Language Acquistion Theories l2 (1)

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LANGUAGE ACQUISTION THEORIES

Introduction

Language is GOD'S special and unique gift to mankind without which human

civilization would have remained an impossibility. As a distinct area of interestpsycholinguistics developed in the early sixties, and in its early form covered acousticphonology and language pathology. But now-a-days it has been influenced deeply by thedevelopment of generative theory, and its most important area of investigation has beenlanguage acquisition. It has raised and has partly answered questions such as how dochildren acquire their mother tongue? How do they grow up linguistically and learn tohandle the registral and stylistic varieties of their mother tongue effectively? How much ofthe linguistic system that they ultimately command are they born with and how much dothey discover on the basis of their exposure to language? In order to account for thephenomenon of language learning by children, during the past forty years, there have beentwo main theories known as "Behaviourism" and "Mentalism". The Behaviourists Schoolof thought has argued that learning is entirely the product of experience and that ourenvironment affects all of us in the same way. On the other hand the Mentalists school ofthought has suggested that everybody has an innate language learning mechanism. Let usdiscover with the help of these two schools of thought that how do children acquire theirmother tongue.

1) The Behaviourist School

According to B.F Skinner and his colleagues, the behaviourists, learning, or a changeof behaviour on the part of the learner, is brought about by a process known as operantconditioning which is the result of repeated training. Operant means 'voluntary behaviour'which is the result of learner's own free-will and is not forced by any outside person orthing. The learner demonstrates the new behavior first as a response to a system of rewardor punishment, and finally as an automatic response. In order to prove their theory theyconducted an experiment.

EXPERIMENT

In a typical experiment, a rat is put in a box containing a bar. If it presses the bar, it isrewarded with a pellet of food. Nothing forces it to press the bar. The first time it probablydoes 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 ismade more difficult. The rat only gets rewarded if it presses the bar while a light isflashing. At first rat is puzzled. Eventually it learns the trick. Then the task is made moredifficult again. This time the rat only receives food if it presses the bar a certain number oftimes. After initial confusion it learns to do this also. And so on, and so on.


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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

Positive reinforcement comprises of praises and rewards. It has been shown by theexperiments that positive reinforcement works much better in bringing about good learning.

B) Negative ReinforcementRebukes and punishments fall into the negative reinforcement category.

Skinner eventually applies his theory of learning through operant conditioning to thestudy of how humans learn language.

Behaviourists believe that learning a language is no different from learning anythingelse; it becomes a habit by the stimulus-response-reinforcement-repetition process. Thebehaviourists also claim that we learn by imitation and by association. For instance, ayoung child hears a word 'apple' every time he is given one. He soon associates the word'apple' 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 treediagram:

The Behaviorist School

Language learning is Positive ImitationOperant conditioning and and

Negative AssociationReinforcement

Psycholinguists argue that imitation is not enough; it is not merely by mechanicalrepetition that children acquire language. They also acquire it by natural exposure.

2) The Mentalist School

Another school of thought arguing on the crucial matter of first language acquisitionin children is the mentalists school of thought which is led by Noam Chomsky. He and hismentalist followers claim that a child learns his first language through cognitive learning.He also acquires it by natural exposure. Both 'nature' and 'nurture' influence the acquisitionof language in children. Chomsky regards linguistics as a subfield of psychology, moreespecially the cognitive psychology.


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The Language Acquisition Device:

Chomsky argues that language is so complex that it is almost incredible that it can beacquired by a child in so short a time. He further says that a child is born with some innatemental capacity which helps the child to process all the language which he hears. This is

called the "Language Acquisition Device" (LAD).Chomsky and his followers claim that language is governed by rules, and is not a

haphazard thing, as Skinner and his followers would claim. We must remember that whenChomsky talks about rules, he means the unconscious rules in a child's mind. A childconstructs his own mental grammar which is a part of his cognitive framework. These rulesenable him to produce grammatical sentences in his own language. Chomsky does notmean that child can describe these rules explicitly. For instance, a four or five year old childcan produce a sentence like, I have taken meal, he can do that because he has a 'mentalgrammar' which enables him to form correct present perfect structures and also to use suchstructures in the right or appropriate situation.

The thoughts of Mentalists can well be understood with the help of the following treediagram.

The Mentalists School

Language learning Input Mental grammarIs an (own rules)

Innate ability LADGrammatical

Output sentences

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 rulesabout the language based on very limited exposure to language.

Cupid Lucid Slideshare n.d. web. http://www.slideshare.net/cupidlucid/language-acquisition-theories-presentation. 1 September 2012.
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Introduccin

Idioma es el regalo especial y nico de Dios a la humanidad sin que la civilizacin humanahabra permanecido una imposibilidad. Como una forma distinta cubierta acstica rea depatologa de fonologa y lengua de inters psicolingstica desarrollado a principios de los

sesenta y en sus principios. Pero hoy en da ha sido influenciado profundamente por eldesarrollo de la teora generativa y su rea de investigacin ms importante ha sido laadquisicin del lenguaje. Se ha planteado y en parte ha contestado preguntas tales comocmo que los nios adquieren su lengua materna? Cmo crecer lingsticamente yaprender a manejar eficazmente las variedades estilsticas y registral de su lengua materna?Cunto del sistema lingstico que mando en ltima instancia son nace con y cuntodescubren sobre la base de su exposicin al lenguaje? Para tener en cuenta el fenmeno deaprendizaje de los nios, durante los ltimos cuarenta aos, ha habido dos teorasprincipales, conocidas como "Conductismo" y "Mentalismo". La escuela conductistas depensamiento ha argumentado que el aprendizaje es enteramente el producto de laexperiencia y que nuestro medio ambiente afecta a todos de Estados Unidos de la mismamanera. Por otro lado la Mentalists escuela de pensamiento ha sugerido que todo el mundotiene un mecanismo de aprendizaje innato. NOS descubre con la ayuda de estas dosescuelas de pensamiento que cmo los nios adquieren su lengua materna.

