***

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

THEORIES
By: Mazhar Iqbal Ranjha
 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

Theory Central idea linguist

Behaviourist Children imitate adults Skinner

Cognitive Lang. is just one aspect of a child‟s Piaget

overall intellectual development

Innateness Lang. is an innate capacity Chomsky

Interaction Emphasis the interaction b/w child Bruner

and their care giver
 BEHAVIOURISM

John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – Ivan Petrovich Pavlov September

September 25, 1958) an American 26, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a
psychologist who established the famous Russian physiologist
psychological school of behaviorism.
L. BLOOMFIELD- STRUCTURALISM

 Leonard Bloomfield
(April 1, 1887 – April
18, 1949
 Language 1933
BF SKINNER- BEHAVIOURISM

 (March 20,1904-August
18,1990)
BEHAVIOURISM

 B.F Skinner (March 20,1904-August 18,1990) was an

American Psychologist.
 B.F Skinner proposed this theory as an explanation for
Language acquisition in human.
 B. F SKINNER‟S entire system is based on operant
conditioning (learning's a function of change in overt
behaviour)
 Language is a „conditioned behavior‟: the stimulus
response process
 Stimulus Response Feedback Reinforcement
 Thus, Children learn language step by step

Imitation

Repetition

Memorization

controlled drilling

Reinforcement

Reinforcement can either be positive or negative

BEHAVIOURISTS’ VIEWS:

 Behaviorists view the process of language

acquisition as a building process that results
from interaction with the environment. In
outlining his assertion that humans acquire
spoken language as a result of behavioral
conditioning.
***

 B.F. Skinner writes that

 “A child acquires verbal behavior when
relatively unpatterned vocalizations,
selectively reinforced, gradually assume
forms which produce appropriate
consequences in a given verbal community”
(Skinner)
***

 Skinner views the child as the "passive

subject of operant conditioning in whom
randomly occurring behavior is
selectively reinforced" (Vocate).
PRINCIPLES

1. Behaviour that is positively reinforced will

reoccur
2. Information should be presented in small
amounts so that responses can be
reinforced
3. Reinforcement will generalize similar stimuli
(stimulus generalization)
Objections

 In formulating the process of language

acquisition we do not feed to mention stimuli
occurring prior to the behavior to be
reinforced. It is difficult, if not impossible, to
discover stimuli which evoke specific vocal
responses in the young child.
 For example: What a lovely scene!
***

 There is no stimulus which makes a child say

b or a or e, as one may make him salivate by
placing a lemon drop in his mouth or make his
pupils contract by shining a light into his eyes.
The raw responses from which verbal
behavior is constructed are not "elicited." In
order to reinforce a given response we simply
wait until it occurs.
Two Kinds Of Evidence Used To Criticize Behaviorist
Theory

 First Evidence: Based on the kind of language

children produce
 first piece of evidence taken from the way
children handle irregular grammatical
patterns
 While encountering irregular items, there is a
stage when they replace forms based on the
regular patterns of language
 Gradually they switch over to the process of
„analogy‟ – a reasoning process as they start
working out for themselves
Two Kinds Of Evidence Used To Criticize Behaviorist
Theory

Second Evidence: Based on what children do not

produce
 The other evidence is based on the way children seem unable
to imitate adult grammatical constructions exactly
 Best known demonstration of this principle is provided by
American Psycholinguist David McNeill (1933)
 Child: Nobody don‟t like me
 Mother: No, say „no body likes me‟
 Child: Nobody don‟t like me (eight repetitions of this dialogue)
 Mother: No, now listen carefully: say „no body likes me‟
 Child: Oh! No body don‟t likes me
 Thus, language acquisition is more a matter of maturation than
of imitation
Limitations in Behaviorism

 Language is based on a set of structures or

rules, which could not be worked out simply
by imitating individual utterances
 Children are often unable to repeat what an
adults say
2.JEAN WILLIAM FRITZ PIAGET

 THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMET

1896-1980
COGNITIVE THEORY
Cognitive Theory
•The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget
placed acquisition of language within the
context of a child‟s mental or cognitive
development.
•Language is just one aspect of a child‟s
overall intellectual development.
.
***

 A child has to understand a concept before he/she

can acquire the particular language from which
expresses that concept.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
STAGES:
 STAGES
• The four developmental stages are
described in Piaget‟s theory as:
1. Sensorimotor Stage
• From birth to age 2(children are
extremely egocentric, meaning they can‟t
perceive the world from others
viewpoints.
 Sub Stages
1. Simple Reflexes(1 month infants reflexes
such as rooting and sucking)
2. First habits and primary circular
reaction(1 to 4 infants learn to
coordinate sensation )
3. Secondary circular recation(4 to 8 infants
become aware of things, they are more
object oriented)
4. Cordition of secondary circular recation(8
to 12 infants do things intentionally)
5. Tertiary circular reaction(12 to 18 infants
explore new possibilities of objects)
6. Internalization of schemes(18 to 24 they
shift to symbolic thinking)
 • 2. Preoperational Stage
• From 2 to 7 (magical thinking
predominates). Egocentrism begins
strongly and then weakens. Children
can‟t conserve or use logical thinking.
 3. Concrete Operational Stage

 From 7 to 12(Children begin to think logically

but are very concrete in their thinking). They
are no longer egocentrics.
 4. Formal Operational Stage
• Start from 11 and continues into
adulthood. Individual move beyond
concert experiences and begin to think
abstractly)
3. Noam Chomsky

 Noam Chomsky is perhaps the best known and the most

influential linguist of the second half of the Twentieth
Century. He has made a number of strong claims about
language : in particular, he suggests that LANGUAGE IS
AN INNATE ABILITY - that is to say that we are born
with set of rules about language in our brains called the
„UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR‟ or Generative Grammar.
3. INNATENESS THEORY

 Nativitism
 Innatism
 Mentalists
Behaviourist position (Skinner, 1950s)

 Main behaviourist claim: all learning,

including language learning, is the product of
habit formation.
 We learn through imitation and repetition.
 Emphasis on the importance of the
observable in any theory claiming to be
scientific (empirical view).
 Since only behaviour is observable, we must
study learning by observing behaviour
patterns.
Behaviourist position

 We learn through:
 Imitation + reinforcement (praise or success in
communication) = habit formation.
 According to this view Stimulus-Response-
Reinforcement IS the learning mechanism.
 Language is considered „verbal behaviour‟.
 Children practise and repeat what they hear, and in
this way learn their L1.
INNATENESS HYPOTHESES:

 Universal Hypothesis
 Critical Period Hypothesis
 Mental muscle Model
 L1=L2 Hypothesis
INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS:

 An innatist theory
 “Nature” over “Nurture”

 According to Chomsky, crucial parts of the

human language ability are built into the
brain – part of our biology, programmed
into our genes
Chomsky V Skinner

 Remember Skinner?
 Late 1950s: environment-only theories of
language acquisition in the ascendant
 Chomsky (1959) reviewed Skinner‟s book
Verbal Behaviour
 Chomsky found flaws in Skinner‟s mechanism
 Chomsky argued that environment-only
mechanisms couldn‟t possibly account for
language acquisition
 How so?

Evidence for Chomskyan innatism

(and against environment-only
mechanisms)
The brain: missing evidence?

