Language Acquisition & theory

Language acquisition is a complex and unique human quality for which there is still no
theory that is able to completely explain how language is attained. However most of the
concepts and theories we do have explaining how native languages are acquired go back
to the approaches put forward by researchers such as Skinner, Chomsky, Piaget and
others. Most of the modern theories we have today have incorporated aspects of these
theories into their various findings.

A major proponent of the idea that language depends largely on environment was the
behaviorist Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner.

B. F. Skinner:
o Born in Pennsylvania. American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and
social philosopher.

o Began working on ideas of human behavior after earning his doctorate from
Harvard.

o Skinner's works include The Behavior of Organisms (1938) and a novel based on
his theories Walden Two (1948).

o He explored behaviorism in relation to society in later books, including Beyond

Freedom and Human Dignity (1971).

Skinner’s view on language acquisition:

 Skinner viewed babies as ‘empty vessels’ which language had to be ‘put in to’.

 Viewed language acquisition as a cognitive behavior.

 Operant conditioning – A child tries and fails to use correct language until it
succeeds; with reinforcement and shaping provided by the parents gestures
(smiles, attention and approval) which are pleasant to the child. This happens
again and again until the behavior is learned and becomes natural and automatic.
Therefore, babies imitate their parents and are either reprimanded or praised
according to their accuracy.

 Skinner in Verbal Behavior (1957) differentiated between two types of verbal

responses that a child makes:
-Verbal behavior that is reinforced by the child receiving something it wants.
- Verbal behavior caused by imitating others.
  He believed that language is acquired through principles of conditioning,
including association, imitation, and reinforcement. According to this view,
children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events.
They also learn words and syntax by imitating others. Adults enable children to
learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct speech. For example, when the
child says ‘milk’, the mother will smile and give him/her some; as a result, the
child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the child's language
development.

Criticism

 Learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language.
 There can be an infinite number of sentences in a language. All these sentences
cannot be learned by imitation.
 Children make errors, such as over regularizing verbs. For example, a child may
say Billy hitted me, incorrectly adding the usual past tense suffix -ed to hit. Errors like
these can’t result from imitation, since adults generally use correct verb forms.
 Children acquire language skills even though adults do not consistently correct
their syntax.
Noam Chomsky:
The main proponent of the view that biological influences bring about language
development is the well-known linguist Noam Chomsky.
o American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political
commentator and activist.

o Sometimes described as the “father of modern linguistics”

o Wrote over 100 books

o Creator or co-creator of Chomsky hierarchy, the universal grammar theory and

the Chomsky-Schutzenberger theorem

o Especially critical of the work of B. F. Skinners

Chomsky’s view on language acquisition:

Chomsky argues that human brains have a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate
mechanism or process that allows children to develop language skills. According to this
view, all children are born with a universal grammar, which makes them receptive to the
common features of all languages. Because of this hard-wired background in grammar,
children easily pick up a language when they are exposed to its particular grammar.
 Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from the
following observations:

 The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most
children, even though different children experience very different environments.
 Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.
 Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.
 Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own
language. These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when
they are created in different cultures.
Factors that Chomsky used to support his theory:

 The child does not need a trigger to begin language acquisition, it

happens on its own. The parent does not need to coax the child to speak, if it
around language production, the child will work to produce that language on its
own.

 There is an optimal learning age. Between the ages 3 to 10 a child is the most
likely to learn a language in its entirety and grasp fluency.

 It does not matter if a child is corrected, they still grasp the language in the
same manner and speak the same way. During one stage, a child will make
things plural that are already plural.

Criticism

Chomsky's work on language was theoretical. He was interested in grammar and much
of his work consists of complex explanations of grammatical rules. He did not study real
children. The theory relies on children being exposed to language but takes no account
of the interaction between children and their carers. Nor does it recognise the reasons
why a child might want to speak; the functions of language.

Similarities and differences between Chomsky and Skinner’s theory

Similarities:

Subject of their study are children.

The learning environment makes a contribution in both theories.

