first language acquition.pptVIP

First Language Acquisition 潘洁 20114004038 What are the major L1 acquisition theories? There are three major L1 acquisition theories. 1. Behavioristic Approaches 2. The Nativist Approach 3. Functional Approaches Behavioristic Approaches Behaviorism was a predominantly American learning theory developed in the early period of the 20th century and associated with many researchers and psychologists. Four of the principal protagonists in behaviorism are an early twentieth-century Russian, Ivan Pavlov; early twentieth-century Americans, John Watson and Edward Thorndike; and a mid-twentieth-century American, Burrhus Skinner. Three basic behaviouristic ideas about learning 1. Conditioning Learning is seen as a question of developing connections( known as stimulus-response bonds) between events. The process of developing connections is called conditioning. 2. Habit formation Behaviorists believed that learning was a mechanical process of habit formation. When the behavior to be learned was complex, it might be broken down into small parts, and each part would be taught one at a time, until eventually the whole complex behavior is build up. 3. The importance of the ‘ environment’ ‘ environment’ is here being used in a very wide sense to refer to anything external to the organism( The person or animal that dose the learning.), such as an event or a situation, or even another person (a teacher or a parent for example). Different learning theories give different degrees of importance to the organism and the environment. In behaviorism, the environment is all, and the role of the organism is considered insignificant. The Nativist Approach Nativist Approach, sometimes called Innateness Hypothesis or Mentalist Theory. the term ‘ nativist’ is derived from the fundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately determined, that human beings are born with a build-in device of some kind which predisposes them to language acquisition—to a systematic perception