Theorists Flashcards
What did skinner 1959 believe ?
Believed that language was just another form of learned behaviour
Suggested that children learn through positive and negative reinforcement
Called children’s brains a blank slate ready for them to learn language through interaction
What are the problems with skinners theory?
There’s a difference between the child’s language being true or gramtically correct
It has been suggested that overcorrecting children’s speech can have a bad effect as there are some ages where children start to apply grammar that they go through and learn naturally
Now largely discredited
What to look out for in exams for skinners theory?
-adults teaching or modelling language and children responding
-children imitating adults speech
-children repairing mistakes after correction from adults
What is Chomsky 1957 theory?
Introduced the idea of innateness that the capacity and apparatus for learning lang are already there when we are born
Suggested were born with Language acquisition device LAD which controls development of language
Allows the child to assemble a set of rules about the language as they hear it being used around them
What were the procedures of Berkos “wugs” theory?
Showed children Picts of fake characters called wugs and told them this is a wug then asked them to complete the sentence there are two…
Children ages 3,4 replied wugs clearly applying the grammatical rule to a word they had never heard before.
What is the fis phenomenon and what does it demonstrate?
Demonstrates that perception of phonemes occurs earlier that the ability of the child to produce those phonemes it also illustrates that skills in linguistic comprehension generally precede corresponding skills.
What incident reported the fis phenomenon ?
1960 j.berko and r.brown a child referred to his inflatable plastic fish as a fis however when adults asked him is this your fis he rejected the statement when he was asked is this your fish he responded yes my fis
Shows although a child couldn’t produce the phoneme long s he could perceive it as being different from the phoneme normal s
What is the support for Chomsky?
All children around the world go through very similar stages
Medial research also suggests there are specific areas in the brain to control language
However these ideas don’t suggest that language will be learned whatever happens means children still need interaction to learn
What did pinker suggest?
Pinkers language instinct argues that humans are born with innate ability and capacity for language he seems language as an instinct which has evolved in. Humans
Asserts that language must do two things:
-convey a message to an audience
-negotiate the social relationship between speaker and audience
What is the construction/functional model of development (Tomasello)?
Proposed that children acquire blocks of language rather than single works
Children have an innate facility for intention reading and pattern finding challenging chomskys lad rather than learning an abstract sytem of grammar children function within the social world
What to look for in the exam for Chomsky’s theory?
Children doing more than imitating speech
Over and under extension suggest that children are actively constructing language according to an unconscious model of how language works
Children resisting or simply not responding to correction from adults
What are some problems with Chomsky?
Didn’t pay attention to how children then developed he just focused on the fact that they were hard wired for language
He didn’t say much about the features of interaction such as cds
Never did any practical experiments and was mainly hypothesis
What was Piaget theory?
Suggested that child’s language acquisition is part of a child wider developed so language comes with understanding
A child can’t linguistically articulate concepts they don’t understand
What to look for in piaget theory in exams?
Children talking to themselves while playing
Children failing to use or understand language because they haven’t yet grasped the concept expressed by the language
What are the problems with Piaget?
There’s evidence of children with severe learning difficulties and cognitive problems who still manage to use language far beyond their actual understanding
Language is unique in many ways which makes it distinct from other areas of development
What is bruners theory? Interactions
Put forward the idea that the interactions between child and carer are crucial to language development and help children develop important abilities such as turn taking
Focus on the importance of conversation routines of interaction and the role of CDS
What is bruner 2 theory LASS?
Put language firmly into a social context by saying that children learn to use a language initially to get what they want to play games to stay connected with those on whom they are dependant
Proposed the existence of the language acquisition support system LASS which is the support for language learning provided by parents
What to look for in the exam for Bruner?
Children clearly enjoying their interaction
Parents reinforcing their children’s attempts to speak by responding in a positive way
Adult caregiver using features of CDS
Convo skills being modelled through interaction
What was the case of Jim?
Son of deaf parents he wasn’t deaf himself his parents wanted him to speak normally so taught him little of sign language they used to communicate with each other
Jim spent a lot of time watching to and listening to the radio which meant he heard a lot of spoken language but his speech impairment was seriously impaired until he began seeing a speech therapist and it improved rapidly
The case of genie
Her mother was partially blind and her father was mentally unbalanced due to depression at 20 moths she was diagnosed developmentally disabled and mildly retarded her father subjected her to severe confinement and ritual ill treatment in and attempt to protect her genie spent her life locked up in her room her father would beat her every time she spoke at age 13 genie was almost entirely mute having a vocab of 20 words and a few short phrases
What was lenneberg 1967 theory?
Idea that there is a critical period or sensitive period for language acquisition
What makes us think there might be a critical period?
There are cases of delayed language exposure which together seem to show that only if recovered before age 10 would Norma language development occur
What makes us think there might be a critical period?
There are cases of delayed language exposure which together seem to show that only if recovered before age 10 would Norma language development occur
How early is early enough for a critical period?
Isabelle imprisoned with her mate uneducated mother starting at 6 rapidly caught up to Normal age levels
Jims case speech contact around 3,6 reaching age norms by 6
