4. Appendix 15

4.1 Appendix 1 15

4.2 Appendix 2 15

References 16

1. Introduction

Successful mastery of a language should reveal itself in both comprehension and production. Normative studies of language development, such as that of Stephen Craint (1989) suggest that auditory comprehension (reception) precedes productive speech and comprehension and production are closely linked in the language development. Existing studies (Mark Smith & Linda Wheeldon, 2001; Caroline F. Rowland et al., 2012; Qingrong Chen et al., 2013; Katrien Segaert et al., 2013) on the acquisition of syntax has been concerned mainly with the syntax development in children. On the one hand, speech perception is a common phenomenon during the language comprehension and is found in both the process of children’s language acquisition and adults’ language use, that is to say, we can give reasonable judgments and revisions automatically when we find some undistinguished or abnormal words in others’ speech. Furthermore, the efficiency of the speech processing in comprehension is a big puzzle in speech perception (Golinkoff R. M. et al., 1987). On the other hand, in the context of production there are a number of possibilities for arriving at a comprehensible output (Jakubowicz, 2003). As we can see, correct comprehension can coexist with various strategies in production that reflect the maturation of processes involving several syntactic variables, which seems that productive efficiency also affects children’s syntactic development. Evidence (Bock & Levelt, 1994) shows that people form a pre-verbal message based on their intention first, then after grammatical encoding and phonological encoding, finally they produced the output. The process of grammatical encoding is the most complex, which needs the role of syntactic representations and gains the most concern. In addition, recent discussions in the literature on the acquisition of syntax have centered on a debate regarding the nature of children’s early syntactic representations (Fisher, 2002; Naigles, 2002; Tomasello, 2000; Tomasello & Akhtar, 2003). Besides, structural priming paradigms have shaped theories of syntactic development and priming studies with children have focused on what priming can tell us about children’s syntactic representations (Caroline F. Rowland, 2012). The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of the receptive sensitivity and the productive efficiency on the development of syntax among 3-6 years old children. Therefore, we addressed three central questions:

1) What is the receptive sensitivity? What is the productive efficiency? 

2) How does the receptive sensitivity affect the development of syntax among 3-6 years old children? 

3) How does the productive efficiency affect the development of syntax among 3-6 years old children? 

2. Literature review

2.1 Receptive Sensitivity

Comprehension and production are closely linked in children’s syntactic development. Normative studies of language development usually suggest that auditory comprehension (reception) precedes 

productive speech- i.e., a child learns first to respond to speech and later to express himself in speech. This observation is supported by several research studies (McCarthy, 1954; Fraser et al., 1963) and frequently appears as a statement of theory (Myklebust, 1957; Lenneberg, 1962; Chomsky, 1967). It is safe to say that reception affects children’s production. Speech perception is a common phenomenon during the language comprehension and is found in both the process of children’s language acquisition and adults’ language use, that is to say, we can give reasonable judgments and revisions automatically when we find some undistinguished or abnormal words in others’ speech. Furthermore, the efficiency of the speech processing in comprehension is a big puzzle in speech perception (Golinkoff R. M. et al., 1987).  接受性敏感与产生效能对3-6岁儿童句法发展的影响(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_49141.html