Behaviourism and Mentalism

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORIES Introduction During the past forty years there have been two major theories of language learning by children. But there are two major schools of thought known as, 'Behaviorists' and 'Mentalists'. One school is of the view that language learning is entirely the product of eperience and that our environment affects all of us. Others have suggested that everybody has an innate language learning mechanism. !et us discovery with the help of  these two schools of thought that how do children ac"uire their mother tongue. #ow do they grow up linguistically and learn to handle the stylistics varieties of their mother tongue$ #ow much of the linguistics system they are born with and how much do they discover from their eposure to language$

a) The Behaviorist School B.%. B.%. &kinner and his followers are known as behaviorist. ccording to them language learning is process known as operant conditioning. (onditioned Behavior is behavior which is the result of repeated training. Operant means that it is voluntary behavior, it is result of learner's own free will, and it is not forced by any outside person or thing. )he learner

demonstrates the new behavior first as a response to a system of reward or punishment, and finally as an automatic response. *n order to prove their theory they conducted an eperiment.

E!ERI"ENT )hey put a rat in a bo containing a bar. *f it presses a bar, it is rewarded with a pellet of food. +othing forces it to press the bar. )he first time it probably does so accidentally. hen the rat finds that the food arrives, it presses the bar again. -ventually it finds that if it is hungry it can obtain food by pressing the bar. )hen task is made more difficult. )he rat only gets rewarded if it presses the bar while a light is flashing. t first rat is puled. -ventually it learns the trick. )hen the task is made more difficult again. )his time the rat only receives food if it presses the bar a certain number of times. fter initial confusion it learns to do this also. nd so on, and so on.

Operant condition can be summaried thus

&)*M/!/&

0-&1O+&-

0-*+%O0(-M-+)

0-1-)*)*O+ *n operant conditioned, reinforcement plays a vital role. )here are two kinds of reinforcement2

A)

!ositive Rein#orce$ent 1raise and rewards are positive reinforcement. -periments have shown that positive reinforcement works much better in bringing about good learning.

B)

Ne%ative Rein#orce$ent 0ebukes and punishments are negative reinforcement.

)he behaviorists also claim that we learn language by imitation and association. %or eample, a young child hears the word 3water3 with the actual thing. #e then makes this sound himself, imitating what he has heard. #is parents are pleased that he has learnt another word and so his response is reinforced. )he thoughts of behaviorist school can well be understood according to following tree diagram. The Behaviorist School

Lan%ua%e learnin% is O&erant conditionin%

!ositive and Ne%ative Rein#orce$ent

I$itation and Association

+oam (homsky eplicitly rejects the behaviorists' position that language should be thought of as verbal behavior, arguing that it should be thought of as knowledge held by those who use language. (homsky suggests that the learner of any language has an inbuilt learning capacity for language that enables each learner to construct a kind of personal theory or set of rules about the language based on very limited eposure to language.

') The "entalist School (homsky and his mentalist followers claim that a child learns his first language through cognitive learning. )hey claim that language is governed by rules, and is not a haphaard thing, as &kinner and his followers would claim. ccording to (homsky, the child is born with a mental capacity for working out the underlying system to the jumble of sounds which he hears. #e constructs his own grammar' and imposes it on all the sounds reaching his brain. )his mental grammar is part of his cognitive framework, and nothing he hears is stored in his brain until he has matched it against what he already knows and found a 'correct' place for it within this framework. (homsky argues that language is so comple that it is almost incredible that it can be ac"uired by a child in so short a time. #e says that a child is born with some innate mental capacity which helps the

child to process all the language which he hears. )his is called the Lan%ua%e Ac(uisition evice* and he saws it as comprising a special

area of the brain whose only function was the processing of language. )his function, he argues, is "uite separate from any other mental capacity which the child has. hen (homsky talks about 'rules', he means the unconscious rules in a child's mind these rules enables him to make grammatical sentences in his own language. (homsky does not mean that a child can describes these rules eplicitly. %or eample, a four or five year old child can produce a sentence like I have done $+ ,or-. he can do that because he has a /$ental %ra$$ar/ which enables him to form correct present perfect structures and also to use such structures in the right and appropriate situations. But he is unable to define the formation of &resent &er#ect tense0 )he thoughts of Mentalists can well be understood with the help of the following tree diagram.

The "entalists School Lan%ua%e learnin% Is an Innate a'ilit+  

In&ut

"ental %ra$$ar 1o,n rules)

LA Out&ut

Gra$$atical sentences

Both the schools have said significant things, yet neither is perfect. )he mentalists' emphasis on the rule4learning is over enthusiastic, and the behaviorists' rejection of meaning is entirely unjust. !anguage ac"uisition seems to be a process both of analogy and application,  both nature and nurture. )he differences between the empiricists approach and that of the rationalist can be summaried in the following manner2 BEHA2IOURISTS A!!ROACH

"ENTALIST A!!ROACH

56 !anguage ac"uisition is a stimulus4 response process.

!anguage is an innate, in4born  process.

76 !anguage is a conditioned  behavior.

!anguage is not a behavior like other   behaviors, but a specific mental  process.

 86 (hildren learn language by imitation and analogy.

(hildren learn language by application.

96 !anguage learning is based on  practice.

 !anguage learning is analytical, generative and creation.

 :6 )he role of imitation, repetition, reinforcement and motivation is very significant in language learning.

)he role of eposure to language is "uite vital.

;6 !anguage ac"uisition is the result of nature.

!anguage ac"uisition is the result of nurture.

Conclusion )his comparative study makes one thing clear2 nature and nurture, analogy and application, practice and eposure are important. *nnate  potentialities lay down the framework. ithin this framework, there is wide variation depending on the environment. )he kind of language that children ultimately grow into shaped by the culture4based responses of the family, if not in a way that can be called imitation, then at least in terms of things the child chooses to do with its language. But we should  be wary of the idea that all children eperience the same practices and follow the same development path as they grow into their language. #aving been eposed to a small number of utterances, the child begins to etract the principles underlying the utterances and compose new utterances of his own. )his is the way every child grammar to communicate in an intelligent manner. #e makes mistakes and produces ungrammatical sentences. #is elders correct him< he feeds the information into his mini4grammar, modifies some of the rules, and again  produces new utterances. *n a period of about four years, he is able to master and internalie all the essential rules of language. )his is a proof that a child's own rules of grammar are more important to him than mere imitation.