Differences:

Chomsky’s Theory Skinner’s Theory

LAD - Language Acquisition Device: Learning process involving the shaping of
Innate biological ability that all humans grammar into a correct form by the re-
possess. He believed that every child has
already knows about linguistic rules, as
they are born with an innate knowledge of
language.
Innate learning mechanism enables a
child to figure out how the language
works
As long as there are people available to
speak to the child, the child’s biological
endowments will do the rest.
enforcement of other stimulus.
Approaches child as a blank slate that is
filled up by knowledge gained through
experience
Based on children acquiring language
through ‘Behaviorism’. Children will learn
by imitation, reinforcement that comes
from the environments.
-Positive Reinforcement – Rewards,
repetitions, following through of requests
and demands.
-Negative Reinforcement – Punishment,
ignoring, denial of wants

Believes that biology plays almost no part

in the way children learn language.
Finding a solid answer to the problem of language acquisition is far from being over.
Our current understanding of the developmental process is still immature. The debate
between Chomsky and Skinner's beliefs can most simply be put as such: Skinner
believes that language is learned, whereas Chomsky believes that language is
innate, and is simply developed. It is also important to understand the psychological
approaches that each man belongs to; Skinner is a behaviorist, whereas Chomsky is a
structuralist. In many ways, the "debate" between the two men is simply a reincarnation
of the timeless question of "nature versus nurture," which people have found is
impossible to answer most of the time. Both Chomsky and Skinner's theories have led to
significant scientific advancements. Skinner's theory of language acquisition and his use
of operant conditioning to explain how the process occurs has led to very practical real
world applications, such as in the classroom or in the workplace. Chomsky's theory of
universal grammar has led to and inspired many important studies on indigenous
tongues in the Amazon particularly, but also other isolated societies around the world.

Jean Piaget:
 o Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and genetic epistemologist.

o He is most famously known for his theory of cognitive development that looked
at how children develop intellectually throughout the course of childhood.

o Prior to Piaget's theory, children were often thought of simply as mini-adults.

The Piaget ‘Duck’ experiment

One of Piaget’s many careful observations was made when one of his daughters,
Jacqueline, then 7 months old, dropped a plastic duck on the quilt and it fell behind a
fold so that she couldn’t see it. Piaget noticed that despite the fact that Jacqueline could
clearly see where the duck had dropped, and it was within her reach, she made no
attempt to grab for it.

Fascinated by this, Piaget put the duck in her view again but, then, just as she was about
to reach for it, he slowly and clearly hid it under the sheet. Again, she acted as though
the duck had simply disappeared, making no attempt to search for it under the sheet.
This seemed strange behavior to Piaget as Jacqueline was clearly interested in the duck
while she could see it, but seemed to forget about it the instant it disappeared from view
– out of sight and, apparently, out of mind.

What Piaget deduced from these observations, along with many experiments, was that
children do not initially understand the idea that objects continue to exist even when out
of sight. This concept, he thought, children had to work out by themselves by interacting
with and experiencing the world. It wasn’t until around 9 or 10 months of age that
Piaget noticed his children began to search for a hidden object.

Piaget’s four-stage theory of development

While many parents play games with their children like this, what set Piaget apart was
that he used these observations along with many experiments to develop a theory of how
children acquire knowledge, a theory for which he is rightly best remembered.
This theory is a four-stage ladder up which Piaget thought children climbed as they
gathered knowledge about the world:

 Sensorimotor (birth to 18-24 months): infants are aware only of their

sensations, fascinated by all the strange new experiences their bodies are having.
 They are like little scientists exploring the world by shouting at, listening to, banging
and tasting everything.
 Pre-operational (18-24 months to 7 years): During this stage, children can
process images, words and concepts but they can’t do anything with them, they can’t
yet operate on them. It’s as if they’ve acquired the tools of thought, but don’t yet
know how to use them. E.g. in Math they can’t understand that 2 x 3 is the same as 3
x 2.
 Concrete operations (7 to 12 years): At this stage, children gain the ability to
manipulate symbols and objects, but only if they are concrete – abstract operations
are still a challenge.
 Formal operations (12 and up): from here on children are able to think in
abstract terms about the world. Now they can understand concepts such as the
future, values and justice. From around this age children start thinking like adults.

