Chapter 4 – The acquisition of language

Consider the following statements and click to reveal the answer.

1. What are the three main theories of language acquisition?

Answer:

The three main theories of language acquisition are the behaviourist account, the generative/innatist approach and the social/interactive approach.

2. The behaviourist view is based on which psychologist’s work?

Answer:

The behaviourist view is based on the work of B.F. Skinner.

3. What is the three-part sequence underpinning the behaviourist approach?

Answer:

The three-part sequence underpinning the behaviourist approach is the stimulus-response-reward sequence.

4. The generative/innatist approach was based on whose theory?

Answer:

The generative/innatist approach was based on Noam Chomsky’s theory.

5. What was the main criticism of the behaviourist approach?

Answer:

The main criticism of the behaviourist approach was that children could produce novel utterances that they had never heard adults say.

6. What is ‘motherese’?

Answer:

Motherese’ is a term used to describe the non-standard ways in which adults talk to children.

7. Briefly describe the social/interactive approach.

Answer:

The social/interactive approach suggests that human beings are programmed to communicate and that children communicate with their carers from birth. They learn language through using it in interaction with others to achieve particular ends.

8. What is the LAD and which theory does it support?

Answer:

The LAD is the Language Acquisition Device and it supports the generative/innatist theory.

9. What is the LASS and which theory does it support?

Answer:

The LASS is the Language Acquisition Support System and it is part of the social/interactive approach.

10. Why is it important that children have opportunities to experiment with language/be wrong sometimes?

Answer:

It is important that children have opportunities to experiment with language/be wrong sometimes because these are critical elements in the learning of language in the context of real dialogue.