This document discusses theories of how children learn languages. It covers: 1) Behaviorist, cognitivist, social-interactionist, and nativist theories of language acquisition. 2) The typical process of acquiring a first language from babbling to complex sentences between ages 0-12. 3) Factors that influence how much and what parts of additional languages children learn under different conditions, such as their age, motivation, and learning environment.

1. How
children
learn
languages
Laura Díez Puertas
Silvia Rodríguez Lavín
Lidia Ruiz López
Jesica Fuentes Diego

2. Behaviorist theory
Psychologists language
learning acquisition Cognitivist theory
theories Social-interactionist theory
Nativist theory
How children learn their first The process of acquiring the first language
language? What children want to do with language
Are the first language and the second one
acquired in the same way?
Does younger mean better?
Bilingualism and multilingualism
Who learns how much of what language under that conditions?

3. Psychologists language learning acquisition
theories
Behaviorist theory:
- Main representative: Skinner (1957)  Verbal
Behavior
- Main feature  behavior is caused by external
stimuli  “stimulus-response”  influenced by
the environment
- Importance of positive reinforcement
- Animal studies  Pavlov’s Dog

4. Cognitivist theory:
- Main representative: Piaget  “La
formation du symbole chez l’enfant”
(1946)
- Main feature: certain thinking skills must
first mature in order to create a
framework for early language
development.
- The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH):
there is a specific and limited time for
language acquisition.

5. Social-interactionist theory:
- Main representative: Vygotsky.
- Developed in the late 1970s and 1980s
- Main idea  importance of social factor
- Human social interactions  children can
learn better/faster with the help of someone
who knows more than they can do alone
- Creative, imitation and practices are very
important
- It’s necessary to propose activities that pose
challenges

6. Nativist theory:
- Main representative  Chomsky
- Developed in 17th and 18th centuries
- Main idea  innate and therefore
universal features of human mind
- Children are pre-programmed to learn
a language

7. How do children learn their first language?
1. The process of acquiring the first language
2. What children want to do with language

8. 1. The process of acquiring the first language
0-8 months:
babbling.
11 months – 2 years:
put names.
18 months – 2 years:
join two words.

9. 1. The process of acquiring the first language
3 - 4 years:
norms about phonology,
syntax and lexis. 6 – 12 years:
syntactic and lexical complexity,
and vocabulary.
+ 12: conversational skills.

10. 2. What children want to do with language
1. They want to get attention
or information.
2. Questions about things.
3. Different questions, short
sentences.

11. 2. What children want to do with language
4. Complex structures
to ask or to explain.
5. Vocabulary and
understanding.

12. Are the first language and the second one
acquired in the same way?
Very similar
Difference in context
Process
Language learning conditions

13. Do younger learn better?
“Younger learners learn a second language better than older learners”
True or false?
Extended idea
There isn’t enough proof
Relationship with the Cognitive-developmental view

16. Bilingual or multilingual
• Children grow up in
different contexts.
• Some schools want to make
their students bilingual or
multilingual (Luxembourgian).

17. There are differences in language learning opportunities:
• Sweeden, Mexico…
• Countryside, big cities…
The exposure may develop: positive attitudes to
language learning, motivation and interest.

18. Who learns how much of what language
under what conditions?
Key question
Who learns?
• Individual learner’s differences
• Age
• Motivation
how much of what language?
• Goals of language learning
• Curriculum
• Syllabus
under what condition?
• Context

19. Parts in the development of a
second language
1. Sequence or general stages
2. Order of language
3. Rate of development

20. Factors for learning a
second language
Situational factors
Input
Descontextualized activities
Comprehensible input = key factor

21. A teacher
Beliefs about how
children learn a
language will
strongly
influence how we
teach them.

22. Conclusions
What do research say?
• Children learn their first language by imitating adults, but
also by experimenting and trying out hypotheses about
how language works.
• The intelligence quotient (IQ) score does not determinate
how fast children learn languages; setting and context
are more important.
• A high motivation is an important factor in successful
language learning, but it’s not the only one.

23. Conclusions
4. It’s not always the best to learn when they are below the
age of puberty because it depends on all sorts of other
factors.
5. To teach languages, teachers can use language structures
which have not already been taught if they are
contextualized well. In that way, learners often welcome
a challenge.

24. Thank you very much
for your attention!