Theories of First Language Acquisition

Behavioristic Approaches: Bloomfield, Fries, Pavlov, Skinner Focus on the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic observable behavior– the observable responses and the relationships or associations between those responses and the events that surrounds them. Effective language behavior is the production of correct responses to stimuli. If a linguistic response is reinforced, it becomes habitual or conditioned; otherwise is abandoned

Skinner’s theory of Verbal Behavior (1957) learning occurs by operant conditioning; a response or operant is maintained by reinforcement from another person; verbal behavior is controlled by its consequences Theory does not adequately account for The human capacity to acquire language Language development and language creativity The abstract nature of language

Other behavioristic options Charles Osgood’s mediation theory (1953): A linguistic stimulus –word or sentence elicits a response that is self-stimulating of following responses by a process that is invisible (abstract) Jenkins and Palermo (1964): the child may acquire frames of a linear pattern of sentence elements and learn the stimulus response equivalences that can be substituted; imitation is essential aspects of stimulus-response associations. Theory does not account for the abstract nature of language and for the fact that all sentences that we utter have underlying/deep structures that are intricately interwoven in a person’s total cognitive and affective experience

Generativist Approaches (cognitive): Chomsky, Lenneberg, Berko The Generative Model: The focus is on abstract rules –freedom from the scientific method/the observable. The approach offers a systematic description of the child’s language as being innately determined, ruled-governed and operating in a parallel fashion. Human languages are all alike at the deep structure—theory proposes a number of potential properties of Universal Grammar UG. Eric Lenneberg: language is human and certain modes of perception, categorizing abilities, and other language related mechanisms are biologically determined –we are born with the capacity to learn language. Berko (1958): The child learns the language not a a series of discrete units, but as an integrated system.

Chomsky (1965) Chomsky: Language is innately determined. Language innate properties explains the child’s mastery of his native language in such a short time despite the abstract nature of linguistic rules. LAD--language acquisition device is a little black box that we all have in our brains that allows humans to master a native language: Ability to discriminate human sounds from other sounds and to determine which sounds and structures are not part of our native language; Ability to organize linguistic data; Ability to construct a complex system such as language out of limited linguistic input.

Other contributions of the theory Universal Grammar UG: Explains why is it that children, regardless of their environmental stimuli (the language around them) learn a linguistic system and how they are innately equipped to build it and their contribution to the acquisition process. The child’s linguistic development is not a process of developing fewer and fewer incorrect structures, not a language in which earlier stages have more mistakes than later stages. The child’s language at any stage is systematic—the child is always making hypotheses in speech and comprehension that are continually tested, revised, reshaped or abandoned.

According to the model generative rules are connected serially According to the model generative rules are connected serially. However, Spolsky (1989): Proposes the distribution processing model PDP--the child’s linguistic performance may be the consequence of many interconnected levels of simultaneous neural interconnections acting in a parallel fashion, rather than a serial process of one rule being applied, then another, then another; The human brain enables us to process many segments and levels of language, cognition, affect, and perception all at once in a parallel fashion; a sentence has a phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, discourse, sociolinguistic and pragmatic properties. A sentence is not generated by a series of rules, rather sentences are the result of simultaneous interconnection of a multitude of brain cells.

Constructivist Approaches (functional): Piaget, Vygotsky, Bloom The study of language now centers on the relationship of cognitive development and the construction of meaning in the environment; Language is seen as one manifestation of the cognitive and affective ability to deal with the world, with others, and with the self; Language must be understood from two stand points: the abstract, formal, explicit rules proposed under the generative grammar [form of language], the functional level of meaning constructed from social interaction.

Cognition and Language development Bloom (1971): Children learn the underlying structures and not superficial word order; however an utterance carries meaning that is context-bound; What children know will determine what they learn about the code for speaking and understanding messages Piaget (1969): The child’s development is the result of his interaction with the environment, with a complimentary interaction between their developing perceptual cognitive capacities and their linguistic experience. What children learn about language is determined by what they already know about their world; Children appear to approach language learning equipped with conceptual interpretive abilities for categorizing the world (Gleitman and Wanner, 1982)

Social Interaction and Language development Social constructivist emphasis of the constructivist perspective—the functions of language in discourse: language functioning extends beyond cognitive thought and memory structure: Language development is a reciprocal behavioral system that operates between the language-developing infant-child and the competent [adult] language user in a socializing-teaching-nurturing role; Language is used for communication; it has a social function

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development What children learn about language is determined by what they already know about the world. Cognitive development is at the center of the human organism --language is dependent upon and springs from cognitive development; Cognitive or mental structure: scheme. Meaning is construed based on previous background knowledge structures.

Vygotsky’s Language/Thought Relationship Language is used for communication; it initially serves a social function. Social interaction, through language, is a pre-requisite to cognitive development; cognitive and communicative development evolves from the social function of language;every child reaches his or her potential development (including language development), in part, through social interaction. Language and thought are distinct and develop independently; when the two systems fuse with the development of inner speech, logical reasoning develops.

Current Approaches: Constructivism Constructivism is a social construction and negotiation of meaning; Learning is a dynamic process that is both social and mental; language is a representational system formed by the child as she relates symbols to concrete concepts and experiences Language and thought interact to promote intellectual growth; thus such representations function as a medium for intellectual growth. Children’s language use reflects their underlying cognitive abilities and their social and emotional growth; Children’s language is culture/community based—it reflects their experiences.

Brunner’s constructivism (1994) Children are the active transformers of their experiences with the world –they pick and choose what they need to make their own world in their head; Children construct meaning by means of social contact and negotiation; Children’s learning occur within a socio-cultural plane and is internalize to the cognitive plane.

Language from the perspective of Constructivism Language is a representational system formed by the child as she relates symbols to concrete concepts and experiences Language and thought interact to promote intellectual growth; thus such representations function as a medium for intellectual growth. Children’s language use reflects their underlying cognitive abilities and their social and emotional growth. Children’s language is culture/community based—it reflects their experiences;