Piaget placed acquisition of language within the context of a child's mental or

cognitive development. He argued that a child has to understand a concept before
s/he can acquire the particular language form which expresses that concept. Piaget
suggested that a child who had not yet reached this stage would not be able to learn
and use comparative adjectives like "bigger" or "smaller". Object permanence is
another phenomenon often cited in relation to the cognitive theory. During the first
year of life, children seem unaware of the existence of objects they cannot see. An
object which moves out of sight ceases to exist. By the time they reach the age of 18
months, children have realized that objects have an existence independently of their
perception. The cognitive theory draws attention to the large increase in children's
vocabulary at around this age, suggesting a link between object permanence and the
learning of labels for objects

Criticism

It is for this grand theory of development that Piaget is much admired. Unfortunately,
like many an ambitious theory, over time evidence was uncovered that contradicted
aspects of this neat time-line. For example Piaget’s conclusions about his daughter
Jacqueline’s failure to reach for the duck were probably wrong. Subsequent studies have
revealed infants as young as 3.5 months appear to understand object permanence.
Psychologists nowadays might explain Jacqueline’s behavior as a failure of memory or
an inability to grasp something that is out of view.

Lev Vygotsky:
o Vygotsky was born in Russia in the same year as Piaget.
 o Vygotsky was not trained in science but received a law degree from the Moscow
University. He went on to study literature and linguistics and got his Ph.D. for a
book he wrote on the psychology of art.

Vygotsky’s view on language acquisition:

To understand Vygotsky´s theory, it is important to look at the political environment

of that time. Vygotsky began to work in psychology shortly after the Russian
revolution, where the Marxism replaced the rule of the Czar. Sharing and co-
operation was encouraged, and the success of any individual was seen as reflecting
the success of the culture.

 Vygotsky incorporates these elements in his model of human development that

has been termed as a sociocultural approach. For him, the individual’s
development is a result of his or her culture.

 Development, in Vygotsky´s theory, applies mainly to mental development, such

as thought, language and reasoning process. These abilities were understood to
develop through social interactions with others (especially parents) and therefore
represented the shared knowledge of the culture. Culture makes two sorts of
contributions to the child’s intellectual development. First, children acquire
much of their thinking (knowledge) from it. Second, children acquire the
processes or means of their thinking (tools of intellectual adaptation) from the
surrounding culture. Therefore, cult

 Vygotsky proposed a zone of learning existed between what a child could do

independently and tasks that could not be achieved unaided. He named this
sweet spot of learning, the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky
defined this as "the distance between the actual developmental level as
determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential
development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers"

Criticism

Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory does not seem to apply to all social and cultural groups.
That is, social groups may not be whole and equal with all learners being able to gain the
same meaning from engagement. However, collaboration and participation vary from
one learner to another, hence the inequality for each learner. As well, there are
differences in skill set for each learner, which produces learning constraints. Learners
with learning disabilities or learning difficulties, for example, might not (be able to) take
away the same meaning from group interactions as those learners without learning
disabilities or learning difficulties. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is unclear
in that it does not account for a precise picture of a child’s learning needs, a child’s
present capability level, or a child’s motivational influences. The ZPD also does not
explain the process of development or how development actually occurs.

Jerome Bruner:

o Jerome Bruner was born in U.S.A and his influence on teaching has been
important as he was one of the leading proponent of discovery approach in
mathematical education.

o In the 1960s Jerome Bruner developed a theory of cognitive growth. His

approach (in contrast to Piaget) looked to environmental and experiential
factors.

o Bruner suggested that intellectual ability developed in stages through step-by-

step changes in how the mind is used.

o He is of the view that while Chomsky suggests a LAD, there must also be a
Language Acquisition Support System or LASS. He is referring to the family and
the social environment of the child in which he interacts and acquires language.

