Lesson 1

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: BEHAVIORIST,
INNATIST, AND INTERACTIONIST

THEORIES
LESSON 1
LANGUAGE
IS A SYSTEM OF SPEECH SYMBOLS. IT IS REALIZED:
1. ACOUSTICALLY (SOUND WAVES)
2. VISUALLY-SPATIALLY ( SIGN LANGUAGE)
3. WRITTEN FORM
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IS ONE OF THE
UNEXPLAINABLE MYSTERIES SURROUNDING US IN
OUR DAILY LIVES ( GALLASO, 2003). THAT’S WHY IT
BECOMES A CONTINUOUS INTERESTS OF
PSYCHOLINGUISTS TO EXPLAIN HOW PEOPLE
ACQUIRE THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE (L1) AND LEARN
THEIR SECOND LANGUAGE (L2).
THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENS…….
IT HAPPENS WHEN A CHILD LEARNS LANGUAGE

NATURALLY, ALMOST MIRACULOUSLY, AS THEIR LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION IS RAPIDLY DEVELOPED WITH AN APPARENT
SPEED AND ACCURACY. THIS COULD ALSO BE CALLED AS
ACQUIRING LANGUAGE.
LANGUAGE LEARNING
SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IS THE PROCESS

OF LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE AFTER
LEARNING THE FIRST LANGUAGE. THIS IS WHAT
WE CALL LEARNING A LANGUAGE.
THERE ARE STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT WHICH A CHILD FOLLOWS
AGE VARIATION
6 8months
STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
STAGE TYPICAL AGE DESCRIPTION
Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive CV patterns like (C) m/(V)a/(C)m/(V)a
One-word stage (better 9-18 months Single open-class words

one-morpheme or one- Already understood 10-50 words based on scientific experiments
unit) or holophrastic on 1,807 children
stage Learning first mostly the vowels then the consonants
Two-word stage 18-24 months “mini-sentences” with clear syntactic relations but possessed simple
semantic relations.
Already understood 50 or more words
Telegraphic stage or 24-30 months “Telegraphic” sentence structures of lexical rather than functional
early multiword stage Already understood 186-310 words.
(better multi morpheme)
Later multiword stage 30 months to 6 years Grammatical or functional structure emerge

STRATEGIES IN LEARNING THE MEANING OF NEW WORDS
ACCORDING TO O’GRADY, ARCHIBALD, ARONOFF, AND REES-MILLER (2004), CHILDREN ADOPT THREE
STRATEGIES IN LEARNING THE MEANING OF NEW WORDS;
1. WHOLE OBJECT ASSUMPTION: WHERE A NEW WORD REFERS TO A WHOLE OBJECT
2. TYPE ASSUMPTION: WHERE A NEW WORD REFERS TO A TYPE OF THING

NOT JUST A PARTICULAR THING
3. BASIC LEVEL ASSUMPTION: WHERE A NEW WORD REFERS TO TYPE OF OBJECTS THAT ARE ALIKE IN BASIC
WAYS
LASTLY, ACCORDING TO MARKMAN & WATCHTEL, 1998 AND MERRIMAN &
BOWMAN, 1989;
4. MUTUAL EXCLUSIVITY: CHILDREN ACQUIRED WORD MEANING THROUGH

ASSIGNING ONLY ONE LABEL/NAME AND IN TURN AVOID ASSIGNING A
SECOND LABEL TO A SINGLE OBJECT
IN RELATION TO THESE STRATEGIES, CHILDREN ACQUIRING L1 GENERALLY
MAKE ERRORS IN MEANING DUE TO OVER-EXTENSIONS AND UNDER-
EXTENSIONS
1. UNDEREXTENSION OCCURS WHEN A CATEGORICAL TERM ( A WORD USED TO

DESCRIBE A GROUP OF THINGS) IS USED IN LANGUAGE IMPROPERLY BY ONLY
USING IT FOR ONE OBJECT INSTEAD OF ALL OBJECTS THAT BELONG IN THAT
CATAEGORY.
AN EXAMPLE WOULD BE A TODDLER LEARNING THE WORD BALL TO

DESCRIBE THEIR TOY BALL, UNDEREXTENSION OCCURS WHEN THE CHILD USES
THE WORD BALL IN REFERENCE TO ONLY THEIR SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL BALL AND
NOT USE IT AS A TERM FOR ALL BALLS.
2. OVEREXTENSION OCCURS WHEN A CATEGORICAL TERM ( A WORD
USED TO DESCRIBE A SPECIFIC THING) IS USED IN LANGUAGE TO
REPRESENT OTHER THINGS.
AN EXAMPLE IS WHEN A CHILD REFERS TO ALL ANIMALS AS ‘DOGGIE’.

THE CHILD IS OVEREXTENDING THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD DOG TO
ENCOMPASS ALL ANIMALS.
LEARNING OUR SECOND LANGUAGE (L2)
➢PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OUR L1

➢LEARNING THE L2 IS MORE STRUCTURED (SPECIFIC RULES)
➢CHILDREN ARE MORE MATURE AND AWARE WHILE LEARNING
(CAUTIOUS)
➢TEACHER WILL GUIDE THE LEARNERS IN ADDITION TO PARENTS
NOBODY COULD BEAT US WHEN WE ARE USING OUR FIRST LANGUAGE

THREE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LEARNING THEORIES
1. BEHAVIORIST THEORY (SKINNER)
HE BELIEVED THAT CHILDREN ARE BORN WITH A BLANK STATE OF MIND OR TABULA RASA
AND THAT THEY ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE THROUGH REWARDS OR PUNISHMENTS
2. INNATIST THEORY (CHOMSKY)

HE BELIEVED THAT CHILDREN ARE EQUIPPED WITH AN INNATE TEMPLATE OR BLUEPRINT FOR
LANGUAGE, WHICH IS CALLED THE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD). THE LAD ACCOUNTS
FOR THE SWIFT MASTERY OF LANGUAGE AMONG CHILDREN DESPITE THE EXTREMELY ABSTRACT
NATURE OF LANGUAGE.
3. INTERACTIONIST THEORY (PIAGET) & (VYGOTSKY)

INTERACTIONISTS BELIEVED THAT KNOWLEDGE WE ACQUIRED THROUGH PHYSICAL
INTERACTION BETWEEN OTHER PEOPLE AND OUR ENVIRONMENT HELP US TO LEARN AND
ACQUIRE LANGUAGE. THE CONVERSATIONS THAT CHILDREN HAVE WITH ADULTS AND OTHER
CHILDREN ARE IMPORTANT AS THESE CONVERSATIONS CONSTITUTE THE ORIGINS OF BOTH
LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT.

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LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: BEHAVIORIST,

INNATIST, AND INTERACTIONIST

IT HAPPENS WHEN A CHILD LEARNS LANGUAGE

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IS THE PROCESS

Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive CV patterns like (C) m/(V)a/(C)m/(V)a

One-word stage (better 9-18 months Single open-class words

Later multiword stage 30 months to 6 years Grammatical or functional structure emerge

1. WHOLE OBJECT ASSUMPTION: WHERE A NEW WORD REFERS TO A WHOLE OBJECT

2. TYPE ASSUMPTION: WHERE A NEW WORD REFERS TO A TYPE OF THING

4. MUTUAL EXCLUSIVITY: CHILDREN ACQUIRED WORD MEANING THROUGH

1. UNDEREXTENSION OCCURS WHEN A CATEGORICAL TERM ( A WORD USED TO

AN EXAMPLE WOULD BE A TODDLER LEARNING THE WORD BALL TO

AN EXAMPLE IS WHEN A CHILD REFERS TO ALL ANIMALS AS ‘DOGGIE’.

➢PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OUR L1

NOBODY COULD BEAT US WHEN WE ARE USING OUR FIRST LANGUAGE

2. INNATIST THEORY (CHOMSKY)

3. INTERACTIONIST THEORY (PIAGET) & (VYGOTSKY)

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