Child Language theorists

Chomsky

Nativist - Child acquisition theory

What is CAT?

Every child is born with a LAD, a hypothetical tool to help learn language by subconsciously storing information in the brain for written and oral communication.

Skinner

Behaviourist - Children learn language through conditioning and its environment - children receive “rewards” for using language in a functional way.

Piaget

Cognitive - Children develop their linguistic competence alongside their natural ability to understand the surrounding world

Halliday

The 7 functions of language

Instrumental

To express their needs - “I want”

Regulatory

To influence the behaviour of others - “Do as I tell you”

Interactional

To form relationships - “Me and you”

Personal

To express opinions or emotions - “I’ll make something you really like”

Heuristic

To seek information and ask questions - “Tell me why”

Imaginative

To express creativity - “Let’s pretend”

Informative

To give information and facts - “I made daddy a snowman”

Tomasello

Usage-based theory and social pragmatic theory

What is usage-based theory?

→ Language comes from our ability to cooperate and socialise

→ Children learn language in social contexts
+ Learn to read intentions before working out patterns of language (grammar)

→ Tomasello argues against the idea of universal grammar (Chomsky)

→ Can be linked to cognitive theorists like Piaget

What is social pragmatic theory?

→ Children learn language socially

> Slots and frames (Where is x, want y, have z)

> Pattern finding (Children notice patterns and turn them into rules)

> Mind-reading (Children develop an ability to guess at thoughts and intentions of those around them

Lenneberg

Critical period

What is the critical period?

Children have a limited period during which their language can develop rapidly. After this, development is much harder.

→ Links to the LASS theory and Skinner’s behaviourist theory

Berko

The wug test

→ Proved children learn the rule of plurals and tested over-generalisation

What are Brown’s stages of language development via morphemes?

27-30 months:

31-34 months:

35-40 months:

41-46 months:

1: ‘-ing’, in/on, ‘s’ pluras

2: irregular past tense, ‘s possessive, uncontractible copula

3: articles, regular past tense, 3rd person regular present tense

4: 3rd person irregular, auxillaries, contractible copula,

Bruner

Language acquisition support system (LASS)

What is the LASS theory?

Children are born with an ability to develop language but they require regular interaction with their caregivers or teachers to learn and understand it to a level of full fluency

Proof for Chomsky’s LAD theory

→ Children can make up phrases they’ve never heard before to communicate adequately

→ Understanding of grammar structures before being shown or taught them vocally

Proof for Bruner’s LASS theory

→ Caregivers support children’s language development via gesturing, reformulation, and asking questions

→ Good quality interaction = developed language, think feral children

What proves behaviourism? (Skinner)

Children imitate accents and colloquialisms, receptive bilingualism, convergence/divergence and overt/covert prestige in certain situations

All languages…

…pick up language at around 18 months

“Motherese” is not 100% needed…

…but does hugely help

Innatists are theorists like…

…Chomsky

Cognitivists are theorists like…

…Tomasello

A cognitivist believes…

…there is no special LAD/LASS, it’s just a part of being human

Both innatists and cognitivists believe we have an innate ability for picking up language, but…

…for different reasons

Berko & Brown say…

…we correct facts (giraffe, not zebra) but not grammar

Skinner is largely debunked by Tomasello because…

…children use language to obtain needs, and understand intentions behind language

Tomasello’s usage-based theory says that…

…children engage in:

intention reading to understand communicative intentions behind language, such as requests/commands/statements

pattern finding to construct their own language

Tomasello challenges Chomksy by saying that…

…there is no universal grammar

children’s general cognitive abilities (specifically their understanding of others’ intentions) sufficiently explain their rapid growth in linguistic growth + therefore disagrees with PotS

language acquisition is a part of children’s general cognitive abilities (i.e. classifying the world into categories, understanding paralinguistic features by 9 months, etc)

Tomasello and Bruner disagree because…

Tomasello focuses on general cognition, social interaction (joint attention + understanding other’s mental states), and children being active learners who are constantly engaged

Bruner believes children have a LASS (need a specialized environment with caregivers giving language-rich input), need context and meaning (via world interaction), and need a caregiver to scaffold and give opportunities to practice language skills

Lenneberg in 1967 theorised the…

…critical period hypothesis, where children cannot acquire language naturally after puberty

Kuhl says that…

…7 years old is the cut-off and 14 is the absolute max

At 6 months, children can discriminate between different languages via sounds…

…but at 12 months children become context-bound learners

Phases of sound production:

2-4 months: cooing

4-6 months: babbling (CVCV)

Vowels are acquired first…

…and nasals are the first consonants (/m/, /n/, /ng/)

Children start to acquire words by…

…understanding the association, finding out its grammatical category, and then comprehending/producing its form

The vocabulary spurt is when children go from 50 words at 18 months…

…to around 250 at 24 months

According to Snow, mothers use more nouns than any other lexical category…

…and therefore children’s perpetual system is wired to notice objects that satisfy conditions like cohesion and continuity

Children understand meanings of…

…verbs at 18 months

Children understand meanings of adjectives describing basic properties (colour) at 14 months…

…and more complex ones like texture at 21 months

6-12 months

12-18 months

18-24 months

24-30 months

30+ months

Babbling

Holophrastic

Two-word

Telegraphic

Post-telegraphic

Order of acquisition:

30 months

~36 months

~48 months

~50 months

-ing

-s

-ed

contractible copulas and auxillaries

Omission of subjects are common…

…between 2-3 years old

Which concepts does Piaget use to explain child development?

Schemas, assimilation, and accommodation

Schemas are…

…mental representations of the world (dogs have 4 legs, bark, and are furry)

Assimilation of schemas is when…

…new information is added to existing schemas (a new breed of dog being a dog)

Accommodation of schemas is when…

…new information conflicts with existing schemas, leading to a modification of existing schemas to better fit new information (adding cats to the dog schema, only to realise it meows - then making a new cat schema, or making the dog schema more general)