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research the different theories around language acquisition - Coggle…
research the different theories around language acquisition
Piaget
Concerned the issue of which needs a child tends to satisfy when talking.
He began with the function of language which he divided into two large group. These are egocentric and socialised.
The three categories of egocentric speech
Repetition: the child repeats the words or sounds only for the pleasure of talking. When the child repeats the words or sounds, they are not aware that they are talking or if they are making sense
Monologue: the child talks to themselves as if they were thinking aloud
Dual or collective monologue: this is a conversation between or children where the other person is not taken into account but serves as a stimulus
The four categories associated with socialised speech
Adapted information: the child starts to talk with another child or an adult, in order to influence the child’s actions.
Answers: these are answers to real questions and to commands.r.
Commands, requests, threats and questions: in all of these there is interaction between one child and another.
Criticism: children use language to make remarks about the work or behaviour of others, although in the same way as in adapted information.
Piagets approach is extremely useful with regard to questions of how children use words and why they use particular words to convey a certain meaning. It is much less successful in addressing the issue of how children understand the rules of language.
Skinner
Operant conditioning
he accounted for language development using environmental influence, through imitation, reinforcement, and conditioning.
children learn words and grammar primarily by mimicking speech they hear and receiving positive feedback for correct usage.
Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviours reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings.
through repetition and reinforcement, they refine their linguistic abilities
Behaviour this is positively inforced
Information should be presented in small amount that can be shaped/ scaffolded.
reinforcements will generalise across similar stimuli and produce secondary conditioning
Chomsky
Chomsky believed that we are born with a capacity for language.
Hearing speech activates a child's innate tendency to learn language, and the child's brain can comprehend what it hears based on the fundamental principles or structures it already contains.
Chomsky based his theory on the idea that all language contains similar struggles and rules. children hwere bron with the wires and the basics already preseneted in the brain.
born with a set of ;language tools
language acquisition device (LAD) is an abstract part of the human mind.
3 children can acquire rules of language through hypothesis testing
LAD transforms these rules into basic grammar
Bruner
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.
Bruner focused on games such as peek-a-boo, which enable babies to rehearse the turn-taking necessary in interactions with others. In using this phrase, he underlines the social context in which learning occurs.
babies and children are programmed to pay attention to language in the same way as they actively seek to explore the world through direct interaction
Social interaction is both self propelled and self-rewarding
he claims, there is no need to teach language directly: when children are growing up in an environment where language is used constantly, adults use correct forms of language, therefore the children will pick up the correct forms of language.
‘language acquisition support system’ (LASS), based on Chomsky’s idea of LAD. For Bruner, the role of the adult is important in language acquisition and he was more concerned with the functions of language
Bruner thought that individuals become what they are only by learning the essence of the culture in which they live, and this essence of culture has a potency to intrinsically motivate children
Bruner emphasises the role of the adult through the term ‘scaffolding’, which refers to a changing quality of social support over the course of a teaching session.
Bruner agrees with Chomsky that direct language teaching in early childhood is less effective than supporting children with their language acquisition. Thus, he argues for a supportive environment in early childhood.
As children grow and interact verbally with their human environment, they are picking up the complex grammatical rules of the language, acquiring vocabulary and the ability to put words together to make sentences, and to understand the meaning of the sentences they hear.
Vygotsky
Three stages: external, egocentric and internal
External: the interactions between children
Egocentric: private speech directed to themself, not learned to internalise yet
Internal: silent inner speech
Vgotsky provided a foundation for language acquisition research through his analysis of the development of mental systems as humans acquire and develop the ability to communicate through language.
According to Vygotsky, language is not simply a means of expressing existing thoughts, but is necessary for the formation of cognitive processes
The system of meaning created by the unification of thinking and language processes was at the center of Vygotsky's work
Meaning is is the internal structure of the sign operation. It is what is lying between the thought and the word. Meaning is not equal to the word, not equal to the thought.
Vygotsky saw a dialectical relationship between language and thinking processes, with each process shaping and being shaped by the other
The methodological approach Vygotsky developed to study the relationships between thinking and speaking processes can also help inform investigations into the processes involved in acquiring and developing communicative capacity in a second language.