4A. Theories of language: learning including Skinner; nativist including Chomsky's language acquisition device (LAD); interactionist including Vygotsky

Skinner’s language development

• Main principles of operant condition = positive + negative reinforcement

• Views babies as “empty vessels” → which language has to be inputed

  • Babies → have no more capacity for language → must learn it completely → via environment

• Agreed → language = technically a cognitive process → but proposed → children learn language through behaviorist principle → of operant conditioning

• Children learn words → by associating sounds with objects/actions + imitation

• Adults enable children to learn words + syntax → by reinforcing correct speech

Reinforcement

• Reinforcement → process → behaviour is strengthened → becoming more likely to happen again/be/imitated/be repeated again

• Children receive ‘rewards’ → for using correct language → in a correct + functional manner → so parents shape child’s language behaviour

• Parents reward infant vocalizations → e.g. babbling → by giving the infant attention

  • Increases frequency of vocalizations + motivates infant to vary babbling

• Sometimes by accident → child produces more recognizable speech sounds → parents might respond excitedly → thinking child is trying to say a known word

  • Response might reinforce → child’s protection of speech sound

• To maintain attention + reinforcement → children modify sounds → until shaping process results in recognizable words

• Process continues → increasing complexity + grammatical correctness → use of language = positive reinforced

• Reinforcement does not have to be physical → could also be social reinforcement → form of praise + encouragement

Positive reinforcement

Making a behaviour stronger → by following the behaviour → with a pleasant stimulus

Negative reinforcement

Making a behaviour stronger → by taking away → a negative stimulus

Imitation + behaviourism

• Environmental expose to language of others → e.g. parent + teacher → allows ability to learn it

  • Children can only develop language → that they have learned from others → finite (limited) grammar

• Skinner’s Theory of Behaviorism = central to his view of language → human beings define right + wrong → relative to conditioned experience → of pleasure + pain

  • Certain actions + painful response = will be avoided

  • Certain actions + pleasurable response = will be repeated/imitated

    • Human actions = conditioned by pleasure/pain nexus

• Behaviour = creation of habits → habits developed with actions done repeatedly → receieves a reward of some kind

  • Language is no different

Features

• Children begin to speak → nonsense words/babbles

  • None are provided with any rewards

• Child begins to mimic parents’ language → interest of parents = piqued

  • Result → children rewarded by parents → when they speak a recognizable word

• Rewarded words/phrases = remembered; nonsense words that get no attention = forgotten

Strengths

• Skinner’s ideas of language acquisition = widely used today → parents are now more aware → of how to control their child’s behaviour → in terms of what they say → because of reinforcement

  • Became important → when it comes to parenting

• Theory = simple + easy to apply

  • People respond to rewards over time + become habituated to actions → that lead to praise

Weaknesses

• Does not take into consideration → complexity of grammar → cannot be explained through mere imitation of parents

• Children often have a hard time → imitating complex sounds of parents → in the first place

  • Chomsky holds idea → biological necessity = better explanation for language development

• Infinite no. of sentences in a language → all sentences cannot be learned → by imitation alone

• Some parents → pay very little attention → to vocalization of infants → who still develop language despite this

• Conditioning = lengthy process → whereas child’s development → particularly during 2nd year of life = very rapid

• Observational studies of parent-child conversations → shows that parents rarely reinforce → correct grammar → in child’s peech

  • Focuses on truthfulness + accurate statements

    • Makes it less likely that conditioning = convincing explanation of how children use grammar