Language Theories Flashcards

Flashcards on Language Theories

Nativism

Focuses on syntax and language form, emphasizing that language is innate and biologically based. It posits that humans possess a capacity for language requiring minimal environmental support.

Behaviorism

Emphasizes the role of environmental influence on language development, viewing language as learned behavior through imitation, reinforcement, and successive approximations. It suggests children are passive participants in language learning.

Interactionalism

A combined approach that considers both nature and nurture, incorporating semantic, cognitive, and social aspects. It acknowledges biological and environmental factors in language acquisition.

Noam Chomsky

A key figure in nativism, arguing that language is innate and inherent in humans, with a capacity requiring minimal environmental support. He developed Transformative Generative Grammar.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

A concept developed by Noam Chomsky and Eric Lenneberg, representing a mechanism or function of the brain that supports language learning. It serves as a reservoir of syntactic rules active during the critical period of language learning.

Transformative Generative Grammar

A concept developed by Chomsky to explain the ability to produce an unlimited number of grammatical sentences. It suggests language is processed at deep (phrase structure rules) and surface (transformations) levels.

B.F. Skinner

A prominent behaviorist who believed that language is a learned behavior shaped by experiences and environmental factors through imitation, reinforcement, and successive approximations.

Operant Conditioning

A learning process where the frequency of a behavior changes based on the consequences that follow it, including reinforcement (increasing behavior) and punishment (decreasing behavior).

Positive Reinforcement

A stimulus that increases the frequency of a response when it occurs contingent on that response.

Negative Reinforcement

A stimulus that increases the frequency of a response when it is removed contingent on that response.

Punishment

An aversive stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a response.

Semantic Revolution

Focuses on the study of the structure of early language in the context of the speaker's intended message, with primary theorists like Bloom, Brown, and Schlesinger.

Cognitive Theory (Language Acquisition)

Emphasizes the relationship between language acquisition and cognitive development, suggesting that language emerges as a product of cognitive organization rather than being innate or learned in isolation.

Jean Piaget

Primary theorists in cognitive theory who suggested that language is not innate, but cognitive precursors are.

Social Theory (Language Acquisition)

Focuses on the importance of early social interactions and the language acquisition support structure (LASS) provided by caregivers, with theorists like Bruner and Vygotsky.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

A concept by Lev Vygotsky describing opportunities for caregivers to provide help needed for children to make steady progress in development.

Motherese

Language designed to help children acquire language which can includes: Expansion: adult repeats what a child has said but adds additional words