Behaviourist - Skinner#card
Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are reinforced when they get what they want or are praised.
B.F. Skinner is the main theorist associated with the language learning theory. He states that language learning involves “input, imitation, and habit formation through repetition”. This conclusion was reached.
All children are born as a “blank slate”, and all learning happens through a process called operant conditioning. A child can be trained to repeat certain actions if they get a favourable response (positive reinforcement) or a lack of any positive response that will discourage repetition in the future (negative enforcement).
Role of caregiver: models language for the child to copy and provides positive reinforcement for success. Lexical development: copies lexemes as heard Syntactic development: children learn key phrases and then substitute key words “Monkey hear, monkey say!”
Limitations#card
- Children rarely simply repeat what adults say
- Children often make ‘virtuous errors’ - logical but non-standard utterances, which suggest they are creatively working out grammatical rules, not copying
- Children appear to go through the same predictable stages of development whatever the input. This throws into question the importance of positive and negative reinforcement from adults.
Innateness/Nativism - Chomsky#card
A child’s brain contains special language-learning mechanisms at birth.
Argued that the human brain has a naturally programmed ability to learn language and an ability to work out language systems in terms of grammar and syntax. The term universal grammar is also used to describe this global capacity to learn languages at similar rates and in similar ways. The idea of virtuous errors helps support the idea of the LAD.
Nutshell: Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is programmed to acquire language, all children have inbuilt ability to learn language Role of caregiver: do not activity shape or train children in their language Lexical development: the brain knows the words go onto categories and fits them once exposed Syntactic development: LAD processes the categories of words and how these categories interact within syntax to place words in sentences “I was born to talk!”
Limitations
It has been argued that a child is born not with a set of linguistic categories but with some sort of process mechanism - a set of procedures and inference rules. The work was also purely theoretical, not based on linguistic data. The theory also seems to downplay the part played by interaction between the children and their carers.
Cognitive - Piaget#card
Language is just one aspect of a child’s overall intellectual development.
This suggests that children would not develop until particular stages of cognitive development had been reached. Outlines four cognitive stages: Sensorimotor (0 - 2) years, Pre-operational (2-6/7 years), Concrete operational (6/7-11/12 years) and Formal operational (11-16+ years).
For example, a child would not be able to use comparative adjectives (small, smaller, smallest, etc) unless they first understood the concept of size. It’s possible to link a child’s language to their conception development in early stages, such as object permanence which enables the child to articulate abstract ideas and talk about non-deictical concepts.
Interaction - Bruner#card
This theory emphasises the interaction between children and their caregivers.
Rejects the LAD and focuses on the importance of a child’s interaction with caregivers as the key to language development. Suggested the importance of a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) which refers to the caregivers and other important participants within a child’s life. Suggested that the way in which carers question, encourage and support the child through scaffolding (like fill in the gaps, basically helping/structure) enables children to gradually develop their speech. Concentrated more on the need for quality input from caregivers to facilitate learning rather than on imitation and positive/negative reinforcement.
Scaffolding
Lev Vygotsky suggested the importance of doing for a child to be able to develop, and suggested that a parent acts as a “more knowledgable other” (MKO), and this helps develop the ZPD
Limitations
All children of all backgrounds and languages tend to progress through similar stages predictably, so this challenges the idea that children exposed to child-directed speech will tend to develop more quickly. Some cultures (e.g. the Kaluli tribe in Papua New Guinea) dont appear to use child-directed speech at all to young children - yet youngsters’ language seems to develop at the same rate as elsewhere.
Additional Theories
Critical Period/Age Hypothesis - Eric Lenneberg #card
Coined the term critical period Believed that in the first few years of life, sufficient social interaction and exposure to language was essential in order that a child might gain fill master of the language. This links in well to the case of Genie, as after she had passed the critical period, she was not able to acquire language beyond a very basic level.
The Wug Test - Jean Berko Gleason#card
Created in 1985 to test the notion that children have a more sophisticated understanding of linguistic morphology than they have been taught explicitly. Uses pseudo words like ‘wug’ to ensure the child has never been exposed to the word previously. 76% of 4 to 5 years old were able to deduce what the plural of the noun ‘wug’ would be. The results seem to suggest that children have an ability to understand grammatical rules (in this case, grammatical inflections) and transfer them to other examples they’ve never heard before. This supports Chomsky’s nativist theory.
Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis#card
This hypothesis states that there is a difference between language learning and language acquisition
- The learner acquires language unconsciously in language acquisition
- The main criteria is the provision of ”comprehensible input” which provide input just above the learner’s existing level of competency - Krashan coined this as ‘input+1’ or ‘i+1’
- In language learning (explicitly taught), the learner picks up the language through conscious discovery and by learning the grammatical rules and structures of the language
Monitor Hypothesis#card
According to the monitor hypothesis, the learner learns the grammar rules and functions of the language consciously (thinks about them and check themselves after an utterance) rather than its meaning
- It lays more emphasis on the correctness of the language There are three standards required to use this hypothesis properly:
- The acquirer must know the language rules
- The acquirer must reproduce the exact form of the language
- The acquirer must review the language and apply its rules in a conversation
Natural Order Hypothesis#card
The natural order hypothesis is the idea that children learning their first language acquire grammatical structures in a pre-determined, ‘natural’ order, and that some are acquired earlier than others. According to the natural order hypothesis, learners acquire the grammatical morpheme-ing before the morpheme third person -s One possible implication of this hypothesis is that teaching language through a traditional structural syllabus may not necessarily help them to acquire the language they need. Attempts to get the learners to produce structures before they are ready to do so may fail.
Input Hypothesis#card
This hypothesis focuses on acquisition rather than learning of the second language. It suggests that the learner develops the language naturally as they receive fun and interesting information. Acquisition theories emphasis the importance of comprehensible input, which is language just beyond the competence of the learner and provides the ideal conditions for acquisition to happen.
In the classroom:
Affective Filter Hypothesis#card
This hypothesis that emotional factors can affect language acquisition. They can have a negative or positive effect. Negative affective factors are called affective filters and are an important idea in theories about second language acquisition. The learner is less likely to learn the language if the affective filter is higher. Hence, the learning environment must be stress-fee and positive so that the learner can learn properly.