All Theorists Flashcards
1
Q
Skinner: Behaviourism
A
- Child imitates language to gain a positive reaction (positive reinforcement).
- Children don’t pick up on correct forms from imitation so they overextend language patterns they already know.
2
Q
Chomsky: Nativism
A
- Believed children have an innate / pre-programmed understanding of language.
- Different languages share grammatical traits (universal grammar).
3
Q
Bruner: Social Interaction
A
- Language comes easy to children due to both innate and social encouragement.
- LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) triggers the LAD (Chomsky).
- e.g. gaining attention, label, feedback query / questioning.
4
Q
Piaget: Cognitivism
A
- Suggests children can learn linguistic structure only when they understand the concept involved.
- Blanket + Ball (1963): children don’t understand object permanence, so can only learn the names of objects once they realise they permanently exist.
- Egocentrism through the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’.
5
Q
Vygotsky: Social Development
A
- Children learn through scaffolding (CDS).
- Theorised the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’.
- More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) helps.
6
Q
Stages of Child Language Acquisition:
A
- Pre-verbal - cooing and babbling.
- Holophrastic - 12-18 months, 50% words are nouns (Aitchison: labelling).
- Two word - 18-24 months, child begins to make syntactical structure.
- Telegraphic - 24-36 months, vocab increases, more complex speech develops.
- Post telegraphic - 36+ months, majority of words are used correctly, concept of politeness is understood.
7
Q
Berko-Gleason: Wug Test
A
- Supports Chomsky’s LAD.
- Children able to apply suffix ‘s’ without being taught the grammatical rule.
- Found it harder to add ‘es’ showing that they struggle to apply irregular rules.
8
Q
Aitchison: Child’s Acquisition
A
- Speed of learning is learnt by innate abilities, environment + partly learnt by imitation.
- Labelling - link between sounds of particular words and objects.
- Packaging - understanding word’s range of meaning: over / under-extension.
- Network building - grasping connections between words.
9
Q
Rescorla (1980): Over-Extension
A
- Categorical - one member of a category is extended to refer to the whole category.
- Analogical - word for an object is extended to a different category, potentially due to a physical / functional connection.
- Network-building errors - statement about an object in relation to another.
10
Q
Bellugi: Negatives
A
- Comprehension of complex negative structures is acquired late (4;0).
- Stage 1 (2;0) - child can use ‘no’ and ‘not’, usually at the start or end.
- Stage 2 (2;3) - appear mid utterance, in front of verbs.
- Stage 3 (2;9) - mostly correctly positioned.
11
Q
Dore: Infant Language Functions
A
- Labelling - identifying a person / object, noun.
- Repeating - echoing something by an adult speaker.
- Answering - response to an utterance from another speaker.
- Requesting action - demanding food / drink, etc.
- Calling - attracting attention by shouting.
- Greeting - saluting people.
- Protesting - objecting to requests.
- Practising - repeating language.
12
Q
National Curriculum
A
- Year 1 (5-6): capital letters, spell common words.
- Year 2 (6-7): writing simple narrative stories, apostrophes.
13
Q
Barclay (1996): Stages of Writing
A
- Scribbling - random marks on a page, encouraged by adults.
- Mock handwriting - often appears with drawings, resembles cursive writing.
- Mock letters - letter-like shapes that resemble conventional letters.
- Conventional letters - first word is usually the child’s name.
- Invented letters - conventional letters that cluster to make words.
- Phonetic spelling - children associate sounds with letters, approximated.
- Conventional spelling - approximated spelling becomes more conventional.
14
Q
Kroll (1981): Development of Writing
A
- Preparation (6;0) - basic motor skills + principles of spelling.
- Consolidation (7-8) - similar to spoken language, informal register, conjunction and.
- Differentiation (9-10) - growing understanding of writing for a different audience.
- Integration (10+) - controlled writing, appropriate linguistic choices.
- Perera (1985): criticised Kroll - children’s development is individual.
15
Q
Perera (1985)
A
Criticised Kroll - children’s development is individual.
16
Q
Rothery: Function of Language
A
- Recount - chronological series of events, subjective voice: ‘I / we’.
- Report - factual objective description, non-chronological.
- Observation-Comments - point followed by evaluation.
- Narrative - reading skills are usually ahead of writing acquisition so despite reading stories they cannot achieve narrative structure early on.
17
Q
Britton (1975): Expressive Function
A
- Expressive - first person perspective + content based on personal preferences.
- Transactional - style of academic essays, developed in secondary school.
- Poetic - rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, adjective.
18
Q
Halliday (1978): Functions of Language
A
- Regulatory - tell others what to do / used to influence the behaviour of others.
- Interactional - language is used to develop relationships.
- Representational - conveys facts.
- Personal - express opinions + views.
- Imaginative - tell stories + create imaginative constructs.
- Instrumental - language is used to fulfil a need, typically includes common nouns.
- Heuristic - language is used to explore, learn + discover.
19
Q
Traw (1993)
A
- Writing develops rapidly when children are exposed to a wide range of language.
- During formal education, exposed to lots of texts, designed to facilitate development.
20
Q
Nelson (1973)
A
Nouns represented 60% of a child’s first 50 words.
Naming (ball, daddy, dog).
Action (give, stop, up).
Modifying (more, dirty).
Social (bye bye, no).
