Why don’t babies talk like adults? Reading Answers
Why don’t babies talk like adults? Reading Answers 13 questions that have to be answered in 20 minutes. Why don’t babies talk like adults? Reading Answers comprises three types of questions. This includes- yes/no/not given, complete the summary and choose the correct letter. For yes/no/not given, candidates must read the passage and understand the statement provided. For completing the summary, candidates need to skim the passage for keywords, understand the concept and choose the appropriate answer. Choosing the correct letter requires candidates to identify the relevance of the statements from within the passage. Candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question.
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
Why don’t babies talk like adults? Reading Answers
A recent e-trade advertisement shows a baby speaking directly to the camera: 'Look at this,’ he says, I'm a free man. I go anywhere I want now.’ He describes his stock-buying activities, and then his phone rings. This advertisement proves what comedians have known for years: few things are as funny as a baby who talks like an adult. But it also raises an important question: Why don’t young children express themselves clearly like adults?
Many people assume children learn to talk by copying what they hear. In other words, they listen to the words adults use and the situations in which they use them and imitate accordingly. Behaviourism, the scientific approach that dominated American cognitive science for the first half of the 20th century, made exactly this argument.
However, this ’copycat’ theory can’t explain why toddlers aren’t as conversational as adults. After all, you never hear literate adults express themselves in one-word sentences like ‘bottle’ or ‘doggie’. In fact, it's easy for scientists to show that a copycat theory of language acquisition can’t explain children’s first words. What is hard for them to do is to explain these first words, and how they fit into the language acquisition pattern.
Over the past half-century, scientists have settled on two reasonable possibilities. The first of these is called the ‘mental-developmental hypothesis’. It states that one-year-olds speak in baby talk because their immature brains can’t handle adult speech. Children don't learn to walk until their bodies are ready. Likewise, they don't speak multi-word sentences or use word endings and function words (‘Mummy opened the boxes') before their brains are ready.
The second is called the ‘stages-of-language hypothesis’, which states that the stages of progress in child speech are necessary stages in language development.
A basketball player can't perfect his or her jump shot before learning to (1) jump and (2) shoot. Similarly, children learn to multiply after they have learned to add. This is the order in which children are taught - not the reverse. There's evidence, for instance, that children don't usually begin speaking in two-word sentences until they’ve learned a certain number of single words.
In other words, until they’ve crossed that linguistic threshold, the word-combination process doesn't get going.
The difference between these theories is this: under the mental-development hypothesis, language learning should depend on the child’s age and level of mental development when he or she starts learning a language. Linder the stages-of-language hypothesis, however, it shouldn’t depend on such patterns, but only on the completion of previous stages.
In 2007, researchers at Harvard University, who were studying the two theories, found a clever way to test them. More than 20,000 internationally adopted children enter the US each year. Many of them no longer hear their birth language after they arrive, and they must learn English more or less the same way infants do - that is, by listening and by trial and error. International adoptees don’t take classes or use a dictionary when they are learning their new tongue and most of them don’t have a well-developed first language. All of these factors make them an ideal population in which to test these competing hypotheses about how language is learned.
Neuroscientists Jesse Snedeker, Joy Geren and Carissa Shafto studied the language development of 27 children adopted from China between the ages of two and five years. These children began learning English at an older age than US natives and had more mature brains with which to tackle the task. Even so, just as with American-born infants, their first English sentences consisted of single words and were largely bereft of function words, word endings and verbs. The adoptees then went through the same stages as typical American- born children, albeit at a faster clip. The adoptees and native children started combining words in sentences when their vocabulary reached the same sizes, further suggesting that what matters is not how old you are or how mature your brain is, but the number of words you know.
This finding - that having more mature brains did not help the adoptees avoid the toddler-talk stage - suggests that babies speak in babytalk not because they have baby brains, but because they have only just started learning and need time to gain enough vocabulary to be able to expand their conversations. Before long, the one-word stage will give way to the two-word stage and so on. Learning how to chat like an adult is a gradual process.
