Theories

• Behaviourists


  Believe that children learn language through imitation and reinforcement
• How children learn language according to behaviourists


  1. Children repeat what they hear

  2. They are rewarded with praise

  3. Parents/caregivers repeat words and phrases back

  4. Parents/caregivers correct mistakes
• This accounts for a significant part of phonological development
• Counter-argument to behaviourist view


  • Not all grammatical constructions have been heard before
  • Children do over-generalise
• Fis phenomenon


  • Children mispronounce a word believing they are pronouncing it the right way
  • If a caregiver corrects them they will repeat their own pronunciation believing this to be correct
  • If a caregiver uses the child's pronunciation, the child will disagree because they know how it should sound
• Bruner devised the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) in response to Chomsky’s LAD.  This is where language development is supported by input from parents/caregivers, such as bath and bed times, pointing things out when walking etc.
• This theory is supported by cases where children have been deprived of human contact and don’t develop speech.  Without linguistic interaction (before ages 5-6) the Critical Period Hypothesis applies.
• SOCIAL INTERACTIONISTS: this focuses on interaction from caregivers in social situations. 
• BRUNER = social interactionist.
• NATIVISTS: the belief that children’s ability to learn language is innate.  Language isn’t taught but is a natural development that occurs when children are exposed to language.
• CHOMSKY = nativist.
• Each child has a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which allows them to take in and use the grammatical rules of their language.

  Theory backed up by similar rates of development.
• Counter-argument: underestimates the significance of Skinner’s argument for interaction, imitation and reinforcement.
• COGNITIVE APPROACH: this focuses on the importance of mental processes.  A child needs to develop certain mental abilities before it can acquire particular aspects of language.
• PIAGET = cognitive.
• At first, children can’t understand things outside of their immediate surroundings – egocentric.
• By 18 months they understand something continues to exist even if they can’t see it – object permanence.
• Counter-argument: some children manage to use language beyond their development stage.
• Wug Test - experiment conducted by Jean Berko where the made-up creature a ‘Wug’ was used to test children’s application of grammar systems.  e.g. ‘This is one Wug, so it’s called ‘a Wug’.  ‘Now there is another ‘Wug’ so there are ‘two…’ and the child would respond ‘wugs’ because they apply the –s plural affix automatically.
• Lexical and Grammatical Stages:

  Stage Features Approx. age (months)

  holophrastic/ one-word = one-word utterances =12-18

  two-word = two-word combinations = 18-24

  telegraphic = three and more words combined = 24-36

  post-telegraphic = more grammatically complex combinations = 36+
• Piaget’s Stages of Linguistic Development - Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete operational, Formal Operational.