Language Acquisition Theories

Various theories and approaches have emerged over the years to study and analyze language acquisition.
Three main schools of thought that provide theoretical paradigms are:
- Behaviorist Theory
- Innatist Theory
- Cognitivist Theory

Central Idea: Children imitate adults; their correct utterances receive reinforcement when they achieve desired outcomes or praise.
Key Figure: B.F. Skinner
- Proposed that language acquisition is a learned behavior, without any innate capabilities.
- Famous quote: "Give me a child, and I'll shape him into anything."

Language learning results from:
1. Imitation - Word-for-word repetition of language heard.
2. Practice - Repetitive manipulation of linguistic forms.
3. Feedback on Success - Positive reinforcement for correct responses.
4. Habit Formation - Developing consistent and repeatable linguistic behaviors.
The effectiveness of language acquisition is influenced by:
- The quality and quantity of language exposure.
- Consistency of reinforcement from the environment.

Conditioning Types:
- Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
- Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
Key Concepts:
- Stimulus - An event that triggers a response.
- Response - The reaction of an individual to a stimulus.
- Reinforcement:
- Positive Reinforcement - Increases behavior by providing a rewarding stimulus.
- Negative Reinforcement - Increases behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus.

Children learn language in a step-by-step manner through:
- Imitation of sounds and speech patterns.
- Repetition and memorization of phrases.
- Controlled Drilling and feedback from adults.
- Understanding that both positive and negative reinforcement play key roles.

Children acquire language through imitation, strengthening their linguistic skills with repetitive exposure from their environment.
Learning is perceived as a uniform process that follows the same principles across different activities.
Focus is on motivating children through mechanical drills and exercises to enhance language production.

Strong Stimulus-Response Connection: Determines the likelihood of a behavior occurring.
Responses that are reinforced become habitual, while unreinforced responses may not occur again.

Definition: Any event that increases the likelihood of a preceding behavior.

Benefits include:
- Praise
- Repetition
- Frequent exposure to language
- Material rewards (e.g., toys, treats)

Not beneficial to the recipient and may cause them to avoid it. Examples include:
- Physical punishment or discomfort
- Verbal criticism and scolding
- Note: Negative reinforcement differs from punishment, which occurs after undesirable behavior.

Children do not always replicate adult grammar accurately, which provides evidence against the imitation-based model.
Example:
- A child repeatedly misuses grammar despite corrections from an adult:
- Child: "Nobody don't like me."
- Despite the mother's efforts to correct the statement, the child maintains the incorrect structure across multiple repetitions.
This suggests that language acquisition may be more related to maturation than mere imitation.

Positives:
- Important for phonological development.
- Regional accents reflect the sounds learned from the environment.
Negatives:
- Children may not learn all grammatical structures effectively; for instance, they might mistakenly say "wented" instead of "went."
- Children tend to use only the language they understand, implying limits on imitation.

Language is seen as a behavior that requires reinforcement from the environment.
Reinforcers can be classified as either positive or negative and may be primary (essential for survival) or secondary (learned).
It is posited that languages can be unlearned by removing stimuli and reinforcers that support language use.