But this potential answer also raises an even older and more difficult question. Adult immigrants who learn a second language rarely achieve the same proficiency in a foreign language as the average child raised as a native speaker. Researchers have long suspected there is a ‘critical period’ for language development, after which it cannot proceed with full success to fluency. Yet we still do not understand this critical period or know why it ends.
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Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Questions 26-29:
Do the following Statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?
In boxes 26-29 in your answer sheet, write
YES, if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO, if the information provided is contradictory to the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN, if there is no information to corroborate with the views of the writer
Question 26. People are extremely amused when they see a baby talk like an adult
Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: this advertisement proves what comedians have known for years: few things are as funny as a baby who talks like an adult
Keyword: baby, adult, talk, funny
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, 5th line
Explanation: the passage says it's funny when babies talk like an adult which means for people seeing babies talk like an adult is a source of amusement.
Question 27. Behaviourists of the early 20th century argued that children learn to speak by copying adults
Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: Many people assume children learn to talk by copying what they hear. In other words, they listen to the words adults use and the situations in which they use them and imitate accordingly. Behaviourism, the scientific approach that dominated American cognitive science for the first half of the 20th century, made exactly this argument.
Keyword: Children, copying, adults, behaviourism
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, 1st, 2nd & 3rd line
Explanation: the passage puts forward an argument that many people assume children learn to talk by copying adults. In the same paragraph the passage affirms that Behaviourism (its advocates are known as Behaviourists) makes the exact same argument.
Question 28. Children have more conversations with adults than with other children
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: children having more conversations with adults than with other children is a statement about which the passage does not mention.
Question 29 Scientist have found it easy to work out why babies use one-word sentences
Answer: NO
Supporting Sentence: What is hard for them to do is to explain these first words, and they fit into the language acquisition pattern.
Keyword: first words, hard
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3, 5th & 6th line
Explanation: scientists haven’t found it easy to explain why babies use one-word sentences because the passage clearly states that it's hard for them to explain first words. This includes where the first words of the babies are usually all they speak to convey something hence it’s a one-word sentence.
Question 30-34:
Complete the summary using the list of words and phrases, A-H below.
Two theories about baby talk
According to the writer, there are two main theories related to baby talk. One states that a young child’s brain needs (30) ………. to master language, in the same way that it does to master other abilities such as (31) ………. The Second theory states that the child’s (32) ……. is the key factor. According to this theory, some key steps have to occur in logical sequence before (33) ……… occurs. Children’s (34) ………… develops in the same way.
- Vocabulary level
- Physical movement
- Time
- Attention
- Mathematical knowledge
- Sentence formation
- Learning
- Teaching
Question 30
Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: the first one of these is called ‘mental-development hypothesis’. Likewise, they don’t speak multi-word sentences or use word endings and function words (‘Mummy opened the boxes’) before their brains are ready.
Keyword: brains, multi-word sentences
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 5th & 7th line
Explanation: the passage suggests that the first theory explains that a child will not speak proper sentences before their brain is ready. This means a child will require time to master a language as the brain will get ready with time.
Question 31
Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: Children don’t learn to walk until their bodies are ready.
Keyword: walk, Children, ready
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 4th & 5th line
Explanation: the passage in the explanation of first theory uses the example of walking that a child won’t learn until their body is ready. In other words, a child needs time to master language just like they need time to master other abilities like walking which is a physical movement.
Question 32
Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: the second is called ‘stages of language hypothesis’, which states that the stages of progress in child speech are necessary stages in language development. There is evidence, for instance, that children don’t usually begin speaking in two-word sentences until they’ve learned a certain number of single words.
Keyword: second, child, single words, learned
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 1st, 2nd, 8th & 9th line
Explanation: the passage in the explanation for second theory puts forward an argument that children don’t begin speaking in full sentences. This is until they have learnt a certain number of single words. The vocabulary is a collection of single words and their meanings. So, a child learning a certain number of single words is similar to strengthening their vocabulary level that means vocabulary is a key factor in second theory.
Question 33
Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: the second is called ‘stages of language hypothesis’, which states that the stages of progress in child speech are necessary stages in language development. There is evidence, for instance, that children don’t usually begin speaking in two-word sentences until they’ve learned a certain number of single words.
