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CHAPTER 9: LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Chapter Outline

Please note that much of this information is quoted from the text.
I. WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
A. Defining Language
• Language is a form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a
system of symbols.
• Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences
using a finite set of words and rules and is a basic characteristic of human language.
B. Language’s Rule Systems
1. Phonology: The sound system of language. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a
language.
2. Morphology: Word formation based on meaning. A morpheme is the smallest unit of sound
which carries meaning in a language.
3. Syntax: The way words are combined for acceptable phrases and sentences.
4. Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences.
5. Pragmatics: The use of appropriate conversation and knowledge underlying the use of
language in context.

II. HOW LANGUAGE DEVELOPS


A. Infancy
1. Babbling and Other Vocalizations
• Early vocalizations are to practice making sounds, to communicate, and to attract
attention.
• A universal pattern is observed: newborn cries, cooing at 2 months, babbling by 6
months (deaf babies babble with their hands and fingers), and gestures by 8–12 months.
2. Gestures
• Pointing is considered by language experts as an important index of the social aspects
of language.
• The absence of pointing is a significant indicator of problems in the infant’s
communication system.
3. Recognizing Language Sounds
• Infants can recognize all phonemes of all languages up to about 6 months of age. After
this time, infants become more adept at recognizing the sounds of their native language
and lose the ability to recognize sounds of other languages that are not important in their
native language.
• Infants must identify individual words from the nonstop stream of sound that makes up
ordinary speech. Finding the boundaries between words is a difficult task.
4. First Words
• Between about 5 to 12 months of age, infants often indicate their first understanding of
words.
• The infant’s first spoken word usually occurs between 10 to 15 months of age.
• Long before babies say their first words, they have been communicating with their
parents, often by gesturing and using their own special sounds.
• First words include names of important people, familiar animals, vehicles, toys, body
parts, clothes, familiar items, and greetings.
• Single words are often used to express various intentions.

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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
•The first words of infants can vary across languages.
•Receptive vocabulary refers to the words an individual understands. Receptive
vocabulary precedes and exceeds spoken vocabulary (words that the child uses).
• The rapid increase in vocabulary that begins at approximately 19 months is called the
vocabulary spurt.
• Cross-linguistic differences in word learning are apparent, with infants learning an Asian
language acquiring more verbs earlier in their development than do children learning
English.
• Some children use a referential style, others an expressive style, in learning words.
• Overextension is the tendency to apply a word to objects that are not appropriate for the
word’s meaning.
• Underextension is the tendency to apply a word too narrowly for the meanings of words.
5. Two-Word Utterances
• By 18 to 24 months of age, two-word utterances begin to occur, which rely heavily on
gesture, tone, and context in order to provide meaning:
— Identification: “See doggie.”
— Location: “Book there.”
— Repetition: “More milk.”
— Nonexistence: “All gone thing.”
— Possession: “My candy.”
— Attribution: “Big car.”
— Agent-action: “Mama walk.”
— Question: “Where ball?”
• Telegraphic speech is the use of short and precise words to communicate and is
characteristic of young children’s two- or three-word utterances.
B. Early Childhood
• Language develops rapidly in early childhood.
• Between 2 and 3 years of age, children begin the transition from saying simple sentences
that express a single proposition to saying complex sentences.
• As young children learn the special features of their own language, there are extensive
regularities in how they acquire that specific language.
• Some children develop language problems, including speech and hearing problems.
1. Understanding Phonology and Morphology
• During early childhood, most children gradually become more sensitive to the sounds of
spoken words and become increasingly capable of producing all the sounds of their
language.
• By the time children move beyond two-word utterances, they demonstrate a knowledge
of morphology rules.
• Use of plural and possessive demonstrates knowledge of morphological rules.
• Jean Berko’s research using sentence completion of a missing word relating to a story of
creatures called “Wugs” also provides evidence of morphological rule use.
2. Changes in Syntax and Semantics
• Preschool children learn and apply rules of syntax.
• Gains in semantics also characterize early childhood.
• Vocabulary development is dramatic.
• Some experts have estimated that between 18 months and 6 years of age, young children
learn about one new word every waking hour.
• The speaking vocabulary of a child entering first grade is approximately 14,000 words.
• One way children may increase their vocabulary so quickly is through fast mapping.

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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
•Research in Life-Span Development: Family Environment and Young Children’s
Language Development
• Socioeconomic status has been linked with how much parents talk to their children
and with young children’s vocabulary.
• Other research has linked how much mothers speak to their infants and the infants’
vocabularies.
• Maternal language and literacy skills are positively related to children’s vocabulary
development.
• Mothers who frequently use pointing gestures have children with greater vocabulary.
3. Advances in Pragmatics
• Pragmatics or rules of conversation also show great improvement. Indeed, by 4 or 5 years
of age, children can suit their speech style to specific situations (e.g., they speak
differently to younger and older children).
C. Middle and Late Childhood—
• Children gain new skills as they enter school that include increasingly using language to
talk about things that are not physically present, learning what a word is, and learning
how to recognize and talk about sounds.
• It is important for children to learn the alphabetic principle (that the letters of the
alphabet represents sounds of the language) is important for learning to read and right.
1. Vocabulary, Grammar, and Metalinguistic Awareness
• The process of categorizing becomes easier as children increase their vocabulary.
• Vocabulary increases to about 40,000 words by 11 years of age.
• Children make similar advances in grammar.
• Elementary school children, due to advances in logical reasoning and analytical
skills, can now understand comparatives (e.g., shorter, deeper) and subjunctives (e.g.,
“If I were president,…”).
• The ability to understand complex grammar increases across the elementary school years.
• Children learn to use language in a more connected way (producing descriptions,
definitions, and narratives), which allows for connected discourse.
• Children must be able to do these things orally before they can deal with written
language.
• Metalinguistic awareness is a term that refers to knowledge of language, cognition
about language.
• Metalinguistic awareness improves over the elementary-school years; children define
words and learn how to use language appropriately.
• Children also make progress in understanding how to use language in culturally
appropriate ways – pragmatics.
• A research study found that low SES Spanish-speaking families had infants who
experienced more child-directed speech were better at processing words in real time and
had larger vocabularies at 2 years of age
2. Reading
• Before learning to read, children learn to use language to talk about things that are not
present; they learn what a word is; and they learn how to recognize sounds and talk about
them.
• The larger a child’s vocabulary, the easier it is for him/her to learn to read.
• Vocabulary development plays an important role in reading comprehension.
• The whole language approach stresses that reading instruction should parallel children’s
natural language learning. Reading materials should be whole and meaningful.

