How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Environmental Influences <s> Preface to the Classic Edition. Foreword. 1. From Sound to Meaning: A Framework for Analysing Comprehension. 2. Specific Language Impairment. 3. Speech Perception. 4. Understanding Word Meaning. 5. Grammatical Knowledge in Sentence Comprehension. 6. Understanding Sentences in Real Time. 7. Understanding Discourse: Integrating Language and Context. 8. Understanding Intended Meaning: Social Aspects of Comprehension. 9. Modularity and Interaction in Language Development and Disorders. <s> BIB001 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Environmental Influences <s> Generative grammar retained from American structural linguistics the 'formal' approach, which basically effaces the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of grammar. This creates serious problems for an account of language acquisition, most especially the problem of how to link universal grammar to some particular language (the linking problem). Parameters do not help the situation, as they depend on a prior linking of the lexical and functional categories of a language to universal grammar. In contrast, usage-based accounts of language acquisition do not posit an innate universal grammar and so have no linking problem. And if children's cognitive and social skills are conceptualized in the right way, there is no poverty of the stimulus in this approach either. In general, the only fully adequate accounts of language acquisition are those that give a prominent role to children's comprehension of communicative function in everything from words to grammatical morphemes to complex syntactic constructions. <s> BIB002 </s> How Does the Use of Modern Communication Technology Influence Language and Literacy Development? A Review <s> Environmental Influences <s> Abstract The purpose of this study was to gain insight into nonliteral language acquisition by children. Two dimensions were introduced: the acquisition order of the different forms of nonliteral language from the standpoint of comprehension and metapragmatic knowledge, and the relationship between their understanding and metapragmatic knowledge about them. Three nonliteral forms – indirect requests (hints), idioms, and conversational implicatures – were studied in children divided into three age groups (6, 8, and 10 years) using a cross-sectional approach: each child was tested on all three nonliteral forms. Data was collected from a story completion task presented as a computer game (the child chose one of two pictures and explained why). The results indicated that nonliteral language comprehension (pragmatic skills) and metapragmatic knowledge are acquired in different orders. For comprehension, the order was: semantic-inference implicatures, indirect requests, idioms, sarcastic-inference implicatures. For metapragmatic knowledge, the order was: idioms, implicatures with a sarcastic or semantic inference, indirect requests. The discussion compares the results to available data on each of these forms, and proposes some future perspectives, both for the study of everyday language learning and for more theoretical questions. The analysis of the relationship between pragmatics and metapragmatics during language acquisition is also addressed. <s> BIB003
To investigate the influence of computer-mediated communication, or written speech, on language and literacy skills, we can use the earlier framework to highlight research that details any effects on the specific skills outlined. We can also consider research that looks at the impact of computer use on more general cognitive skills as the precursors to literacy. It is important to bear in mind that language development in children begins at birth. Children have already acquired a great deal of their language skills before the age of 5 years, with many communication skills being in place before the age of 2 years BIB001  . If 5 years is the earliest age at which children begin to use communication technology  , then we can speculate that it may be those skills that develop later that may be affected by environmental factors such as usage and sociocultural norms. For this reason, higher order language and literacy skills are a useful focus for considering developmental implications. Research into the development of pragmatic language skills suggests that the comprehension of nonliteral language such as idioms, hints, and sarcasm takes place at various points between the age of 6 and 10 years BIB003  . This is the age at which children are also learning literacy skills and beginning to engage in the use of communication technology. Recent models of language acquisition have also highlighted usage-based theories of language learning BIB002 , whereby language is dependent on its sociocultural uses, and language skills are accumulated through its use. This model would also suggest that environmental influences on the nature and use of language, such as communication technology, may have an impact on these later developing language and literacy skills.