 Neuroscience could be convincing…

 …but our knowledge of the brain is not that
advanced.
 We cannot see the proposed language structures
 Even if we could, we could not establish that
these structures were innate
Creativity

 Language is CREATIVE
– We can produce and understand an infinite range
of novel grammatical sentences
– Children do not imitate a fixed repertoire of
sentences
 Chomsky: creativity is not explicable if language
is learnt just from the environment
Creating a Grammar

5 rules: 9 words:

S  NP VP Det: the, four, some

NP  Det N N: dogs, cats, slugs
NP  N V: understood, ate,
VP  V NP approached
VP  V
How many sentences?
Degeneracy of the data

 The child‟s language data is degenerate

 Ungrammatical utterances are frequent and are
not marked out as “wrong”
 Therefore it is impossible to deduce the grammar
of a language, if your only input data is
utterances from the environment
Poverty of the stimulus

 Chomskyan syntax: more complex than

people had previously thought syntax to be!
 The grammar of a sentence can‟t be deduced
from its surface form
– The schoolchildren were difficult to teach
– The schoolchildren were eager to teach
 Soenvironmental language data is
insufficient: grammar can‟t be learned from it
Misleading feedback

 Adults correct children for truth, not

grammaticality
 … so the feedback data children receive does
not actually tell them how well they are doing
 Misleading feedback makes it even harder for
children to learn grammar
Evidence from Creoles

 Pidgin: simple language that arise in contact

situations
 Creole: a fully complex language descended
from a pidgin
 The grammar of a Creole is created by children
as they learn it
 This is evidence that this grammar comes from
some innate source
Universal features of language

 Languages vary greatly, but have some common

features
 Example: nouns and verbs
 Example: structure dependency
– Grammatical rules rely on the structure of the
sentence, not the surface order of the words
Structure dependency

 MrSmith was a good man

 Was Mr Smith a good man?

 MrSmith was a good man

 Man good a was Smith Mr?

 Joe was a good man

 A Joe was good man?
Syntax

 Well-formed sentence without meaning:

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

 Syntax as well as meaning deprived of inner logic:

Ideas furiously green colorless sleep.
Syntax
Universals explained

 Universals unexpected if language is learnt from

the environment alone

 Universals due to innate language

 Or due to something else?
– Universal functions of language
– Universal forms of cognition
The theory:
innate language knowledge

 Ifchildren don‟t/can‟t learn the rules of

grammar from the language around them in
their environment…
 … then these rules must have been in-born

 This explains all the difficulties we found with

environment-only acquisition theories
 The Essentials

Key points of Chomskyan Theory

Innatism

 What is innate?
 Chomsky: the essential core of grammar is
innate
 A generative grammar that can produce an
infinite range of novel sentences
 The innate system for language learning
– Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
– Universal Grammar (UG)
– “bioprogram”
– “language organ”
– “language instinct” Steven Pinker (1994)
 Autonomy

Inside the Chomskyan brain

Is language autonomous?

 Chomsky thinks that language is autonomous in

the mind
 This means that language (i.e. UG) is a separate
system in the brain‟s architecture
 It is connected to, but does not interact
extensively with, other sorts of thought
(The diagram)
Maturation

 Chomsky‟s theory is a maturationist theory

 Language acquisition runs to an innate biological
timetable
 UG matures in the brain and is slowly released in
predetermined stages as the child grows
 This linguistic maturation is analogous to the sexual
maturation we go through at puberty…
 … and is just as involuntary!
– Only the younger ones were at the right stage of maturation
Language is species-specific

 UG and the language system only occur in the

human brain
 Therefore, no other animals can acquire a
human language
 But is this solely due to their lesser intelligence?
 Can chimps learn language? We‟ll look at this
next term!
Evolution??

 How did UG get there in the first place?

 There is much disagreement on this
– Chomsky: not by natural selection!
– Chomsky, Bickerton: a single lucky language
mutation (a “Hopeful Monster”)
– Pinker: by normal natural selection
Universal Grammar

 But what exactly is Universal Grammar?

 What knowledge does it contain?
 How does it function in the process of language
acquisition?
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR (U.G.):

 “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.”
Children Construct Grammars:

 “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
What does U.G. (Universal
Grammar) have?

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.
The “black box”

 What is in the UG black box?

 Chomsky says that the contents of UG explains:
– a) the nature of syntax
– b) language acquisition
 The description of the grammar and the explanation of
how it is learnt are unified in this theory
The role of the input

 What is the input?