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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
•The phonics approach emphasizes that reading instruction should focus on phonetics,
and its basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Early reading instructions
should involve simplified materials.
• Researchers have found strong evidence that direct instruction in phonics is a key aspect
of learning to read.
3. Writing
• Early scribbling in early childhood is a precursor for writing.
• Most 4-year-olds can print their first name, and most 5-year-olds can copy several short
words, although some letter reversal may still be evident. As they begin to write, children
often invent spelling of words.
• Advances in language and cognitive development provide the underpinnings for
improved writing. Providing many opportunities for writing is helpful.
• There is growing concern over the writing ability of youth and young adults.
• As with reading, teachers play a critical role in students’ development of writing skills.
4. Bilingualism and Second Language Learning
• Sensitive periods for learning a second language likely vary across different language
systems.
• Children’s ability to pronounce words with a native-like accent in a second language
typically decreases with age, with an especially sharp drop occurring after the age of
about 10 to 12.
• Some aspects of children’s ability to learn a second language are transferred more easily
to the second language than others.
• Students in the United States fall behind students in other countries when it comes to
learning a second language.
• Bilingualism—the ability to speak two languages—is associated with cognitive
development.
• Subtractive bilingualism is the term used when a person learns a second language and
ceases to use their native language.
• ELLs have been taught in one of two main ways: (1) instruction in English only, or (2) a
dual-language (used to be called bilingual) approach that involves instruction in their
home language and English
D. Adolescence
• Adolescents are generally more sophisticated in their language abilities, including:
— Metaphor: An implied comparison between two ideas that is conveyed by the abstract
meaning contained in the words used to make the comparison.
— Satire: Refers to a literary work in which irony, derision, or wit are used to expose folly
or wickedness.
— Young adolescents often speak a dialect (language distinguished by its vocabulary,
grammar, or pronunciation) with their peers, characterized by jargon and slang.
— Nicknames that are satirical and derisive also characterize the dialect of young
adolescents.
E. Adulthood and Aging
• Language abilities are thought to be maintained throughout adulthood.
• A distinct personal linguistic style is part of one’s special identity.
• Vocabulary can continue to increase throughout most of the adult years.
• Decrements may appear in late adulthood.
• Because of a decline in memory skills, older adults may have difficulty in retrieving
words from long-term memory. This often involves the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
• Older adults report that in less than ideal listening conditions they can have difficulty in
understanding speech.
• Some aspects of phonological skills of older adults are different than those of younger
adults.
• In general, though, most language skills decline little among older adults if they are
healthy.
• Researchers have found conflicting information about changes in discourse with aging.
• Nonlanguage factors, such as processing speed, may be responsible for some of the decline in
language skills in late adulthood.
• Alzheimer disease can affect language skills.

III. BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES


A. Biological Influences
• Evidence of biological influence is that children all over the world reach language milestones
at about the same time developmentally and in the same order despite the vast variation in the
language input they receive. The fact that such a difficult feat is done so quickly also points
to biology.
• Evolution and the Brain’s Role in Language:
• In evolutionary time, language is a recent acquisition. The brain, nervous system, and
vocal apparatus of our predecessors changed over hundreds of thousands of years.
• There is evidence that the brain contains particular regions that are predisposed to be used
for language, mainly in the left hemisphere.
• Broca’s area is an area in the left frontal lobe of the brain involved in producing
words.
• Wernicke’s area is another area of the left hemisphere involved in language
comprehension. Individuals with damage to Wernicke’s area often babble words in a
meaningless way.
• Damage to either of these areas produces types of aphasia, which is a loss or
impairment of language processing.
• Chomsky’s Language Acquisition Device:
• The language acquisition device (LAD) is a theoretical construct developed by Noam
Chomsky, which proposes that a biological endowment enables children to detect certain
language categories, such as phonology, syntax, and semantics.
• Chomsky’s LAD is a theoretical construct, not a physical part of the brain.
B. Environmental Influences
• Behaviorists view language as a behavior that is learned like any other behavior with the use
of reinforcement for correct responses and productions. There is no real support for this
position.
• Children are typically immersed in language through their social environment.
• Michael Tomasello stresses that children are intensely interested in their social world and that
early in their development they can understand the intentions of other people.
• Tomasello’s interaction view of language emphasizes that children learn language in specific
contexts. Through joint attention and shared intentions, children are able to use their social
skills to acquire language early in life.
• Child-directed speech is often used by parents and other adults when they talk to young
children. It has a higher-than-normal pitch and involves using simple words and sentences
• A recent study of low SES Spanish-speaking families that found infants who experienced
more child-directed speech were better at processing words in real time and had larger
vocabularies at 2 years of age.

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
• Adults use other strategies that may enhance language acquisition:
• Recasting: rephrasing something the child has said in a different way, perhaps turning it
into a question.
• Expanding: restating in a linguistically sophisticated form what a child has said.
• Labeling: identifying the names of objects, which children are asked over and over—
“the great word game.”
• Applications in Life-Span Development: How Parents Can Facilitate Infants’ and Toddlers’
Language Development
• For Infants:
• Be an active conversational partner
• Talk as if the infant understands what you are saying
• Use a language style with which you feel comfortable
• For Toddlers:
• Continue to be an active conversational partner
• Remember to listen
• Use a language style with which you are comfortable, but consider ways of
expanding your child’s language abilities and horizons
• Adjust to your child’s idiosyncrasies instead of working against them.
• Avoid sexual stereotypes
• Resist making normative comparisons
C. An Interactionist View of Language
• An interactionist view of language emphasizes the contributions of both biology and
experience in language development.
• The interaction of biology and experience can be seen in the variations in the acquisition of
language.
• Jerome Bruner developed the concept of a language acquisition support system (LASS) to
describe how parents structure and support the child’s language development.
• While most children acquire their native language without explicit teaching, caregivers can
greatly facilitate a child’s language learning.

Learning Goals

1. Define language and describe its rule systems.


• What is language?
• What are language’s five main rule systems?

2. Describe how language develops through the life span.


• What are some key milestones of language development during infancy?
• How do language skills change during early childhood?
• How does language develop in middle and late childhood?
• How does language develop in adolescence?
• How do language skills change during adulthood?

3. Discuss the biological and environmental contributions to language skills.


• What are the biological foundations of language?
• What are the environmental aspects of language?
• How does an interactionist view describe language?

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Key Terms

aphasia morphology
Broca’s area phonics approach
child-directed speech phonology
dialect pragmatics
expanding recasting
fast mapping satire
infinite generativity semantics
labeling syntax
language telegraphic speech
language acquisition device (LAD) Wernicke’s area
metalinguistic awareness whole-language approach
metaphor

Key People

Naomi Baron Betty Hart


Jean Berko Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Roger Brown Janellen Huttenlocher
Noam Chomsky Patricia Kuhl
Ellen Galinsky Todd Risley
Roberta Golinkoff Michael Tomasello
Kenji Hakuta

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Lecture Suggestions
Lecture Suggestion 1: Environmental Influences on Literacy

This lecture examines research findings related to environmental influences on children’s literacy.
Santrock addresses the controversy between the phonics method and the whole-word method to teaching
reading. While these methods obviously factor into children’s learning to read, early experiences also
influence this ability. Considerable research has examined adults’ conversations with children and the
influence of parent-child interactions on literacy and language development (Crain-Thoreson & Dale,
1992; Huttenlocher, 1997; Snow, 1993).

