CLA THEORIES Flashcards
(53 cards)
1
Q
Behaviourism
A
The theory of behaviourism is often accredited to B. F. Skinner. Skinner says that a child learns language based on positive and negative reinforcement of ideas.
- For example, when a child correctly calls a dog “a dog”, a caregiver may say something positive like ‘yes, that’s the dog’ to reinforce the idea.
- Similarly, when an incorrect utterance is produced, like the child calling a dog a cat, the caregiver may say something negative, like ‘no, that’s not a cat, it’s a dog’. Tone of voice and paralinguistic features will often assist with this. In the exam, look for the caregivers repeating and reinforcing utterances made by the child.
2
Q
Interactionism
A
Interactionalists believe that a child is born tabula rasa (or blank slate) and learns language based on their interaction with caregivers. You may have heard of the idea of ‘nature vs nurture’ and interactionalists argue for nurture. CDS
3
Q
Interactionalist main theory
A
Bruner
- The main interactionalist is Bruner.
- He believes that a child must interact with caregivers in order to learn how to use language.
- He created what he calls a LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) – a system designed to ‘scaffold’ a child in learning language (structuring responses in order to help a child to use language more accurately).
4
Q
Interactionalist supporting theories- Catherine Snow
A
Catherine Snow
- Catherine Snow coined the term ‘motherese’ to describe the language used by mothers to talk to their children.
- She argues that language acquisition happens as a result of the interaction which takes place between the mother and her child.
- Interactions with fathers use ‘fatherese’ and anybody else uses ‘otherese’.
5
Q
Interactionalist John Snarey
A
- John Snarey states that fathers interact with their children in different ways to the way their mothers do.
- He says that ‘roughhousing’ with the father teaches that biting, kicking and other forms of violence are unacceptable and how to gain self-control.
6
Q
John Snarey believes that the following form part of the fatherese process:
A
- Tickling, wrestling and throwing the child in the air.
- Chasing.
- Loud volume.
- Bouncing rather than cuddling and rough rather than gentle.
- Encouragement of competition.
- Promotion of independence over security.
- Less simplification of speech.
- Challenging the child to expand vocabulary and linguistic skills
7
Q
Support for interactionalism- Jim Case Study
A
- Jim - Bard and Sachs studied ‘Jim’ whose parents were deaf.
- Jim was exposed to various uses of language like the TV and the radio, but he passed the critical period (a term coined by Lenneberg to denote the period of time in which a child best learns language. After passing this time, a child will often struggle to acquire language).
- But interactions with a speech therapist helped him to acquire language. So this proves that there is a need for interaction.
8
Q
Interactionism - Snow and Bruner
Snow and Bruner argue that caregivers may use the following strategies as part of the scaffolding and CDS process:
A
Recasting and reformulation, expansion, exaggerated prosodies cues, EXPATIATION, overarticulation
9
Q
Recasting and reformulation
A
the caregiver repeats what the child said containing anything missing and needed to make a grammatically standard utterance.
* For example, a child might say ‘ball’ and the caregiver may respond with ‘you want the ball?’.
10
Q
Expansion
A
the caregiver makes the utterance more complex by expanding on what they said.
* For example, ‘Amy runned’ might be expanded to form ‘Amy ran the race’.
11
Q
Exaggerated prosodies cues
A
exaggerating intonation, varying pitch and using higher intonations.
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Q
EXPATIATION
A
- expressing what the child said giving more information.
* For example, ‘food hot’ might be expatiated to ‘the food is too hot! We’ll let it cool down first’.
13
Q
Overarticulation
A
- the caregiver stretches out vowel sounds in words.
* For example, ‘mummy’s going to get a drink of teeeeeeeeea’.
14
Q
Interactionism- Rhoades
A
In addition to Snow and Bruner’s strategies of CDS, Rhoades adds that the following are also used:
- Short and simple sentences which are melodic.
- Focus on what the child is doing.
- Repetition of what the child and caregiver say.
- Pausing between words.
- Higher frequency of interrogatives and imperatives.
- Slower speech.
15
Q
Interactionism - Grice
A
In 1975, Grice proposed a set of maxims to define features which must be present in conversation – he calls these cooperative principles (things which people must do to cooperate in conversation). His maxims are as follows:
Quantity: The contributions must carry enough information (and not too much).
Quality: The contributions must be truthful.
Relation: The contributions must be relevant and pertinent to discussion.
Manner: The contributions must be clear and limit ambiguity.
16
Q
How can Grice’s Maxims be used in the exam
A
As part of your discussion, you may choose to bring in the ways in which caregivers try to influence a child to use these maxims.
17
Q
Challenging Interactionist Theory- Cliff Pye
A
- Cliff Pye researched how different cultures learn language.
- His research detailed that children around the world acquired language at roughly the same time and that not all cultures used CDS.
- For example, Samoan families do not speak to the children until they are around 18 months old. This implies that language acquisition may be more innate.
18
Q
Challenging Interactionist Theory- De Villiers and De Villiers
A
De Villiers and De Villiers state that it is rare for caregivers to give direct feedback about the correctness of their language, so there must be something more innate.
