Explaining first language acquisition

Florian Gausmann

Barbara Sohn-Travaglia

Mandy Wellhausen

Content

The Behaviourist Perspective

The Innatist Perspective

The Interactional/Developmental Perspective

Behaviourism

Behaviourism

biggest influence in 1940’s and 1950’s

Behaviourism

biggest influence in 1940’s and 1950’s

I.P. Pawlow B.E. Skinner

Behaviourism

‘positive reinforcement’

Behaviourism

‘positive reinforcement’

– praise

– successful communication

Behaviourism

imitation

Behaviourism

imitation

– word-for-word repetition of someone else’s utterance

Behaviourism

practice

Behaviourism

practice

– repetitive manipulation of form

Behaviourism

child’s language behaviour shaped by:

– quality and quantity of language heard

– consistency of reinforcement

The Innatist PerspectiveIt‘s all in your mind

The Innatist Perspective:It‘s all in your mind

It is seen as an explanation for the “logical problem of language acquisition“

What‘s that? The fact that children are come to know more

about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language they hear

The Innatist Perspective: Noam Chomsky

Chomsky’s conclusion: Children’s minds are not blank slates to be filled by imitating language they hear in the environment

Hypothesis: Children are born with a specific innate ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to

The Innatist Perspective:Example

Children hear false starts, incomplete sentences, and slips of tongue

Nonetheless they learn to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences

John told Bill to wash himself. John told Bill to wash himself.

The Innatist Perspective Universal Grammar

If children are equipped with Universal Grammar, then what they have to learn is the ways in which the language they are acquiring makes use of these principles

The Innatist Perspective The Critical Period Hypothesis

Animals and humans are genetically programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skill at specific times in life

Difficult to apply this hypothesis for language acquisition because nearly all children are exposed to language (oral or gestural) at an early age

The Innatist Perspective Is there a Critical Period for Language Acquisition?

Neurological evidence Evidence from language acquisition of deaf

children Evidence from feral children Evidence from Down syndrome subjects

The Innatist Perspective CP Summary

There is little prospect of obtaining unambiguous evidence on the question of the possibility of beginning to acquire a L1 after any age posited as critical it would appear sensible to look at evidence concerning the continuation of language acquisition beyond the childhood years

“It is difficult to identify any point in the lifespan when the process of language development is truly complete.” Nippold (1998:1)

The Innatist Perspective Question 1

What is (according to N. Chomsky) “the logical problem of language acquisition“ and which theory is seen as an explanation for it?

The Innatist Perspective Answer 1

The innatist perspective is seen as an explanation for the “logical problem of language acquisition“

The “logical problem of language acquisition” is 1. The fact that children are come to know more about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language they hear and 2. The question of how adult speakers come to know the complex structure of their first language on the basis of language that they actually hear

The Innatist Perspective Question 2

Why did E. Newport and her colleagues conclude that their study of deaf children learning ASL supports the hypothesis of a critical period?

The Innatist Perspective Answer 2

On tests focusing on grammatical markers (to indicate such things as time and number; these markers are expressed through specific hand or body movements), the Native group (who were exposed to ASL from birth) used the forms more consistently than the Early group (who began using ASL between 4-6 years of age). This group, in turn, used them more consistently than the Late group (who began learning ASL after age twelve)

Interactionist/DevelopmentalPerspectives

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

Learning from inside and out Language Acquisition seen as the ability to

learn from experience Interactions Focus on interplay between innate learning

ability & environment

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

Jean Piaget– children‘s interactions with objects & people– development of cognitive understanding

Lev Vygotsky– children‘s interactions with other children & adults– Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

Cross cultural research

– children‘s learning environments in different cultural communities

– child-directed speech– not universal

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

The importance of interaction

– Jim– deaf parents– no sign language

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

Connectionism

– Language acquisition does not require “module of the mind“

– Connections between words and phrases + the situation in which they occur

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

What characterizes child-directed speech?– slower rate of delivery– higher pitch – more varied intonation– shorter, simpler sentence patterns– stress on key words– frequent repetition– paraphrase

Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives

Explain the difference between Piaget‘s and Vygotsky‘s point of view

Bibliography

Lightbown and Spada. How Languages are Learned. 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press. 2006: chap. 1 pp 10-24.

Singleton and Ryan.Language Acquisition: The Age Factor.2nd Edition. Cromwell Press Ltd.2004.