Linguistic for Literacy Assignment 2022

Running head: LINGUISTICS FOR LITERACY
LINGUISTICS FOR LITERACY
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1LINGUISTICS FOR LITERACY
Theories of child language development
Behaviorist theory of language acquisition:
Early researches have proved that all learning is a result of stimulus response and people
learn when they are rewarded for learning and for putting their efforts. This has been proven to
be an out of trial for animals as animals do not learn how to talk. The theory demands knowledge
of both psychology and neural work and proved to be adequate for language acquisition and
language learning (Saville-Troike & Barto, 2016). The theory emphasizes on the conditional,
building and developing from a simple conditioned response to a more complex behavior. This
means that the phrases and sentences learned gradually have long stimulus responses. Therefore,
each stimulus acts as the caser of a response and gradually becomes the initiator of a stimulus
and the process gets repeated (Song, 2018). A variety of questions were raised in this context
about the view on language learning. The question asked were mainly focused on the uniqueness
of human language learning efficiently and it was even learnt that the language learning is as
simple as the stimulus response, then why can’t animals learn languages and are unable to talk.
Therefore, the scientists believed and tried experiments with those animals who are similar to
that of human in terms of physiology, across the world like ape family and chimpanzees and
taught these animals to speak.
Cognitivist theory of language acquisition:
Some researchers gave shape to this theory who felt that learning language is not just
simple as described by the behaviorist theory. The researcher of this theory believed that there
must be something unique bout learning language. The theory was backed up by the outcome

2LINGUISTICS FOR LITERACY
from the animal experiment in the previous theory that showed that chimpanzees cannot produce
‘novel sentences’ or the sentences that are new to them that is something babies can accomplish.
Chomsky, 1959, established human possess some unique features, a Language Acquisition
Device (LAD). Chomsky’s theory on the language acquisition is based on the ‘novel sentence’
and he stated that an individual who is a young language learner has the ability to create ‘novel
sentences’ or the sentences which were not taught before (VanPatten & Williams, 2014).
Sociocultural theory of language acquisition:
The socio-cultural concept describes the growth and teaching of children and enables
them to deeper comprehend their learning, and their influence on the adults and peers on the
learning process. Children are seen from this view as effective respondents in the learning
process which are affected by the culture in which they grow. The theory states that learning and
cognitive development can happen through social interactions. It argues that while human
neurobiology is necessary for the purpose of better thinking, major forms of human cognitive
activity develop through social and material interaction (Lantolf, Thorne & Poehner, 2015).
Phonology:
Phonological development relates to how kids develop in their stages of growth to
organize sounds into significance or language (phonology). Sound is at the beginning of
language education. In attempt to obtain phrases and expressions children must study to
differentiate distinct tones and divide up their speaker flow into parts – eventually significant
parts. One of the innovations in generative grammar is its clear philosophical dedication to
language acquisition, including generative phonology (Rose, 2017). In general, a theory designed