Theories + Concepts Flashcards
Behaviourism (skinner)
Nurture; similar to Social Interactionists
- Advocated by Skinner- believed humans are conditioned, not just in terms of their linguistic behaviour, but also in terms of other behaviours too.
- The environment (rather than inbuilt knowledge) teaches us what we know + causes us to amend our behaviour in certain circumstances.
- Opposition to Chomsky, who believed that the capacity for speech relied on ‘nature’, Skinner believed that it was dependent on ‘nurture’.
- Thus, Skinner thought language was acquired through a mixture of copying + reinforcement.
- Parents/carers are likely to provide models for the child to copy ‘say “bye bye” to daddy’ or to amend a child’s non-standard utterances so that the child can copy the ‘correct’ version.
- Conditioning: process by which humans (+ animals) are taught or trained to respond, + learn by receiving positive reinforcement (e.g. praise from an adult) for whatever is deemed to be appropriate learning within that specific context- for choosing the correct word, or for politeness, for example.
- Positive reinforcement: when a behaviour is rewarded + therefore encouraged to be repeated.
Define Conditioning.
Behaviourism (Nurture)
- Conditioning: process by which humans (+ animals) are taught or trained to respond, + learn by receiving positive reinforcement (e.g. praise from an adult) for whatever is deemed to be appropriate learning within that specific context- for choosing the correct word, or for politeness, for example.
Define Positive Reinforcement.
Behaviourism; Nurture
- Positive reinforcement: when a behaviour is rewarded + therefore encouraged to be repeated.
How to apply the Behaviourist Theory + What to look out for in data.
- Adults explicitly modelling or teaching language, + children responding
- Children imitating/repeating adults’ speech
- Children learning or repairing mistakes after correction from adults.
State the limitations of Skinner’s Behaviourist Theory.
- Lang based on set of structures or rules, cannot be worked out simply by imitating individual utterances. Mistakes made by children reveal that they’re not simply imitating but actively working out + applying rules
- Example: child who says ‘drinked’ instead of ‘drank’ isn’t copying an adult but rather over-applying a rule. Child has discovered past tense verbs are formed by adding a ‘d’ or ‘t’ sound to base form
- These ‘mistakes’ occur because there are irregular verbs which don’t behave in this way. Such forms are often referred to as virtuous errors
- Vast majority of children go though same stages of language acquisition- appears to be a definite sequence of steps- Developmental Milestones
- Apart from certain extreme cases, sequence seems to be largely unaffected by treatment child receives
- Few children receive much explicit grammatical correction- parents more interested in politeness + truthfulness.
Nativism (chomsky)
Nature
- Nativists believe babies are born with an inbuilt capacity to learn language.
- Chomsky thought the capacity to develop speech was ‘programmed’ into the human brain; called this the language acquisition device.
- Language Acquisition Device (LAD): term coined by Chomsky to denote the inherent capacity of humans for learning language.
- Universal Grammar: a theory, attributed to Chomsky, which proposes that there are properties + rules shared by all human languages that are ‘hardwired’ into the brain, i.e. they exist innately rather than being taught.
- Children use constructions like ‘wented’ + ‘bestest’ not because they are copying them from those around them, but because they are applying grammatical rules which they have an innate capacity for knowing (formation of past tense verbs by adding the suffix -ed; formation of superlatives by adding suffix -est)
Define Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
Nativism; Nature
- Language Acquisition Device (LAD): term coined by Chomsky to denote the inherent capacity of humans for learning language.
Define Universal Grammar.
Nativism; Nature
- Universal Grammar: a theory, attributed to Chomsky, which proposes that there are properties + rules shared by all human languages that are ‘hardwired’ into the brain, i.e. they exist innately rather than being taught.
Jean Berko-Gleason 1958; Wug Test
Supported Nativism; Nature
- Berko conducted the ‘Wug Test’; demonstrated that young children have seemingly extracted rules from the language they have been exposed to + have internalised them- proof is that they can apply these rules to language they haven’t been exposed to.
How to apply the Innateness Theory + What to look for in data.
- Children doing more than simply imitating adult speech
- Things like over + under-extension suggest children are actively constructing language according to an unconscious model of how language works
- Children resisting or simply not responding to correction from adults.
Halliday 1975; Taxonomy of Language
Halliday (1975), states children are motivated to develop language because it serves certain purposes/function for them. Halliday identifies 7 functions that lang has for children in the early years (Halliday’s Taxonomy of Language).
1) Heuristic: Language used that helps the child find out more about the environment they inhabit (e.g. ‘Where the boat go?’)
2) Imaginative: Use of language to create an imaginary world; constructive narratives for creative and/or comedic effect.
3) Interactional: Language use serving the purpose of relationship-forming + making contact with others (e.g. ‘Nana, me love you.)
4) Representational: When language is employed to convey information + facts (e.g. ‘that car red’)
5) Instrumental: When child’s language expresses their needs (e.g. ‘Want milk.’)
6) Regulatory: When language is used to tell others what to do (e.g. ‘Come here.’)
7) Personal: Language use to express opinions, feelings + and sense of the child’s identity (e.g. ‘I is brave girl’)
Explain Dore’s alternative to Hailday’s theory of language functions.
Focuses more on each individuals utterances
- Labelling- naming person, object or place
- Repeating- repeating an adult word or utterance
- Answering- responding to an utterance of another speaker
- Requesting Action- asking for something to be done for them
- Calling- getting someone’s attention
- Greeting- greeting someone
- Protesting- objecting to request from others
- Practising- using lang when no adult is present
Interactionism (Bruner)
Nurture
- Bruner emphasises the environment within which the child lives, especially the social environment, in supporting the development of the LAD.
- Notion that adults play a crucial role in assisting the child’s linguistic development- one way in which this is done is via the concept of scaffolding.
- Scaffolding: Adults, through their interactions, provide the child with conversational material + patterning (e.g. the parent may say ‘What did we buy at the shop today? Did we buy apples?’, thus providing the child with some key lexis + grammatical structures, supporting them in continuing the conversation)
- Basic form of scaffolding starts before the child can function as an effective producer of language- even non-verbal responses may be elicited by parents/carers; these exchanges are known as ‘proto-conversations’.
- Adult may thus frame the child’s responses by making utterances that encourage the child to fill in the blanks, or may recast what the child has said as to amplify it or to offer it back to the child in a standard form.
- Framing: controlling the agenda of a conversation (its direction + subject); or making utterances that encourage the child to fill in the blanks.
- Recasting: rephrasing + extending a child’s utterances
- Bruner came up with the concept of the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) which, he believed, supported the predisposition to learn language (Chomsky’s LAD).
-Language Acquisition Support System (LASS): the support provided by parents + other carers to the child’s language development.
- It is through interaction that children learn the pragmatic of language.
Define Scaffolding.
Interactionism; Nurture
- Scaffolding: Adults, through their interactions, provide the child with conversational material + patterning
- Example: parent may say ‘What did we buy at the shop today? Did we buy apples?’, thus providing the child with some key lexis + grammatical structures, supporting them in continuing the conversation.
- Basic form of scaffolding starts before the child can function as an effective producer of language- even non-verbal responses may be elicited by parents/carers; these exchanges are known as ‘proto-conversations’.
Define Framing.
Interactionism; Nurture
- Framing: controlling the agenda of a conversation (its direction + subject); or making utterances that encourage the child to fill in the blanks.
