LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

THEORIES
INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BEHAVIOURISM AND CONNECTIONISM

3. CONSTRUCTIVISM

4. SOCIAL INTERACTIONISM

5. NATIVISM

6. CONCLUSION
 1) INTRODUCTION

This essay describes different language acquisition theories which deserve to be mentioned.

These are: a); Behaviorism and Connectionism b) Constructivism; c) Social Interactionism

and d) Nativism.

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire language. Children develop

the ability to comprehend language before being able to speak it. Next, four major language

acquisition theories will be discussed.

2) BEHAVIOURISM

Skinner, one of the major defenders of Behaviourism, believed that language is learned by

“association, imitation and reinforcement”. “According to this view, children learn words by

associating sounds with objects, actions, and events. They also learn words and syntax by

imitating others. Adults enable children to learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct

speech.” What is more, language learning is a habit formation. (Sparknotes, 2013,

“Environmental influences on language acquisition,”para.1 and 2)

Pavlov discovered the Classical Conditioning that is centred on the stimulus-response

pattern; the resulting behaviour as a response to a certain stimulus. It is also worth noting

that Skinner developed the Operant Conditioning that emphasizes the idea that learning

occurs through rewarding or punishing stimuli for behaviour.

It is also important to mention another theory which is called Connectionism. This theory

emphasized the idea that patterns are built up through repeated exposure to language which

permits grammatical language to develop. During this process the rules are present in the

child´s mind.
Criticism:

Behaviourism is unable how children acquire language. There are innumerable sentences in

a language. Hence, children are not able to learn by imitation all those sentences. Many

times children tend to overregularize verbs. So these grammatical forms cannot be learned

by imitation because adults normally use correct verb forms. What is more, children have the

capacity to develop “language skills even though adults do not correct their syntax”.

(Sparknotes, 2013, “Environmental influences on language acquisition,”para.3)

3) CONSTRUCTIVISM

Constructivism was a learning theory whose goal was to elucidate the processes by which

an infant evolve into an individual whit rational capacities and who can develop thoughts

using hypotheses. The theory suggests that people “construct own understanding of the

world” from their environmental experiences. (SymplyPsycology, 2013, “Jean Piaget,”para.8)

According to Piaget, children go through four stages in their cognitive development which will

be explained later in the essay. The concept of cognitive development is defined by Marcy

Driscoll as “the transformation of the child’s undifferentiated, unspecialized cognitive abilities

into the adult’s conceptual competence and problem-solving skill” (Driscoll, 1994).

In this section the four stages of cognitive development will be discussed.

DESCRIPTION OF STAGES:

The Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2 years):

During this stage children use their senses in order to interact with the environment relying

on skills such as touching, seeing or sucking. Piaget asserted that infants are limited to

motor reflexes and sensory perceptions at birth. However, they learn to develop more

sophisticated procedures as they grow up. (FACULTYWEB, 2013, “Sensorimotor Stage,”

para. 2)
The Preoperational Stage (2 to 6 years):

According to Piaget, children in the Preoperational stage can think about objects and events

and represent them by using drawings. Role playing is another example of cognitive abilities.

Furthermore, this stage focuses on abilities that children have not yet developed such as the

inability to understand that people can have different perspectives of the world which is

called egocentrism and that the objects´ appearance can be altered but their properties do

not change (conservation).(About.com, 2013, “Preoperational Stage”, para.7)

The Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years):

This stage is marked by the beginning of logical thinking. Nevertheless, children can only

think about physical objects. Moreover, during this stage children begin to lose

their egocentric view of things and start to be better at conservation tasks. The child also

begins to understand reversibility: the fact that things can be returned to their original state.

(SymplyPsycology, 2013, “Concrete Operational Stage,”para.3)

The formal operational stage (12-to adult):

During this stage, people are able to think logically and to comprehend for example a

mathematical calculation. Furthermore, they are able to solve problems by “systematically

testing solutions”. (Boundless , 2013, “Formal Operational Stage,”para.6)

Piaget´s theory of development relies on three components:

I) Assimilation: this refers to how incoming information is modified in order to fit

within their existing system of knowledge.

II) Accommodation: this refers to the adaption of individual´s knowledge in order to

incorporate new information.

III) Equilibration: this concept refers to the mental restructuration which adopts a

more complex way of thinking.

There have been many criticisms of Piaget’s theory. Some examples of criticism are the

following one: the stages are very restrictive; the child produces more knowledge than he or

she is being exposed. Furthermore, most of psychologists state that children are more

competent than Piaget suspected. Despite this criticism, Piaget´s theory has had a

“considerable impact” regarding “our understanding of child development”.

(About.com, 2013, “Support and Criticism of Piaget's Stage Theory,” para.1)

4) SOCIAL INTERACTIONISM

-According to this theory, language is learned by interaction with adults or older children. The

most important social interactionists are Joseph Bruner and Lev Vygotsky. Bruner states that

interactions provide the child with LASS-Language Acquisition Support Structures.

Furthermore, the key of this theory is Motherese/Child-Directed Speech (described by

Bruner as a teaching language) that consists of a particular speech that parents use in order

to teach language to their children. Hence, the role of caregiver speech is essential in this

theory. Child-Directed Speech is characterised by “a slower rate, exaggerated intonation,

high frequency, repetition, simple syntax and concrete vocabulary.” (Wikiversity, 2013,

“Social Interactionism theory,” para.1)

Vygotsky highlighted the importance of social interaction to learn language. He believed that

children observe adults while they are communicating and afterwards they develop the

ability to communicate on their own. Moreover, he agreed that interaction between children

and adults helps children to develop the capacity of problem solving on their own.

Criticism:

-Language acquisition takes place without motherese. Furthermore, Child-Directed Speech

contains many grammatical errors and hesitations and it is also formed by few complex
sentences. What is more, children are able to acquire language even if they have poor

interaction with caregivers.

1) NATIVISM

Noam Chomsky proposed the Nativist theory. He states that humans have a language

acquisition device (LAD) wired in their brains. This device is in charge of allowing children to

develop language skills. Chomsky suggests that “language is an innate faculty”. In other

words, he believed that children are born with a universal grammar in their heads

Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from the following

observations:

“The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even

though different children experience very different environments.

Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.

Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.

Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own language.

These new languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when they are

created in different cultures.” (Sparknotes, 2013, “Biological Influences on Language

Acquisition,”para.2)

Criticism:

According to this theory, children are not provided with any corrective feedback during their

learning, relying only on nature in order to acquire language.

Language Acquisition Device is in charge of the children´s development of language skills.

According to this device children are expected to develop normal language without regard to

the quality of the language heard to initiate the LAD. Nevertheless, children who are

exposed to poor language skills usually develop less language skills than the ones who are
exposed to plenty of correct grammar. (Ehow, 2013, “Nativism Language Development”,

para.6)

6) CONCLUSION

In conclusion, all the theories described in this essay try to explain how language is

acquired. The first three theories state that language is learned. Nevertheless, the last theory

suggests that language is acquired thanks to our innate capacity to develop language skills.

Behaviourism suggests that language is learned by imitation, association and reinforcement.

Constructionist theory suggests that children go through stages in their cognitive

development; those stages are criticised because they are too restrictive.

Social Interactionism argues that Child-Directed Speech has an important role in the children

learning. However, language acquisition takes place without motherese.

To sum up most of these theories are criticized because children produce more knowledge

than they are exposed.

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