Theories of Language Development

Question 1

Behavioral theories

Answer 1

Language development via classical & operant conditioning & imitation; more recently strategies caregivers/others use to facilitate language development including “motherese” and “recasting”

Question 2

Nativist theories

Answer 2

Emphasize role of innate, genetically-determined factors in language learning

Question 3

Cognitive theories

Answer 3

View language development as a part of cognitive development and propose that language acquisition is motivated by child’s desire to express meaning; Bowerman argues that language doesn’t introduce new meanings to a child, but instead is used to express only those meanings the child has already formulated independently of language

Question 4

What is motherese?

Answer 4

Talking in simple sentences at slow pace with high-pitched voice

Question 5

What is recasting?

Answer 5

Turning a child’s statement into a question

Question 6

What are Chomsky’s ideas about language development?

Answer 6

Children quickly learn to apply very complex grammatical rules to sentences they have never heard before – rules so complex that they can’t be directly taught or independently discovered by the cognitively immature child

Question 7

What is an LAD?

Answer 7

A biologically innate language acquisition device humans are born with that enables children who have acquired sufficient vocabulary to combine words into novel but grammatically consistent utterances and to understand the meaning of what they hear.

Question 8

From what does support for the nativist theory of language development come?

Answer 8

Certain aspects of language that are universal, brain lateralization for language, and that language is best acquired during a sensitive period