1 Explaining first language acquisitionFlorian Gausmann Barbara Sohn-Travaglia Mandy Wellhausen
2 Content The Behaviourist Perspective The Innatist PerspectiveThe Interactional/Developmental Perspective
3 Behaviourism
4 Behaviourism biggest influence in 1940’s and 1950’s
5 Behaviourism biggest influence in 1940’s and 1950’s I.P. PawlowB.E. Skinner
6 Behaviourism ‘positive reinforcement’
7 Behaviourism ‘positive reinforcement’ praise successful communication
8 Behaviourism imitation
9 Behaviourism imitationword-for-word repetition of someone else’s utterance
10 Behaviourism practice
11 Behaviourism practice repetitive manipulation of form
12 Behaviourism child’s language behaviour shaped by:quality and quantity of language heard consistency of reinforcement
13 The Innatist Perspective It‘s all in your mind
14 The Innatist Perspective: It‘s all in your mindIt is seen as an explanation for the “logical problem of language acquisition“ What‘s that? The fact that children are come to know more about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language they hear
15 The Innatist Perspective: Noam ChomskyChomsky’s conclusion: Children’s minds are not blank slates to be filled by imitating language they hear in the environment Hypothesis: Children are born with a specific innate ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to
16 The Innatist Perspective: ExampleChildren hear false starts, incomplete sentences, and slips of tongue Nonetheless they learn to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences John told Bill to wash himself.
17 The Innatist Perspective Universal GrammarIf children are equipped with Universal Grammar, then what they have to learn is the ways in which the language they are acquiring makes use of these principles
18 The Innatist Perspective The Critical Period HypothesisAnimals and humans are genetically programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skill at specific times in life Difficult to apply this hypothesis for language acquisition because nearly all children are exposed to language (oral or gestural) at an early age
19 The Innatist Perspective Is there a Critical Period for Language Acquisition?Neurological evidence Evidence from language acquisition of deaf children Evidence from feral children Evidence from Down syndrome subjects
20 The Innatist Perspective CP SummaryThere is little prospect of obtaining unambiguous evidence on the question of the possibility of beginning to acquire a L1 after any age posited as critical it would appear sensible to look at evidence concerning the continuation of language acquisition beyond the childhood years “It is difficult to identify any point in the lifespan when the process of language development is truly complete.” Nippold (1998:1)
21 The Innatist Perspective Question 1What is (according to N. Chomsky) “the logical problem of language acquisition“ and which theory is seen as an explanation for it?
22 The Innatist Perspective Answer 1The innatist perspective is seen as an explanation for the “logical problem of language acquisition“ The “logical problem of language acquisition” is 1. The fact that children are come to know more about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn on the basis of the samples of language they hear and 2. The question of how adult speakers come to know the complex structure of their first language on the basis of language that they actually hear
23 The Innatist Perspective Question 2Why did E. Newport and her colleagues conclude that their study of deaf children learning ASL supports the hypothesis of a critical period?
24 The Innatist Perspective Answer 2On tests focusing on grammatical markers (to indicate such things as time and number; these markers are expressed through specific hand or body movements), the Native group (who were exposed to ASL from birth) used the forms more consistently than the Early group (who began using ASL between 4-6 years of age). This group, in turn, used them more consistently than the Late group (who began learning ASL after age twelve)
25 Interactionist/Developmental Perspectives
26 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesLearning from inside and out Language Acquisition seen as the ability to learn from experience Interactions Focus on interplay between innate learning ability & environment
27 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesJean Piaget children‘s interactions with objects & people development of cognitive understanding Lev Vygotsky children‘s interactions with other children & adults Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
28 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesCross cultural research children‘s learning environments in different cultural communities child-directed speech not universal
29 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesThe importance of interaction Jim deaf parents no sign language
30 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesConnectionism Language acquisition does not require “module of the mind“ Connections between words and phrases + the situation in which they occur
31 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesWhat characterizes child-directed speech? slower rate of delivery higher pitch more varied intonation shorter, simpler sentence patterns stress on key words frequent repetition paraphrase
32 Interactionist/Developmental PerspectivesExplain the difference between Piaget‘s and Vygotsky‘s point of view
33 Bibliography Lightbown and Spada. How Languages are Learned. 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press. 2006: chap. 1 pp Singleton and Ryan.Language Acquisition: The Age Factor.2nd Edition. Cromwell Press Ltd.2004.