SKINNER

• How does language develop according to Skinner?

  Through imitation where positive and negative reinforcement and punishment occur. Behaviour is shaped and maintained by consequences, same as language
• Adults encourage babies to use new words eg making them say please before feeding, if they say it then the baby is rewarded with food
• adults subtly correct children if their language is wrong however they don’t punish them for this so the correction is not responded to
• Support for behaviourism

  adults response to cooing/babbling appears to encourage children

  Children pronounce in the same way they have heard

  Children swear in the correct context
• weaknesses of behaviourism

  ignore input from adults (eg fis phenomenon)

  negative reinforcement doesn’t happen

  children invent words they have not heard

  wouldn’t be grammatically incorrect if they copied

  studied on animals, may not fully apply to language