19
Q
Challenging Interactionist Theory- Myzor
A
Myzor believes that CDS helps to aid social development but does not help linguistic development.
* For example, it may teach children turn-taking in conversation but not aid their ability to use correct forms.
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Q
Challenging Interactionist Theory- Chomsky
A
- Chomsky, in particular, takes issue with Bruner’s work.
- In 1959, he published a paper criticising Bruner’s theory on a number of flaws.
- Chomsky questions how children produce utterances that are grammatically non-standard to the point where no caregiver would have said them – errors often happen that are not present in the template.
21
Q
Nativism
A
Nativism is a theory developed by Noam Chomsky, and takes up the ‘nature’ side of the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate.
22
Q
Nativism- Poverty of stimulus
A
- Chomsky’s theory states that children cannot learn through the imitation of their caregivers because they provide a ‘poverty of stimulus’, which essentially states that the caregivers of children do not provide a good enough standard of language (and often break the rules).
- So he states that children must have something inbuilt within their brains to help them learn language – he calls this the ‘Language Acquisition Device’ or the LAD.
23
Q
Nativism- LAD
A
- Within the LAD is a knowledge of language structures (universal grammar) and the knowledge becomes activated through experience.
- Chomsky also claims that around the age of seven, the LAD switches off and then it becomes difficult to learn languages.
- He states that children will often resist corrections to their mistakes – in this sense, the LAD is instructing them that their way of using language is correct and that the caregivers is wrong.
24
Q
Virtuous errors
A
Within his theory, Chomsky states that children make virtuous errors (errors which are made with good intentions e.g. ‘I hurted his feelings’.)
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Universal grammar
* In addition, he states that children have a universal grammar which states a set of rules on how to structure language.
* His theory is supported by the fact that many languages follow the SVO (subject-verb-object) syntax – Brown’s research states that 75% of languages use this syntax.
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- 'The Wug Test'
* Jean Berko Gleason created what is called ‘The Wug Test’.
* In this, children were given a picture of a bird-like creature called a ‘wug’ and then asked to state things like what two of these creatures would be called (‘wugs’). The test invented nouns and verbs to test pluralisation and over-generalisation.
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- Findings of 'The Wug Test'
* 76% of 4-5-year olds and 97% of 5-7-year olds could correctly use the -s ending for ‘wug’.
* The test used words that children will not have encountered before and so proves that children learn the rule and do not imitate.
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- The Wug test research was supported by some research by Cruttenden in 1979 in which he defined the ‘u-shaped curve’:
* At point 1, the child applies the rule and gets it right. (Initially correct)
* At point 2, the child applies the rule everywhere and gets it wrong. (Wrong in middle)
* At point 3, the child learns that the rule only works in certain situations. (Correct in end)
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- Case study: Genie
* In the 1970s, a 13-year-old girl was found by authorities. When authorities found her, she was withered and held her hands like a rabbit.
* At first, welfare officers assumed she was autistic, but further probing discovered she could barely speak (limited to a very small number of words).
* Her father had trapped her in a room since she was a toddler, detaining her in a straight-jacket and tying her to a chair. He growled at her if she cried or made any other noise.
* Linguists worked extensively with Genie, but because she had passed the critical period, she could not properly acquire language.
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- How does Genie support Chomsky
* This case study supports Chomsky. As Genie had passed the critical age, Chomsky would argue that the LAD has expired and so cannot be activated.
* This case study also supports the idea that children cannot learn language by interaction with caregivers alone.
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Support for Chomsky (Nativism)- Other supporting arguments
* Children often produce grammatically non-standard utterances, and so they cannot be copied.
* Inflectional mistakes (Berko Gleason) prove an application of a set of rules.
* Pinker – every utterance is practically unique – children produce utterances they’ve never heard before.
* Culture is not a barrier – all cultures acquire language at a similar age.
* Children notice mistakes (Berko and Brown).
* Non-standard grammatical constructions can make sense.
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U-shaped curve- who and when?
Cruttenden in 1979
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Criticisms of Chomsky (Nativism)
There has been some debate over Chomsky’s thoughts. It can be argued that children make lexical mistakes in the sense they miss out words rather than syntactical mistakes.
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Criticisms of Chomsky (Nativism)- Tomasello
Chomsky’s theory is often dismissed by critics because it is based on hypothetical thinking rather than real-life children.
* Leading linguistics like Tomasello have dismissed Chomsky as an ‘armchair linguist’.
* This criticism of Chomsky’s research throws into question the validity of his theory.
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Chomsky (Nativism)- Pinker
As Pinker points out, nearly every utterance a child produces is a brand-new combination of words, and so he questions whether a child can learn from imitation.
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Criticisms of Chomsky (Nativism)- Overall limitation
Overall, Chomsky’s theory is limited by not having scientific evidence, but is still very important in considering how a child learns language.