(1) La escuela conductista

Segn B.F. Skinner y sus colegas, los conductistas, aprendizaje o un cambio decomportamiento por parte del alumno, es provocado por un proceso conocido comocondicionamiento operante, que es el resultado de la formacin repetida. Operante significa'voluntario comportamiento' que es el resultado de aprendizaje libre - va y no est obligadopor cualquiera fuera la persona o cosa. El alumno demuestra el nuevo comportamientoprimero como respuesta a un sistema de re ward o castigo y finalmente como una respuestaautomtica. Con el fin de demostrar su teora que se llevaron a cabo un experimento.EXPERIMENTO

En un experimento tpico, un Consejo es poner en una caja que contiene una barra. Sipresiona la barra, se premia con una bolita de comida. Nada obliga a pulsar en la barra. Laprimera vez probablemente ello accidentalmente. Cuando el Consejo decida que llega lacomida, presiona la barra de nuevo. Finalmente encuentra que, si tiene hambre puedeobtener alimentos pulsando la barra. A continuacin, la tarea se hace ms difcil. ElConsejo slo obtiene recompensado si presiona la barra mientras parpadea una luz. En elprimer Consejo es perplejo. Finalmente aprende el truco. A continuacin, se hace msdifcil la tarea de nuevo. Esta vez el Consejo slo recibe alimentos si presiona la barra de uncierto nmero de veces. Despus de la confusin inicial aprende a hacerlo con esto. Y assucesivamente y as sucesivamente.


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Condicin operante puede resumirse as

REPETICIN DE REFUERZO DE ESTMULO RESPUESTA

En operante condicionado, refuerzo juega un papel vital. Hay dos clases de refuerzo:

(A) refuerzoRefuerzo positivo se compone de alabanzas y recompensas. El experimento ha demostradoque el refuerzo positivo funciona mucho mejor para propiciar el aprendizaje.(B) refuerzo negativoReprimendas y castigos caen en la categora de refuerzo negativo.

Skinner eventualmente aplica su teora del aprendizaje a travs de condicionamientooperante para el estudio de cmo los seres humanos aprenden el idioma.Conductistas creen que aprender un idioma no es diferente de aprender cualquier cosa;proceso, se convierte en un hbito por el estmulo-respuesta-refuerzo-repeticin. Losconductistas afirman lo que aprendemos por imitacin y por asociacin. Por ejemplo, unnio oye una palabra 'manzana' cada vez que se le da uno. Pronto se asocia la palabra'manzana' con lo real. Entonces l hace este sonido propio, imitando lo que ha escuchado.Sus padres estn contentos de que l ha aprendido otra palabra y as se refuerza surespuesta. Los pensamientos de la escuela conductista bien pueden ser entendidos segn elsiguiente diagrama de rbol:La escuela conductista

Aprendizaje de idiomas es imitacin positivaCondicionamiento operante y yAsociacin negativaRefuerzo

Psycholinguists argumentan que la imitacin no es suficiente; No es slo por la repeticinmecnica que los nios adquieren el lenguaje. Por lo tanto la adquieren por la exposicinnatural.

(2) La escuela mentalistaOtra escuela de pensamiento argumentando sobre la cuestin crucial de la primeraadquisicin del lenguaje en los nios es la escuela de pensamiento mentalists dirigido porNoam Chomsky. l y sus seguidores mentalista afirman que un nio aprende su lenguamaterna a travs de aprendizaje cognitivo. Tambin adquiere por la exposicin natural.'Naturaleza' y 'alimentar' influye en la adquisicin del lenguaje en los nios. Chomskyconsidera que la lingstica es un subcampo de la psicologa, especialmente la psicologacognitiva.


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El dispositivo de adquisicin del lenguaje:

Chomsky argumenta que el lenguaje es tan complejo que resulta casi increble que puedeser adquirido por un nio en tan poco tiempo. Adems dice que nace un nio con cierta

capacidad mental innato que ayuda al nio a procesar todo el lenguaje que escucha. Esto sellama el "dispositivo de adquisicin del lenguaje" (LAD).

Chomsky y sus seguidores afirman que idioma se rige por las reglas y no es algo casual,como afirman Skinner y sus seguidores. Debemos recordar que cuando Chomsky hablaacerca de las reglas, significa las reglas inconscientes en un nio de mente. de un nioconstruye su propia gramtica mental que es una parte de su marco cognitivo. Estas reglasle permiten producir oraciones gramaticales en su propio idioma. Chomsky no significa queel nio puede describir estas reglas explcitamente. Por ejemplo, un cuatro o nio de cincoaos puede producir una frase como, he tomado comida, puede hacerlo porque tiene una'gramtica mental' que le permite de forma corregir estructuras presente perfecto y asutilizar estas estructuras en la situacin correcta o apropiada.Los pensamientos de Mentalists pueden entenderse bien con la ayuda del siguientediagrama de rbol.La escuela Mentalists

Aprendizaje de la lengua gramtica mental de entradaEs una normativa propia)Capacidad innata de LADGramaticalesSentencias de salida

Chomsky sugiere que el aprendizaje de cualquier idioma tiene una capacidad deaprendizaje incorporado de idioma que permite a cada estudiante a construir una especie deteora personal o un conjunto de reglas sobre el lenguaje basado en muy limitadaexposicin al lenguaje.

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Language Acquistion Theories l2 (1)