• Reading development is influenced by early literacy activities such as “reading” picture books and
storytelling. Parents who ask their child to retell a story are facilitating the young child’s ability to
read. Snow found that children’s vocabulary is enhanced by exposure to adults who use relatively
uncommon words in everyday conversations with the child. Family contexts, especially adult-child
conversations, increase the likelihood of the child developing a larger vocabulary and ability to
recognize the words in print, thus providing a strong foundation for literacy.
• Crain-Thoreson and Dale found that parental instruction in letter naming, sounds, and frequency of
story reading was predictive of reading precocity at age 4 (knowledge of print conventions, invented
spelling, and awareness of phonology).
• Huttenlocher reports that mothers influence children’s vocabulary and grammatical structure as well.
Children of “chatty” mothers averaged 131 more words than children of less talkative mothers by 20
months (by 24 months the difference was 295 words). There are differences in complexity of sentence
structure relative to children’s environments as well. Children who are exposed to their mother’s use
of complex sentences (dependent clauses, such as “When…” or “because…”) are much more likely to
use complex sentences. These early experiences impact a child’s ability to read.

Sources:
Crain-Thoreson & Dale, P. S. (1992). Do early talkers become early readers? Linguistic precocity,
preschool language, and emergent literacy. Developmental Psychology, 28, 421–429.
Huttenlocher, J. (1997). In S. Begley, How to build a baby’s brain. Newsweek, spring/summer, 28–32.
Snow, C. E. (1993). Families as social contexts for literacy development. New Directions in Child
Development (61, 11–25). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lecture Suggestion 2: Infant Speech Perception—


Use It or Lose It?

Create a lecture on the speech perception abilities in young infants and the contribution of biology and
experience to this ability. Discuss research evidence of categorical perception (the ability to discriminate
when two sounds represent two different phonemes, and when they lie within the same phonemic
category). Young infants have the ability to discriminate speech contrasts that are found in languages they
have not heard (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988), which suggests that categorical perception is an
innate ability and universal among infants.

The biological component of speech perception is complemented by the experiential component.


Experience plays an important role in the development of speech perception and language. The lack of
exposure to various sounds thwarts speech perception abilities. The Japanese language does not have a
phonemic distinction between r and l sounds. Your students may well have noticed that native Japanese
speakers have trouble pronouncing and discriminating between r and l sounds. Interestingly, Japanese

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
infants have no trouble discriminating between these sounds (Eimas, 1975). Research suggests that
infants gradually lose their ability to discriminate sound contrasts that they are not exposed to (Werker &
Lalonde, 1988). Consider showing the Development video from The Mind series because it demonstrates
Werker’s research.

Sources:
Best, C. T., McRoberts, G. W., & Sithole, N. M. (1988). Examination of perceptual reorganization for
nonnative speech contrast: Zula click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 345–360.
Eimas, P. D. (1975). Auditory and phonetic coding of the cues for speech: Discrimination of the r-l
distinction by young infants. Perception and Psychophysics, 18, 341–347.
Werker, J. F., & Lalonde, C. E. (1988). Cross-language speech perception: Initial capabilities and
developmental change. Developmental Psychology, 24, 672–683.

Lecture Suggestion 3: Auditory Skills and Language Development

This lecture extension highlights how the sensation of hearing affects the development of language in
children. It should come as no surprise that language development is intimately linked to auditory
perception. Let’s face it, how can one develop language, or vocabulary for that matter, when one is
unable to hear speech? This becomes an issue for young children who experience multiple ear infections
in early childhood. Language development is delayed if the auditory system is blocked and hearing is
muted or nonexistent. Recent research suggests that it is not only the sensation of hearing that is
important for language development, but also one’s ability to process that auditory information.
Specifically, the ability to process multiple stimuli in a rapid and successive fashion is believed to be a
cornerstone for language acquisition (Benasich, Thomas, Choudhury, & Leppaenen, 2002). Further,
individuals with developmental language disorders demonstrate deficits in rapid processing of both verbal
and nonverbal information.

Source:
Benasich, A. A., Thomas, J. J., Choudhury, N., & Leppaenen, P. H. T. (2002). The importance of rapid
auditory processing abilities to early language development: Evidence from converging
methodologies. Developmental Psychobiology, 40(3), 278–292.

Lecture Suggestion 4: Birth Order and Language Development

There is some evidence that suggests that language development in firstborn children is more advanced
than that of laterborn children. One study found that firstborn children had more advanced lexical and
grammatical development, whereas laterborn children had more advanced conversational skills (Hoff-
Ginsberg, 1998).

We know from Santrock’s text that the verbal communication that parents have with their children affects
the children’s language development. Thus, it is not surprising that birth order may affect language
development given that parents most likely communicate with firstborn and laterborn children in different
ways. Indeed, research suggests that mothers use different categories of language (e.g., social-regulative
versus metalingual language) when interacting with one child than when interacting with two children
(Oshima-Takane & Robbins, 2003). Further, this research also found that older siblings also use different
categories of speech when interacting with both their mother and younger sibling and when interacting
with their younger sibling alone.

Although there is some evidence that the language development of firstborn children is more advanced
than that of laterborn children, not all of the research supports this claim. A relatively recent study found

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
that the language competence of firstborn children was more advanced than that of laterborn children only
in maternal report, not in measures of children’s actual speech or in experimenter assessments (Bornstein,
Leach, & Haynes, 2004). Thus, the relationship between birth order and language development is quite
complex. However, it certainly is mediated by parental communication and how that differs for children
who are firstborn as opposed to laterborn.

Sources:
Bornstein, M. H., Leach, D. B., & Haynes, O. M. (2004). Vocabulary competence in first- and
secondborn siblings of the same chronological age. Journal of Child Language, 31(4), 855–873.
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1998). The relation of birth order and socioeconomic status to children’s language
experience and language development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19(4), 603–629.
Oshima-Takane, Y., & Robbins, M. (2003). Linguistic environment of secondborn children. First
Language, 23, 21–40.

Lecture Suggestion 5: Does Feedback Facilitate Language Learning?

One study examined whether providing feedback would facilitate the immediate and delayed learning of
foreign language vocabulary (Pashler, Cepeda, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2005). Participants in this study were
given a Luganda word with its English translation. Luganda words were chosen for this study because
these words are fairly easy to pronounce, but are unfamiliar to American participants. Participants were
presented with the word pairs in the following way: the Luganda word was printed in a text box, and the
English translation was printed in a box immediately below it. To assess learning, the Luganda word was
presented in a text box, and the text box below was blank so that the participant could write in the English
translation.

This experiment took place online, and participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions.
After viewing the word pairs two times, participants were shown the Luganda word and the blank text
box and were asked to type in the correct English translation. Following the participants’ response, they
either (1) immediately moved on to the next word, (2) moved on to the next word after a 5-second delay,
(3) saw the word correct/incorrect for 5 seconds, (4) saw the correct answer for 5 seconds, or (5) these
participants were not tested on the words following their presentation. One week later, participants were
sent an email asking them to log on to complete the test again (obviously group 5 didn’t complete it the
first time). No feedback was given after this test session.

Only the correct-answer feedback group (group 4) showed significant improvement from the first to the
second testing session. These results suggest that providing feedback about correct answers may facilitate
language learning.