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Exam Answer for Nativism- At level 3, I can show detailed knowledge:
“Within his theory, Chomsky states that children make virtuous errors (errors which are made with good intentions e.g. ‘I hurted his feelings’.) In addition, he states that children have a universal grammar which states a set of rules on how to structure language. His theory is supported by the fact that many languages follow the SVO syntax – Brown’s research states that 75% of languages use this syntax.”
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Exam Answer for Nativism- At level 4, I can challenge this:
“However, there has been some debate over Chomsky’s thoughts. It can be argued that children make lexical mistakes in the sense they miss out words rather than syntactical mistakes.”
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Exam Answer for Nativism- At level 5, I can evaluate this:
“Chomsky’s theory is often dismissed by critics because it is based on hypothetical thinking rather than real-life children. As such, leading linguistics like Tomasello have dismissed Chomsky as an ‘armchair linguist’. This criticism of Chomsky’s research throws into question the validity of his theory, however, his research does critique interactionalist theories. As Pinker points out, nearly every utterance a child produces is a brand-new combination of words, and therefore questions whether a child can learn from imitation. Overall, Chomsky’s theory is limited due to not having scientific evidence, but is still very important in considering how a child learns language.
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Cognitivism
Cognitive theory essentially states that children need a cognitive understanding in order to use language. This essentially states that children cannot linguistically articulate what they do not understand.
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Cognitivism in practise- verb learning
If you think about when children acquire different verbs and their inflections, the easiest are learned first – the higher complexity, the longer it takes to learn.
* For example, the notion of irregularity of verbs is quite a complex idea, so they are acquired later on in development.
42
Cognitivism- Piaget
* Within Piaget’s theory, he states that children start life in a very egocentric way. In other words, they feel that the world revolves around them.
* This is supported by the notion of object permanence, which essentially means that when a child cannot see something, to them, it does not exist (they do not grasp the concept of object permanence).
* This is often seen when a child starts crying when a primary caregiver moves out of sight.
43
Cognitivism- Vygotsky
* Another key cognitive theorist is Vygotsky.
* Vygotsky’s theory proposes that there exists a cognitive deficiency – a gap in knowledge. He calls this gap the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and he states that a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) is needed to fill the gap.
* Vygotsky’s work inspired Bruner to form his LASS.
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Challenges to cognitivism
* Children who have learning difficulties and cognitive issues still learn to use language even expressing concepts beyond their understanding
* Apes share a similar cognitive development as humans in the first years of life, but do not acquire language.
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Cognitivism- In the exam, you should look for:
* Children trying to make sense of something on their own.
| * Children not using certain language to express a concept which is complex/they are unlikely to understand
46
Social Constructionism
Social constructionists believe that children learn to construct language based on gathering rules from language. Essentially, structure is developed from listening to the use of language. knowledge is constructed through interaction with others.
Social constructionism was first developed by Wittgenstein in the 1950s but was built upon by Tomasello in 2003.
47
Tomasello Intention reading and pattern finding
Tomasello’s theory states that children listen to language and do two things:
* Intention reading – children learn how to use language to achieve social ends
* Pattern finding – children look at many utterances and develop schemas based on patterns in language
48
Braine. Social constructivism
* Tomasello’s pattern finding theory builds on a theory proposed by Braine in the 1960s.
* Braine’s theory proposed that children learn language in a ‘slot and frame’ manner.
* Essentially, the child develops a schema in which variables can be placed to suit the situation.
* For example, a child may the learn the scheme ‘I + want + a + non-specific item’ to form utterances like ‘I want a drink’ or to form the past tense, use a scheme like ‘I + Xed + it’ and substitute a verb into the X – like ‘I liked it’.
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Challenging social constructionism
* Children may understand social concepts (like ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’) before the intention reading stage starts.
* There is a fundamental lack of evidence – we cannot truly know what happens in a child’s brain.
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How to answer
* Come up with a line of argument – do you agree with the statement? Remember that your essay is you proving your point, so the data must support your argument.
* Think carefully about which theories best support your argument. A good essay shows careful consideration of the best theorists for the task. A bad essay uses as many theories as it can often without clear relevance to the task. Quote and explain – all terminology-based claims must be supported with a quotation and any parts of the data you pick out should have its relevance explained (it’s no good saying ‘the child makes many inflectional mistakes’ and leaving it at that – it needs to be evidenced and have a point).
* The question is asking you to ‘evaluate’ and so you need to explore ways in which the view can be supported and challenged.
51
Roger Brown
- 14 morphemes and the
order they occur in:
1) Affixation on verbs (ing) - 19-28m
2) Plural /S/
- 24-33m
3)
Prepositions on/in - 27-30m
4) Irregular past tense verbs (ed) - 24-
46m
5) Possessive /s/ - 24-40m
6) Articles/determiners
7) Auxiliary verb "be*
52
Bellugi- pronouns
```
1)
Use their name first - egocentric
2) Recognise the difference between
names, I and Me
3)
Correctly apply pronouns - I, me,
they
```
53
Bellugi questions
1) Intonation for questions
2) Acquire question forms - wh
interrogative forms
Use auxiliary verbs - is
