scholarly journals Do children learn from their prediction mistakes? A registered report evaluating error-based theories of language acquisition

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 180877
Author(s):  
Judit Fazekas ◽  
Andrew Jessop ◽  
Julian Pine ◽  
Caroline Rowland
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Child Group ◽  
Learning Rates ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Enhanced Learning ◽  
Lasting Change ◽  
Central Claim

Error-based theories of language acquisition suggest that children, like adults, continuously make and evaluate predictions in order to reach an adult-like state of language use. However, while these theories have become extremely influential, their central claim—that unpredictable input leads to higher rates of lasting change in linguistic representations—has scarcely been tested. We designed a prime surprisal-based intervention study to assess this claim. As predicted, both 5- to 6-year-old children ( n = 72) and adults ( n = 72) showed a pre- to post-test shift towards producing the dative syntactic structure they were exposed to in surprising sentences. The effect was significant in both age groups together, and in the child group separately when participants with ceiling performance in the pre-test were excluded. Secondary predictions were not upheld: we found no verb-based learning effects and there was only reliable evidence for immediate prime surprisal effects in the adult, but not in the child group. To our knowledge, this is the first published study demonstrating enhanced learning rates for the same syntactic structure when it appeared in surprising as opposed to predictable contexts, thus providing crucial support for error-based theories of language acquisition.

scholarly journals Do children learn from their prediction mistakes? Evaluating error-based theories of language acquisition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Fazekas ◽  
Andrew Jessop ◽  
Julian Pine ◽  
Caroline F Rowland
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Child Group ◽  
Learning Rates ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Enhanced Learning ◽  
Lasting Change ◽  
Central Claim

Error-based theories of language acquisition suggest that children, like adults, continuously make and evaluate predictions in order to reach an adult-like state of language use. However, while these theories have become extremely influential, their central claim - that unpredictable input leads to higher rates of lasting change in linguistic representations – has scarcely been tested. We designed a prime surprisal-based intervention study to assess this claim. As predicted, both 5- to 6-year-old children (n=72) and adults (n=72) showed a pre- to post-test shift towards producing the dative syntactic structure they were exposed to in surprising sentences. The effect was significant in both age groups together, and in the child group separately when participants with ceiling performance in the pre-test were excluded. Secondary predictions were not upheld: we found no verb-based learning effects and there was only reliable evidence for immediate prime surprisal effects in the adult, but not in the child group. To our knowledge this is the first published study demonstrating enhanced learning rates for the same syntactic structure when it appeared in surprising as opposed to predictable contexts, thus providing crucial support for error-based theories of language acquisition.

Infant-Directed Speech Effects in Adult Artificial Grammar Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Sára Lukics ◽  
Ágnes Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Artificial Grammar ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Learning Rates

First language acquisition is facilitated by several characteristics of infant-directed speech, but we know little about their relative contribution to learning different aspects of language. We investigated infant-directed speech effects on the acquisition of a linear artificial grammar in two experiments. We examined the effect of incremental presentation of strings (starting small) and prosody (comparing monotonous, arbitrary and phrase prosody). Presenting shorter strings before longer ones led to higher learning rates compared to random presentation. Prosody marking phrases had a similar effect, yet, prosody without marking syntactic units did not facilitate learning. These studies were the first to test the starting small effect with a linear artificial grammar, and also the first to investigate the combined effect of starting small and prosody. Our results suggest that starting small and prosody facilitate the extraction of regularities from artificial linguistic stimuli, indicating they may play an important role in natural language acquisition.

The influence of discourse context on children's provision of auxiliary BE

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA L. THEAKSTON ◽  
ELENA V. M. LIEVEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Prior Use ◽  
Single Child ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Children's Speech

ABSTRACTChildren pass through a stage in development when they produce utterances that contain auxiliary BE (he's playing) and utterances where auxiliary BE is omitted (he playing). One explanation that has been put forward to explain this phenomenon is the presence of questions in the input that model S-V word order (Theakston, Lieven & Tomasello, 2003). The current paper reports two studies that investigate the role of the input in children's use and non-use of auxiliary BE in declaratives. In Study 1, 96 children aged from 2 ; 5 to 2 ; 10 were exposed to known and novel verbs modelled in questions only or declaratives only. In Study 2, naturalistic data from a dense database from a single child between the ages of 2 ; 8 to 3 ; 2 were examined to investigate the influence of (1) declaratives and questions in the input in prior discourse, and (2) the child's immediately previous use of declaratives where auxiliary BE was produced or omitted, on his subsequent use or non-use of auxiliary BE. The results show that in both the experimental and naturalistic contexts, the presence of questions in the input resulted in lower levels of auxiliary provision in the children's speech than in utterances following declaratives in the input. In addition, the children's prior use or non-use of auxiliary BE influenced subsequent use. The findings are discussed in the context of usage-based theories of language acquisition and the role of the language children hear in their developing linguistic representations.

