Theories of Language Acquisition

Question 1

What are the 4 different theories, their central ideas, and proponents?

Answer 1

BEHAVIOURIST
- Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are reinforced when they get what they want or are praised.
- Skinner

Innateness
- A child’s brain contains special language-learning mechanisms at birth.
- Chomsky

Cognitive
- Language is just one aspect of a child’s overall intellectual development.
- Piaget

Interaction
- This theory emphasises the interaction between children and their caregivers.
- Bruner

Question 2

He proposed this theory as an explanation for language acquisition in humans.

Answer 2

Burrhus Frederic Skinner - Behaviourism

Question 3

How did behaviourist psychologists developed their theories? How are animals taught to perform various tasks?

Answer 3

• Carrying out a series of experiments on animals.
• By encouraging habit-forming

Question 4

• What is it called when researchers rewarded desirable behaviour?
• What is it called when undesirable behaviour is punished or simply not rewarded?

Answer 4

• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement

Question 5

Skinner suggested that a child…the language of its parents or carers.

Answer 5

imitates

Question 6

What are virtuous errors?

Answer 6

These are intelligent mistakes. Mistakes that occur but with a positive outcomes.

Question 7

What is the reason given on the limitations of Behaviourism?

Answer 7

Language is based on set of structures or rules which not be worked out simply by imitating individual utterances. These mistakes made by children show that they are not simply imitating but actively working and applying rules. When a child makes mistakes in terms of grammar (past tense, for example), they are over-applying a rule.

Question 8

He published a criticism of B.F. Skinner’s behaviorist theory in 1957.

Answer 8

Noam Chomsky

Question 9

According to this theory, children must have an inborn faculty for language acquisition. The process is biologically determined–the human species has evolved a brain whose neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth.

Answer 9

Innateness

Question 10

What does LAD stands for and what does it mean?

Answer 10

Language Acquisition Device, where the child’s natural predisposition to learn language is triggered by hearing speech and the child’s brain is able to interpret what s/he hears according to the underlying principles or structures it already contains.

Simple def.: When a child hears people talking, their brain uses its built-in language rules to understand and learn how to speak.”

Question 11

While Chomsky’s original position was that the LAD contained specific knowledge about language, another person has proposed that it may be more like a mechanism for working out the rules of language.

Answer 11

Dan Isaac Slobin

Question 12

What are the evidences to support the innateness theory?

Answer 12

• Humans have special vocal equipment (our throat and mouth) that allows us to make a wide range of sounds needed for speech. Our brains also have specific areas for language. When parts of the brain related to language are damaged, it affects our ability to speak and understand. This is seen in stroke victims.
• In places like Surinam, people from different language backgrounds, like escaped slaves, had to communicate using a mix of languages. This resulted in a basic language called a “pidgin.” What’s fascinating is that their children turned this pidgin into a fully developed language called a “creole.” This suggests that children have a natural ability to create complex languages, even in difficult situations.
• Deaf people use sign languages to communicate, and these sign languages are not just simple gestures but full languages with their own grammar. Deaf children learning sign languages go through similar learning stages as hearing kids learning spoken languages. Even in cases where deaf kids had no language input, they created a new sign language (a “signing creole”) in Nicaragua.

Question 13

What were the limitations of Chomsky’s theory?

Answer 13

• It was theoretical; focused only on grammatical rules and not on the interaction between children and their caretakers.
• He did not study real children.

Question 14

He placed acquisition of language within the context of a child’s mental or cognitive development. He argued that a child has to understand a concept before s/he can acquire the particular language form which expresses that concept. And what is this theory called?

Answer 14

Jean Piaget; Cognitive Theory

Question 15

It is the capacity to arrange objects or items in a logical order based on a particular characteristic, such as size, weight, volume, or length.

Answer 15

Seriation

Question 16

Is a concept in cognitive psychology and developmental psychology that refers to a child’s understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. In other words, it’s the ability to recognize that something still exists even if it can’t be seen or directly perceived.

Answer 16

Object permanence

Question 17

Recent theorists emphasize the importance of language input from caregivers in contrast to Chomsky’s innateness theory. What are these?

Answer 17

Input / Interactionist Theories

Question 18

An Interactionist who highlighted the significance of child-directed speech (CDS) in supporting language acquisition.

Answer 18

Jerome Bruner

Question 19

It is adapted to facilitate a child’s language learning process and often referred to as “scaffolding.”

Answer 19

CDS (Child-directed speech)

Question 20

He introduced the term LASS as an alternative to Chomsky’s “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD). Who is he and what does LASS mean?

Answer 20

Jerome Bruner; Language Acquisition Support System

Network of adults that interacts with children, and in doing so, support children’s language acquisition development.

Question 21

He studied parent-baby interactions before the babies could speak and found that the turn-taking structure of conversation develops through games and non-verbal communication before words are used.

Answer 21

Colwyn Trevarthen