Theories of First Language Acquisition

1. Theories of First Language Acquisition

2. In a broader sense, various theories and approaches have been emerged over the years to study and analyze the process of language acquisition. Three main schools of thought, which provide theoretical paradigms in guiding the course of language acquisition are: Behaviorist Theory Innatist Theory Cognitivist theory

4. 1. Behaviorism

5. Behaviorism • 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.

6. The illustration shows how a mouse can learn to manoeuvre through a maze. the mouse is rewarded with food when it reaches the first turn in the maze (A). Once the first behavior becomes ingrained, the mouse is not rewarded until it makes the second turn (B). After many times, the mouse must reach the end of the maze to receive its reward.

7. Skinner Box >> Rats Rats were placed in metal cages with a number of levers. At first the rats would nose around the cage and accidentally press the levers, an action that would cause food or water to drop into a dish. After repeating the action, the rats saw that they could receive food and water by pressing the lever. (Learned this behavior) So, when the rats were rewarded they were conditioned to repeat this positive action to continue being rewarded

8. Behaviorism… • 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.

9. Behaviorists' views: • 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 acuisition is a process of getting linguistic habits printed on these slates. • Language is a ‘conditioned behavior’: the stimulus response process • Stimulus Response Feedback Reinforcement

10. Children learn language step by step • Imitation Repetition Memorization controlled drilling Reinforcement Reinforcement can either be positive or negative

11. 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 • imitation • repetition • Corrections • Reinforcement

12. Positives • 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.

13. What are the limitations of this theory? • Positive and negative reinforcement which mean we have to correct children’s incorrect language • Children will be passive being rather than being creative being as they are going to copy others’ talk and in some cases, we would encourage them to do such behaviour and inform them that they would be externally rewarded • Research shows that parents do not tend to correct grammatical errors but rather they are more concerned about the truth of the statement

14. Innateness Theory By Noam Chomsky (born 1928---Present)

15. Innatism • 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 acquiring a first language easier than it would otherwise be.

16. Innatism: LAD & UG • 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 him, deriving from this ‘primary linguistic data’ – the grammar of the language

17. THE “LAD” (Chomsky, 1965) • 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).

18. LAD (Language acquisition Device) • The L.A.D is a pre programmed box. • L.A.D is a function of the brain that is specifically for acquiring a language. It is an innate biological function of human beings just like learning to walk. • LAD explains 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.

19. Mechanism of Innate Theory • According to Noam Chomsky, the mechanism of language acquisition formulates from innate processes.

20. Innatism: Universal grammar or generative grammar. • 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.” (Chomsky 1965) • This is known as “Innateness Hypothesis.”

21. Universal grammar… 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.

22. Principles & Parameters: • Principles: are the universal basic features of Grammar e.g.. Nouns, Verbs & Structure Dependency etc. • Parameters: are 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.

23. Universals revisited • “Principles” == linguistic universals • Features found in all languages

24. Parameters • Parameters explain variation across languages • A parameter is like a “switch” • It is a setting which can take one of a small number of values • Yes/No, On/Off, +/- • The setting of the parameter determines one or more aspects of the grammar • The parameters are set during language acquisition

26. The Pro-drop Parameter • Controls whether subject pronouns can be dropped in the language • I understand Chomsky’s theory • * understand Chomsky’s theory  WRONG • Arabic: [+ Pro-drop] • English : [- Pro-drop]

27. 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

28. Critical Age Hypothesis • Chomsky posited that there is a critical age for learning a language as is true for the overall development of the human body. • The input of Language is needed at the critical period, to learn the lexicon and to set the parameters.

29. All children share the same innateness • 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)

30. Communicative competence • “Language learning is not really something that the child does; it is something that happens to the childplaced 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

31. Theories of L1 Acquisition • Behaviorism • “Say what I say” • Innatism • “It’s all in your mind”