Theories of language: learning including Skinner; nativist including Chomsky's language acquisition device (LAD); interactionist including Vygotsky.
One of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition was provided by Skinner (1957). As one of the pioneers of Behaviorism, he accounted for language development by means of environmental influence.
Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases.
According to Skinner children are a ‘tabula rosa’ for language learning and require nurturing.
Language is learnt through processes of operant conditioning using reinforcement.
Correct words are rewarded with positive reinforcement to encourage continuation of the utterances.
Incorrect words can be positively punished to discourage the use of the inaccurate speech.
For example, when the child says ‘milk’ and the mother will smile and give her some as a result, the child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the child's language development (Ambridge & Lieven, 2011).
Evaluation
However, Skinner's account was soon heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, the world's most famous linguist to date. In the spirit of cognitive revolution in the 1950's, Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone.
Language is based on a set of structures or rules, which could not be worked out simply by imitating individual utterances. The mistakes made by children reveal that they are not simply imitating but actively working out and applying rules. For example, a child who says "drinked" instead of "drank" is not copying an adult but rather over-applying a rule. The child has discovered that past tense verbs are formed by adding a /d/ or /t/ sound to the base form. The "mistakes" occur because there are irregular verbs which do not behave in this way. Such forms are often referred to as intelligent mistakes or virtuous errors.
The vast majority of children go through the same stages of language acquisition. There appears to be a definite sequence of steps. We refer to developmental milestones. Apart from certain extreme cases the sequence seems to be largely unaffected by the treatment the child receives or the type of society in which s/he grows up.
There is evidence for a critical period for language acquisition. Children who have not acquired language by the age of about seven will never entirely catch up. The most famous example is that of Genie, discovered in 1970 at the age of 13. She had been severely neglected, brought up in isolation and deprived of normal human contact. Of course, she was disturbed and underdeveloped in many ways. During subsequent attempts at rehabilitation, her carers tried to teach her to speak. Despite some success, mainly in learning vocabulary, she never became a fluent speaker, failing to acquire the grammatical competence of the average five-year-old.
The LAD is a hypothetical tool hardwired into the brain that helps children rapidly learn and understand language.
Noam Chomsky is a credible linguist and expert in language development. He started his research into language in the 1960s. He suggests that children are born with an innate ability to learn language.
The Key Principles of Chomsky’s Model of Language Acquisition:
Everyone is born with the capacity to develop and learn any language.
Language development is instinctive.
Every child has a “Language Acquisition Device”, or LAD for short.
The LAD is a tool that is found in the brain; it enables the child to rapidly develop the rules of language.
The role of the LAD is to encode the major skills involved in language learning, but with a focus on the encoding of grammar.
Grammar is a vital skill needed for children to learn language.
Chomsky disregarded the role of imitation alone - especially if the adult is using a structure that the child themselves has not started to use yet.
Application of Chomsky’s Model of Language Acquisition
Children are often heard making grammatical errors such as “I sawed,” and “sheeps” which they would not have learned from hearing adults communicate. This shows the child using the LAD to get to grips with the rules of language.
Once the child has mastered this skill, they are only in need of learning new words as they can then apply the rules of grammar from the LAD to form sentences.
Chomsky proposed that native-speaking children would become fluent by the age of ten.
He also argued that if children learn two languages from birth, they are more likely to be fluent in both.
Evaluation
There is no evidence for the existence of a language device in the brain which Bruner (1983) suggests a support system is actually needed for language development (LASS).
The theory offers a hypothetical explanation and we do not know where the LAD is located.
The model ignores the importance of social interaction.
The model cannot explain why individuals with certain learning disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome have delayed language.
Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions, for communication purposes. Vygotsky viewed language as man’s greatest tool, a means for communicating with the outside world.
According to Vygotsky (1962) language plays two critical roles in cognitive development:
It is the main means by which adults transmit information to children.
Language itself becomes a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation.
Vygotsky (1987) differentiates between three forms of language: social speech which is external communication used to talk to others (typical from the age of two); private speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to the self and serves an intellectual function; and finally private speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a self-regulating function and is transformed into silent inner speech (typical from the age of seven).
For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age. At this point speech and thought become interdependent: thought becomes verbal, speech becomes representational. When this happens, children's monologues internalised to become inner speech. The internalisation of language is important as it drives cognitive development.
Vygotsky (1987) was the first psychologist to document the importance of private speech. He considered private speech as the transition point between social and inner speech, the moment in development where language and thought unite to constitute verbal thinking.
Thus private speech, in Vygotsky's view, was the earliest manifestation of inner speech. Indeed, private speech is more similar (in its form and function) to inner speech than social speech.
Unlike inner speech which is covert (i.e., hidden), private speech is overt. Through private speech, children begin to collaborate with themselves in the same way a more knowledgeable other (e.g., adults) collaborate with them in the achievement of a given function.
Vygotsky sees "private speech" as a means for children to plan activities and strategies and therefore aid their development. Private speech is the use of language for self-regulation of behavior. Language is, therefore, an accelerator to thinking/understanding. Vygotsky believed that children who engaged in large amounts of private speech are more socially competent than children who do not use it extensively.
Evaluation
Vygotsky's work has not received the same level of intense scrutiny that Piaget's has, partly due to the time-consuming process of translating Vygotsky's work from Russian. Also, Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective does not provide as many specific hypotheses to test as did Piaget's theory, making refutation difficult, if not impossible.
Perhaps the main criticism of Vygotsky's work concerns the assumption that it is relevant to all cultures. Rogoff (1990) dismisses the idea that Vygotsky's ideas are culturally universal and instead states the concept of scaffolding - which is heavily dependent on verbal instruction - may not be equally useful in all cultures for all types of learning. Indeed, in some instances, observation and practice may be more effective ways of learning certain skills.
State what is meant by the concept of language acquisition device (LAD). (2) June 2017
Explain one weakness of the concept of language acquisition device (LAD). (2) June 2017
Discuss, using Skinner’s theory of language, how Adham was able to learn the new word. (8) October 2018
Describe, using your understanding of Chomsky, why Sarah makes grammatical errors when forming sentences. (2) January 2019