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HESP400- Final Exam Unit V Theories of Language Acquisition

Terms in this set (27)

Empiricism
The language of the parent, the input of the language, contains all that is necessary to explain language development
Behaviorism
Corresponds with empiricism, knowledge is derived primarily through the environment, no distinction between speech and language, between comprehension and production
Skinner
Nativism
Contrasted to behaviorism, children are born knowing all they will ever need to know about language because it is part of the child's genetic nature
Mentalism
Corresponds with Nativism, knowledge derives primarily from inborn mental processes
Tabla Rasa
means "blank slate" -- Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke believed humans were born as a blank slate and were shaped by environment. associated with behaviorist hypothesis
Behavoirist View and Speech
The important point in the behaviorist view of language learning is that all the internal linguistic knowledge of the individual is the direct result of integration of the linguistic events that the individual has observed.language learning through learning principles such as imitation, reinforcement, shaping
Chain of associations
The behaviorist assumption that linguistic knowledge consists of this. built by:
1) operant conditioning
2) meditation
3) classical condition
Operant Conditiong
A functional analysis of verbal behavior in chich the language behavior of the indivual is shaped by sequences of differential rewards in his environment opening box>discovery of food...>increase likelihood of opening box in future
Most well developed behaviorst theory of language acq
Selective Reward
Conditioning a particular response, you never re reward the opposite of that response
Central theme of behavioral theory of language
observable behaviors, conditiong ( and its selective rewards) and chained associations
Innateness differences from behavioralists
1)redefines and gives increased importance to innate factors in language
2) reinterprets the role of the environment
Innateness and Language
This hypothesis states that there are aspects of linguistic organization (linguistic universals) that are basic to the human brain and that make it possible to acquire linguistic competence with little or no instruction from family and friends.
Chomskys Basic Schema
PLD-->G1
G2
G3
....
Adult Grammar
Primary Linguistic Data
Speech that the child hears around him during hi hears of language development
Language Acquisition Device
LAD, innate property in the organization of the of the child's brain and contains the linguistic universals. The language learning mechanism
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