Bruner’s view on language acquisition:

In contrast to the work of Chomsky, more recent theorists have stressed the
importance of the language input children receive from their care-givers. Language
exists for the purpose of communication and can only be learned in the context of
interaction with people who want to communicate with you. Bruner was an
Interactionist who suggested that the language behavior of adults when talking to
children is specially adapted to support the acquisition process. This support is often
described to as scaffolding for the child's language learning. Bruner also coined the
term Language Acquisition Support System or LASS in response to Chomsky's
LAD.

His approach was characterized by three stages which he calls enactive, iconic and
symbolic and are solidly based on the developmental psychology of Jean Piaget;

1. Enactive mode. When dealing with the enactive mode, one is using some
known aspects of reality without using words or imagination. Therefore, it involves
representing the past events through making motor responses. It involves manly in
knowing how to do something; it involves series of actions that are right for
achieving some result e.g. Driving a car, skiing, tying a knot.
 2. Iconic Mode. This mode deals with the internal imagery, were the knowledge is
characterised by a set of images that stand for the concept. The iconic representation
depends on visual or other sensory association and is principally defined by
perceptual organisation and techniques for economically transforming perceptions
into meaning for the individual.

3. Symbolic mode. Through life one is always adding to the resources to the
symbolic mode of representation of thought. This representation is based upon an
abstract, discretionary and flexible thought. It allows one to deal with what might be
and what might not, and is a major tool in reflective thinking. This mode is
illustrative of a person’s competence to consider propositions rather than objects, to
give ideas a hierarchical structure and to consider alternative possibilities in a
combinatorial fashion, (Spencer.K.,1991, p.185-187).

Criticism

Interactionist theories serve as a useful corrective to Chomsky's early position and it

seems likely that a child will learn more quickly with frequent interaction. However, it
has already been noted that children in all cultures pass through the same stages in
acquiring language. We have also seen that there are cultures in which adults do not
adopt special ways of talking to children, so while it may be useful, it seems not to be
essential.

Jean Aitchison:
o Professor of Language and Communication in the Faculty of English Language
and Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Worcester College,
Oxford.
o Her main areas of interest include Socio-historical linguistics; Language and
mind; and Language and the media.
o Looked at the connections between children’s lexical and semantic development.
Once children expand their vocabulary they use network building to sort the
words. An aspect of this stage is understanding hyponymy, which occurs at
around 18 months.
Aitchison’s view on language acquisition:
Atchison believed in the idea that “language has a biologically organized
schedule”. In 1987, she identified three stages that occur during a child’s acquisition
of vocabulary: labeling, packaging and network building.
1. Labeling – The first stage and involves making the link between the sounds of
particular words and the objects to which they refer e.g. understanding that “mummy”
refers to the child’s mother. In other words, associating a name with something.
2. Packaging – This entails understanding a word’s range of meaning. This is when
Over extension and Under extension become a hurdle in the development of the
language.
3. Network Building – This involves grasping the connections between words;
understanding that some words are opposite in meaning. Aitchison argued that there
are no EXACT dates to which a child reaches a certain stage of learning language – some
children learn faster than others. She believed that the speed of learning is influenced by
both innate abilities and environment. Language is partly learned by imitation,
so parents and brothers/sisters play a role in the acceleration of learning the
language. Baby talk whilst learning to speak could hinder the child in learning to speak
later on. Speech timetable created from birth to ten years old.

Summary of pioneer theorists in Language Acquisition

Theory Central Idea Individual with

theory
Behaviorist Children imitate adults. Their correct utterances are Skinner
reinforced when they get what they want or are
praised.
Innateness A child's brain contains special language-learning Chomsky
mechanisms at birth
Cognitive Language is just one aspect of a child's overall Piaget
intellectual development.
Interaction This theory emphasizes the interaction between Bruner
children and their care-givers.