scholarly journals An Alternative Approach to Linguistic Theories of Language Acquisition: Focus on The Cognitive Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1488-1522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hosni M. El-Dali
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Comprehension Skill ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Faculty Of Education

Although linguistics provides a useful perspective on L2 learning, it must be remembered that linguistics is only one of the disciplines that SLA research can draw on.  With this in mind, this study provides a thumbnail sketch of some currently prevalent theories which try to explain how foreign languages are learned.  It, also, spells out some alternatives to the linguistics-based approach to foreign language acquisition research.  More specifically, some limitations of linguistic theories in addressing the role of mental processes in L2 acquisition are identified and recent theoretical developments in cognitive psychology that can be applied to L2 acquisition are outlined. Moreover, this study reports the results of an empirical investigation carried out by the author on 200 Egyptian University students enrolled in the department of English, Faculty of education, Minufiya University. They were divided into two groups according to their academic status: 1) Beginners (N=100); and 2) Advanced learners (N=100). It attempts to answer three interrelated questions: 1) to what extent does the advanced students’ performance in listening tasks differ from that of the beginning students before and after training? 2) how can two types of training (intensive listening vs. improving learners’ linguistic skills) affect L2 learners’ listening comprehension skill?, and 3) what does students’ performance, before and after the training, tell us about their abilities to transfer?  The instruments used are (1) pre-test; (2) classroom instruction sessions; (3) post-test, and (4) interviews. The data analysis has a quantitative and a qualitative, interpretative part.  Results are obtained and discussed, and pedagogical applications are suggested.

Language processing and language acquisition through the lens of Relational Morphology

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-232
Author(s):  
Ray Jackendoff ◽  
Jenny Audring
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Memory Network ◽  
Complex Words

This chapter asks what is happening to linguistic representations during language use, and how representations are formed in the course of language acquisition. It is shown how Relational Morphology’s theory of representations can be directly embedded into models of processing and acquisition. Central is that the lexicon, complete with schemas and relational links, constitutes the long-term memory network that supports language production and comprehension. The chapter first discusses processing: the nature of working memory; promiscuous (opportunistic) processing; spreading activation; priming; probabilistic parsing; the balance between storage and computation in recognizing morphologically complex words; and the role of relational links and schemas in word retrieval. It then turns to acquisition, which is to be thought of as adding nodes and relational links to the lexical network. The general approach is based on the Propose but Verify procedure of Trueswell et al. (2013), plus conservative generalization, as in usage-based approaches.

scholarly journals Strategy mediation in working memory training in younger and older adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 1206-1226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Forsberg ◽  
Daniel Fellman ◽  
Matti Laine ◽  
Wendy Johnson ◽  
Robert H Logie
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Memory Training ◽  
Training Strategy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Post Test

Working memory (WM) training with the N-Back task has been argued to improve cognitive capacity and general cognitive abilities (the Capacity Hypothesis of training), although several studies have shown little or no evidence for such improvements beyond tasks that are very similar to the trained task. Laine et al. demonstrated that instructing young adult participants to use a specific visualisation strategy for N-back training resulted in clear, generalised benefits from only 30 min of training (Strategy Mediation Hypothesis of training). Here, we report a systematic replication and extension of the Laine et al. study, by administering 60 younger and 60 older participants a set of WM tasks before and after a 30-min N-back training session. Half the participants were instructed to use a visualisation strategy, the others received no instruction. The pre-post test battery encompassed a criterion task (digit N-back), two untrained tasks N-back tasks (letters and colours), and three structurally different WM tasks. The instructed visualisation strategy significantly boosted at least some measures of N-back performance in participants of both age groups, although the strategy generally appeared more difficult to implement and less beneficial for older adults. However, the strategy did not improve performance on structurally different WM tasks. We also found significant associations between N-back performance and the type and level of detail of self-generated strategies in the uninstructed participants, as well as age group differences in reported strategy types. WM performance appeared to partly reflect the application of strategies, and Strategy Mediation should be considered to understand the mechanisms of WM training. Claims of efficient training should demonstrate useful improvement beyond task-specific strategies.

scholarly journals The effects of Processing Instruction on the acquisition of English simple past tense: Age and cognitive task demands

