Behaviorist Theory

Innatist Theory

Cognitivist theory

Theory Central idea linguist

Behaviorist Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances

are reinforced when they get what they want or

are praised.

Skinner

Innate Language is an innate capacity. A child's brain

contains special language-learning mechanisms

at birth.

Chomsky

Cognitive Lang. is just one aspect of a child’s overall

intellectual development

Piaget

Cognitive Language is a symbolic representation which

allow the children to abstract the world.

Lev

Vygotsky

• Key Terms

1

• Conditioning

• Classical

• operant

2• Stimulus

• response

3

• Reinforcement

• Negative

• positive

Behaviorism

Classical conditioning

Pavlov

Operant conditioning

Skinner

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

(March 20,1904-August 18,1990)

An American Psychologist

Proposed operant conditioning as

compared to classical conditioning

of Pavlov.

According to Skinner, learning a language

operates on the same principles that a rat

will use to learn a maze or to learn to press

a button.

B.F Skinner proposed this theory as an explanation for Language

acquisition in human.

All behavior is learned and that humans enter the world with no

innate abilities. He famously said,

"Give me a child, and I'll shape him into anything.”

B. F SKINNER’S entire system is based on operant

conditioning (learning's a function of change in overt behavior)

The organism, in everyday activities, is in the process of

“operating” on the environment.

Behaviorists view the process of language acquisition as a building

process that results from interaction with the environment.

It is also called imitation theory which is based on an empirical or

behavioral approach.

Children start out as clean slates and language learning is a process

of getting linguistic habits printed on these slates.

Language is a ‘conditioned behavior’: the stimulus response process

Stimulus Response Feedback Reinforcement

• People’s behaviors are directly observable, rather than the mental systems underlying these behaviors.

• Children are born with a mind that is like a blank state. This state is called Tabula Rasa

• Language is a verbal observable behavior .

• Chunking theory: Language is learned in parts, then linked together

• 1st words 2nd phrases 3rd sentences

• Reinforcement will generalize similar stimulus generalizations

Imitation

Repetition

Memorization

controlled drilling

Reinforcement

Reinforcement can either be positive or negative

Children imitate sounds and practice what they hear.

Correct structures are positively reinforced.

Language acquisition is, thus, a process of habit

formation.

Factors in Language acquisition:

• Association

• Reinforcement

• shaping

• repetition

• Corrections

• imitation

Imitation is important in phonological development.

Children develop regional accents suggesting they imitate the sounds from people around them.

Negatives Children don’t pick up grammatical structures immediately as some

children show an incorrect use of grammar. For example they may say ‘wented’ instead of went. Showing they have not imitated this of others.

Kids normally only use the words they understand so if they imitate of others they would copy all words spoken by another person.

If the kid is deaf, it cannot copy another person therefore uses sign language suggesting this theory does not provide an account for all kids.

By Noam Chomsky (born 1928---Present)

Limitations of Behaviorist view of language acquisition

led in 1960’s to the alternative ‘generative’ account of

language.

Main Argument: Children must be born with an innate

capacity for language development.

Main Figure: Noam Chomsky

Children are born with an innate propensity for language

acquisition, and that this ability makes the task of

learning a first language easier than it would otherwise

be.

Chomsky theorized that children were born with a hard-wired language acquisition device (LAD) in their brains.

LAD is a set of language learning tools, intuitive at birth in all children.

He later expanded this idea into that of universal grammar, a set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are common to all human languages.

The child exploits its LAD to make sense of the utterances heard around it, deriving from this ‘primary linguistic data’ – the grammar of the language

The language acquisition Device (LAD) is a postulated organ of the brain that is supposed to function as a congenital device for learning symbolic language (i.e., language acquisition).

The L.A.D is a pre programmed box.

L.A.D is a function of the brain that is specifically for learning language. It is an innate biological function of human beings just like learning to walk.

LAD explain human acquisition of the syntactic structure of language.

It encodes the major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain.

It enables the children to analyze language and extract the basic rules.

According to Noam Chomsky, the mechanism

of language acquisition formulates from innate

processes.

we are born with set of rules about language in our

brains.

“Children are equipped with an innate template or

blueprint for language and this blueprint aids the child

in the task of constructing a grammar for their

language.”

This is known as “Innateness Hypothesis.”

Chomsky says:

The UG does not have the actual rules of each

language but it has PRINCIPLES & PARAMETERS.

The rules of language are derived from the Principles

& parameters.

Principles: universal basic features of

Grammar e.g.. Nouns, Verbs & Structure

Dependency etc.

Parameters: the variation across language that

determines one or more aspects of Grammar

e.g. Pro, Drop and Head Direction.

The Parameters are set during Language

Acquisition.

Chomsky posited that there is a critical age

for learning a language as is true for the

overall development of the human body.

Note: linguist Lenneberg suggested that the crucial period of

language acquisition ends around 4-5 years

Chomsky thus proposes that "all children share the

same internal constraints which characterize narrowly

the grammar they are going to construct."

(Chomsky, 1977, p.98)

“Language learning is not really something that the

child does; it is something that happens to the child

placed in an appropriate environment much as the

child’s body grows and matures in a predetermined way

when provided with appropriate nutrition and

environmental stimulation.”

-Noam Chomsky

Behaviorism • “Say what I say”

Innatism• “It’s all in your mind”

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