Features & Limitation of theories of language development Flashcards
3 main types of knowledge that a growing child must acquire (when learning language of their parents)
Knowledge about:
- What to say (content of language)
- How to say it (form of language)
- Use of language
Noam Chomsky proposed that language development was…
innate and would develop automatically when children were exposed to their language evnironment.
Jerome Bruner set out a theory including a…
role for the language environment in supporting and shaping language language learning.
Nativist theory
Was first assumed that language was something that developed naturally as everyone learned how to speak their own native language.
LAD
Language Acquisition device
Characterised as a mysterious ‘black box’ that was hard-wired for language (Chomsky, 1986).
Theoretical construct that represents the genetic ability of humans to acquire language.
Worked by receiving native language (input) around the child and generating sentences in that same language as output.
LAD works by assuming that…
all language share similarities for sentence construction.
The principals are universal and are the assumptions children bring to the task of learning language.
Chomsky’s LAD theory paid little attention to…
the social environment of developing child - except acknowledged that the primary linguistic input come from the language being used in the family and in the community.
LASS
proposed by Bruner; Language Acquisition Support System.
- Described how parents guided + supported their children’s emerging language through interaction.
Bruner’s theory proposed that adults…
provided suitable interactional frameworks to allow language to develop - scaffolding; contains an instructional part in the form of a framework that encourages learning.
Formats
Routines - micro-interactional patterns
Reference
How people manage to direct each other’s attention by linguistic means
Joint attention
Shared focus of 2 individuals on an object.