Source:
Pashler, H., Cepeda, N. J., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2005). When does feedback facilitate learning of
words? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31(1), 3–8.

Lecture Suggestion 6: Ape Talk

The following is a passage from “Ape Talk—From Gua to Nim Chimpsky” that outlines the history of
attempts to teach apes to talk and sketches the controversy resulting from these attempts:

It is the early 1930s. A 7-month-old chimpanzee named Gua has been adopted by humans
(Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933). Gua’s adopters want to rear her alongside their 10-month-old son,
Donald. Gua was treated much the way we rear human infants today—her adopters dressed her,

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
talked with her, and played with her. Nine months after she was adopted, the project was
discontinued because the parents feared that Gua was slowing down Donald’s progress.
About twenty years later, another chimpanzee was adopted by human beings (Hayes &
Hayes, 1951). Viki, as the chimp was called, was only a few days old at the time. The goal was
straightforward: teach Viki to speak. Eventually she was taught to say “Mama,” but only with
painstaking effort. Day after day, week after week, the parents sat with Viki and shaped her
mouth to make the desired sounds. She ultimately learned three other words—papa, cup, and
up—but she never learned the meanings of these words, and her speech was not clear.
Approximately twenty years later, another chimpanzee named Washoe was adopted when she
was about 10 months old (Gardner & Gardner, 1971). Recognizing that the earlier experiments
with chimps had not demonstrated that apes have language, the trainers tried to teach Washoe the
American Sign Language, which is the sign language of the deaf. Daily routine events, such as
meals and washing, household chores, play with toys, and car rides to interesting places, provided
many opportunities for the use of sign language. In two years, Washoe learned 38 different signs
and by the age of 5 she had a vocabulary of 160 signs. Washoe learned how to put signs together
in novel ways, such as “you drink” and “you me tickle.”
Yet another way to teach language to chimpanzees exists. The Premacks (Premack &
Premack, 1972) constructed a set of plastic shapes that symbolized different objects and were
able to teach the meanings of the shapes to a 6-year-old chimpanzee, Sarah. Sarah was able to
respond correctly using such abstract symbols as “same as” or “different from.” For example, she
could tell you that “banana is yellow” is the same as “yellow color of banana.” Sarah eventually
was able to “name” objects; respond “yes,” “no,” “same as,” and “different from”; and tell you
about certain events by using symbols (such as putting a banana on a tray). Did Sarah learn a
generative language capable of productivity? Did the signs Washoe learned have an underlying
system of language rules?
Herbert Terrace (1979) doubts that these apes have been taught language. Terrace was part of
a research project designed to teach language to an ape by the name of Nim Chimpsky (named
after famous linguist Noam Chomsky). Initially, Terrace was optimistic about Nim’s ability to
use language as human beings use it, but after further evaluation, he concluded that Nim really
did not have language in the sense that human beings do. Terrace says that apes do not
spontaneously expand on a trainer’s statements as people do; instead, the apes just imitate their
trainer. Terrace also believes that apes do not understand what they are saying when they speak;
rather they are responding to cues from the trainer that they are not aware of. The Gardners take
exception to Terrace’s conclusions (Gardner & Gardner, 1986). They point out that chimpanzees
use inflections in sign language to refer to various actions, people, and places. They also cite
recent evidence that the infant chimp Loulis learned over 50 signs from his adopted mother
Washoe and other chimpanzees who used sign language.
The ape language controversy goes on. It does seem that chimpanzees can learn to use signs
to communicate meanings which has been the boundary for language. Whether the language of
chimpanzees possesses all of the characteristics of human language, such as phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, is still being argued (Maratsos, 1983;
Rumbaugh, 1988).

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Classroom Activities
Classroom Activity 1: Do Animals Have
the Ability to Communicate?

This activity affords students an opportunity to discuss the utility of animal research in the study of
language development. Begin this discussion by describing research studies such as Washoe (the first ape
to be taught sign language) (Gardner & Gardner, 1971) and Koko the gorilla (Patterson, 1978). Following
is some information about Gua, who was the first chimpanzee whom psychologists raised as if human.

In 1933, Winthrop Niles Kellogg, his wife, and their son Donald (10 months old) engaged in an
experiment in which Donald was raised with a chimpanzee (Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933). Robert Yerkes,
Yale’s ape expert, arranged for the loan of Gua, a 7-month-old female chimpanzee. For nine months, the
Kelloggs and Gua lived in a bungalow near Yale Anthropoid Experiment State in Florida. Both Donald
and Gua were cuddled, fed, dressed, and tested. The Kelloggs reported in The Ape and the Child that Gua
learned to walk upright more quickly than did Donald. Gua liked to pull at hangings, such as curtains,
tablecloths, and skirts. Gua also recognized people better than Donald, by the smell of their chests and
armpits, and did better recognizing by clothes than by faces. Donald, on the other hand, recognized faces.
Although Donald liked perfume, Gua did not. Both reacted the same to sweet, salty, and bitter substances,
except that Gua was more likely to enjoy sour things. Gua recognized herself in a mirror before Donald
did, and she was also the first to become interested in picture books; however, Gua did not learn to speak
human words. At the end of the study, the Kelloggs concluded that when Gua was treated as a human
child, she behaved like a human child in all ways that her body and brain structure allowed. Donald and
his parents went on to Indiana University; Gua was returned to Yerkes, where she lived in a cage and was
part of experiments.

Have students discuss their opinions regarding the value of language learning studies with primates. What
have researchers learned from animal studies about the development or cause of language? Do they have
any ethical concerns? If they think that animal studies are beneficial for the understanding of language
development, they should describe how they think this type of research should be conducted.

Sources:
Gardner, B. T., & Gardner, R. A. (1971). Two-way communication with an infant chimpanzee. In A. M.
Schrier and F. Stollnitz (Eds.), Behavior of nonhuman primates. New York: Academic Press.
Gerow, J. (1988). Time retrospective: Psychology 1923–1988. Time. 16–17.
Kellogg, W. N., & Kellogg, I. A. (1933). The ape and the child. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Patterson, F. G. (1978). The gestures of a gorilla: Language acquisition in another pongid. Brain and
Language, 5, 72–97.

Classroom Activity 2: Which Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg?

This activity highlights some of the caveats of correlational research. First, share the following research
findings with the class. Vigil, Hodges, and Klee (2005) compared the communication of parents with
toddlers who have a language delay with that of parents of toddlers without such a delay. The results
indicated that both sets of parents produced the same amount of linguistic input, but the type of input
differed. Parents of toddlers with normal language development used more responses, expansions, and
self-directed speech than parents of toddlers with language delays. Ask students to explain this
relationship. The discussion should reveal that it is possible that the differences in parental
communication may contribute to language development, but that it is equally plausible that parental

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
communication is a function of toddler language. So which came first—parental communication or
language delay?

Students could then be broken down into groups and asked to design an experimental study that examines
the direction of cause.

Source:
Vigil, D. C., Hodges, J., & Klee, T. (2005). Quantity and quality of parental language input to late-
talking toddlers during play. Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 21(2), 107–122.

