Language Acquisition SAIRISH KHOKHAR

What is language acquisition?

Acquisition is a process whereby children become speakers of their native language.

Introduction:During the past forty years there have been two major theories of language learning by children. But there are two major schools of thought known as, 'Behaviorists' and 'Mentalists'. One school is of the view that language learning is entirely the product of experience and that our environment affects all of us. Others have suggested that everybody has an innate language learning mechanism.

Behaviorist theory in Linguistics.

Language is learned through behaviour in surroundings. Behaviour theorists define learning as a more or less permanent change in

behaviour. In behaviorism, the learner is viewed as passively adapting to their

environment. According to a pure behaviorist, human beings are shaped entirely by their

external environment. Alter a person's environment, and you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Provide positive reinforcement whenever students perform a desired behaviour, and soon they will learn to perform the behaviour on their own.

Associative learning.

Making a new association between events in the environment.

There are two kind of associative learning:1. Classical conditioning 2. operant conditioning

There are two forms of associative learning:

Classical Conditioning First described by Ivan Pavlov, a

Russian physiologist Involves placing a neutral

signal before a reflex Focuses on involuntary, automatic

behaviors

Operant Conditioning First described by B. F. Skinner, an

American psychologist Involves operant Conditioning applying reinforcement or 

punishment after a behavior Focuses on strengthening or

weakening voluntary behaviors

Classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic

type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

First described by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist, in 1903,

and studied in infants by John B. Watson (1878-1958).

Originators and Key Contributors:

The “Pavlov’s Dog” Experiment.

In the 1890s, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov was studying aspects of the digestive process by observing salivation in dogs, when he made the observation that dogs began to salivate before the food arrived…for example, at the sight of the food tray or sound of the assistant’s footsteps. This work became the foundation for classical conditioning and the behavioral approach to psychology.

The “Little Albert Experiment”.

John B. Watson gets credit for establishing the psychological school of behaviorism. He further extended Pavlov’s work and applied it to human beings. In the 1921, Watson studied Albert, an 11 month old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition Albert to become afraid of a white rat. He achieved this by creating loud, painful noises whenever Albert touched the rat. At first, Albert showed no sign of fear when he was presented with rats, but once the rat was repeatedly paired with the loud noise. Albert began to associate small animals with the trauma of the noise. The implications of Watson’s experiment suggested that classical conditioning could cause some phobias in humans.

Extinction:

When a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears. The response can sometimes reemerge after a period of time has passed with no further conditioning. Where is my food?People often wondered if Little Albert might still occasionally experience fear of animals as an adult. He died of disease at age 6.

Stimulus Generalization:

After a stimulus has been conditioned to produce a particular response, stimuli that is similar to the original stimulus may produce the same response. The greater the similarity between two stimuli, the greater the likelihood that stimulus generalization will occur. Albert became afraid of small furry animals. The big black dog used in the experiment did not scare him.

Operant conditioning.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner 1904 – 1990

An American psychologist, inventor, social philosopher, poet Bachelor: English Literature (Hamilton University) Master: Psychology (Harvard University) Doctorate: Psychology (Harvard University) professor of Psychology in Harvard university

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B.F Skinner and his followers are known as behaviorist. According to them language learning is process known as operant conditioning. operant conditioning is a simple feedback system: If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future.

Conditioned: Conditioned Behavior is behavior which is the result of repeated training.

Operant: Operant process means that language is an activity that a child acquires voluntarily without any external force, it is result of learner's own free will and it is not forced by any outside person or thing. The learner demonstrates the new behavior first as a response to a system of reward or punishment.According to skinner the whole process is based upon four elements: 1. Stimulus 2. Response 3. Reinforcement 4. Repetition 

"Skinner Box" Experiment.They put a rat in a box containing a bar. If it presses a bar, it is rewarded with a pellet of food. Nothing forces it to press the bar. The first time it probably does so accidentally. When the rat finds that the food arrives, it presses the bar again. Eventually it finds that if it is hungry it can obtain food by pressing the bar. Then task is made more difficult. The rat only gets rewarded if it presses the bar while a light is flashing. At first rat is puzzled. Eventually it learns the trick. Then the task is made more difficult again. This time the rat only receives food if it presses the bar a certain number of times. After initial confusion it learns to do this also. And so on.  

