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UTS Psycolinguistic (Febry Rotama Silaban)
UTS Psycolinguistic (Febry Rotama Silaban)
Psycholinguistic is combination of two variable that are linguistic and psychology. Is also
call conses to two factors, internal factor (linguistic) speech, word, lexical, phonology, and so
on. And external factor (psychology), human behavior. Therefore in micro it discuss about the
language, and the macro aspect talk about language and the connection with external factor
like psychology, sociology and so on.
Psycholinguistic is language activities
an utterance or written depend on context. The meaning will be different in different
context
In complete sentence is not a problem. Ambiguity meaning: It need a context to
understand a certain utterance. Ex. Red zone district means danger zone or postulate
place / has some meaning depend on the circumstance.
How if a person have bilingual language. In human brain has a certain place (cortex) to
place a language, a cortex a language. If in human brain has a stimulus (certain
perception/ comprehension) toward a language, it will make them understand what other
speak because he / she has conception in their mind. Therefore it need as much as
stimulus first before he / she understand what other said. If what he / she hear is to much
something new it causes difficulties to understand the language / utterance.
2. What other subjects includes in the discussion of psycolinguistics? Explain the relationship of
these subjects with psycolinguistics!
Phonetics and phonology are concerned with the study of speech sounds.
Within psycholinguistics, research focuses on how the brain processes and
understands these sounds.
Syntax
Semantics
Pragmatics
Theories
One of the most famous psycholinguists is Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believed that
humans have an innate Universal Grammar, an abstract concept containing the underpinnings
for grammatical rules in all languages. This view emphasizes the point that children acquiring
a language have a vast search space to explore among possible human grammars, yet
somehow settle on the language(s) spoken or signed in the community of speakers. This view
remains controversial. Psychology pioneer Sigmund Freud wrote much on the influence
between psychological and emotional states, particularly from the unconscious and language.
Among his theories is that which developed into the notion of the Freudian slip. Much of his
exploration of the topic can be found in his work. How are infants able to learn language?
Almost all healthy human infants acquire language readily in the first few years of life. This is
true across cultures and societies. In addition, it is much more difficult for adults to acquire
second languages than it is for infants to learn their first language (bilingual infants are able to
learn both of their native languages easily). Thus, sensitive periods exists during which
language is able to be learned readily. A great deal of research in psycholinguistics focuses on
how this ability develops and diminishes over time. It also seems to be the case that the more
languages one knows, the easier it is to learn more.
Before advanced medical imaging, most of our knowledge came from observing
unfortunate patients with injuries to particular brain parts. One could relate the approximate
region of damage to their specific symptoms. Broca’s and Wernicke’s observations are well-
known examples. Other knowledge was inferred from brain-stimulation studies. Weak
electrical stimulation of the brain while a patient is awake is sometimes performed in patients
undergoing surgery to remove a lesion such as a tumour. The stimulation causes that part of
the brain to stop working for a few seconds, which can enable the surgeon to identify areas of
critically important function to avoid damaging during surgery.
In the mid-20th century, this helped neurosurgeons discover more about the
localisation of language function in the brain. It was clearly demonstrated that while most
people have language originating on the left side of their brain, some could have language
originating on the right.
Towards the later part of the 20th century, if a surgeon needed to find out which side
of your brain was responsible for language – so he didn’t do any damage – he would put to
sleep one side of your brain with an anaesthetic. The doctor would then ask you a series of
questions, determining your language side from your ability or inability to answer them. This
invasive test (which is less often used today due to the availability of functional brain
imaging) is known as the Wada test, named after Juhn Wada, who first described it just after
the second world war.
4. What is language disorder? Explain the types and the examples of each type!
Language disorders can make it very challenging for children to understand what
other people are saying to them. This can affect how the child learns and socializes in school
and with other children. This is a huge concern for a lot of parents. Language disorders are a
very common childhood conditions and there are many ways they can be treated.
The first step is to learn more about language disorders, start reading on key
indicators of language disorders and look for suggestions on how you can get help. Some
common indications that your child might have a language disorder are:
Your child’s vocabulary is very basic and short, grammatically incorrect and
incomplete
If you notice that when his peers chat and tell jokes and your child is having
trouble following the conversation or misses the joke
Your child may also only speak in two-word sentences and have trouble
answering even the simplest questions.
It’s important that you distinguish the difference between a language disorder and a
hearing issue or speech disorder and miss diagnose your child. Children with language
disorder usually don’t have trouble hearing or pronouncing the words, instead their struggle is
applying the rules of language, like grammar. To understand how to treat your child, you need
to know what type of language disorder he has.
If you are a concerned parent that might be possibly dealing with a child who has a
language disorder the best thing you can do is to help and understand what language disorder
your child has so your child can learn to manage it and make the most of his strengths and
talents.
5. What is the advantage of learning psycolinguistics for you as a student of the program os
master degree in English Education?
Psycholinguistics gets to the heart of what we do with language. It provides insight
into how we connect our own speech and writing; how we understand that of others; into how
we store and use vocabulary; into how we manage to reach language in the first place; and
into how language can make us fail. Then we can conclude that psycholinguistics is the study
of psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend,
and produce language.
Psycholinguistics is cross-disciplinary study in nature with an overlapping area that
includes phonetics, discourse analysis, language pathology, neuroscience, computer
modeling, and language teaching pedagogy (Field 2004: ix).