Unit: Child Language Acquisition
Contents (whole unit):
- Theorists/theories
- Phonological development
- Lexical development
- Semantic development
- Grammatical development
- Pragmatic development
Child Language Acquisition Theories:
B.F.Skinner’s Imitation theory:
Claim: Theorists who believe this theory believe that language, though complex, is a form of
behaviour. Skinner studied the mechanisms of behaviour modifications in laboratory
animals and developed a technique known as ‘operant conditioning’. Operant conditioning
is where a behaviour is reinforced through reward and punishment.
The Imitation theory claims that children learn language through copying and imitating
others, as children are naturally good mimics. This ability is used extensively in language
acquisition. Small children listen to older people speaking, then try to imitate the ‘correct’
sounds associated with particular objects. This behaviour is reinforced by rewards, such as
praise and attention. If the children make the ‘wrong’ sounds, they are usually ignored, or
given negative reactions, which to the child, seems like a punishment. Imitation is important
in phonological development.
Evidence for: Accents, children pick up accents from the adults around them very quickly;
phonemic contraction; children are born ‘international’, they are born with the ability to
recognise all 150 different speech sounds made by the human race. They then begin to only
imitate the sounds associated with where they are born; Nelson’s First Words; Preverbal
stages ‘later babbling’ and ‘melodic utterance’; Roger Brown’s ‘Fis’ Phenomenon.
Evidence against: Rewards given to children during the correct acquisition of lexis or
grammar are too few to explain the explosion of learning that children go through at this
stage. Children often produce and use language they haven’t heard before, for example
when learning to build sentences and the use of underextensions and overextensions; Order
of acquisitions of inflections and function words; overgeneralisation.
Noam Chomsky’s Innateness Theory:
Claim: Chomsky claims that language is a unique from of human activity, not a conditional
behaviour. There are also innate structures in any human mind to recognise and respond to
language. Chomsky says the ability to learn is innate, children possess it from birth. He
criticised Skinner’s theory as inadequate and proposed instead that children acquire
language, not by imitation but by using their Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which
enables children to recognise basic structure and rules surrounding language. According to
,Chomsky, this is because there are invariable, innate deep structures (principles) and these
form a part of a child’s instinctive knowledge of universal language structure. Languages
differ because of their variable surface structures (parameters). It is these surface structures
of their mother tongue that the children have to learn. This is what Chomsky defines as
Universal Grammar (UG).
Evidence for: All languages have similar structures and roots, and all children tend to acquire
language at similar rates and similar ways; Poverty of the Stimulus (POS) – children are not
exposed to rich enough input/data within their linguistic environments to acquire every
feature of their language. This is considered evidence contrary to the idea that language is
learned solely through experience and imitation; Nicaraguan Sing Language – before the
1970s, deaf people were largely isolated from each other, and used simple gestures to
communicate with their families and friends. However, Nicaraguan school children
combined gestures and elements of their home-sign systems to create their own language,
used in the schoolyard, the bus to and from school, the street, etc. When linguist Judy Kegl
began to analyse the language, she noticed the younger children had taken the sign
language of the older children to a higher complexity. This more complex sign language is
now known as Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN). Some linguists see this as proof that
language acquisition is hard-wired inside the human brain and children have an innate
ability to use language in some forms; Rescorla’s overextension types; Preverbal stages up
to and including early babbling; overgeneralisation; acquisition of questions and negatives.
Evidence against: No mention of input and interaction. Children need input to trigger the
LAD. If the Innateness theory were a complete explanation, then children would acquire
language just by listening to it. Children appear to need interaction, not just passive
absorption in order to acquire language affectively.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory:
Claim: Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and a major researcher and theorist of cognitive
development. He believed that children’s thinking progresses along an observable and
describable route. The child moves from the sensory-motor stage to the pre-conceptual
stage, to the concrete-operational stage, to the formal-operational stage (11 years and
older). A child cannot operate in a later stage before mastering the stage before, which
Piaget linked to language acquisition. Children need to develop concepts before they use
appropriate language. The cognitive theory applies to early development, as later links
between language acquisition and intellectual development can be perceived and suggested
but not proven.
Evidence for: Object permanence – before about 18 months, the child operates on a
principle of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. At this age, however, they begin to realise that
objects continue to exist, even if they are out of sight. There is, in fact, a sharp increase in
vocabulary after the object-permanence stage is reached; underextensions; Nelson’s first
words; grammatical development stages; Order of acquisitions of inflections and function
words.
, Evidence against: There is clearly a correlation between stages of intellectual development
and language acquisition. Greater language acquisition and higher language skills may be
linked to intelligence, but it is not clear if it is or not, and how it is or is not. Both attributes
are likely to be linked with other factors too, such as, social expertise, amount of social
interaction, amount of variety of linguistic experiences, breadth of reading, types of material
read, listening and analysing skills; The fact is that some children whose mental
development is delayed in some way can use language more fluently in terms of both lexis
and grammar than cognitive theory suggests is possible (e.g., autistic children or children
with Down’s Syndrome).
Jerome Bruner’s Input/Interaction Theory
Claim: This theory doesn’t directly contradict other theories but stresses the role of
interaction in language acquisition. One of the most significant factors affecting a child’s
language acquisition is their interaction with their parents. Listening alone isn’t enough,
there needs to be two-way feedback. Children can learn turn-taking and the pattern of
question and answer, alongside its expectations. In addition, parents and other significant
adults, talk to children in different way to normal adult conversations (Child Directed
Speech). Bruner maintained it was not so much that children are innately skilled at language
acquisition, but parents are highly skilled at adjusting the nature of their speech to children
and children’s needs. Bruner called his system the Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS) as a challenge to Chomsky’s LAD. It is the parents who, through parent-child
interaction, create a language in the child’s mind. This is all based on the work of
psychologist Lev Vygotsky who stated that, when learning, a child needs a More
Knowledgeable Other (MKO) i.e., an adult, to be present to help the child slowly develop the
ability to do certain tasks without help. When applied to language development, Vygotsky’s
explanation suggests that even if Chomsky’s LAD does exist, it cannot produce complete
language acquisition in isolation because there is a point beyond which a child will not
develop language without external assistance. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
theory is showing that we can learn more in the presence of an MKO with the following
diagram:
Evidence for: Genie – a case that supports the need for interaction and input, even if an
innate ability to learn language exists, is Genie, who spent almost all of the first thirteen
years of her life locked inside a bedroom, strapped to a potty chair. By the age of thirteen,
Genie was entirely mute. Psychologists, linguists, and other scientists exhibited great
interest in the case due to its perceived ability to reveal insights into the development of
