Theories of Language Acquisition

• Imitation Theory

children acquire language by listening to the speech around them

and reproducing what they hear.

• Reinforcement Theory

children learn to speak like

adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the

(stems from behaviorism)

right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones.

• Connectionist Theory

children learn language through neural connections in

the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language

and by using language.

• The Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

children acquire a language

by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

• Social interaction Theory

children acquire language through social interaction--in

particular with older children and adults--and prompt their caregivers to supply them

with the appropriate language experience they need.