Classroom Activity 3: Language Development and Multiple Births

Research suggests that there are increased levels of language impairment (e.g., Mogford-Bevan, 2000)
and delay (see Kwong & Nicoladis, 2005; McMahon & Dodd, 1997) in multiple-birth offspring. Further,
it is possible that the extent of the impairment is more significant as the number of children born (e.g.,
quadruplets vs. triplets vs. twins vs. singletons) increases (see McMahon & Dodd). Ask students to use
the three perspectives on language development discussed in the text to formulate explanations for this
finding.

Discussion should reveal that these language delays are most likely due to both genetic and environmental
factors. See Mogford-Bevan (2000) for a discussion of both genetic and environmental factors that can
affect development.

Students should keep in mind that language delay is not a necessary characteristic of multiple births.
Kwong and Nicoladis (2005) found no differences in the linguistic environment of a set of triplets and
their singleton cousin. Further, the triplets’ language skills were in the normal range of development by
the end of the study.

Sources:
Kwong, T., & Nicoladis, E. (2005). Talk to me: Parental linguistic practices may hold the key to reducing
incidence of language impairment and delay among multiple-birth children. Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology & Audiology, 29(1), 6–13.
McMahon, S., & Dodd, B. (1997). A comparison of the expressive communication skills of triplet, twin,
and singleton children. European Journal of Disorders of Communication, 32(3), 328–345.
Mogford-Bevan, K. (2000). Developmental language impairments with complex origins: Learning from
twins and multiple birth children. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 52, 74–82.

Classroom Activity 4: Supporting Arguments for


Three Views of Language Development

This activity gives students an opportunity to further their understanding of the three major views of
language development.

• First, have them break into small groups and assign them one of the three positions (biological,
behavioral, and interactionalist). As a group, they should identify the basis of language development
that their theoretical perspective assumes and generate evidence that supports that view using their
textbooks.
• Second, select one group from each perspective to present their theoretical position on language
development to the class. You can have the groups debate their positions or merely present the
arguments and evidence.

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
• Third, have the students who are not presenting determine which position makes the most sense to
them. If they cannot come to a consensus, or if they dispute all three of the theoretical claims, have
them generate a new perspective on the development of language. The new perspective can include
components of the three perspectives that were provided.

Logistics:
• Group size: Small groups (2 to 4 students) and full class discussion
• Approximate time: Small group (15 minutes) and full class discussion (30 minutes)

Classroom Activity 5: Observation of Parent-Infant Interaction

With this activity, students will assess the communication patterns of infants and the interactional
synchrony between caregiver and infant. If possible, videotape at least two infants between the ages of 9
and 18 months interacting with their caregiver in face-to-face play for approximately 10 minutes. Have
students identify the infant’s vocal and nonverbal communication behaviors. Depending on the
videotaped segment and the age of the infant, students should notice eye contact, cooing, pointing,
babbling, crying, laughing, facial expressions, intonation patterns, and so on. Next, the students should
focus on what the caregiver is doing to elicit communication from the infant.

• Instructions for Students:


1. List all of the infant’s behaviors that you consider to be communication.
2. List all of the caregiver’s behaviors that you think are eliciting communication from the infant.
3. What sounds did the infant produce? Were all of his or her sounds part of his or her native
language?
4. What babbling patterns were used? Did the infant have the same intonation patterns as his or her
parents’ native language?
5. Did it appear that the caregiver and the infant were having a conversation? Why or why not?

• Use in the Classroom: Discuss the students’ observations and highlight the interactional dance that
occurs and the many different ways that young infants communicate with their world. Note whether
the students considered all behavior to be communication, or whether they discriminated between
communicative and noncommunicative behavior.

Logistics:
• Materials: Two videotapes of parent-infant interaction
• Group size: Full class discussion
• Approximate time: Full class (25 minutes per videotape)

Source:
King, M. B., & Clark, D. E. (1989). Instructor’s manual for Santrock and Yussen’s child development: An
introduction, 4th ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Communications.

Classroom Activity 6: Testing Language Development

This activity asks students to relate their development to the information provided in the textbook and to
design a research study regarding parental reports of infant development. Santrock describes the
development of language in infants in sufficient detail to allow for a comparison.

1. Have students ask their parents to indicate how old the students were when (1) the parents could tell
the difference between the cry communicating hunger and the cry communicating wet diapers, (2)

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
they spoke their first word (indicate what the word was), (3) they first put two words together, and (4)
they created their first sentence.
2. Ask students to bring their data to class and compare it to that provided in the text. Once the
comparison is made, have students indicate why the differences exist.
3. Break the students into groups, and ask them to design a retrospective study that would determine
when each of the initial stages of language development occurred. They should also identify the
problems with this type of study.
4. After sufficient time has passed, bring them back together, and have them describe their studies and
the difficulties they had in designing them.
5. As a class, have students design a more realistic study of the progression of language development
(longitudinal, naturalistic observation).

Logistics:
• Group size: Individual, small group (2 to 4 students), and full class discussion
• Approximate time: Individual (10 minutes before class meeting), small group (30 minutes), and full
class discussion (30 minutes)

Source:
King, M. B., & Clark, D. E. (1989). Instructor’s manual for Santrock and Yussen’s child development: An
introduction, 4th ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Communications.

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Discussion Board Prompts
For each chapter, a few discussion board prompts are provided. Some of these prompts may be
controversial, but all should encourage the student to further process course material. Although these
are intended for online discussions, they could easily be used for an in-class discussion.

1. Should U.S. schools require learning a second language during elementary school? Why or why
not? If yes, which language should be taught and why?
2. Why do teenagers have their own dialect? What benefits and costs could such a dialect have?
3. A surprising number of college students need to take remedial courses in reading and/or writing.
Should all high schools require a minimal standard of reading and writing in order to graduate?
Why or why not?

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Classroom Discussion Questions
These questions can be utilized in the classroom with a partner or small group. They can be used as
an introduction to the topic or as questions to start class discussions.

1. With a partner discuss the pros and cons to using child directed speech? Do you think adults
should use “baby talk” when talking to an infant or child? Why or why not?

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Journal Entry
For each chapter, a journal entry is suggested that encourages each student to apply that chapter’s
material to his or her own development.

Journal entry prompt: Were you taught to read using the whole-language approach or the phonics
approach? Provide examples of reading activities you were exposed to at school.

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Personal Applications
Personal Application 1: Birth Order and Language Development

The purpose of this activity is to get students to think about how birth order could influence language
development. Begin by asking students to share their birth order. Who is firstborn? Second? Middle
child? Last child? Then ask students to share their perspective on how birth order may influence the
development of language. Perhaps language will be accelerated because infants are surrounded by many
more conversations. Alternatively, language could be delayed because the speech that surrounds the
infant is less well articulated and perhaps grammatically incorrect. Further, parents may spend more time
conversing with older siblings and thus spend less time in one-on-one conversations/interactions with the
infant.

One research study examining this issue suggests that secondborn children are more advanced than
firstborn children were in pronoun production, but that there was no difference in overall language
development (Ashima-Takane, Goodz, & Deverensky, 1996). This suggests that there are neither benefits
nor expenses in language development as a function of birth order. This activity could be turned into a
research project as well (see RP 1).

