1. Shape of the Class: The Foundation
Foundation for studies in SLA
First Language Acquisition
Research Methodology

2. First Language Acquisition
Langue Parole
Competence Performance
Nature Nurture
Innate knowledge Tabula Rasa
Nativist position Behaviorist position
Define positions
Explain first language acquisition in each (plus one more)
Interrogate

3. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Definition
We learn language through a process of stimulus (hearing, input) and response (our trials). Correct responses are rewarded, as is our correct language use, which increases over time. Key phrase: Habit Formation
We are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and access to Universal Grammar (UG). We are not born knowing English, or French, or Thai. Rather, we are born with innate knowledge of certain universal structures.

4. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Definition
We learn language through a process of stimulus (hearing, input) and response (our trials). Correct responses are rewarded, as is our correct language use, which increases over time. Key phrase: Habit Formation
“UG consists of a set of innate, abstract, linguistic principles which govern what is possible in human language” (Larsen-Freeman & Long, p. 230). Principles cluster around “parameters” – sets of properties of a language that vary in certain restricted ways.

5. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Definition
We learn language through a process of stimulus (hearing, input) and response (our trials). Correct responses are rewarded, as is our correct language use, which increases over time. Key phrase: Habit Formation
Children are born with abstract, structural knowledge about Language, which allows them to discover the rules of particular languages -- “to engage in constant evaluation … so as to construct the simplest possible system [to explain] the linguistic data” (Brown, p. 24). Key Phrase: Rule Formation

6. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Definition
We learn language through a process of stimulus (hearing, input) and response (our trials). Correct responses are rewarded, as is our correct language use, which increases over time. Key phrase: Habit Formation
We are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and access to Universal Grammar (UG). We are not born knowing English, or French, or Thai. Rather, we are born with innate knowledge of certain universal structures. “UG consists of a set of innate, abstract, linguistic principles which govern what is possible in human language” (Larsen-Freeman & Long, p. 230). Principles cluster around “parameters” – sets of properties of a language that vary in certain restricted ways. Children are born with abstract, structural knowledge about Language, which allows them to discover the rules of particular languages -- “to engage in constant evaluation … so as to construct the simplest possible system [to explain] the linguistic data” (Brown, p. 24). Key Phrase: Rule Formation

7. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism:
Nativism
Associated Scholars
B.F. Skinner. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Noam Chomsky. (1959). Review of Verbal behavior. Language, 35, 26–58.

8. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism:
Nativism
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
Input in a specific language triggers the LAD. Children discover basic structures of the language to be learned by “comparing” their innate knowledge of Language with the structure of the particular language.

9. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
pro-drop (elimination of pronoun subject) UG: +PD (pro-drop is allowed) Example: [He] is my brother = [ Ø ] Is my brother What languages use this structure? Spanish, Italian, others? What languages don’t? English, French, others?

10. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
pro-drop Children learning Spanish as a first language receive input that confirms the UG structure / reinforces the UG setting. Children learning English as a first language receive input that contravenes the UG structure, and they reset the parameter:
+PD
-PD.

11. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
Cf: heuristic data analysis.
We are born with some orienting / categorizing structures that help us make sense of the linguistic data we collect. These structures help us organize linguistic data (input), so we can begin to see the rules of a particular language – whether they confirm or contravene UG. Thus, language acquisition is a process of Rule Formation.

12. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Connectionism / Association
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
Cf: heuristic data analysis. We are born with some orienting / categorizing structures that help us make sense of the linguistic data we college. These structures help us organize linguistic data (input), so we can begin to see the rules of a particular language – whether they confirm or contravene UG. Thus, language acquisition is a process of Rule formation.
Pinker, S. (1999). Words and rules: The ingredients of language. NY: Basic.
Language acquisition occurs from links or connections children make between words / phrases and situations, building an “associa-tionist network.”

13. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Connectionism / Association
How it Works
Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear. Correct structures are positively reinforced. Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit formation.
Cf: heuristic data analysis. We are born with some orienting / categorizing structures that help us make sense of the linguistic data we college. These structures help us organize linguistic data (input), so we can begin to see the rules of a particular language – whether they confirm or contravene UG. Thus, language acquisition is a process of Rule formation.
Pinker, S. (1999). Words and rules: The ingredients of language. NY: Basic.
Language acquisition occurs from links or connections children make between words / phrases and situations, building an “associationist network.”
Pinker, Steven. (2002). The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. New York: Viking.

14. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism:
Interrogation
Chomsky’s “logical problem” Do children hear perfectly formed language? How can children learn language perfectly if their input is not perfect? If we only learn what we hear, how to explain the creation of complex, unique sentences / structures?
wug
wugged
“Jump me down, Daddy!”
“Take me a bath!”

15. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism:
Interrogation
Chomsky’s “logical problem” Bearing in mind the potential deficits of input and imitation, how can people so unsophisticated (children) learn something so complicated as language, so well, in five years? According to nativists, “habit formation” cannot explain language acquisition.

16. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Interrogation
Chomsky’s “logical problem” Bearing in mind the potential deficits of input and imitation, how can people so unsophisticated (children) learn something so complicated as language, so well, in five years? According to nativists, “habit formation” cannot explain language acquisition.
How to “prove” LAD or UG? Where does it exist? Ironic that we study the “deep structure” of language (one’s “competence”) by examining surface structure (“performance.” “An innate idea is inaccessible to proof.” Like the Big Bang, or Creationism, it explains everything w/out proof.

17. First Language Acquisition
Behaviorism
Nativism
Interrogation
Chomsky’s “logical problem” Bearing in mind the potential deficits of input and imitation, how can people so unsophisticated (children) learn something so complicated as language, so well, in five years? According to nativists, “habit formation” cannot explain language acquisition.
Awesome determinism of LAD / UG Reductionist / deterministic approach to development re: Piaget (personal) or Marx (societal). But, of course, human (physical) development is indeed deterministic.

18. First Language Acquisition

19. First Language Acquisition