Factors Affecting First Language Acquisition

ContentumBehavioristic Approaches

Nativist Approach

Issues

5 Years "Mum I don't think I want to go through with this!"

1 Week "WAAAAAAAA!"

 

"I'm hungry!"

2 Years "Captain Haddock hit Tintin.

Wine baba. No Talk!"

Captain Haddock's hitting Tintin  with a wine bottle. Stop reading this story! (I'm scared)

6 Months "Babadadagugubaba"

none

1 Year "Haargy!“

"There's a cat!"

A boy named Christian

5 Years "Mum I don't think I want to go through with this!"

1 Week "WAAAAAAAA!"

 

"I'm hungry!"

2 Years "Captain Haddock hit Tintin.

Wine baba. No Talk!"

Captain Haddock's hitting Tintin  with a wine bottle. Stop reading this story! (I'm scared)

6 Months "Babadadagugubaba"

none

1 Year "Haargy!“

"There's a cat!"

Christian

you don't always have to point to 

show people things

making noises is 

funhas learned the core structure if his native 

language and that even if you talk like the grown-ups, they still make you go to 

school.language lets you be quite 

specific about what you feel and what you 

want.

people pay attention to you when you make 

noises

Theories

Language Acquisition

Behavioristic

NativistFunctional

BehavioristicApproaches

stimuliResponse reinforcedHabitual, conditioned

Linguistic responses

1

•Verbal Behavior

•Burrhus Frederic Skinner

Skinner’s Box

Organism Operant Reinforcement Maintained

Operant Conditioning

Reinforcing Stimulus

Instrumental Conditioning

Skinnerian Conditioning

Remember: VB is controlled by consequences.

Rewarding consequences:

maintained behaviour

Punishing consequences: weakened (and extinguished)

behaviour

Mechanical Habit

Formation

2

•Representational Mediation Theory

•Charles Osgood

Linguistic stimulus elicits response

Mentalism

Cognitive-Rational Theory

3

•Word Association Norms

•Jenkins and PAlermo

Frames: You shall know a word by thecompany it keeps.

Phrase-structure grammar

Stimulus-Response equivalences

Nativist Approach

Predisposes to language acquisitionBorn with a built-in deviceLanguage is innately determined

Species-Specific• Eric Lenneberg

• Unique to the species

1

• Communication system is part of the genetic make-up

2 • Washoe• Lana

3

Little Black Box• Noam Chomsly

Human Speech

Human Instinct

Specialized Circuits

Specialized Genes

Language Acquisition

Device

Starts functioning

when we are

still infants

Vacuum from our

immediate environment a

native language

Begin to function

in different

ways after we reach six years of

age

After puberty

our ability to acquire language seems to

be reduced

again

Rule Formation

Rules of a particular language

Born with orienting/

categorizing structures

Organize linguistics

Issues about the Nature of

Language Acquisition

Competence and Performance

Nature and Nurture

Imitation and Practice

Form (Input) and Function (Discourse)