Discussion Board Question #6   

Part of acquiring language is learning words – thousands and thousands of words. The vocabulary of an average English-speaking college student has been estimated at 150,000 words. The average first-grader has a vocabulary of more than 14,000 words. How do we accomplish this remarkable ability? What factors lead to the development of our first words and to a lexicon of hundreds and thousands of words? How are words born? Chapter 5 (pp. 137-160) introduced the many theories for how children learn their first words and the meaning of these words. In Deb Roy’s Ted Talk, he introduced you to his approach for studying language development. In this Video – The Birth of a Word (by Deb Roy), Dr. Roy presents evidence to suggest that the child’s developing lexicon is influenced by a number of social and contextual factors.

In your opinion and based on evidence, do you agree with Deb Roy’s mechanisms underlying the birth of a word? Provide 2 reasons for why you agree or disagree with his theory. In your answer, please describe the mechanism(s) he believes are important in children’s lexical development (you may want to talk about feedback loops, scaffolding and visual context). You may also want to incorporate into your answer the advantages and/or limitations of his study of language development (e.g., his particular methods of studying language development).You must use at least 2 references for your opinion. References for this response can come from your textbook, journal articles, chapters in edited books, and books. DO NOT USE WEBSITES AS EVIDENCE FOR THIS RESPONSE.