– Primary linguistic data
– This means all the language the child hears
– From the child‟s environment

 The input is critical

– Without input at the right stage of maturation, the
child‟s UG cannot develop into a grammar
– Evidence: “feral” children e.g. Genie
– Critical Period Hypothesis (Lenneberg)
 What is the output?
 Chomsky sees language competence in terms
of a formal language
– A lexicon
 Contains words, idioms, etc.
 Lexical items have meanings
– A set of abstract, algebraic rules
 Including the rules of syntax, phonology, etc.
 The rules have no meaning

 The lexicon is learned normally (from

experience, trial and error, imitation)
 … but the rules are innate
Therefore…

 This answers our question!

 Q: What does UG contain?

 A: UG contains the core, formal rules of the
grammar

 This is Chomsky‟s explanation for how the

generative creativity of language is acquired
CHOMSKYAN GENERATIVE
GRAMMAR:

 The Chomskyan approach towards Syntax, often

termed Generative Grammar studies grammar as a
body of knowledge possessed by language users.
Since the 1960s, Chomsky has maintained that
much of this knowledge is innate, implying that
children need only learn certain parochial features of
their native languages. The innate body of linguistic
knowledge that is often termed Universal Grammar
is already there.
Chomsky’s Syntactic Theory:

 The first task of Chomsky's syntax is to

account for the speaker's understanding of
the internal structure of sentences. Chomsky
and other grammarians can represent much,
though not all, of the speaker's knowledge of
the internal structure of sentences with rules
called "phrase structure" rules.
Chomskyan rules

 How do these Chomskyan rules work?

 Instructions for generating sentence
structures, e.g.:
– S  NP VP
– NP  Det Adj N
 Structural slots filled by elements from the
lexicon, e.g.
– Det Adj N  The tall building
Chomskyan trees
Principles and parameters

 The rules that produce these “tree” structures

are innate…
 … but these rules differ from language to
language!

 Chomsky: the UG does not contain the actual

rules of each language.
 Instead, it contains PRINCIPLES and
PARAMETERS
– The rules of each language are derived from the
principles and parameters
Universals revisited

 “Principles” == linguistic universals

 Features found in all languages
 So what exactly are these universals?
 Are there really that many firm universals?
Probably not
 Many linguists take other approaches to
universals
The Pro-drop Parameter

 Controls whether subject pronouns can be

dropped in the language
– I understand Chomsky‟s theory
– * understand Chomsky‟s theory  WRONG
– je comprends la théorie de Chomsky
– * comprends la théorie de Chomsky  WRONG
– comprendo la teoría de Chomsky  OK
 Spanish: [+ Pro-drop]
 English and French: [- Pro-drop]
Heads and complements

 The Head of a phrase is the “compulsory

word” of the phrase
– A verb is the head of a verb phrase
– A noun is the head of a noun phrase
 The Complement of a phrase is an “optional”
other element in the phrase
– A verb‟s complement is its object
 ride a horse, explain the problem
– A preposition‟s complement is its noun phrase
 in the house, behind my back, after the party
Some examples -

 Languages like English:

– Verb before Object
– Preposition before NP
– Question-words at start of sentence
 Languages like Japanese:
– Verb after Object
– Preposition after NP (= postposition)
– Question-words at end of sentence
The Head Parameter

 In English, the head consistently comes

before the complement…
 In Japanese, the head consistently comes
after the complement…
 … in many different kinds of syntactic
phrases!
 This same pattern is found in other languages
The Head Parameter

 The orders of verb & object, pre/postposition

& NP, and question word & sentence are all
controlled by the Head Parameter

 This has two settings:

– Head-First (e.g. English)
– Head-Last (e.g. Japanese)
Setting Parameters

 The child must set the parameter for their

language, based on evidence in the input
 Remember, the input is vital!
 When the Head Parameter matures, the child
sets it to:
– Head First if their input contains things like verb-object
– Head Last if their input contains things like object-verb
The power of parameters

