Lesson 1-4

L A N GUAGE AC Q UI S I T I O N
Language acquisition is a process by which humans acquire the

capacity to percieve and comprehend language as well as produce
words to communicate. Language acquisition usually refers to First
Language Acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native
language.
This is distinguished from Second Language Acquisition, which deals
with the acquisition of additional languages.
Characteristics of first Language Acquisition
1) It is an instinct. This is true in the technical sense, i.e. it is triggered by birth and takes its
own course, though of course linguistic input from the environment is needed for the child to
acquire a specific language.
2) It is very rapid. The amount of time required to acquire one's native language is quite short,
very short compared to that needed to learn a second language successfully later on in life.
3) It is very complete. The quality of first language acquisition is far better than that of a second
language (learned later on in life).
4) It does not require instruction. Despite the fact that many non-linguists think that mothers
are important for children to learn their native language, instructions by parents or care-takers
are unnecessary, despite the psychological benefits of attention to the child.
Theories of Language
Acquisition
• Imitation, Nativism or Behaviorism: based on the empiricist or behavioral approach.
• Innateness or Mentalism: based on rationalistic or mentalist approach.
• Cognition: based on cognitive-phycological approach.
• Connectionism: language acquisition does not require a separate "module of mind"

Explaining First Language
Acquisition
The Imitation, Nativism, or Behaviorist perspective.
• Theory of learning that was very influential in the 1940s and 1950s.
• Language has long been thought of a process of imitation and reinforcement
• Imitation theory is based on an empirical or behavioral approach.
• Main figure: B.F Skinner
• Children start out as clean slate and language learning is a process of getting linguistic
habits printed on these slates.
• Language acquisition is a process of experience
• Language is a conditioned behavior: the stimulus response process
• Stimulus Response Feedback Reinforcement
Children learn step by step
Imitation
Repetition
Memorization
Controlled drilling
Reinforcement
Reinforcement can either be positive or negative

Explaining First Language
Acquisition
• Popular view: Children learn to speak by imitating the utterances heard around them and
analogy.
• Childrens strengthen their responses by the repetitions, corrections, and other reactions
adults provide, thus language is focused based
• General perception is that there is no difference between the way one learns a language and
the way one learns to do anything else
• Main focus is on inducing the child to behave with the help of mechanical drills and exercises
• Learning is controlled by the conditions under which it takes place and that as long as an
individual is subjected on the same condition, they will learn on the same condition
Nativist or Innateness Theory
• Main argument: Children must be born with an innate capacity for language development
• Main figure: Bloomfield and Noam Chomsky
• Children are born with an innate readiness for language acquisition, and that this ability makes
the last of learning a first language is that it would otherwise be.
• The human brain is naturally ready for language in the sense when children are exposed to
speech, certain general principles for discovering or structuring language automatically begin to
operate
• Chomsky originally theorized that children are born with Language
Acquisition Device(LAD) in their brains. He later expanded this idea into
that of Universal Grammar , as set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are
common to all human languages.
• According to Chomsky, the presence of Universal Grammar in the brains of the children allow
them to reduce the structure of their native languages from "mere exposure"
• Primary data is then used to make sentences or structures after a process of trial and
error, correspond to those in the adult speech
Innate theory is criticized for
• The role of adult speech cannot be ruled out in providing a means of enabling children to work
out the regularities of language for themselves
• Difficult to formulate the detailed properties of LAD in an uncontroversial manner, in the light
of the changes in generative linguistic theory that have taken place in the later years, and
meanwhile, alternative accounts of the acquisition process have evolved
• That there are principles of grammar that cannot be learned on the basis of positive input
alone
The Universal Grammar
Approach
According to Noam Chomsky, UG focuses to answer three basic questions about human
language:
1. What constitutes knowledge of language?
2. How Language is acquired?
3. How is knowledge of language put to use?
'Knowledge of language' stands in UG for the subconscious mental representation of langauge
which underlies all language use
What constitutes knowledge of
language and how it is acquired?
• UG claims that all human beings inherit a universal set of principles and parameters which
control the shape of human language
• Chomsky proposed principles are unvarying and apply to all human languages similar to one
another; in contrast, parameters possess a limited number of open values which characterize
differences between languages
• The biologically endowed UG equip the children naturally with a clear set of expectation
about the shape of the language according to the pre-determined timetable and anthropizes
with age
Cognitive Theory
• Main Argument: language acquisition must be viewed within the context of a child's intellectual
development
• Linguistics structures will emerge only if there is an already established cognitive foundation
• Before children can use linguistic structures, they need first to have developed the conceptual
ability to make relative judgements
• Most influential figure: Genevan psychologist Jean Piaget(1896-1980) who proposed the model of
cognitive development
• Focuses on exploring the links between the stages of cognitive development and language skills
• The links have been clearly shown for the earliest period of language learning
Input Theory
• The studies of Motherese in the 1970's focused upon the maternal input
• Main Argument: Parents do not talk to their children in the same way they talk to other adults
and seem to be capable of adapting their language to give the child maximum opportunity to
interact and learn
• The utterances of the parents are considerably and subconsciously simplified especially with
respect to grammar and meaning and sentences are shorter
• The meanings conveyed by the mothers are predominantly concrete and there is a more
restricted range of sentence
Connectionism
• It differs sharply from Chomsky's Innate Theory, they hypothesized that language acquisition
does not require a separate "module of mind"
• Language acquisition in terms of how children acquire link or connections between words and
phrases and the situation in which they occur
• When children hear a word or phrase in the context of a specific object, event or
person, an association is created in the child's mind between the word of phrase and what it
represents
• Children are exposed to many thousands of opportunities to learn words or phrases

Lesson 1-4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 1-4

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 1-4

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

L A N GUAGE AC Q UI S I T I O N

Language acquisition is a process by which humans acquire the

• Innateness or Mentalism: based on rationalistic or mentalist approach.

• Cognition: based on cognitive-phycological approach.

• Connectionism: language acquisition does not require a separate "module of mind"

Reinforcement can either be positive or negative

You might also like