Keyword: sentences, necessary stages
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 2nd line & 8th line
Explanation: the second theory is known as stages of language hypothesis and states that there are stages of progress in child speech. They are necessary stages for language development in a child. For example in the passage certain logical steps/stages will have to occur. This includes learning a certain number of single words for sentence formation like two-word sentences.
Question 34
Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: the second is called ‘stages of language hypothesis’, which states that the stages of progress in child speech are necessary stages in language development. Similarly, children learn to multiply after they have learned to add.
Keyword: children, multiply, add, learn, similarly
Keyword Location: Paragraph 5, 2nd & 3rd line
Explanation: here the expression the same way suggests application of second theory wherein the passage uses the example of a child learning to multiply after it has learned how to add. This example relates to the mathematical ability of the child and its development is similar to the language development process suggested under second theory.
Question 35-39:
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D
Write your answers in boxes 35-39 on your answer sheet.
Question 35. What is the writer’s main purpose in the seventh paragraph?
- To give reasons why adopted children were used in the study
- To reject the view that adopted children need two languages
- To argue that culture affects the way children learn a language
- To justify a particular approach to language learning
Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: all of these factors make them an ideal population in which to test these competing hypotheses about how language is learned.
Keyword: factors, ideal population, hypotheses
Keyword Location: Paragraph 7, 8th & 9th line
Explanation: the seventh paragraph of the passage talks about Harvard research and why adoptees were chosen as its subjects as the passage in the end. It states that all these factors (reasons) make them (adoptees) an ideal population on which to test these competing hypotheses.
Question 36. Snedeker, Geren and Shafto based their study on children who
- were finding it difficult to learn English
- had come from a number of language backgrounds
- were learning English at a later age than US children
- to justify a particular approach to language learning
Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Neuroscientists Jesse Snedeker, Joy Geren and Carissa Shafto studied the language development of 27 children adopted from China between the ages of two to five years. These children began learning English at an older age than US-natives and had more mature brains with which to tackle the task.
Keyword: Snedeker, Geren, Shafto, age, US-natives, learning English
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, 1st, 3rd & 4th line
Explanation: Snedeker, Geren and Shafto are neuroscientists and the passage states that they conducted their study on 27 children and these children were selected. This is because they began learning English at an older age than US-natives. This means their English education began at a later age than that of an average US-child.
Question 37. What aspect of the adopted children’s language development differed from that of US-born children?
- Their first words
- The way they learn English
- The rate at which they acquired language
- The point at which they started producing sentences
Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: the adoptees then went through the same stages as typical American born children, albeit at a faster clip.
Keyword: American born children, adoptees, faster
Keyword Location: Paragraph 8, 7th & 8th line
Explanation: the passage draws a parallel by stating that adoptees went through the same stages as typical American born children (US-born Children). It then points out the difference that the pace of adoptees was faster which means both types of children were acquiring languages by going through the same stages. But the rate at which they acquired language was different as the adoptees were faster.
Question 38. What did Harvard finding show?
- Not all toddlers use babytalk
- Language learning takes place in ordered steps
- Some children need more conversation than others
- Not all brains work in the same way
Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: This finding – that having more mature brains did not help the adoptees avoid the toddler talk – suggests that babies speak in babytalk not. This is because they have baby brains. But because they have only just started learning and need time to gain enough vocabulary to be able to expand their conversations.
Keyword: finding
Keyword Location: Paragraph 9, 1st line
Explanation: the passage directly states the finding wherein it says that babies talk like they do because they have only started learning and need time to gain vocabulary. They need to expand their conversations which means language learning takes place in ordered steps. Wherein the child first accumulates vocabulary and then forms sentences to carry out a full-fledged conversation.
Question 39. When the writer says, ‘critical period’, he means a period when
- Studies produce useful results
- Adults need to be taught like children
- Immigrants want to learn another language
- Language learning takes place effectively
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Researchers have long suspected there is a ‘critical period’ for language development, after which it can’t proceed with full success to fluency.
Keyword: critical period
Keyword Location: Paragraph 10, 4th line
Explanation: critical period means a period in which language learning takes place effectively. This is because the passage states that after a critical period language learning can’t proceed with full success to fluency i.e., the effectiveness of language learning is reduced.
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