language acquisition

Question 1

what are the 3 approaches to studying how we learn language acquisiton ? + the other approach that is about innate

Answer 1

1. behavioural
2. social interaction
3. cognitive approach
4. linguistic approach (innate)

Question 2

what is the 3 key models of language acquisiton + their key people

Answer 2

1. experience-based approaches (empiricist) – skinner, tomasello
2. generative approaches (rationalist, nativist) – chomsky
3. interactionist approaches (cognitive) – piaget

Question 2

what is the experience-based approach about?

Answer 2

• behaviour approach – skinner, tomasello
• research focuses on how child’s environment contributees to their language learning
• study e-language (performance) because it is observable

Question 3

what is the difference between competence (I-language) and performance (E-language)

Answer 3

competence - the mental grammar of a language that an idealised speaker has internalised

performance - actual use of language by speakers in concrete language

Question 4

how do we study competence or performance? what does current research study?
& what specific things does current research look at + examples

Answer 4

studying our linguistic competence is based on our performance by looking at memory & attention, articulatory immaturities, word finding difficultiees e.g. lexical decision tasks

Question 5

what is the generative approach about?

Answer 5

• chomsky
• research focuses on the development of our internalised grammatical competence (phonology, syntax, semantics)
• study the (l-language) – our competence
• believe that language acquisition is innate = universal grammar

Question 6

what is the interactionist approach about?

Answer 6

• piaget
• modern behaviourist approach
• social interactive area is the emergence of language
• non linguistic aspects of interaction e.g. (turn taking, mutual gaze) contribute to childrens mastery of language

Question 7

what did tomasellos 2000 study reveal ?

Answer 7

he revealed a behaviourist learning model of language – learning through imitiation

he highlights the difference between imitation

mimicking – repeating verbatism with little or no understanding
cultural imitiative learning – appreciaiton of the purpose of function of the behaviour e.g. through non linguistic aspects of interaction

Question 8

what are the stages of language acquisiton device?

Answer 8

1. input (PLD) initial stagge
2. LAD (language acquisition device)
3. final state -> the “mental grammar’ for a particular language

Question 9

what is in the first stage of the language acquisiton device?

Answer 9

1. the input (PLD) initial stage
   - children are born knowing the most important linguistic options

Question 10

what is the 2nd stage of the language acquisition device?

Answer 10

• LAD (language acquisition device)

Question 11

what is the 3rd stage of the language acquisition device?

Answer 11

final state
–> the “mental” grammar for a particular language
- children have developed their innate knowledge of language – linguistic principles/ constraints, decisions on how to se ‘parameters’ that explain variation across language
- learned about lexicon, language-specific rules, pragmatic knowledge

Question 12

what is the continuity hypothesis?

Answer 12

• studying the stages children pass throgh can inform us of the properties of universal grammar, children’s non adult stages should reflect properties of other human language

Question 13

what is the language faculty stages (how information flows)

Answer 13

1. linguistic input
2. working memory buffer
3. phonology
4. lexicon
5. syntax
6. semantics

Question 14

what is the syntax language facult stage? what is within syntax?

Answer 14

it is the inventory of syntactic categories (s, np, pp)
- ability to form rules & carry out transformations
- universal principles apply to all languages

Question 15

what is the nativist approach? and what are the beliefs?

Answer 15

• chomsky approach
• belief of universal grammar
• belief that language faculty is a separate ‘module’ that is sealed off from other cognitive systems
• e.g. children can put together complex sentences but can’t tie their shoes, count objects etc.

Question 16

what are ‘core principles’ of universal grammar – ‘constraint based’ theory ?

Answer 16

belief that we all a constrain in our hypothesis space that guide us to make only certain kinds of hypothesis
- they speed up the process of language acquisition, limiting the wrong turns children can take in language development

Question 17

what did brown & hanlon study reveal?

Answer 17

that parent’s don’t correct their children for grammatical errors –> revealing children must already know certain aspects of language –> supporting innate theory

Question 18

what is behaviourist approach to language acquisition?

Answer 18

• skinner
• language is learned like all other mechanisms, every child reaches an equivalent final stage
• through operant conditioning –> language is voluntary it does not have to occur

Question 19

what is stimulus discrimination & stimulus generalisation?

Answer 19

stimulus discrimination – respond specifically to the world around us e.g. saying ‘ball’ when there is a particular ball
e.g. dogs may bark at strangers but not at family members at front door

stimulus generalisation – evoke behaviour original stimulus evoked in response to other similar stimuli e.g. say ‘ball’ in response to a variety of different looking balls
e.g. child fears big dog so is now scared of all big dogs

Question 20

what is recursion?

Answer 20

allows us to use certain types of phrases over and over again e.g. repetition of possessive, prepositional phrases

Question 21

what is response chaining?

Answer 21

child builds up association between words as well as groups of words –> but ungrammatical sentences can be formed

Question 22

who are key people of experience based approaches?

Answer 22

skinner, tomasello

Question 23

who are key people of generative approaches?

Answer 23

chomsky

Question 24

who are key people of interactionist approaches?

Answer 24

piaget