Transcript NATURE OR NURTURE?

NATURE OR NURTURE?
First language acquisition theories
Behaviourism
Watson, Pavlov and Skinner
Tabula rasa
Focus on
observable behaviour
role of the environment
Imitation and practice
Pavlov and classical conditioning
Developing unconditioned responses
through stimulus–response-reinforcement
Skinner: operant conditioning
We are goverened by the consequences
of our actions
Behaviouristic pedagogy
Objections
 1. "What children say"
Jean Berko (1958):
wug-wugs, gling-glinged-glang
wented, taked, mices, mouses, sheeps
ett, kenyért, lót, tégem
> Analogous thinking
 2. "What children don't say"
McNeill (1966):
CHILD: Nobody don't like me.
MUM: No, say "nobody likes me".
CHILD: Nobody don't like me.
(eight repetitions of this dialogue)
MUM: No, now listen carefully, say "nobody likes me".
CHILD: Oh! Nobody don't likes me.
> Inability to imitate
Nativism/Innatism
Chomsky: genetic pre-programming
Based on
1. the Argument from the Poverty of the
Stimulus
2. evidence of rule governed language
generation
LAD, language universals
Example: SVO components in sentences
- 75% of the world's languages:
SVO (English, French, Vietnamese) or
SOV (Japanese, Tibetan, Korean)
- 10 - 15% VSO ( Welsh) or VOS (Malagasy)
- 10-15% free word order (Latin, Hungarian),
but SOV common: Márta tortát evett.
„Setting the parameters” – matching UG to particular
language
Criticism of Chomsky
1. Competence – performance
- Performance igored
- Competence judged on the basis of intuitions?
2. Core grammar – peripheral grammar
- focus on core grammar(?) only
?We was there. I ain’t no fool.
3. Syntax vs. semantics
- Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
- My mother, he no like bananas.
4. Ignoring meaning, function, context
- situation for child FLA
Functionalism
 Focus on imput: Interaction vs. exposure
 Bruner’s Language Acquisition Support System
(LASS)
- parents communicate
in ritualistic scenarios
- easily comprehensible
and predictable language
- emotionally charged
situations
- repetition of acts
and language
Motherese, parentese (interaction,
initiation, response)
1. Simplified in grammar and meaning
2. Shorter sentences - about 4-8 words/
sentence, when speaking to 2-year olds
3. More restricted range of sentence patterns
4. Expansion and repetition of sentences
5. Slower speech
6. Use of special words and sounds
7. High pitch
8. High, rising intonation - looking for feedback.
9. Embedded in the here and now.
Findings from motherese
Not so partial and ungrammatical as suggested by
Chomsky
a large number of WH forms
However
 No close correlation between motherese and
child speech
 Not all social groups adapt speech to young
children
 Children do not simply repeat the language they
hear from their caretakers.
 They also produce
utterances that they
have never heard.
Eszel tégem?
Mummy sock.
 Motherese: focus on meaning, not on grammar
Child : Mamma isn't boy, he a girl.
Mother : That's right.
Child : And Walt Disney comes on Tuesday.
Mother : No he does not.
 Children’s mistakes not random errors - own
grammar.
INTERLANGUAGE
Negation sequence of Englishspeaking children
1. No and Not appear as single word sentences.
2. Two-word (pivot) sentences: No car, Not gone
3. Negative words used within constructions:
You no do that, Mummy
4. Negative auxiliaries appear: Won't, can't
5. Not replaces no. Double negatives
6. Any, hardly, scarcely during early years of
school.
Connectionism
Focus on neuro-programming: neurons,
synapses, wiring, circuits
Where does language reside in the brain?
Is there a LAD?
Answer from neurology
- Lateralisation
- Left hemisphere:
language and logical functions
Aphasia studies
 Paul Broca 1861: „Tan”
 Broca’s aphasia: inability to form correct
sentences, patient is aware of difficulty
 Broca’s area: responsible for grammatical
structuring
 Carl Wernicke, 1874: Wernicke’s area
 Wernicke’s aphasia: grammatical correctness,
semantically meaningless utterances, unaware
of problem
Relation between Broca’s and Wernicke’s
areas
Phases of development
Before birth: neurons,
wiring for life functions
0/1: "biological exhuberance„
neurons connect in response
to environmental impulses
Language:
- vocal map of L1 is formed
1/10: flexible synapses, easily formed
Language:
- sensorimotor connections flexible (no
accent!)
- vocab.learnt through repeated
exposure and interaction
After 10: "pruning"
Language: fixed synapses
GENETICALLY PROVIDED BRAIN
POTENTIAL
RICH ENVIRONMENT
RICH BRAIN
"Experts now agree that a baby does not
come into the world as a genetically
preprogrammed automaton or a blank
slate at the mercy of the environment ...
Learning happens by the interaction of the
genes and the environment.„ (S. Begley)
Critical period in FLA:
- no hope after CP
Critical period in SLL/SLA:
- weak version: difficult
- strong version: impossible
Alternative considerations and
counterevidence
Left/Right cooperation in SLL
 strategies of acquisition
 guessing meaning
 formulaic utterances
Hill (1970), Sorenson (1967): multilingual
tribes, no accent
Areas of change
 Neurological
Pruning
Lateralisation
 Psychomotor
Accent
 Cognitive
Concrete
 Affective
Inhibition
Motivation
Formal thinking
Personality factors
Talent: neurological flexibility
New wiring for L2
Talent cluster
Motivation, + attitude, involvement
Strategies
Active
Conclusion
Language learning, a unique human
capacity: neurological basis
Genetic programme + environment
Learning capacity limited by time (CPH)
Loss of unconnected neurons and unused
synapses
Also influenced by personality factors