Source:
Oshima-Takane, Y., Goodz, E., & Deverensky, J. L. (1996). Birth order effects on early language
development: Do secondborn children learn from overheard speech? Child Development, 67(2), 621–
634.

Personal Application 2: “Hewo Witto Baby”

Think about the last time you were presented with a baby. Knowing that the child doesn’t understand
language, did you say things like “Hello,” or “How are you today?” Describe the tone of your voice. Did
it change when you spoke to the baby? Now think about times you have seen others talk to babies. While
some people are awkward and others are comfortable; we all tend to change our manner of speaking when
we interact with infants, and the changes are generally in the same direction. That is, most adults change
their speech and mannerisms in the same way when speaking to an infant. This behavior is part of child
directed speech, which is sometimes called motherese or parentese. Why do you think this occurs?

Now think about the ways in which adults talk to young children. When a mistake is made in grammar or
pronunciation, do they correct it or are they more likely to correct the meaning? How do you think this
adult behavior fits into the language development notion held by empiricists or behaviorists that each time
we talk to a child we are giving little language lessons to them? Is this a good argument about how
language is learned, and could it be used as an explanation for concepts like infinite generativity?

Personal Application 3: Does Day Care Facilitate Language?

The most comprehensive study of the effects of early child care has recently reported that children who
attend higher-quality child care in a center-type arrangement have better language performance at 4 and a
half years than children in any other kind of child care arrangement (NICHD, 2002). Ask students to
reflect on their own experiences with child care and discuss their opinions regarding this finding. Ask
students to indicate whether they agree or not and to offer potential explanations for the finding.

Source:

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2002). Early child care and children’s development prior to
school entry: Results from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. American Educational Research
Journal, 39(1), 133–164.

Personal Application 4: Language Disorders and Socioemotional Development

It is not hard to imagine that language disorders may affect children’s socioemotional development. Let’s
face it, when you hear an adult speaking with some type of language impediment (e.g., an articulation
disorder, a voice disorder), it is easy to associate the disorder with “inferior” intellectual capability. But
do these two things go hand in hand? Do individuals with language disorders have less sophisticated
cognitive skills? Ask students to contemplate and share their thoughts on this.

After sharing their thoughts, ask students to also think about their early childhood experiences. Do they
remember a child with some type of language disorder (or were they themselves a child with such a
disorder)? If they do remember such a child, do they also remember how this child was treated by others
(e.g., teachers, peers)? What do they think the long-term consequences of this treatment might be?

After this discussion, share the findings of one study examining long-term consequences of
developmental language disorders with the class. This study examined men who had a severe receptive
developmental language disorder in childhood and compared them with their non-language-disordered
siblings and matched controls of another sample. The controls and siblings were matched on such things
as age, performance IQ, childhood IQ, and social class (Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2005). They
found that the men with the developmental language disorder had normal intelligence but had
impairments in social adaptation (e.g., prolonged unemployment, few close friendships, and romantic
relationships) and higher rates of schizotypal characteristics. Ask students to contemplate the reasons for
these long-term consequences.

The authors of the cited study suggest that the long-term consequences are most likely due to some of the
deficits associated with the receptive language disorder (such as deficits in theory of mind, verbal short-
term memory, phonological processing) as well as the social adaptation problems that these individuals
have.

Source:
Clegg, J., Hollis, C. Mawhood, L., & Rutter, M. (2005). Developmental language disorders—A follow-
up in later adult life. Cognitive, language, and psychosocial outcomes. Journal of Child Psychology
& Psychiatry, 46(2), 128–149.

Copyright © 2016 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior
written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
il leur suffit d’absorber quelques grogs auxquels succédèrent de
nombreux sandwichs, pour retrouver toutes leurs forces. Ils
revoyaient les élégantes boiseries de palissandre, les meubles
anglais, les fauteuils de cuir, et Marie Erikow constata sur sa table la
présence des orchidées chères au Maître du Navire. Les heures
d’angoisse qu’ils avaient vécues, la mort qui les avait effleurés de
son aile — la plus affreuse des morts — jusqu’au souvenir de l’île,
de la fumerie d’opium et des étranges discours de Van den Brooks,
tout cela se fondait dans le bien-être de l’heure, de la chaleureuse
circulation, de la vie revenue enfin.
L’espoir les baignait de ses effluves. Minutes exquises, où l’être
connaît une nouvelle naissance et s’épanouit dans la tiédeur
heureuse de la chair.
Helven bourra sa pipe d’un tabac sec, mis à sa portée dans un
pot de Hollande, car les moindres détails du confort étaient prévus à
bord du Cormoran. Il savoura avec délices les premières bouffées.
Mais la rêverie n’étouffait pas chez lui le sens positif de sa race et il
se prit à considérer la situation.
Van den Brooks demeurait une formidable énigme. N’allait-il pas
se venger terriblement ? L’équipage du yacht était composé de
forbans ; Halifax n’était qu’un instrument docile aux mains de son
maître. De ce côté nul espoir de secours. Le marchand de
cotonnades exerçait à son bord le droit de haute et basse justice.
Quel scrupule pouvait l’empêcher de suspendre aux vergues de
cacatois la dépouille mortelle de maître Leminhac, du professeur
Tramier et de sir William Helven ? Cruauté inutile, sans doute. Mais
Van den Brooks devait redouter les divulgations de ses hôtes, s’il les
remettait en liberté. Cet homme avait sans doute un passé assez
lourd pour vouloir éviter — au prix même d’un assassinat — des
démêlés compromettants avec la justice. Les quatre voyageurs
pouvaient l’accuser d’avoir séquestré leurs personnes, indiquer la
situation de l’île, etc. En somme, tout devait décider le trafiquant —
sinon à faire disparaître ses hôtes — du moins à les garder
prisonniers, sans espoir de libération.
Revenu à la réalité, le peintre songeait avec angoisse qu’il eût
peut-être mieux valu piquer une pleine eau dans cette mer
phosphorescente qui, tant de fois, avait enchanté ses songes
nocturnes.

On frappe. Helven tressaille.


