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First Language Acquisition

The document discusses two approaches to first language acquisition: the behaviorist approach, which focuses on observable responses to stimuli and how reinforcement shapes habitual behaviors, and the nativist approach, which asserts that humans are born with an innate, genetic capacity for language that allows them to systematically perceive and internalize the language structures around them through hypothesis testing as their language develops in systematic ways at each stage.

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453 views5 pages

First Language Acquisition

The document discusses two approaches to first language acquisition: the behaviorist approach, which focuses on observable responses to stimuli and how reinforcement shapes habitual behaviors, and the nativist approach, which asserts that humans are born with an innate, genetic capacity for language that allows them to systematically perceive and internalize the language structures around them through hypothesis testing as their language develops in systematic ways at each stage.

Uploaded by

kayra
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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First Language Acquisition

Behavioristic Approaches
• Focuses on the immediatey perceptible
aspect of linguistic behavior - the publicly
observable responses – and the
relationships or associations between
those responses and events in the world
surrounding them.
• A behaviorist might consider effective
language behavior to be the production of
correct responses to stimuli.
• If a particular responses is reinforced, it
then become habitual.
• Skinner theory of verbal behavior was an
extension of his general theory (operant
conditioning)
• When consequences are rewarding,
behavior is maintain.
Nativist Approach
• The term nativist is derived from the
fundamental assertion that language
acquisiton is innately determined, what we
are born with a genetic capacity that
predisposes us to a systematic perception
of language around us, resulting in the
construction of an internalized system of
language
• Child language, at any given point, is
legitimate system in its own right. The
child’s linguistic development is not a
process of developing fewer and fewer
“incorrect” structures.
• The child’s language at any stage is
systematic in that the child is constantly
forming hypotheses on the basis of the
input received and then testing the
hypotheses in speech.

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