Chapter 12 notes:
Human Language Acquisition- Chomsky vs. the Learning Theorists
 
Chomsky - Nativism

(Nature)

Learning Theory - Environmentalism

(Nurture)

Age 0 - 1 year:

Crying and cooing

- FAP (deaf children also behave in the same ways)

- happens in the absence of reinforcement

-Reinforced through parental response

-In the absence of reinforcement, later language development is affected

About 1 year:

-Naming

-One-word utterance/

"holophrastic" speech

-LAD- innate cognitive categories precede language use

-"Mapping"

-Reinforcement for stimulus to stimulus associations

-Generalized imitation; social in nature (Social Learning Theory)

Age 1 - 3 years:

-"Telegraphic" speech

-2-word strings where the grammatical conventions of native language are observed

-Happens in every language and every culture- "Universal Grammar"

-Parents donít reinforce for grammar or language use after age 3; they reinforce semantic meaning

-Not concerned where language comes from but how it gets manipulated 

-Reinforcement through the ability to communicate and understand

Other evidence: -Environment triggers/ shapes language use 

-Language grows (acorn to oaks example)

-Takes into account emotional or psychological meaning of words and that word meaning is based on experience

-Universal Grammar doesnít tell us what will be verbalized when or what that will mean - this is whatís important for learning theorists