— Monsieur Van den Brooks vous attend au salon, si vous vous
sentez la force de vous y rendre.
C’était Halifax lui-même, rude et courtois à son ordinaire.
— Mieux vaut être fixé tout de suite, songea Helven.
Et bravement, il suivit le borgne.
Dans le salon, que leurs conversations et leurs rires avaient si
souvent animé, les quatre passagers se trouvèrent réunis : le
professeur, affalé sur un fauteuil ; Leminhac, assurant sa cravate
doctrinaire ; Marie Erikow, dédaigneuse, une cigarette au coin des
lèvres ; Helven, fixant hardiment Van den Brooks qui, debout dans
l’ombre, lissait nonchalamment sa barbe.
Marie, ironique, rompit le silence.
— Un tribunal, dit-elle. Mais vous siégez seul, Monsieur ?
— Je suffirai à ma tâche, rassurez-vous, Madame, répondit le
maître du navire. Mais, d’abord, comment vous trouvez-vous de
cette petite fugue ?
— Je m’en trouverai fort bien, Monsieur, répondit la Russe, si je
réussis à vous faire pendre.
— Oh ! les femmes, gémit intérieurement l’avocat. Elles n’en
ratent jamais une. Si cela continue…
Et il tâta sa cravate, comme s’il craignait déjà qu’on ne changeât
le beau ruban de soie pour un ruban plus grossier… de chanvre.
— C’est fort bien, reprit Van den Brooks. Soyez obligeant et voilà
votre récompense. La leçon me servira. Je vous trouve en peine ; je
vous prends à mon bord ; je vous y traite avec tous les égards
possibles ; je vous fais visiter un des plus beaux coins de cette terre,
je me montre pour vous l’hôte le plus attentif à vos moindres désirs.
Et l’on me souhaite une potence ! Grand merci, Madame. Mais
songez pour l’instant que vous êtes à mon bord et que, sur les
trente-huit lurons qui composent mon équipage (il y en avait
quarante, mais vous savez où sont les deux autres, peut-être ?), pas
un ne lèvera le doigt pour vous soustraire à ma juste vengeance, s’il
me convient de l’assouvir.
— Je m’en doute, répliqua la Russe. Ce sont des lâches, comme
leur maître.
— Un peu de modération, Madame, intervint alors d’une voix
faible le professeur. Nous sommes infiniment reconnaissants à M.
Van den Brooks du service qu’il a voulu nous rendre et qui serait
beaucoup plus grand s’il n’avait lui-même exagéré son amabilité, s’il
nous avait conduits directement à Sydney. Mais M. Van den Brooks
s’est montré pour nous, comme il le dit justement, le plus obligeant
des hôtes. Le Cormoran fut pour nous le séjour le plus exquis…
— Et vous voulez le quitter ! soupira le marchand.
— Tout nous appelle sur notre vieux continent, fit mielleusement
le professeur, qui se révélait diplomate. Tout, notre vie, nos
affections, notre labeur. Comment nous arracher aux voix de nos
épouses, de nos enfants, de nos amis ? Certes, la vie dans votre île
embaumée, dans ce nouvel Éden, nous paraît une condition fort
enviable. Mais hélas ! la raison nous oblige à renoncer à l’Age d’Or,
à retrouver l’Age de l’acier, l’Age des Banknotes. Funeste nécessité !
Mais pouvons-nous nous y soustraire ?
— Vous le pouvez, dit Van den Brooks. Je l’ai fait.
— Mais non, hélas ! Mille fois non. Aucun de nous ne renoncera à
ses ambitions, à sa fortune, à ses amours, à son foyer. Nous
préférons une vie d’efforts, dans la fièvre de notre civilisation, aux
loisirs fleuris que vous nous offrez. Nos goûts, malheureusement…
— Il s’agit bien de vos goûts, dit brutalement le marchand. Il
s’agit de ma volonté et vous êtes dans ma main comme des fétus de
paille. Je vous briserai, si cela me plaît. Vous n’êtes qu’une vieille
baderne, mon cher professeur…
— Monsieur… fit Tramier étouffant.
— Silence, rugit le marchand. Vous avez assez bavardé. Moi seul
ai le droit de parler ici.
— Vous n’avez pas le droit de nous insulter, répliqua Helven. Mme
Erikow a raison. Vous êtes un lâche ; vous insultez les vieillards et
les femmes.
— Excusez-moi, monsieur Helven, fit avec calme Van den
Brooks, à la plus grande stupéfaction des passagers. Et vous,
Madame, et vous aussi, monsieur Tramier. Je m’emporte. Soit. Je
serai correct… allez… Je sais ce que j’ai à faire. Vous m’obligerez
en rentrant dans vos cabines.

Le capitaine Halifax veilla à ce que chaque passager regagnât


son logis. Les dîners furent servis dans les cabines. Helven voulut
rejoindre l’avocat ; mais la porte était fermée d’un loquet extérieur. Il
appela, vainement.
Il s’assit sur son lit et l’angoisse s’assit à son côté. Cette fois, il
n’y avait plus de doute. Van den Brooks était un fou, mais un fou
logique, prudent, soucieux de son intérêt. Cet intérêt exigeait que les
gens qui pouvaient contrarier sa folie, l’empêcher de poursuivre ses
desseins insensés, fussent mis hors d’état d’agir. Et c’en était fini !…
La voilà bien, l’Aventure !… Il songeait à sa maison paisible, dans
ce coin d’Écosse où il était né, aux landes roses où le vent gémit si
tristement les nuits d’hiver, d’une plainte que l’on n’oublie pas ; il revit
les troncs brûlants dans la haute cheminée ; il sentit l’odeur des
grogs au gingembre que préparait sa mère — une vieille dame si
propre et les clés à la ceinture — et l’odeur des bruyères humides,
les matins de chasse où l’on part, encore engourdi de sommeil,
transi du brouillard d’octobre ; il entendit le hurlement des chiens et
les mille rumeurs domestiques, il revécut sa jeunesse, comme on la
revit parfois, toute résumée en quelques images, en quelques
parfums…
Et le sommeil fut plus fort que le souvenir et que l’angoisse. Il
s’endormit.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Il sursauta. La porte venait de s’ouvrir. Une pénombre blafarde
coulait par le hublot.
— Venez, fit la voix d’Halifax. Dépêchons.
— Ça y est, pensa le jeune homme. M. Van den Brooks opère à
la manière française… au petit jour…
Devant le marin, il ne voulut pas paraître couard, s’habilla
soigneusement, et noua sa cravate comme s’il se rendait à une
garden-party.
Halifax le précédait. Ils parvinrent sur le pont avant. Dans la
clarté falote de l’aube, Helven distingua, rangé en bon ordre,
l’équipage, comme le jour où l’on avait fustigé le nègre. La silhouette
de Van den Brooks, tout à l’avant du vaisseau, dominait la mer et
l’aube. Helven ne put voir son visage. Auprès de lui, l’Hindou, son
serviteur. L’Anglais s’arrêta à quelques pas, et attendit. Les uns
après les autres, Leminhac, Tramier et Mme Erikow arrivèrent,
conduits par Halifax. Marie était fort pâle, elle serrait les lèvres ; son
menton lourd rendait sa beauté plus saisissante et presque cruelle.
Van den Brooks ne se retourna pas.
Un silence de mort tombait du ciel où s’effaçaient les astres.
Helven regarda une dernière fois, pâlissante, la Croix du Sud.

