Child Language Acquisition theories and theorists

Chomsky (nativist)

Universal Grammar + LAD

• Introduced idea of innateness - the capacity and apparatus for language learning are there when we are born

• we are born with a Language Acquisition Device - controls development of language

• Overextension/underextension + virtuous errors (misapplication of a grammatical rule - morphology)- suggests children are actively constructing language according to an unconscious model of how language works

Skinner (behaviourist)

Tabula Rasa (blank slate)

• Behaviorism = the theory that language development is down to conditioning rather than internal events like thinking

• Positive/negative reinforcement

• Imitation rather than interaction

• Called children’s brains a blank slate ready for them to learn language through interaction

• believed language was just another form of learned behaviour

Piaget (cognitive)

Cognitive

• Believed a child cannot linguistically articulate something they do not understand e.g. needs to understand size and scale before using comparative adjectives or superlatives

• Language comes with understanding

Stages

• Sensorimotor - birth to 18 months

• Preoperational - 2 - 7 years

• Concrete operational - 7-11 years

• Formal operational - 11+

Vygotsky (social interactionists theory)

ZPD + MKO

• Ideas based on the fact that language development is linked to social interaction - we learn language when it is modeled by someone at a more advanced level

• ZPD = zone of proximal development (what they can do with help)

• MKO = more knowledgeable other

• Interaction rather than imitation

Bruner (social interactionist theory)

Scaffolding + LASS

• Language acquisition support system - made up of parents and other caregivers and arguably could include older siblings whose language is more developed

• Interaction rather than imitation

Bellugi

Negatives and Pronouns

1. put ‘no’ at start of sentence e.g. ‘no wear my shoes’

2. move ‘no’ into sentence e.g. ‘I no wear my shoes’

3. add ‘no’ to the verb to form a negative e.g. ‘I don’t want to wear my shoes’

Berko and Brown

Fis Phenomenon

Berko Gleason

Wug test

Jean Aitchinson

Stages of linguistic development

• Labeling - linking words to the objects they refer to

• Packaging - exploring the labels and to what they can apply. Over/under extension occurs in order to understand the range of a words meaning

• Network building - making connections between words, understanding similarities and opposites in meaning

Michael Halliday

Functions of language

• Language develops based on our developing needs

• These needs will be context-dependent and therefore vary from one community to another

• Can be linked to Maslow - hierarchy of needs

• Babies initial needs tend to be physiological, safety and love so their language functions to meet these needs. Crying when they are hungry for example

Language functions

• Instrumental - to satisfy needs and wants

• Regulatory - to control others

• Interactional - to create interactions with others

• Personal - to express personal thoughts and opinions

• Imaginative - to create imaginary words

• Heuristic - to seek information

• Informative - to communicate information

Lenneburg

Critical period for language learning

Katherine Nelson (1973)

First words & corrections

• found that children who’s mothers who correct them too much develop slower

• observed that first words fell into four categories:

  • naming things/people e.g. mummy, milk

  • actions/events e.g. give, put, down

  • describing/modifying things e.g. hot, too, nice

  • personal/social words e.g. please, hi

Eve Clark (1973)

Semantic field hypothesis

• claimed that there are a universal set of features that children identify in an object when deciding what word to apply to it

• these include shape, size and texture

• she claimed that shape was the most salient (noticeable) feature used by children to apply to a word to an object

Pinker

• Argues that humans learn language primarily through an instinct guided by human interaction that develops naturally as infants are brought up in their respective communities

• Calls the human capacity for language ‘Mentalese’

• Language is an instinct rather than a skill - everyone has a spoken language regardless of whether they have a written version

• we cannot learn through imitation as no two utterances are the same

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) - IRF

• Initiation - adult asks questions

• Response - learners respond

• Feedback - adult gives praise, corrects, adds more detail

Hart and Risley

SES and langauge

• high-SES (socio economic status) parents hear more utterances a day - longer and more different words

• children have larger vocabularies

Patricia Kuhl - linguistic genius of babies

• up to 6 months, babies can recognise phonemes of many different languages

• after 6 months, babies start to ‘tune in’ to the sounds of their own language and ‘tune out’ other sounds

• bilingual babies ‘take statistics’ from two languages at once

• watching or hearing a speaker does not have the same impact as a live speaker

• US babies were able to ‘learn’ Mandarin at 6 months

De Villier and De Villier - deaf children and CLA

• deaf children with hearing parents did not benefit from an MKO as parents did not speak ASL well

• no effective LASS for these children

Ochs and Schieffelin (1994) - Kaluli of Papua New Giunea

• Kaluli mothers do not address their infants directly

• they do not engage in the simplification synonymous with CDS

• despite this, the children become fluent speakers within the normal range of developmental variation

Singleton and Newport - universal grammar

• 2004 study

• child learned ASL as 1st language from parents as their 2nd language

• parents provided imperfect model

• child still learned correct grammar rules

• idea of innate universal grammar

John Dore’s

Infant Language Functions

• Labelling

• Repeating

• Answering

• Requesting action

• Calling

• Greeting

• Protesting

• Practising