 A single parameter can affect many areas of

the grammar

 One example of verb-object or object-verb is

enough to set the Head Parameter…
– Eat your spinach! (Head First)
– Your spinach eat! (Head Last)

 … which is all the child needs to correctly order

verbs, pre/postpositions and question words
(and other constructions too)
***

 INTERACTIONIST
By Jerome Seymour
Bruner
(born October 1, 1915---
till present)
American Psychologist.
4.Jerome Bruner— Interactionist.
(1915--Present)

 “The language behaviour of adults when talking to

children (known by several names by most easily
referred to as child-directed speech or CDS) 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.”
Jerome Bruner (SOCIAL
INTERACTIONIST THEORY):

 The psychologist Jerome 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 LASS:

If we look at the child‟s early learning environment we can

see how:
 A CHILD INTERACTS WITH THE ADULTS
AROUND HIM\HER.
 CONSTANT & CONTINUAL CHANCES ARE
PROVIDED TO THE CHILD TO ACUIRE HIS\HER
MOTHER TONGUE.
 PARENTS & ADULTS PROVIDE A LEARNIG
ENIRONMENT TO THE CHILD.
THEORY OF BRUNER
(Social Interaction)

 Bruner is one of the founding fathers of

Constructivist Theory.

“Learners construct new ideas and concepts

based upon their existing knowledge.”
- Learning goes on and is an active process.
Research on Children’s
Development: (in 1966)

Bruner gave three modes of representation in

children‟s development:
 Enactive representation (action-based),
 Iconic representation (image-based),
 Symbolic representation (language-based).
Intellectual Development:

 Bruner postulated three stages of intellectual

development:
The first stage he termed "Enactive", when a
person learns about the world through actions
on physical objects and the outcomes of these
actions.
(used in first 18 months)
***

 The second stage was

called "Iconic" where
learning can be obtained
through using models and
pictures.
(develops from 18 months)
***

 The final stage was

"Symbolic" in which
the learner develops
the capacity to think
in abstract terms.
(6 to 7 years onwards)
CATEGORIZATION:

 Bruner's theories emphasize the

significance of categorization in
learning.
“To perceive is to categorize, to
conceptualize is to categorize, to learn
is to form categories, to make decisions
is to categorize."
Bruner’s Theory:

 Like Piaget, Bruner believed that children have an

innate capacity that helps them make sense of the work
and that cognitive abilities develop through active
interaction.
 Unlike Piaget however, Bruner argued that social
factors, particularly language, were important for
cognitive growth. These underpin the concept of
„scaffolding‟.
***

 Bruner was also

concerned with how
knowledge is represented
and organised through
different modes of
representation
Scaffolding (1976)

 Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) – adults

particularly parents, support children's
cognitive development through everyday play
interactions.
 Scaffolding is a temporary support structure
around that child‟s attempts to understand
new ideas and complete new tasks.
 The purpose of the support is to allow the
child to achieve higher levels of development
by:
 1. simplifying the task or idea
 2. motivating and encouraging the child
 Highlighting important task elements or
errors
 Giving models that can be imitated.
BRUNER’S VIEW:

 “The child learns how to use language within

the social context of language use in which
the child interacts. He grows up and needs to
interact in the social scenario of the
caretaker (s) around him and he gradually
adopts their movements & language.”
***Example of A Childhood
Game***

 Bruner gives example of a well-known childhood

game to explain language acquisition:
 First Language Acquisition takes place like a game
in which the mother or care-taker first appear and
then disappear with simple comments as
„hello…how are you?” etc. and then lengthier
comments or words and the child learns about the
play as well as the contexts being provided t him.
The Narrative Construction of
Reality: (in 1991)

 In 1991, Bruner published an article “Critical Inquiry”

entitled "The Narrative Construction of Reality." In
this article, he argued:
“the mind structures its sense of reality using mediation
through "cultural products, like language and other
symbolic systems“.
He focuses on the idea of narrative as one of these
cultural products.