新编简明英语语言学程语言学 10.2.1.pptVIP

10.2 Theories of child language acquisition 行为主义者的语言习得观 10.2.1 A behaviorist view of language acquisition Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation(习惯的养成). Imitation →Recognition →Reinforcement (gradually, habit-forming) Imitation and practice are preliminary, discrimination and generalization are crucial to language development in this theory. Imitation(模仿): word for word repetition of all or part of an utterance . e.g. Mother: Would you like some bread and peanut butter? Katie: Some bread and peanut butter. Practice: repetitive manipulation of one structure / pattern . e.g. I can handle it, Hannah can handle it. WE can handle it. 10.2.1 A behaviorist view of language acquisition Peter(25months) (Peter,Patsy,and Loris are playing with pencil and paper) Peter:(indicating he wants Patsy to draw)Lois.Lois too.Patsy.Lois too! Patsy:You want me to make a car?OK. (Patsy draws a tiny car like Lois) Patsy:Oh,you want Lois to have some paper? Peter:Lois have some paper? (later) patsy:Lets see if I can draw what you draw.Draw something! Peter:Draw something！ 10.2.1 A behaviorist view of language acquisition They imitate words selectively and according to their own understandings of the sounds or patterns. What they imitate must be based on what the children have already known instead of what is “available” in the environment. This reveals the behaviorist views inadequacy in explaining how children acquire complex language system. 10.2.1 A behaviorist view of language acquisition