Language Learning Theories [PDF]

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Lecture 2: This lecture discusses  how the learners acquire their native language (L1)  major theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning  short comings in each theory How learners acquire their native language (L1) is a very complex issue. Babies acquire sounds of the language, arrange them in systematic way, produce words, make sentences, and make meaning. They commit errors and also communicate successfully. This lecture discusses three important approaches and tries to find the answer: Behaviorism: (Repeat What I say) Behaviorism is a psychological theory of learning behavior. It was very influential in the 1940s and 1950s especially in the United States. This theory applies the findings of learning behavior in psychology into first language learning. B.F skinner’ experiment on learning behavior This theory is based on the experiment of B.F skinner (1957). He made an “operant conditioning chamber” (also known as the Skinner Box) and put rats in the box with two levers and if the rat pressed the first lever, food would fall into the box and if the rat pressed the second lever, it would get itching power thrown over it.

Similar kind of experiment was also conducted on pigeon. These both experiments confirmed that rats and pigeons were capable of learning new behavior after they were given positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is an increase in the possibility of occurrence in response to a stimulus, due to the fact that this response being correct is rewarded. Negative reinforcement is a decrease in the possibility of occurrence of a response to a stimulus due to the fact that this response being wrong is punished.

From this theory of behaviorism, a theory of language learning (L1) is derived which indicates that language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit-formation. Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them and receive positive reinforcement. With encouragement of those in the environment around them, children continue to imitate and practice these sounds and patterns until they form habits of correct language use. Criticism on Behaviorism Noam Chomsky rejected the theory of behaviorism and said that language is not habit structure. (1) Children overgeneralize rules of language such as ‘goed’ and ‘taked’. It means they create on the basis of rules they acquired not from memories and imitation. (2) Sometimes, students do not produce the pattern of language which their parents use frequently or even they offer correction to him. Example student use noboday don’t like me. He reproduced the same even after correction. ______________________________________________________________________________ Innatists: (Language lives in mind) and Nativists Nativism is a part of Innatism. Both believe the children are born with the knowledge of language. Language learning is an innate ability to every child like eating food or walking or running etc. Children are not born with a "blank slate" at birth and they do not learn a language just by imitation and reinforcement as behaviorists believe in. Children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop. For example, children are not taught to walk. When they have sufficient nourishment and freedom, they start walking. Children’s mind is not blank slates to be filled merely by imitating language they hear in the environment. Children are born with special ability to discover underlying rules of a language system by themselves. Innatists and Nativists argue that children are born with a language faculty (innate ability) which is already equipped with considerable knowledge about the form that human language takes, and have only to be exposed to particular human languages for their mental grammar to be fixed in appropriate way. This happens as a result that certain general principles for discovering or structuring language automatically begin to operate when children are exposed to this language.

Noam Chomsky has constituted all these principals in his concept of Child’ s language acquisition device (LAD) (LAD) Language Acquisition Device (LAD) This theory of innatism was given by Noam Chomsky in 1959. He referred to this special ability of children as Language Acquisition Device (LAD). His concept of LAD is often described as “black box” somewhere in the brain of a child. This box has principals of language which are universal to all human languages. This box helps the child to prevent from going on wrong tracks of discovering rules of the language. Once he comes in contact to any language sample, his LAD is activated and he starts internalizing the rules of a grammar. Criticism One of the criticisms on Innatism or Innnatists is that they have placed too much emphasis on the competence of adult native speakers and not enough on the development aspects of language acquisition. The amount of knowledge a child has acquired from primary linguistic data is called “linguistic competence”. After acquiring competence, the child uses it to produce sentences and utterances. It is found that when they use that knowledge of language (competence), they make errors and trails. It means only competence is not the only guarantee of language acquisition. The child needs an environment where he can exchange his language knowledge in social interaction. There are a number of ‘Operating Principles’ which involve in making sense of language data. Some of them are (1) Regular rules of language are acquired and developed before irregular ones. (2) Active voice appears before passive voice. ______________________________________________________________________________ Point of view‘s Interactionist A third theoretical view of first language acquisition focuses on the role of the linguistic environment in interaction with the child’s innate capacities in determining language development. According to this view, language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the uniquely human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops.

Interactionist view shares the basic belief that child are born with innate ability of learning a language but they give more importance to the environment than innatists do. It focuses on the role of the linguistic environment in which a child with his innate capacities interacts with his family members, friends and society and develops his language. It believes that language develops entirely from social interaction. It defines language as a symbol system which a person uses to express knowledge acquired through interaction with the physical world. Interactinists answer how children relate form and meaning in language, how they interact in conversation, and how they learn to use language appropriately. It studies how mother and father interact with their children for example they adapt language input, speak slow, short utterances, use simple grammar, meaning, complex sentences, and less variety of tense etc. This kind of speech enables the child to learn the rules and meaning of language. Thus he grows with limited ability of language and interacts with higher level of language. Conclusion: Here are the main theories explaining how children learn their first language. 

The Behaviorist Theory: Children learn a language mainly through repetition, imitation and habit formation.

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The Innatist Theory: Children are biologically programmed for language acquisition.

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The Interactionist Theory: The environment is just as important as children's innate predisposition to language acquisition.

All of these theories help to describe some aspects of first and second language acquisition. Neither the behaviorist nor the innatist theories are able to adequately encompass the complexity of language acquisition. The

most

comprehensive

theory

we

have

at

this

point

is

the

interactionist viewpoint that encompasses aspects previous theories and builds upon these aspects.