Child Language Acquisition Spoken

- Believes that there are operant conditions for which a child can aquire language

- Immitation

- Positive Reinforcement = the caregiver provides a response that encourages the same language from the child again. 

- Negative Reinforcement - the caregiver provides no feedback or corrects the child to discourrage the same language being used again

- For = Explains features such as accent and dialects. Case study Genie

- Against = based on an experiment completed on rats and pidgeons. Childrens are much more complex than these animals so it may not be completely valid. 

- Believes that everyone hasa Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in their brain that allows them to aquire language. Innate language learning capacity. 

- Universal Grammar = all language have similar grammatical properties, brain is hardwired to be able to decode these and use them 

- Virtuous Error = errors that make grammatical sense e.g. runned rather than ran. 

- For = we all learn languages at similar rates

- Against = Bard and Sach's Jim Case study. Doesn't place any emphasis on the role of the caregiver

- Believes a child has to reach a certain level of cognitive development in order to acquire language. 

- Langauge wouldn't be developed until a certain congitive development had been reached. 

- Children develop their understainding through exploring and questioning the word around them. 

- Believes that it is the work of a Langauge Acquisition Support System (LASS) that is important in a child acquiring language. 

- LASS = anyone who plays a key role in a child's language acquisiton.

- Caregiver provides scaffolding to help the child develop their speech. 

Supports Skinner's behaviouism theory. 

- Believes that the caregiver acts as a more knowledgeable other (MKO) to support the child's language. 

- Caregiver supports the child through the zone of proximal development (ZPD) 

- ZPD = the area between what a child can do and what is beyond their reach at that time 

Supports Bruner's social interaction theory

- Usage Based Linguistics = emphasises that language structure emerges from use in that linguistic pattern are formed and becomes what we know as grammatical constructions

- By the age of 9-12 months, children make use of a pattern-forming ability that allows them to learn about different forms and to understand the intentional aspect of language. 

1. Instrumental = Child trying to fulfil a need

2. Regulatory = Child trying to control the behaviour of someone else

3. Interactional = Child tries to develop relationships with others

4. Personal = Child tries to express views and preferences

5. Heuristic = Child tries to explore the world around them

6. Imaginative = Child explores something creatively or through play

7. Representational =  Child tries to exchange information (give or receive information)  

- Genie: Until the age of 13 she did not get any interacton or Child Direted Speech. She was not able to acquire lnaguge past a very basic level. Shows the need for some form of interaction throughout early years. 

- Bard and Sach's Study of Jim: Jim had deaf parents and learnt most spoken language by watching TV. He got no response/interaction. His progress was a lot slower until he got a speech therapist. 

- Kaluli Tribe: Tribe in Papua New Guinea that do not use any Child Directed Speech. Their children do not have any issues in acquiring language.