Theories of Language Development

Question 1

language is learned through reinforcement, punishment, and imitation; the quantity and quality of the parents’ verbal interactions with the child and responses to the child’s communication attempts influence the child’s rate of language development; cannot account for the unique utterances and errors that young children make

Answer 1

Learning Theory

Question 2

despite wide variations in circumstances, living situations, and contexts, infants around the world achieve language milestones at about the same time; an inborn language acquisition device (LAD) equipped with universal grammar permits infants to quickly and efficiently analyze everyday speech and determine its rules; researchers have not identified the LAD or universal grammar Chomsky though underlies all languages; language does not emerge in a finished form; instead, children learn to string words together over time based on their experiences and trail and error

Answer 2

nativist theory

Question 3

infants have an inborn sensitivity to language and discriminate a wide variety of speech sounds, including those that adults can no longer distinguish; exposure to language influences infants’ sensitivity to speech sound, and the ability to detect sounds not used in their native language declines throughout the first year of life; language acquisition occurs in a social context; babies learn language by interacting with more mature, expert speakers who can speak at their development level

Answer 3

interactionist theory