference: