Language Acquisition Theories
Introduction
Language is Almighty Allah's particular and one-of-a-kind gift to humanity, without which human civilization would have been impossible. Psycholinguistics emerged as an unique field of study in the early 1960s, initially including acoustic phonology and language disorders.
However, it has been profoundly affected by the development of generative theory in recent years, and its most significant topic of inquiry has been language acquisition. It has posed and partially solved problems such, "How do children learn their mother tongue?"
- How do kids develop linguistically and learn to properly manage the registral and stylistic variety of their mother tongue?
- How much of the linguistic system that they eventually command do they inherit, and how much do they learn as a result of their exposure to language?
Over the last four decades, two major theories are known as "Behaviourism" and "Mentalism" have been proposed to account for the phenomena of language acquisition by children. The Behaviourist School of thinking contends that learning is largely the result of experience and that our surroundings impact us all in the same manner.
The Mentalists, on the other hand, believe that everyone has an inbuilt language learning system. Let us investigate how children learn their mother language using these two schools of thinking.
(1) The Behaviourist School of Thought
Learning, or a change in behavior on the part of the learner, is brought about through a process known as operant conditioning, which is the consequence of repeated training, according to B.F Skinner and his colleagues, the behaviorists.
Operant refers to 'voluntary behavior' that is the outcome of the learner's own free choice and is not compelled by anybody or anything outside of the learner. The learner exhibits the new behavior initially as a reaction to a reward or punishment system, and then as an instinctive response. They undertook an experiment to test their hypothesis.
In a typical experiment, a rat is placed in a box with a bar. If it pushes the bar, it gets rewarded with a food pellet. Nothing makes it feel compelled to push the bar. The first time it happens, it is most often unintentional.
When the rat notices that the food has arrived, it pushes the bar once again. It eventually discovers that by tapping the bar, it may receive food if it is hungry. After then, the work is made more difficult.
If the rat pushes the bar when a light is flashing, it will be rewarded. At first, the rat is perplexed. It eventually figures out the technique. The job is then made much more difficult. This time, the rat will only get food if he pushes the bar a set amount of times.
After some initial misunderstanding, it learns to do this as well. And so on and so on. Thus, the operational state may be summarized. Reinforcement is very important in operant conditioning. There are two types of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
Positive Reinforcement (a)
Positive reinforcement consists of compliments and prizes. Experiments have demonstrated that positive reinforcement works far better in promoting excellent learning.
Negative Reinforcement (b)
Negative reinforcement includes reprimands and penalties. Skinner ultimately applies his operant conditioning theory of learning to the study of how people acquire language.
Language acquisition and behaviorists:
Language acquisition, according to behaviorists, is no different from learning anything else; it becomes a habit via the stimulus-response-reinforcement-repetition process. According to behaviorists, humans learn via imitation and association.
Example:
A small kid, for example, hears the word "apple" every time he is given one. He quickly identifies the term "apple" with the physical fruit. He next imitates what he has heard by making this sound himself. Because his parents are thrilled that he has learned another word, his reaction is reinforced. The following tree diagram might help you understand the ideas of the behaviorist school:
Psycholinguists say that imitation is insufficient; toddlers do not learn language just via mechanical repetition. They also get it via natural means.
(2) The Mentalist Institute:
The mentalist school of thinking, headed by Noam Chomsky, is another school of thought contending on the critical issue of first language acquisition in children. According to him and his mentalist followers, a youngster learns his first language via cognitive learning. He also gets it via natural means.
'Nature' and 'nurture' both have an impact on children's language learning. Chomsky considers linguistics to be a branch of psychology, namely cognitive psychology.
The Language Learning Device:
Chomsky contends that language is so complicated that it is nearly unbelievable that a toddler can learn it in such a short period of time. He goes on to claim that a kid is born with some natural brain ability that allows him to comprehend all of the language he hears. This is referred to as the "Language Acquisition Device" (LAD).
Chomsky and his supporters argue that language is guided by norms and is not accidental, as Skinner and his supporters contend. We must keep in mind that when Chomsky refers about rules, he is referring to the unconscious rules that exist in a child's mind.
A youngster creates his or her own mental grammar as part of his or her cognitive framework. These guidelines allow him to construct grammatical sentences in his own language. Chomsky does not imply that a youngster can directly express these norms.
For example, a four or five-year-old toddler may construct a sentence like, "I have eaten food," because he has a "mental grammar" that allows him to build accurate present perfect structures and apply such structures in suitable or appropriate circumstances.
Chomsky proposes that every student of every language has an intrinsic learning capacity for language, which allows each learner to create a form of personal theory or set of rules about the language based on relatively short exposure to it.
Differences between the Mentalistic and Behaviourist Approaches:
Mentalist Approach | Behaviourist Approach |
(1) Language is an innate, in-born process. (2) Children learn language by application. (3) Language is not a behavior like other behaviors, but a specific mental process. (4) The role of exposure to language is quite vital. (5) Language learning is analytical, generative and creation (6) Language acquisition is the result of nurture. | (1) Language acquisition is a stimulus- response process. (2) Children learn language by imitation and analogy. (3) Language is a conditioned behavior. (4) The role of imitation, repetition, reinforcement and motivation is very significant in language learning. (5) Language learning is based on practice. (6) Language acquisition is the result of nature. |
Conclusion:
Finally, after examining both ideas concerning a child's initial language acquisition, such as Behaviourism and Mentalism, it is possible to infer that Chomsky has a completely different perspective of learning than behaviorists.
He has a mentalist perspective, which implies he is interested in the mind and cognitive processes. This idea is supported by the majority of language psychologists. Behaviourism may not teach us much about how we learn our mother tongue, but it may indicate to effective ways for learning a foreign language later in life.
One thing is evident from this comparative study: nature and nurture, analogy and application, practice and exposure are all significant. The framework is established by innate potentialities. After just a few utterances, the youngster learns to extract the concepts behind the utterances and make his own utterances. He is able to grasp and internalize all of the key laws of language in around four years.