Theories in Child Language

• What is interaction theory?


  Theory that interactions between child & carer are crucial to language development - proposes the existence of language acquisition support system (LASS).
• What does interaction theory focus on?


  Focuses on the importance of conversation, routine and the role of CDS (child directed speech).
• Who created interaction theory?


  Jerome Bruner.
• Criticisms of Interaction theory?

  • Gusil Bribe - Kenya mothers don't speak with their children and only engage if needed in emergencies - the children hear the speech but aren't interacted with.
• Features of CDS?

  • Higher/melodic pitch
  • Repetition
  • Frequent longer pauses
  • Slower/clearer speech
  • More questions
  • Use of diminutives
  • Plural rather than singular pronouns
  • Use of nouns rather than pronouns
  • Politeness features
  • Mitigated imperatives
• What is cognitive theory?


  Suggests child's language acquisition is part of a child's wider development - language comes with an understanding - a child can't linguistically articulate concepts they don't understand.
• Who created Cognitive theory?


  Jean Piaget.
• Support for Cognitive theory?

  • Lev Vygotsky - Language comes with understanding - e.g child needs to understand past tense in order to use it.
  • The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) - Difference between what a child can do with and without help (concept of scaffolding and modelling
  • Object Permanence - Ability to understand that an object still exists even though its no longer in sight up to 2 years old.
• Examining Data - Cognitive theory

  • Children talking to themselves while playing etc in a way that suggests they are trying to help themselves understand something.
  • Children failing to use/ understand language because they haven't yet grasped the concept expressed by the language.
• Examining Data - Interaction theory

  • Children clearly enjoying/benefiting from their interaction
  • Parents reinforcing their children's attempts to speak by responding in an an encouraging and positive way
  • Adult caregivers using features of CDS
  • Conversation skills & pragmatic awareness being modelled, taught and learnt through interaction - child and adult.
• What is the more knowledgeable other theory?

  A social constructive theory - children need a knowledgeable other to gain acute language skills - need to see themselves in people who they think are more knowledgeable .
• Problems with Cognitive theory?

  • Children with severe learning difficulties/cognitive problems still manage to use language beyond their actual understanding
  • The link isn't as strong as believed
  • Language is unique - distinct from other areas of development.
• What is behaviourism theory?

  Proposed children learn through imitation - positive and negative reinforcement and called children's brains 'Tabula Rasa' or 'blank slate'.
• Who created Behaviourism theory?

  B.F Skinner.
• Problems with Behaviourism?

  • Aphasia - condition with the brain
  • 'Plato's problem' - Chomsky's poverty of stimulus argument
  • Wernicke and Broca support theory of innateness - discovered different areas of the brain Wernicke's aphasia and Broca's aphasia
• Examining Data - Behaviourism

  • Adults modelling/teaching language & children responding
  • Children imitating/repeating adults speech
  • Children learning or repairing mistakes after correction from adults
• What is Nativism theory?

  Theory that all children have an inbuilt Language Aquistition Device (LAD) that lets them extract rules of a particular language from words and structures they hear.
• Who created Nativism theory?

  Noam Chomsky.
• What are Chomsky's linguistic universals

  • Baby already knows about linguistic universals (principles and parameters theory)
  • Baby hears examples of language in its native language
  • Help the baby make a hypothesis about the incoming language
  • From said hypothesis , the baby works out a grammar set of rules - develops more the more its heard
• Support for Nativism

  • All kids go through similar stages
  • Medical research also suggests there is specific areas in the brain to control language - Broca and Wernicke
  • However these ideas don't suggest that language will be learned whatever happens children still need some input and interaction
• What is Pinker's theory of Nativism?

  Argues that humans are born with the innate ability/capacity for language - sees language as an instinct which has evolved in humans.

  Language must do 2 things: Convey a message to an audience and negotiate social relationship between a speaker and audience.
• Examining Data - Nativism

  • Kids do more than imitating adult speech
  • Over and under-extension suggests that kids are actively constructing language according to an unconscious model of how language works.
  • Children resisting or not responding to correction from adults.
• What did the Wug test show?

  That adults have full morphological control of rules and kids don't - supports Nativism.
• Who performed the Wug test?

  Jean Berko Gleason
• Problems with Nativism

  • Focused on the fact that kids are hard-wired for language rather than development
  • Accepted interaction had important role to play, didn't say much about features of it like CDS
  • Never did practical experiments
• What are the 4 stages of language development?

  • Stage 1 - Holophrastic , 1 word, 12-18 months
  • Stage 2 - 2 word , 18-24 months
  • Stage 3 - Telegraphic, 3 or more words, 24-36 months
  • Stage 4 - Post-telegraphic, 36+ months
• Features of the first stage of development

  • First words - usually labels
  • Children using single words to fulfil the same purpose as an entire phrase
  • Content words (nouns, verbs etc)
  • Use of individual words to convey meaning
  • May use gestures to supplement communication
• Features of second stage of development

  • Beginning of syntactical development
  • Roger Brown - 2 word utterances classified into meaning relation - children all over the world make the same relationships between grammatical concepts
• Features of CDS

  • Exaggerating prosodic cues - Exaggerated intonation patterns/higher frequencies.
  • Recasting - Phrasing sentences differently e.g making it a question.
  • Echoing - repeating
  • Expansion - restating what child said in more formal manner
  • Expatiation - expanding further on a word/ additional information
  • Labelling - Name of objects
  • Over-articulating - More precise sounds/stretching out sounds
• What is a morpheme?

  Smallest unit of meaning in a word e.g prefix or suffix - not syllables

  2 types: Free and bound