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Theories of Language Acquisition
Behaviorist
Theory/Transformational Generative Theory of Grammar
- B.F. Skinner
- Children acquire verbal behavior through stimulation, response, reinforcement
- Focus is on observable and measurable aspects of behavior
- Learning plays key role in acquisition of verbal behaviors
- Believe that all forms of verbal behavior can be increased or decreased experimentally
- • Ex: social reinforcement for babbling
- Key components in language development
- Observable, measurable behavior
- Linguistic competence
- -A language users underlying knowledge of the rules
- -Not measurable, therefore not emphasized by behaviorists
- Linguistic performance
- -Linguistic knowledge in actual usage
- -Measurable, therefore emphasized by behaviorists
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Behaviorist therapy ideas
- selects specific target responses (specific words I want student to know)
- creates appropriate antecedents events (how will i get student to do this)
- reinforces correct responses (prizes for doing correctly)
- clearly established criterion for success (if get a certain amount right, can get prize)
- -9/10 trials
- -DTT, ABA examples (reinforce good, punish ignore bad)
- major hole in this theory
- -doesn't take into consideration what a child brings to experience
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Nativist theory
- Noam Chomsky
- theory of syntactic structures as essence of lang
- lang is a product of the unique human mind
- children are born with a lang acquisition device LAD
- -A specialized lang processor that is a physiological part of the brain
- -the LAD has basic lang knowledge then integreate other aspects of the lang to help in learning
- key: the basic knowledge necessary to acquire lang is present at birth
- lang competence
- -innate
- -CHILD LEARNS INDEPENDENTLY OF ENVIRONMENT
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Nativist theory
lang performance
- actual porduction of lang
- doesn't take into consideration fatigue and distraction
- surface structure
- -phrase or sentence you actually hear
- deep structure
- -abstract
- -holds the rules of sentence formation
- transformation
- -an operation that relates the depp and surface structures and gives different forms of the sentence
- speakers can generate an endless variety of sentences through knowing the rules of grammar and transformations
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the cognitive theory
- piagetian stages of cognitive development
- empahsis on cognition
- variant of the nativist theory
- lang acquisition occurs by cognition and general intellectual processes
- child develops concepts prior to developing words
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the cognitive theory
strong cognition hypothesis
- cognition and lang are interrelated
- 1. cognitive abilties that are essential prerequisites to lang development
- 2. 4 stages of piagetian development
- 3. must master the characteristics of one stage in order to progress to the next
- 4. may demonstrate variations in rate of acquisition of each stage
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the cognitive theory
weak cognition hypothesis
- cognition only part of a child's lang abilities
- owens some lang skills develop at the same time as some cognitive skill no proof of this yet
- cognitive precursors are innate while lang is not (this is different than nativist)
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the cognitive theory
therapy implications
- Eligibility criteria
- -cognitive limitations impact if child is enrolled
- -ex: lang age is cognitive age
- must assess cognitive skills to determine lang needs
- -need to develop skills in cognitive precursors prior to working on lang
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reduplicated babbling
- 6-7 months
- repeated CV syllables (mamama, dadada)
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varigated babbling
- 9 months
- mabada
- limitation of intonation and sounds
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protowords
- prior to 12 months
- some form of verbal response, not a word necessarily
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object permanence
- 12 months
- realization that things to do exist even when out of sight
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perlocutionary behaviors
- 0-6 months
- Signals used
- that lack communicative effect
- •Crying but not necessarily related to current activity
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illocutionary behavior
- 9-10 months
- Intentional communication
- Signal to carry out socially organized action
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locutionary stage
- 12 months
- intentionally uses words
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joint reference
- focus joint attention on an object or event
- both look at same time
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overextensions
- using the same word for all "alike" items
- -all men are daddy
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underextensions
only one item is called by that name
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7 functactions of communicative intent (halliday)
- 1. regulatory-control behavior of others (do as i tell you
- 2. Personal-self awareness, own feeling and attitudes (that's interesting, withdrawal)
- 3. imaginative (lets pretend)
- -pretend or play acting, use lang to create environment
- -vocalization during doll play
- 4. instrumental-attempt to get assistance (i want)
- 5. heuristic-why events, actions occur (why)
- 6. informative-tell someone something (got something to tell you)
- 7. interactional-initiate interaction with others (initiation)
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9 communication intentions to signal communicative intent
- Dore
- 1. requesting an answer
- 2. labeling.
- 3. protesting
- 4. greeting
- 5. practicing (what they hear, lang)
- 6. answering
- 7. calling/addressing
- 8. requesting action
- 9. repeating/imitating
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Models of reading
BOTTOM UP Approach
- •Reading is a translation of written elements into language
- •Knowledge of the perceptual features of letters and their correspondence to sounds aids word recognition and decoding
- • The processing of textual materials is the same as processing oral language except for breaking the graphemic code (Owens )
- • It assumes that the child must learn to decode print into language
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models of reading
top down approach
- problem solving approach
- reading is psychlinguistic guessing game in which the reader uses their knoledge of lang as well as their conceptual knowledge to aid them in recognizing word and sequentially
- -ability to fill in the blanks
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models of reading
interactive approach
requires multiple sensory, perceptual linguistic and conceptual processing strategies in constructing the meaning of text
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