CLA theorists

Skinner- Behaviourist

• a child imitates the language of its parents/carers

• successful utterances are reinforced by praise therefore unsuccessful utterances are forgotten

- a child who says “drinked” is not copying an adult but is instead overapplying a rule (that /d/ forms past tense verbs) → THIS IS A VIRTUOUS ERROR

Chomsky- Innateness/Nativism

• children have an innate ability for language acquisition by their LAD

• they have a natural predisposition to learning language which is triggered by hearing speech and their brain is therefore able to interpret it

- jim had deaf parents and without carer interaction, radio/tv speech meant little to him

Piaget- Cognitive

• a child must understand a concept before they can develop language to express it, for example wouldn’t be able to use comparative adjectives unless they first understood size/scale.

• sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (questions/imaginative), concrete operational (organisation), formal operational (scientific reasoning)

Bruner- Interactionist

• importance of interaction between child/caregivers

• rejected LAD and suggested LASS, which includes scaffolding

• eg through simplification or religion of key lexis

Berko & Brown- Fis/Fish

• rejecting an adult’s pronunciation “fis” but continuing to pronounce it “fis” themself

• even if a child is unable to pronounce a phoneme correctly, they can understand it

• opposes behaviourism

Nelson- 60%

• 60% of first words are nouns (naming)

• verbs were the second largest group

Bellugi- Negations

1. no/not at start of the sentence

2. no/not in the middle of the sentence

3. no/not correctly used

Halliday- Functionalism

• Instrumental- language used to fulfil needs/desires

• Regulatory- language used to command/persuade/request something

• Interactive- language used to form relationships

• Personal- language used to express personal opinions

• Heuristic- language associated with discovery (questions)

• Representational- language used to exchange facts/experiences

• Imaginative- language used in storytelling/play

Stages

1. One word/Holophrastic (one word)

2. Two Word (two words)

3. Telegraphic (short sentences with incorrect grammar)

4. Post-Telegraphic (grammatically confident sentences)

• babbling stage is before the one-word stage (i doubt this will come up though)