Language Acquisition AO2

Nativists - Humans have inbuilt capacity to acquire language; Chomsky, Eric Lenneburg Behaviourists - language is acquired through imitation and reinforcement; B.F. Skinner Social internationalists - those who believe language develops through interactions with carers; Bruner, Lev Vygotsky Cognitive - Language acquisition is part of a wider development of understanding; Lev Vygotsky, Piaget

Noam Chomsky: Learning takes place through an innate brain mechanism, pre-programmed with the ability to acquire grammatical structures, calls this the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) - human languages share universal grammar

Piaget's stages of cognitive development: Sensorimotor (up to 2 years) - child experiences the physical through the senses and begins classifying things in it; lexical choices tend to be concrete rather than abstract               Object performance develops - concept that objects exist when out of sightPre-operational (2-7) - language and motor skills develop and become more contempt              Language is egocentric; either focused on the child or used by the child when no-one else is       aroundConcrete operational (7-11) - Children begin thinking logically about concrete eventsFormal operational (11+) - Abstract reasoning skills develop

Bruner's Language Acquisition Support System (LASS): Ritualised activitiesCarers make rules and meanings of these activities explicit and predictable so children

Katherine Nelson's first word categories (1973): Naming (things or people)Actions/eventsDescribing/modifying thingsPersonal/social words 60% of first words are nouns

Eve Clark's study of first words found that children base over-extensions on: Physical qualities of objectsFeatures such as taste, sound, movement, shape, size and texture

Aitchison's stages of children's linguistic development: Labelling - linking words to objects, understanding things can be labelledPackaging - exploring labels and to what  they can apply, over/under-extension occurs to understand the range of a word's meaningNetwork building - making connections between words, understanding similarities and opposites in meanings

Ursula Bellugi's stages of pronoun use: Uses own name ('Tom play') Recognises I/me pronouns and that they're used in different places in a sentence ('I play toy' or 'Me do that') Uses them according to whether they are in the subject or object position in a sentence ('I play with the toy' or 'Give it to me')

Halliday's functions of speech: Instrumental - fulfil a need ('want milk') Regulatory - influence behaviour of others ('pick up') Interactional - develop and maintain a social relationship ('love you') Personal - convey individual opinions, ideas and personal identity ('me like Charlie') Representational - convey facts and information ('it hot') Imaginative - convey an imaginary world; predominately seen in play ('me shopkeeper') Heuristic - learn about environment ('wassat?')

Halliday's functions of speech: Instrumental - fulfil a need ('want milk') Regulatory - influence behaviour of others ('pick up') Interactional - develop and maintain a social relationship ('love you') Personal - convey individual opinions, ideas and personal identity ('me like Charlie') Representational - convey facts and information ('it hot') Imaginative - convey an imaginary world; predominately seen in play ('me shopkeeper') Heuristic - learn about environment ('wassat?')

Halliday's functions of speech: Instrumental - fulfil a need ('want milk') Regulatory - influence behaviour of others ('pick up') Interactional - develop and maintain a social relationship ('love you') Personal - convey individual opinions, ideas and personal identity ('me like Charlie') Representational - convey facts and information ('it hot') Imaginative - convey an imaginary world; predominately seen in play ('me shopkeeper') Heuristic - learn about environment ('wassat?')

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