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9780262631907

Methods for Assessing Children's Syntax

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9780262631907

  • ISBN10:

    0262631903

  • Edition: Reprint
  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1998-07-31
  • Publisher: Bradford Books

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Summary

The study of child language and, in particular, child syntax is a growing area of linguistic research, yet methodological issues often take a back seat to the findings and conclusions of specific studies in the field. This book is designed in part as a handbook to assist students and researchers in the choice and use of methods for investigating children's grammar. For example, a method (or combination of methods) can be chosen based on what is measured and who the target subject is. In addition to the selection of methods, there are also pointers for designing and conducting experimental studies and for evaluating research. Methods for Assessing Children's Syntaxcombines the best features of approaches developed in experimental psychology and linguistics that ground the study of language within the study of human cognition. The first three parts focus on specific methods, divided according to the type of data collected: production, comprehension, and judgment. Chapters in the fourth part take up general methodological considerations that arise regardless of which method is used. All of the methods described can be modified to meet the requirements of a specific study. Contributors: Helen Smith Cairns. Katherine Demuth. Jill de Villiers. Suzanne Flynn. Claire Foley. LouAnn Gerken. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff. Helen Goodluck. Peter Gordon. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek. Jennifer Ryan Hsu. Louis Michael Hsu. Celia Jakubowicz. Laurence B. Leonard. Barbara Lust. Dana McDaniel. Cecile McKee. Thomas Roeper. Michele E. Shady. Karin Stromswold. Rosalind Thornton. Language, Speech, and Communication series

