First Language Acquisition Presentation Transcript

1. First Language Acquisition Sources: Brown Lightbown & Spada NAM/nam

2. Theories of L1 Acquisition Behaviorism Say what I say Innatism Its all in your
mind Interactionism A little help from my friends
3. Behaviorism Skinner (1957). Peoples behaviors are directly observable, rather than
the mental systems underlying these behaviors. Children are born with a mind that is like
a blank state. Language -> verbal behavior Children learn language through: I _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Tabula rasa Stimulus Response Conditioning Reinforcement
Observation : Is this enough to explain how human beings learn a language?
4. Innatism Criticism on Behaviorism for LA Poverty of the stimulus -> we end up
knowing far more about language than is exemplified in the language we hear around us.
Problems with Input -> Slips of the tongue, false starts, ungrammatical and incomplete
sentences, the data children are exposed to is impoverished LA is a creative process .
Children are not given explicit information about the rules: No instruction or correction.
Children are equipped with an innate template or blueprint for language -> Universal
Grammar (UG) . Children go through similar universal LA stages regardless of cultural
and social circumstances.
5. Children construct rules which are structure dependent -> children do create phrase
structures, and the rules they acquire are sensitive to this structure. Example : What
accounts for the difference between and and with in: Jill ate bagels and cream Jack
went up the hill with Jill. and their corresponding possible wh. Questions: What did Jill
eat bagels with _________________? Who did Jack go up the hill with______________?
6. Bagels and cream -> coordinate NP (2 NP conjoined with and ) Bagels with cream ->
NP composed of an NP followed by a PP (NP + PP) Children never violate a coordinate
structure constraint like: *Who did Jack and ________ go up the hill? *What did Jill eat
bagels and ___________?
7. The innateness hypothesis : An answer to the logical problem of language acquisition :
What accounts for the easy, rapidity and uniformity of language acquisition in the face of
impoverished data? Children acquire a complex grammar quickly and easily without any
particular help beyond exposure to the language, they do not start from scratch. The child
constructs his grammar according to an innate blueprint (UG) All children proceed
through similar development stages.
8. Characteristics Universal Grammar (+UG)) Principles intact (UG) Parameters (For
specific language) yet unset Acquisition based on data input Learning procedure (LAD)
Hypothesis testing Parameter setting
9. Markedness differential Hypothesis Linguistic rules can be either part of the : Core
Grammar (UG) .- Follow general principles of language .- Considered to be less
complex .- Unmarked Periphery .- Specific to each language .- Considered to be more
complex .- Marked
10. Language Acquisition Device (LAD) Universal Grammar (UG) Systematic; rule-
governed acquisition Creative construction Pivot grammar Critical Period Hypothesis
Victor and Genie
11. Interactionists PIAGET (1969): Language is not based on a separate module of the
mind. it can be explained in terms of learning in general: language acquisition is
similar to the acquisition of other skills or knowledge Language is a number of symbol
systems which are developed in childhood. Language serves children to represent the
knowledge acquired through physical interaction with the environment. Social interaction
and environment. Cognitive development and use of the language. Functions of language
through interaction Child-directed speech: Jims case
12. VYGOTSKY (1978): Importance of conversations which children have with adults
and with other children These conversations constitute the origins of both language and
thought. Thought is essentially internalized speech, and speech emerges in social
interaction. More recently, constructivists have focused their research on the social
meaning of language. Function are the meaningful, interactive purposes, within a social
(pragmatic) context, that we accomplish with forms. (Brown 2000: 28). They criticized
the innatists generative rules as being abstract, formal, explicit and only concerned with
the forms of language, ignoring the functions of meaning within social interaction
(pragmatics).
13. BLOOM (1971): Criticized innatists pivot grammars: the relationship between a
pivot word and an open word was not always of the same nature. In the utterance:
Mommy sock, she found, at least, three relations: agent-action (Mommy is putting the
sock on) agent-object (Mommy sees the sock) possessor-possessed (Mommys sock).
Blooms conclusion: Children learn underlying structures, and not superficial word order.
14. Issues in L1 Acquisition: Universals Principles Parameters Language and thought
Imitation Practice Input/discourse
15. That's it!
16. Pivot grammar n Now-discarded theory of grammatical development in L1A.
Children were said to develop two major grammatical classes of words: 1.- pivot class:
small group of words attached to other words, e.g. on, allgone, more 2.- open class (e.g.
shoe, milk) to which pivot words were attached. The childs early grammar was thought
to be a set of rules which determined how the two classes of words could be combined to
produce utterances such as allgonemilk, shoe on. Longman Dictionary of Linguistics,
Applied Linguistics and ELT .