Alors Van den Brooks se retourna. Et les passagers ne le


reconnurent plus. Sa grande barbe avait disparu. Ses yeux — ses
yeux agrandis par la fièvre et la folie — luisaient, libres de tout verre.
Son visage était beau, émacié, grave, mais hagard. Le voyant, ils
comprirent.
— Le coup du Patriarche, parbleu ! songea Leminhac qui se
rappela l’histoire de Sigismond Loch.
Mais, tourné vers l’Océan, Van den Brooks parla. La voix
entendue dans la fumerie roula sur les flots :
« Ne craignez rien, étrangers. Je ne vous veux aucun mal. Vous
ne m’avez pas compris.
« Ce que j’espérais trouver en vous, vous ne pouviez me le
donner. La grandeur de mon rêve ne vous a pas séduits. Vous ne
m’avez pas compris non plus, quand, des profondeurs de l’opium,
j’ai laissé monter vers vous ma plainte de Dieu lassé. »
La voix s’éleva :
« Car Dieu, je le fus. La terre gémissante de mon île peut
l’affirmer et mon peuple courbé sous ma verge peut le clamer à ces
flots et à ces étoiles. Homme, j’ai refait la création à la mesure de
Dieu. Et c’est pourquoi je me dis son égal. »

Il reprit plus bas, avec une lassitude voilée :


« Mais vous ne comprenez pas, et vous pensez que je suis fou.
Une dernière fois, je veux mettre devant vous, ô inconnus, mon
cœur, mon cœur saignant :
« Une soif d’amour implacable me poursuit : l’amour, l’amour des
hommes, est une source dont le mirage hante mes nuits. Mais cette
source, elle ne peut jaillir de mon cœur. Mon cœur est une roche
aride : qui le frappera pour que les eaux vives s’en écoulent ?
« Quand je tenais entre mes mains la fragile destinée des
hommes, quand leur voix suppliante déchirait mes oreilles, quand je
les ployais, mutilés, sanglants, sous la malédiction du Seigneur,
j’espérais qu’il naîtrait en moi cette indicible douceur : la pitié.
« Si j’ai prodigué le martyre, si j’ai fait couler le sang, comme un
vin dans un festin de noces, ce n’est pas pour une vaine jouissance,
mais bien pour moissonner les épis attendus. Hélas, ils n’ont point
germé. J’espérais que les tortures infligées à mes victimes
m’attendriraient et me forceraient de les aimer : il n’en fut rien.
« Un Dieu sans amour est un Dieu sans joie : je renonce à la
Divinité.
« Je rentre parmi les hommes. J’abandonne mon peuple. J’ai
appelé dans mon île quelques hommes pieux : des missionnaires
protestants. Hélas ! je crains que, bien vite, ne vivant plus dans une
sainte terreur, mon peuple ne perde la foi…
« Mais je ne puis plus. Peut-être deviendrai-je mineur ou docker ;
peut-être, ouvrier plombier. Je ne sais. Je veux être le plus humble
des hommes, après avoir été leur Dieu.
« Et voici le signe de mon renoncement. »
Comme il disait ces mots, l’Hindou s’écarta, découvrant le coffre
des joyaux engloutis.
Van den Brooks souleva le couvercle. Il retira une émeraude
d’une fort belle eau et la tendit à Marie.
— Acceptez-la, Madame, en souvenir du Dieu qui n’est plus.
Puis, à brassées frénétiques, il rejeta dans la mer les trésors qu’il
y avait puisés. Topazes, rubis, émeraudes, améthystes, tombaient
en pluie de feu sur les eaux calmes, trouaient la soie grise d’une mer
aurorale.
La voix s’éleva encore et l’on entendit ces mots :
« Tria sunt insatiabilia : mare, infernum et vulva. »
Le sacrifice accompli, Van den Brooks fit signe aux passagers et
à l’équipage de se retirer. Il resta seul, courbé sur la mer…

Wagner
ÉPILOGUE

Les quatre voyageurs prirent place dans un canot et Halifax, qui


les accompagnait, leur montra dans le brouillard un rivage où
luisaient quelques maisons peintes à la chaux.
— Voici, dit-il, un poste européen : des Portugais, je crois. Vous
trouverez là une hospitalité suffisante et tous les renseignements
nécessaires pour votre route.
Le canot aborda au pied de rochers que longeait un banc de
sable. Halifax descendit à terre ; puis, clignant de son œil unique,
comme s’il s’agissait d’une excellente plaisanterie :
— Bon voyage ! cria-t-il à ses anciens passagers.
Et il sauta dans la barque, qui s’éloigna à force de rames.
Inquiets, Helven et Leminhac prirent les devants et s’en furent
frapper à une des maisons. L’aspect crasseux et débonnaire d’un
douanier portugais les rassura. Ils n’osèrent s’enquérir du lieu où ils
étaient, craignant de passer pour fous, mais ils réclamèrent un abri.
Marie Erikow était restée en arrière, au bras du professeur. Tous
deux demeuraient silencieux. Soudain, la jeune femme lâcha le bras
de Tramier et, à toutes jambes, courut le long du rivage. Elle agitait
désespérément son écharpe, comme pour appeler le canot, déjà à
demi happé par la brume. Tramier, qui à la vérité était un peu sourd,
crut entendre un cri et courut derrière elle. Mais Leminhac, de loin,
avait aperçu la fugitive ; il fut plus prompt.
Dans un accès de désespoir qui paraissait atroce, la Russe
s’était jetée sur le sable. L’avocat s’approcha d’elle, souleva
doucement le visage où roulaient de grosses larmes.
— Qu’est-ce donc ? murmura-t-il. Le regretteriez-vous ?
— Oh ! gémit Marie Erikow, entre deux sanglots, j’ai perdu mon
émeraude.
Et elle ajouta, tout bas, déjà consolée, souriante :
— Mais vous êtes bon, vous, je le savais…

Le Cormoran avait disparu.


TABLE DES MATIÈRES

Chapitre — L’homme aux lunettes vertes


I. 1
— II. — Le « Cormoran » lève l’ancre 22
— III. — Un étrange navire, un étrange équipage 34
— IV. — Où Van den Brooks se présente. — Histoire
d’un riche 46
— V. — Où Van den Brooks parle en maître 68
— VI. — Le récit du docteur. — Le cahier de maroquin
rouge 77
— VII. — Où l’on entrevoit deux rivaux, un troisième
larron et un nègre sentimental 98
— VIII. — La mystique de Van den Brooks 104
— IX. — Où Van den Brooks parle belles-lettres. —
Histoire des jeunes gens de Mindanao 114
— X. — L’incantation. — Un entretien sur le péché 124
— XI. — L’esclave du Brésil 139
— XII. — Une histoire de chat à neuf queues 144
— XIII. — L’esprit nocturne 151
— XIV. — Le docteur termine son récit 162
— XV. — Où il est donné à Helven d’expérimenter à ses
dépens la fragilité féminine 177
— XVI. — Les rancunes de Tommy Hogshead 188
— XVII. — Le cri de la vigie 195
— XVIII. — L’île Van den Brooks 208
— XIX. — Les joyaux engloutis 219
— XX. — L’homme qui voulut être Dieu 231
— XXI. — Où Van den Brooks se découvre 242
— XXII. — Où il est question de la concupiscence chez 255
les personnes de couleur, de ses rapports
avec l’odorat et aussi d’un passage secret et
d’une porte de fer
— XXIII. — Le calme précurseur 261
— XXIV. — L’évasion 266
— XXV. — Où réapparaît certain navire 273
— XXVI. — Le crépuscule d’un dieu 285
Épilogue 295

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