Assignment

Topic: Language acquisition and

theories
Course name :Psycholinguistics
Course code :4805

Submitted to
Mashrur Imtiaz
Assistant Professor
Department of linguistics
University of Dhaka

Submitted by
Parag Biswas
Roll:7
4th year, 8th semester
Department of linguistics
University of Dhaka
What is language acquisition?

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the

capacity to perceive and comprehend language (in other words, gain
the ability to be aware of language and to understand it), as well as to
produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language
acquisition involves structures, rules and representation. The capacity
to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of tools
including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive
vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in
sign. Human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though
human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an
infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle
called recursion. Evidence suggests that every individual has three
recursive mechanisms that allow sentences to go indeterminately.
These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation and
coordination. There are two main guiding principles in first-language
acquisition: speech perception always precedes speech production and
the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built
up one step at a time, beginning with the distinction between individual
phonemes. Linguists who are interested in child language acquisition for
many years question how language is acquired, Lidz et al. states "The
question of how these structures are acquired, then, is more properly
understood as the question of how a learner takes the surface forms in
the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules and
representations." Language acquisition usually refers to first-language
acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language,
whether that be spoken language or signed language as a result of
prelingual deafness, though it can also refer to bilingual first language
acquisition (BFLA), which refers to an infant's simultaneous acquisition
of two native languages. This is distinguished from second-language
acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children and
adults) of additional languages. In addition to speech, reading and
writing a language with an entirely different script compounds the
complexities of true foreign language literacy. Language acquisition is
one of the quintessential human traits, because non-humans do not
communicate by using language.

Theories of language acquisition

Behavioural theory (BF Skinner theory of language acquisition)

The Behavioural theory of language acquisition, sometimes called the
Imitation Theory, is part of behaviourist theory. Behaviourism proposes
that we are a product of our environment. Therefore, children have no
internal mechanism or ability to develop language by themselves. BF
Skinner (1957) suggests that children learn the language first by
imitating their caregivers (usually parents) and then modifying their use
of language due to operant conditioning.

Cognitive theory (Jean Piaget theory of language acquisition)

The Cognitive theory of language acquisition suggests that the primary
drives behind our actions are our thoughts and internal processes. Jean
Piaget (1923) assumes that children are born with relatively little
cognitive ability, but their minds develop and build new schemas (ideas
and understanding of how the world works) as they age and experience
the world around them. Eventually, they can apply language to their
schemas through assimilation (fitting new information into what is
already known) and accommodation (changing one's schemas to
support new information).

Nativist theory (Noam Chomsky theory of language acquisition)

Noam Chomsky (1957) proposes that children are born with an instinct
or drive for language learning which he calls the language acquisition
device (LAD). He argued that even if a child is not educated in their
country's language, so long as they grow in a normal environment, they
will still devise a system of verbal communication. Therefore, there
must be an innate, biological component to language acquisition.

Interactionist theory (Jerome Bruner theory of language

acquisition)
Jerome Bruner (1961) believed that children are born with an ability to
develop language but they require regular interaction with their
caregivers or teachers to learn and understand it to a level of full
fluency. This idea is known as the Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS).

Caregivers tend to correct mistakes that children make when using

language and also regularly teach them what objects are and what their
purposes are. Bruner suggests that this helps to build the scaffolding
that children will later rely on when further developing language.