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 of the view is that
language learning is entirely the product of experience and that our
environment affects all of us.
a) The Behaviorist School
B.F. Skinner and his followers are known as behaviorist. According to
them language learning is process known as operant conditioning.
Conditioned 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. The learner
shows the new behavior first as a response to a system of reward or
punishment, and finally as an automatic response. In order to prove their
theory they conducted an experiment.
EXPERIMENT
They put a rat in a box containing a bar. If it presses a bar, it is
rewarded with a pellet of food. Nothing forces it to press the bar. The first
time it probably does so accidentally. When the rat finds that the food
arrives, it presses the bar again. Eventually it finds that if it is hungry it
can obtain food by pressing the bar. Then task is made more difficult. The
rat only gets rewarded if it presses the bar while a light is flashing. At first
rat is puzzled. Eventually it learns the trick. Then the task is made more
difficult again. This time the rat only receives food if it presses the bar a
certain number of times. After initial confusion it learns to do this also.
And so on, and so on.
Operant condition can be summarized thus
STIMULUS RESPONSE REINFORCEMENT
REPETITION
In operant conditioned, reinforcement plays a vital role. There are two
kinds of reinforcement:
A) Positive Reinforcement
Praise and rewards are positive reinforcement. Experiments have
shown that positive reinforcement works much better in bringing
about good learning.
B) Negative Reinforcement
Rebukes and punishments are negative reinforcement.
The behaviorists also claim that we learn language by imitation and
association. For example, a young child hears the word "water" with
the actual thing. He then makes this sound himself, imitating what he
has heard. His parents are pleased that he has learnt another word and
so his response is reinforced.
The thoughts of behaviorist school can well be understood according
to following tree diagram.
The Behaviorist School
learning is Positive
Operant conditioning and
Negative
Reinforcement
Noam Chomsky clearly 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.
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.
b) The Mentalist School
Chomsky argues that language is so complex that it is almost
incredible that it can be acquired by a child in so short a time. He says
that a child is born with some innate mental capacity which helps the
child to process all the language which he hears. This is called the
Language Acquisition Device, and he saws it as comprising a special
area of the brain whose only function was the processing of language.
This function, he argues, is quite separate from any other mental
capacity which the child has.
When Chomsky 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. Chomsky does not mean that a child
can describes these rules explicitly. For example, a four or five year
old child can produce a sentence like I have done my work; he can
do that because he has a 'mental grammar' 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 present perfect tense.
The thoughts of Mentalists can well be understood with the help of the
following tree diagram.
The Mentalists School
Language learning Input Mental grammar
Is an (own rules)
Innate ability LAD
Grammatical
Output sentences
Both the schools have said significant things, yet neither is perfect.
The mentalists' emphasis on the rule-learning is over enthusiastic, and
the behaviorists' rejection of meaning is entirely unjust. Language
acquisition seems to be a process both of analogy and application,
both nature and nurture. The differences between the empiricists
approach and that of the rationalist can be summarized in the
following manner:
BEHAVIOURISTS APPROACH MENTALIST APPROACH
1) Language acquisition is a Language is an innate, in-born
stimulus- response process. process.
2) Language is a conditioned Language is not a behavior like other
behavior. behaviors, but a specific mental
process.
3) Children learn language by Children learn language by
imitation and analogy. application.
4) Language learning is based on Language learning is analytical,
practice. generative and creation.
5) The role of imitation, repetition, The role of exposure to language is
reinforcement and motivation is very quite vital.
significant in language learning.
6) Language acquisition is the result Language acquisition is the result of
of nature. nurture.
Conclusion
As for Chomsky, he believes that as long there are people
available to speak to the child, the childs biological
endowments will do the rest.
But for Skinner, he believes that children will learn by
imitation, reinforcement that comes from the environments.
In this way Environment makes contribution in both
theories.
