ACQUISITION versus LEARNING (secondary)
General approaches to Language Acquisition
1. Social interactionism
What are the language behaviors that nature provides innately and what are those behaviors that are realized by environmental exposure, which is nurture.
2. Relational frame theory
The relational frame theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, Roche, 2001), provides a wholly selectionist/learning account of the origin and development of language competence and complexity. Based upon the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism, RFT posits that children acquire language purely through interacting with the environment. RFT theorists introduced the concept of functional contextualism in language learning, which emphasizes the importance of predicting and influencing psychological events, such as thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, by focusing on manipulable variables in their context. RFT distinguishes itself from Skinner's work by identifying and defining a particular type of operant conditioning known as derived relational responding, a learning process that to date appears to occur only in humans possessing a capacity for language. Empirical studies supporting the predictions of RFT suggest that children learn language via a system of inherent reinforcements, challenging the view that language acquisition is based upon innate, language-specific cognitive capacities.[4]
3. Emergentism
Emergentist theories, such as MacWhinney's competition model, posit that language acquisition is a cognitive process that emerges from the interaction of biological pressures and the environment. According to these theories, neither nature nor nurture alone is sufficient to trigger language learning; both of these influences must work together in order to allow children to acquire a language. The proponents of these theories argue that general cognitive processes subserve language acquisition and that the end result of these processes is language-specific phenomena, such as word learning and grammar acquisition. The findings of many empirical studies support the predictions of these theories, suggesting that language acquisition is a more complex process than many believe
Language Acquisition: Cultural Considerations
Stages:
1. Sounding (up to 4 months)
2. Babbling (up to 1 year)-phonetic system down
3. One-Word Stage (holophrastic) (1-2 years)-pointing
4. Syntactic (2-4 years)
By 5 years of age, children possess the basic structures of language. All the rest is learning new vocabulary & complex grammatical structures.
5. Conversational Rule Acquisition (beginning, maintaining ending) Age 5-16
a. Sensitive to context, topic, interests of communicators, etc (social variables)
i. Depend upon COGNITIVE, LINGUISTIC & SOCIAL maturation
Universal Sequence: cross culturally
· Consonants
o Front to back (labial are first)
o Voiced to voiceless
· Vowels
o Back to front
o Low to high
· Passive Language (always understand more than you can produce)
· Syntactic Stage
o Pivot class before open class
§ PC: ritualized greetings, deixis, this/that, possessives & adjectives
§ OC: nouns, verbs (content)
§ PC occurs with OC, or two OC (shows development of grammatical meaning)
· Neg + sentence (negation)
· Question words: what/Where (concrete), who, Why/when (abstract: causality, means, temporality)
· Locatives
o In/on/under
o Beside
o Back/front (inherent to object)
o Between
o Back/front (not inherent to object)
How does a child learn Language?
1. Discover rule
2. Generalized rule through analogy
3. Over-generalize rule (refine)-mouses, goed, doed, comed
4. Internalize rule
Vocabulary Growth
· Strategies
o Broadening/narrowing the sense of reference of a word (mommy, cookie, fluffy(dog))
o Coining words (summered, souping, make it bell)
Trained Monkey Phenomenon
(imitation-response elicitations)
M: Adam, ask the lady where she can find some toys
A: Lady, where you can find some toys?
M: Adam, ask the lady why she can’t run
A: Lady, why you can’t run?
A: Adam wants some juice?
M (correcting): Can Adam have some juice?
A: Can Adam have some juice? Adam can have cookie too?
Instructional Strategies by Cultures are based on:
1. Teach prescribed rules of interaction
2. Norms of communication behavior
3. Confirm cultural beliefs about language learning and children
American style in Child Rearing and Language:
· Speak directly to the child in “baby talk”
· Consider child someone to directly address-conversational partner
· MC
o Self-lowering (baby talk)-asking questions you already know answers to
o Child-raising; treating child as an equal communicative partner
· (As opposed to Papua New Guinea, where child is expected to learn how to communicate with larger social group).
· Interesting questions:
o How do innate language capacities interact with culturally & linguistically significant aspects of upbringing?
o Do cultural aspects of bilingual environments have impact on language learning?
§ Anti-chomsky to say that environment has this much or any impact on language learning, which is controlled by the LAD
§ Chomsky learn a UNIVERSAL GRAMMER (UG) despite “poverty of imput”-language is too complex to be explained by the limited signals that children get in the first year of life.
o Sociolinguistics: not degenerate or poverty ridden input. It is more about a GENERALIZED SET OF COGNITIVE MECHANISMS. SOCIAL INTERACTION plays a CRUCIAL ROLE
§ Language acquisition makes you a competent member of society
§ Being a competent member of society is realized through language
§ Children take an active role in constructing language capabilities that are USEFUL to them.
§ Peer-peer interactions need to be looked at in addition to adult/child interactions
USA-Middle Class*- Repeat utterance with expansion (based on middle class values: care givers must instruct children carefully in language and conversational skills – OVERT TEACHING is the duty of the care giver.
2. Modeling: commenting on semantic content (maintaining child’s word order when possible)
A: Adam milk!
M: Adam has some milk!
A: dat book nice!
M: That is a nice book, what is it about?
A: dat doggie!
M: The book is about a doggie! Good, Adam.
A: Good Adam!
*Others (WC) expect children will naturally learn to speak and do not engage in these behaviors with such frequency. They may instead expand on their own speech supplying REPETITIONS, and VARIANT SYNTAX of their own utterances.
M: What you eating there?
M: What do you have?
M: Are you eating something?
M: Jane, are you eating something?
M: What are you eating there?
Kaluli (PNG)
Children need to be directly instructed
Routines (Elema):
Utterance_______________________”say like that”
Kwara’ae (Melanesia)
Begin talking to infants and including them in conversations. Speak for them by translating their babbling. (overt)
Navaho
Begin talking to children when they say things that make sense (3) Otherwise ignore their words. All learning is passive. (Covert)
Japan
Based on the notion of ‘Omoiyari’- empathy for others, politeness is overtly taught. Teaching is through example and admonition (directives)
1. Save face by non-expression of feelings
2. Practice indirectness
3. Avoid conflict in communication
4. “lack of response” signals self absorption and is rude. Teach to always respond.
5. Personal desires are kept in check (do not show emotions)
Samoan
Signal ling emotions and intentions is part of good communication. Have particles, pronouns and affixes which allow you to do this in language. Overtly taught in DIRECTIVES
1. Learn by age 4: affect markers-express emotion (before neutral ways of expression)
MULTI-LINGUALS AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Children will pass through stages more slowly than monolinguals and will often lag in production. When they do produce they do so at a more “advanced” level. (cognitive advantages)
1. Do not mix languages (no code noise)
2. Speak later but in fuller form
3. Can learn up to 12 languages with no “bleeding”
4. Critical age is 5/12
· Despite exposure, children may fail to acquire language under certain social circumstances
o Attitudes
o Parents actions in using speech styles
o Perceived abilities/preferences of children as they become speakers (by parents)
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