This presentation contains the discussion of the different school of thoughts which speaks about how human beings acquired the language we speak of today. Leaving this here as aid to those who need it. Enjoy! :)

1. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
J U L I E M A E G AV I O L A ; F O R E D U C 2 0 2

2. AMAZING!
“Humans are designed to walk; that they
are taught to walk is impossible. Pretty
much the same is true with language.
Nobody taught us language. In fact, you
can’t prevent a child from learning it.”
~Noam Chomsky

3. WHAT IS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?
•Language Acquisition is the process by which
humans acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language as well as to produce
and use words; sentences to communicate.
• i.e. gain the ability to be aware of language
and to understand it.

4. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
Crying
The sole mechanism babies use for
communication. (week-old)
e.g. hungry, wet, get up

5. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
Cooing
During the 2-3 months the baby starts
to utter vowel sounds.

6. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
 Babbling
By the duration of 4-6 months the
baby starts to utter not just the
vowel sounds but also the consonant
sounds.

7. EXAMPLE: A BABY MIMICKING HER
MOTHER AS SHE BABBLE.

8. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
•These first three stages is believed to be
hardwired in the human instinct. It is
unlearned. It is universal and is uniform in
expression.
•In the babbling stage children start to pick
prosody; the rhythmic and intonational aspect
of language.

9. TWINS COMMUNICATING WITH EACH
OTHER

10. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
 Single-word
For over a year, the child then begins to
utter his/her first words.
*Holophrase- one word as if a
sentence.
*Overgeneralization- apply to all as
similar.

11. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
 Telegraphic Speech
During 18 months, the child now
speaks almost complete sentence
but misses important articles;
conjunctions, etc.

12. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
* Fast-Mapping- this is the part of the
telegraphic speech in which a child aged 2-6
years old has the ability to perfectly copy and
use a word correctly even when he/she just
heard it once.
* This ability however will be lost over time as a
child grow into an adult.

13. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
THE EARLY STAGES
* Overregularization- children
include rules that don’t apply to the
rules of grammar.

14. EXAMPLE:

15. GROUNDBREAKING!
Many have been always fascinated with the
human linguistic ability, particularly on where it
started; or some call it the initial acquisition.
Numerous studies have conducted to find out
how humans are able to learn language and use
it for day to day communication.
Thus, here are some of the many theories
that have emerge to understand how we learn
the language we speak of today.

16. THE COMPETING SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
ABOUT LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
• Behaviorism/Behaviorist Theory
• Innateness/Nativist Theory (Universal
Grammar)
• Learning/Cognitive Theory
• Social/Interactionist Theory

17. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
A C C O R D I N G TO B . F. S K I N N E R

18. BEHAVIORISM/BEHAVIORIST THEORY
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly
known as B. F. Skinner, was an
American psychologist, behaviorist,
author, inventor, and social
philosopher. He was the Edgar
Professor of Psychology at Harvard
University from 1958 until his
retirement in 1974.

19. BEHAVIORISM/BEHAVIORIST THEORY
• Skinner proposed that language
acquisition is really one big and complex
case of conditioning.
• At its core, it is all pattern recognition—
associating words with meanings.

20. BEHAVIORISM/BEHAVIORIST THEORY
• Language is acquired through principles of
conditioning.
• Including association, imitation and
reinforcement.
• According to this theory, children learn
words by associating sounds with objects,
actions and events.

21. BEHAVIORISM/BEHAVIORIST THEORY
•Language Acquisition is a stimulus-response
mechanism.
•In the early stages of language development
an infant doesn’t have the ability to talk but
he/she listens.
• This means that understanding comes first.
The infant receives comprehensible input.
• In the behaviorist view, language is reinforced
input.

22. BEHAVIORISM/BEHAVIORIST THEORY
• The theory can be summed up as:
• LISTEN (motivating operation)
• IMITATE (discriminative stimuli)
• RECEIVE A REWARD (response)
• REPEAT OR RECALL (reinforcing stimuli)

23. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
A C C O R D I N G TO N O A M C H O M S K Y

24. INNATENESS/NATIVIST THEORY
Avram Noam Chomsky (born
December 7, 1928) is an
American linguist, philosopher,
cognitive scientist, historian,
social critic, and political activist.
Sometimes called "the father of
modern linguistics", Chomsky is
also a major figure in analytic
philosophy and one of the
founders of the field of
cognitive science.

25. INNATENESS/NATIVIST THEORY
• To Chomsky, language is an innate faculty.
•Chomsky asserts that human beings are
biologically wired for language—that we
have a “Language Acquisition Device
(LAD)” that allows us to learn any language.
• Linguistics ability is innate to us.

26. INNATENESS/NATIVIST THEORY
• Chomsky claims that language acquisition is
greatly dependent upon a linguistic faculty
which he terms as LAD.
• The LAD is an innate mechanism or process
that allows children to develop language skills
or “Universal Grammar”, around which all
languages are built.

27. INNATENESS/NATIVIST THEORY
• Based on the assumption that, “There are core and
language specific rules in all languages.”
• When a learner comes across language specific he
will tend to refer to his first language (L1).
• Thus, if a learner discovers that a second language
(L2) rule is not in accordance with the universal rule,
he will attempt to interpret that rule by means of the
equivalent rule in his L1.

29. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
A C C O R D I N G TO J E A N P I A G E T

30. LEARNING/COGNITIVE THEORY
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist
and genetic epistemologist. He is most
famously known for his theory of
cognitive development that looked at
how children develop intellectually
throughout the course of childhood.
Prior to Piaget's theory, children were
often thought of simply as mini-adults.

31. LEARNING/COGNITIVE THEORY
• The Cognitive Theory of Language
Acquisition recognizes that both processes
(behaviorist & nativist) have their role to
play.
• The idea is that humans are able to learn
language because of their ability to learn;
it is because of human cognitive
development.

32. LEARNING/COGNITIVE THEORY
• Piaget believed that the understanding of
concepts must first come before language.
• The more nuanced and layered our
thinking, the more textured the language
that comes out.
• That is why children talk one way and
adults talk a different way.

34. AS KIDS SEE IT
My husband and I went to a baseball game together
with our toddler Kevin.
After the game, we get to meet the star player of his
dad’s favorite team who in turn noticed our son,
raised his right hand and greeted Kevin saying,
“Give me five!”
Kevin gave him five coins from his pocket.
~Reader’s Digest

35. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
A C C O R D I N G TO L E V V Y G OT S K Y

36. SOCIAL/INTERACTIONIST THEORY
Lev Vygotsky was a Russian
psychologist who is best known
for his sociocultural theory. He
believed that social interaction
plays a critical role in children's
learning. ... Vygotsky noted,
however, that culture profoundly
influences this process.

37. SOCIAL/INTERACTIONIST THEORY
• Interactionist’s argue that language
development is both biological and
social.
• That language is influenced by the
desire of children to communicate with
others.

38. SOCIAL/INTERACTIONIST THEORY
• They believe that, “Children are born with
a powerful brain that matures slowly and
predisposes them to acquire more
understanding that they are motivated to
share with others.
• i.e Social interaction to learn language for
communication use.

40. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

41. BREAKTHROUGH!
Those are the most influential theories
on Language Acquisition. Each has its
merits and each gives a certain view of how
we learn language. Needless to say, more
research and study is needed in this topic.
There is still so much to discover and so
much to learn in this area of linguistics.

42. “Nobody really knows how it got into our heads but
language is something we breathe in and out every
moment of our lives. It’s everywhere; and we know
everyone is good at it.”
The Language Nerds

43. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
T H A N K Y O U F O R L I S T E N I N G !

44. SOURCES:
• Kitchener, R. F. (1996). Skinner’s theory of theories. The
philosophy of psychology, 108-125.
• Chomsky, N. (1959). Chomsky, N. 1959. A review of BF
Skinner’s Verbal behavior. Language, 35 (1), 26–58.
• Singer, D. G., & Revenson, T. A. (1997). A Piaget primer: How
a child thinks. International Universities Press, Inc., 59 Boston
Post Road, Madison, CT 06443-1524.
• Wertsch, J. V. (Ed.). (1986). Culture, communication, and
cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. CUP Archive.