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After this experiment, skinner expresses the very notion that every stimulus which is followed by a response plays a vital role in learning the first language.Initially this response is given only in case of sort of punishment or reward but eventually the child becomes volunteer in this. Skinner also maintains that learning language one depends the imitation and the child imitates his nears and dears around him. First of all anything plays a role that stimulates the child to speak.

Skinner`s notion:

According to Skinner`s notion Skinner denies that • language is a preprogrammed activity. • It is just the gift of society and operant conditioning of his

around. • If we take up the example of fictional character Tarzen, skinner

seems to be true in his notion because Tarzen was brought among the animals and according to the story tellers he spoke the language of animals. So he could not help being affected by the company in which he lived.

 

Reinforcement and types of reinforcement. A stimulus that strengthens or weakens the behavior that produced it. Repetition of an act to stop an action or to continue it.

Stimulus:Any stimulating information or event; acts to arouse action.Reinforcement plays a vital role.

There are two kinds of reinforcement:

1. Positive reinforcement 2. Negative reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement:Praise and rewards are positive reinforcement. Experiments have shown that positive reinforcement works much better in bringing about good learning.Example:When the dog successful chases and picks up the ball, the dog receives praise as a reward. Eventually, the dog forms an association between his behavior of fetching the ball and receiving the desired reward.

Negative Reinforcement: Rebukes and punishments are negative reinforcement. The behaviorists also claim that we learn language by imitation and association.Example:Ad shows wrinkled face as reinforcement to buy skin cream. If a child lick his thumb and parents want to stop him . They might paste something on his thumb or chili so that he will stop licking his thumb.Skinner believed that positive reinforcement is more effective in changing behavior then punishment.

Differences between classical and operant conditioning:

In CC, the response is a reflex and involuntary. In OC, the response is voluntary behaviour.

In CC, the stimulus is new to the animal. In OC, the behaviour is new to the animal.

In CC, the reflex (response) follows the stimulus. In OC, the behaviour (response) precedes the reward or punishment (stimulus).

In CC, association occurs whether the stimulus is pleasurable or aversive. In OC pleasurable reward leads to repetition while aversion leads to extinction.

In CC, strength of conditioning is measured by speed or amount of response. In OC, strength is measured by rate of production of behaviour.

Limitations:

• In Critical period for language acquisition children are often unable to repeat what an adult says especially if the adult utterance contains a structure the child has not yet started to use.

• Children who have not acquired language by the age of about seven will never entirely catch up.

• Observational studies of parent-child conversations (Brown and Hanlon, 1970) show that parents rarely reinforce correct grammar in a child’s speech, but instead tend to focus on the truthfulness or accuracy of statements.

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Behaviorists cannot explain how animals can learn without reinforcement. Tolman & Honzik (1930) showed that rats could learn maps of mazes without operant conditioning.

Behaviorism finds it difficult to explain how humans construct new solutions to problems. For example, children can generate the plural forms of nouns they have never encountered before and could not have learned (Berko, 1958).

Criticism.

Chomsky suggests that the learner of any language has an inbuilt learning capacity for language. he believed that every child has a ‘language acquisition device’. Learning process involving the shaping of grammar into a correct form by the re-enforcement of other stimulus. The Mentalist School Chomsky and his mentalist followers claim that a child learns his first language through cognitive learning.

How Behaviorism Impacts Learning:This theory is relatively simple to understand because it relies

only on observable behaviour and describes several universal laws of behaviour.

Its positive and negative reinforcement techniques can be very effective--both in animals, and in treatments for human disorders such as autism and antisocial behaviour. Behaviourism often is used by teachers, who reward or punish student behaviors.