Table of Contents

Contributors
Preface
Production Data
Collecting Spontaneous Production Data
Introduction
Syntactic Phenomena Investigated
Pro-Drop and Parameter Setting
Functional Categories and Syntactic Structure
Passives, Causatives, and Grammatical Relations
Morphological Paradigms and Learning
Spontaneous Production Data Collection Procedures
Number of Children to Include in a Study
Age Range of the Children and Longitudinal Scope of a Study
Selecting Children for a Study
Frequency and Duration of Recording Sessions
The Recording Situation
Recording Equipment
Transcribing and Tagging Spontaneous Production Data
Getting Ready to Transcribe
The Transcription Process
Tagging (Coding) the Corpus
Disadvantages of Collecting and Using Spontaneous Production Data
Advantages of Collecting and Using Spontaneous Production Data
Conclusion
Note Analyzing Children's Spontaneous Speech
General Issues in Spontaneous Speech Studies
Introduction
Inherent Advantages and Limitations of Spontaneous Speech Studies
Stating the Acquisitional Predictions Entailed by a Theory
Setting Criteria to Be Used in a Study
Testing the Statistical Significance of Acquisitional Findings
Ruling Out Plausible Alternative Accounts
Error Analyses
Errors of Omission and Errors of Commition
Predicted and Observed Errors
When Is an Error Worth Explaining? The Denominator Problem
Statistical Analyses of Error Data
Ruling Out Plausible Alternative Accounts
Patterns of Acquisition
Measures of Acquisition
Testing Acquisitional Ordering and Clustering Predictions
Ruling Out Plausible Alternative Accounts
Summary
Notes What Children Know about What They Say: Elicited Imitation as a Research Method for Assess...
Introduction
Linguistics as a Science
Imitation
Rationale for Elicited Imitation as a Research Method for the Assessment of Syntactic Knowledg...
General Rationale
The Nature of Elicited Imitation Data: Grammatical Factors
History of the Method
Anecdotal Origins
Experimental Development of Elicited Imitation
Overview of the Experimental Method
Aspects of Syntax That Have Been Investigated with Elicited Imitation
Constituent Structure and Phrase Structure
Linear Order
Anaphora
Interaction of Phrase Structure and Anaphora
Strengths of Elicited Imitation
Converging Evidence
Disambiguating Comprehension Data
Linguistic Precision and Control
Statistical Analyses and Scientific Control
Power and Validity
Applicability
Calibration with Other Methods
Advantages of Elicited Imitation
Natural Speech Analyses
Elicited Production
Disadvantages of Elicited Imitation
Complexity of Design Refinement
Analysis of Converging Evidence across Tasks
Relation Between Elicited Imitation Behavior and Competence
Criticisms of Elicited Imitation
Description of the Elicited Imitation Procedure
Description of the Task
Analysis
Instructions for Applying Elicited Imitation as an Experimental Method
Training Subjects
Pitfalls to Avoid in Design
Pitfalls to Avoid in Administration
Pitfalls to Avoid in Transcription
Pitfalls to Avoid in Scoring
Conclusions and Discussion
Notes Elicited Production
Properties of Elicited Production
The Elicited Production Task
Experimental Preliminaries
Felicity Conditions
A Constraint
Wanna Contraction
The Experimental Design
Data Analysis
Limitations of Elicited Production as a Tool for Investigating Constraints
Long-Distance Questions
Experimental Technique
Potential Ask/Tell Problems
Findings
Conclusion
Notes
Comprehension Data
The Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm: A Window onto Emerging Language Comprehensio...
Reasons for Studying Language Comprehension
The Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm: Rationale and Description
Rationale
Description
Construction of the Video Events
Trials and Intertrial Intervals
Linguistic Stimuli
Independent, Dependent, and Counterbalanced Variables
Additional Experimental Controls
Apparatus and Lighting
Subject Solicitation
Procedure
Subject Loss
Studies Using the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm
Summary
Note The Picture Selection Task
Uses of the Picture Selection Task
Assessing Children's Semantic Interpretation of Morphosyntactie Contrasts
Assessing the Effects of Morphosyntactic Grammaticality on Children's Sentence Comprehension
Evaluation of the Picture Selection Task
General Considerations When Using the Picture Selection Task
Comparisons of the Two Versions of the Picture Selection Task
Comparison of Picture Selection with Other Comprehension Tasks
Comparison of Picture Selection with Judgment Tasks
Comparison of Picture Selection with Production Tasks
Notes The Act-Out Task
Introduction: The Procedure and Its Uses
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Act-Out Task
Six Advantages
Six Disadvantages
Summary
Parameters of Design
Syntax, Semantics, and Discourse
Act-Out versus Other Tasks
Conclusion
Notes Questions after Stories: On Supplying Context and Eliminating It as a Variable
Introduction
Putting It into Practice: History of the Procedure
Assumptions and Controls
Constructing an Experiment
An Example
More General Procedures
When Is the Method Most Useful?
Pitfalls
Conclusion
Notes On-Line Methods
Introduction
Overview
Neuroimaging
Reaction-Time Measures
Monitoring Tasks
Probe Latency Tasks
Priming Tasks
A Recipe for the Cross-Modal Priming Task
A Subject's Tasks
Experimental Design
Materials
Procedures
Analyses
Hardware and Software
Conclusion
Notes
Judgment Data
The Truth-Value Judgment Task
The Nature and History of the Truth-Value Judgment Task
Design Issues
The Role of Context and Plausible Denial
Choosing a Truth-Value Judgment Task
Construction of the Truth-Value Judgment Task
Training
Context/Preamble
Problems and Pitfalls
Design Issues and Data Analysis
Appropriate Uses for the Truth-Value Judgment Task
Note Eliciting Judgments of Grammaticality and Reference
Background
Procedure
Training and Practice Session
Pretest
Eliciting Judgments of Grammaticality
Eliciting Judgments of Reference
Materials
Subjects
General Considerations
Scoring
Advantages and Disadvantages
Disadvantages
Advantages
Conclusion
Note
General Issues
Crosslinguistic Investigation
Introduction
A Historical Outline
The Theory of Principles and Parameters
Paradigms for Crosslinguistic Studies
Research across Two Languages That Do Not Differ with Respect to the Property Being Investiga...
Research across Two Languages That Differ with Respect to the Property Being Investigated
Requirements
Linguistic Materials
Test Sentences
Filler Sentences
Pretest Sentences
The Experimental List
The Experimental Task
Procedure
Subjects
Scoring and Analysis of Data
Final Thoughts
Notes Assessing Morphosyntax in Clinical Settings
Introduction
Some Characteristics of Children with Language Disorders
Heterogeneity within Clinical Subgroups
Processing Limitations
Gaps between World Knowledge and Language Ability
Inactive and Passive Conversationalists
Examining the Morphosyntax of Children with Language Disorders
Tasks Used in Assessing Morphosyntax in Children with Language Disorders
Comparisons with Normally Developing Children
Interpreting Differences between Normally Developing Children and Children with Language Disord...
The Crosslinguistic Study of Children with Language Disorders
Summary Issues in Designing Research and Evaluating Data Pertaining to Children's Syntactic Knowl...
Introduction
Research Designs: Objectives, Terminology, Classification, and Data Analysis
Between-Subjects Designs
Using Response Patterns to Define Independent Variables in Between-Subjects Designs
Limitations of Designs with Nonmanipulable Independent Variables
Data Analysis Issues
Descriptive versus Inferential Data Analysis Methods
Testing Contrasts and Controlling Type I Error Rates
Parametric versus Nonparametric Analysis-of-Variance Models for a Design with One Between-S...Chi-Square Test of Independence Binomial Test
Methods of Increasing the Statistical Power of Tests of Significance
Within-Subjects Designs: Repeated Measure Designs
Nominal versus Metric Independent Variables Category 1.Category 2
Some Data Analysis Issues in Repeated Measures Designs
Multifactor Designs
Terminology
Interactions
Estimation and Testing of Interaction Effects
Ordinal and Disordinal Interactions
Higher-Order Interactions
Interaction Effects in Mixed Designs: Possible Research Questions and Design Issues
Reliability, Validity of Causal Inferences, and Generalizability
Reliability Issues
Internal and External Validity Issues
Internal Validity
External Validity
Conclusions
Note
References
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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