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Benati ◽  
Tanja Angelovska
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Processing Instruction ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Post Test

AbstractThe present study investigates the effects of Processing Instruction on two different age groups and the role that cognitive task demands might play in the results generated by Processing Instruction. This study includes school-age children and adult native speakers of German learning English as a foreign language – a language combination not previously investigated within the Processing Instruction and individual differences research paradigm. The present study investigates directly whether two different age groups will benefit equally from Processing Instruction in altering their reliance on lexical temporal indicators and redirecting their attention to verb forms on Processing Instruction activities with different cognitive demands. The grammatical feature chosen for this study is the English past simple tense marking tested on both interpretation and production measures. The results from this study provide further evidence that the Processing Instruction is an effective instructional treatment in helping school-age children and adult L2 learners to make accurate form-meaning connections. The results from the first sentence-level interpretation task and the production task showed that Processing Instruction has positive and equal effects on both age groups (school-age learners and adults). The positive effects of instruction were maintained over the delayed post-test for both age groups who made similar gains on the immediate post-test. The results from the second (cognitively more complex) sentence-level interpretation task indicated that the adults made greater gains than school-age learners. However, both groups retained the positive effects of instruction over time. The difference in gains between the two age groups on the second sentence-level interpretation task can be explained in terms of cognitive processing load.

Learning to parse and its implications for language acquisition

2007 ◽  
pp. 634-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Trueswell ◽  
Lila R. Gleitman
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Syntactic Ambiguity ◽  
Adult Listener ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Time Reading ◽  
Theory Of Language

This article describes what is known about the adult end-state, namely, that the adult listener recovers the syntactic structure of an utterance in real-time via interactive probabilistic parsing procedures. It examines evidence indicating that similar mechanisms are at work quite early during language learning, such that infants and toddlers attempt to parse the speech stream probabilistically. In the case of learning, though, the parsing is in aid of discovering relevant lower-level linguistic formatives such as syllables and words. Experimental observations about child sentence-processing abilities are still quite sparse, owing in large part to the difficulty in applying adult experimental procedures to child participants; reaction time, reading, and linguistic judgement methods have all have been attempted with children. The article discusses real-time sentence processing in adults, experimental exploration of child sentence processing, eye movements during listening and the kindergarten-path effect, verb biases in syntactic ambiguity resolution, prosody and lexical biases in child parsing, parsing development in a head-final language, and the place of comprehension in a theory of language acquisition.

Contemporary tutorial call

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-65
Author(s):  
Jarrad R. Merlo ◽  
Paul A. Gruba
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
University Students ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The State ◽  
Teaching Presence ◽  
Video Tutorials ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Impact

Despite an increased emphasis on form-focused instruction (FFI), the use of the computer as a grammar tutor has remained largelyunexamined for nearly two decades. With new technologies at hand, there is a need to take a fresh look at online grammar tutors andlink designs more strongly to contemporary second language acquisition (SLA) principles and the concept of a teaching presence. Theaim of this study, therefore, is to investigate the potential of using a purpose-built digital video series as a virtual grammartutor. To achieve this aim, we used a pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test to evaluate the impact of a purpose-built grammar video on 62 EFL university students. The results of the study demonstrate that purpose-built video has strong potential for use as a virtual grammar tutor. Consequently, it may be possible to improve the state of Tutorial CALL from a drill-based approach to one that is more substantive through the development of a series of step-based video tutorials that tutor, allow for the practice of and evaluate second language (L2) grammar skills.

scholarly journals Breast Health Educational Interventions

AAOHN Journal ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 460-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Thomas ◽  
Lynnette Leeseberg Stamler ◽  
Kathryn D. Lafreniere ◽  
Tabitha D. Delahunt
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Educational Interventions ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Breast Health ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Group A ◽  
Self Examination

Health education programs supported by women's groups or workplaces have been successful in reaching large populations and changing intentions to perform breast health behaviors. This study examined the responses women working in the automotive industry had to two health education interventions, mailed pamphlets, and a combination of mailed material and classes at the worksite compared to a control group. A quasi-experimental design was used. Of the 948 women completing the pre-test, 437 also completed the post-test and were highly representative of the initial sample. The findings suggest that although the mailed information produced some change in practices and intentions, the classes in combination with the mailed pamphlets produced greater change. In addition, confidence in breast self examination as a method of detecting an existing breast lump increased from pre-test to post-test across all age groups. The reported influences on the women's decisions related to breast health varied across the life span. The results of this study can be used to support the development of effective health promotion programs for use at workplaces to increase the likelihood of women engaging in healthy breast practices.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document