Theories of First Language Acquisition

 

Theories of first language acquisition

Language acquisition is the process of attaining a specific variant of human language. It is the process of children learning the first language or their native language. The language is develop trough phonological and semantic development. Ivan Pavlov He said that learning is the involuntary association of stimulus and response. He discovered the clasical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

 Adult utters “water” whenever the the child sees water.   – Unconditioned stimulus: “water”   –

Unconditioned response: the child . . .Drinks? Splashes? Spits?

After conditioning:  – Conditioned stimulus: the word “water”    –

Conditioned response: The child drinks

 

B.F Skinner According to B.F Skinner learning, or a change of behaviour on the part of the learner, is brought about by a process known as operant conditioning  which is the result of repeated training. Operant means 'voluntary behaviour ' which is the result of learner's own free-will and is not forced by any outside person or thing. The learner demonstrates the new behavior first as a response to a system of reward or punishment, and finally as an automatic response. So skinner conclude that language learned through imitation and repetition. Operant condition can be summarized thus STIMULUS

RESPONSE

REINFORCEMENT

REPETITION Noam Chomsky Chomsky’s theory of the LAD (Language Acquisition Device) states that every

human is born with innate principles of language.

Language learning

Input

Is an Innate ability

Mental grammar (own r ules)

LAD Grammatical Output

sentences 

 

Chomsky 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 exposure to language.

MENTALIST APPROACH 

BEHAVIOURIST APPROACH

1) Language Language is an innate, in-born process.

1) Language acquisition is a stimulusstimulus- response process.

2) Children learn language by application.

2) Children learn language by imitation and analogy.

3) Language is not a behavior like other

3) Language is a conditioned behavior.

behaviors, but a specific mental process.

4) The role of exposure to language is quite

4) The role of imitation, repetition, reinforcement

vital.

and motivation is very significant in language learning.

5) Language learning is analytical, generative

5) Language learning is based on practice.

and creation.

6)  Language acquisition is the result of  6) Language acquisition is the result r esult of nature. nurture. 

 

Lev Vygotsky According to Vygotsky, social interaction plays an important role in the learning process and proposed the zone of proximal development (ZPD) where learners construct the new language through socially mediated interaction. The zone of proximal development "is the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers."