1Theories of language development Attempts to understand human language development date back to 7thcentury B.C. Five theories covered in Owens (2008) chapter 2: Behavioral  Syntactic Semantic/Cognitive Sociolinguistic Emergentist Be prepared to compare and contrast ideas among these theoriesNature versus Nurture Debate is really a continuum Most human talents are probably both born and made  Different theories tend to focus on different aspects of language Biases and preferences of researchers Need to limit research questions Debate became heated in 1960s and 1970s Skinner 1957 Chomsky 1959 Brown 1973Behavioral Interpretation Rooted in behavioral psychology (Skinner) “Empiricist” from word empirical, meaning must have evidence Only study behavior that can be measured or observed No study of mental states or internalstructures Although mental and internal exist, cannot study what cannot observe Goal to be able to predict future behaviors2Language is like other behaviors  At early stage, language is a simple behavior Language is a habit Child is passive in language-learning process Language models in the environment “fill up” the child Child imitates models Environment is critical: Differences among children considered evidence of effect of environmentClassical Conditioning Pavlov’s dog Meat powder = Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) Salivating = Unconditioned response (UCR) Bell = Conditioned stimulus (CS) Word learning Object of desire = UCS Physiological response = UCR Word = CS A CS word becomes a UCS and elicits another word that is associated with it Classical Conditioning, or associationism, is used mostly to explain receptive language learning and word learning/vocabularyOperant Conditioning Operant any behavior that can be increased or decreased by responses that follow it Reinforcement A consequence that causes behavior to increase Environmental consequences can increase or decrease human behavior Children’s speech is rewarded by parents Punishment A consequence that causes behavior to decrease Antecedent The preceding event to the target behavior that causes the target behavior or controls the frequency of behavior3Behavioral Terms Shaping Reinforcement of a series of small behaviors that gradually approximate the target behavior Successive approximations Example: “du” “ju” “juice” “juice please” etc.  Chaining Many complex behaviors are really a series of chained behaviors with multiple stimuli, reinforcers, etc. Example: Computer skills Each word becomes the stimulus for the next word in the sentence Example: “The boy hit the ball”Evaluation of Behavioral Theory Limitations Role of imitation is not certain Children say things adults don’t say  “I broked it” Cannot count on reinforcement from parents Parents correct for meaning not form Inadequate explanation of complex language Cannot account for novel or creative utterances Contribution Learning plays a part Learn language of parents Intervention