Whether language is innate or acquired;
Whether language is passive learning or active creation;
Cognitive development, especially the relationship between thinking development and speech development.
(1) Representative Theory
This is the earliest theoretical hypothesis about the mechanism of language acquisition in psychology, which was first put forward by American psychologist Ahlport (1924) T. It was very popular in the 1920s and 1950s. Its main point is that baby's language is an imitation of adult's language and a simple copy of adult's language. Many people are against this theory, while others support it.
On this basis, later generations have done a lot of research, and the development of its theory is as follows:
1, Harris and Hassemer made a comparative study on the role of imitation in speech acquisition, and confirmed the imitation components in infant speech activities.
2. 1975, Whitehurst reformed the traditional "representative theory" and put forward a new concept of "selective imitation". The main points are as follows:
There is a functional relationship between the demonstrator's speech and the imitator's reaction. That is, they are not only similar in form, but also similar in function. Therefore, it is not necessary for babies to completely copy the words of adults one by one, as long as the functions are similar.
Selective imitation does not occur under the condition of intensive training, but in the way of language acquisition in the natural environment. Therefore, the speech acts of both adults and babies are not instantaneous in time, nor one-on-one in form, but create choices.
3. Evaluation of "Representative Theory"
Representative theory has some reasonable components. In the process of baby's speech acquisition, the baby does acquire certain speech ability through imitation.
To understand the representativeness theory, we must pay attention to the following three points: in the process of infant language acquisition, not only direct imitation and selective imitation are at work, but also various types of imitation are at work. In the process of speech acquisition, there are four types of speech imitation: "instant complete reproduction" plays a role in the initial stage of infant development. "Instant incomplete copying", "delayed imitation" (that is, non-instant copying with deformation and creation factors) and "selective imitation" (expressing new content in new situations according to the structure and function of language paradigm) are imitations with both copying and innovation. Example: "This is red, not yellow" "This is aunt, not mother". B baby's speech imitation is naturally carried out in the process of communicating with others, and others' demonstrations are often unintentional. Words that babies hear in communication with others or occasionally hear from others may naturally play an exemplary role, but for those language paradigms that are much more complicated than babies' existing cognitive skills, the occurrence of imitation is also influenced by their cognitive development level. C "Representative Theory" can't explain clearly the fact that the artificial "wild child" (Ginny) only gets words, but can't master the basic grammar rules.
(B) Strengthening theory
1, main points
Reinforcement theory is based on Pavlov's conditioned reflex theory. Both Pavlov and Skinner believe that the mastery and development of infant speech is ultimately the formation and development of conditioned reflex system, and reinforcement plays an important role in this process.
Skinner particularly emphasized "strengthening compliance". Enhanced compliance means that the enhanced stimulus closely follows the speech act, and he thinks that "enhanced compliance" plays a decisive role in the formation of the baby's speech act. It has two remarkable characteristics:
It initially strengthened some activities similar to words occasionally uttered by individuals. Exodus: When the baby occasionally makes the sound of [ma], the mother will smile, hug him, touch him and answer him.
This process is gradual. If you want your baby to learn a sentence (or word), you don't have to wait for him to say it by accident. You just need to strengthen what he said a little closer to that sentence (or word) and then strengthen the words closer to that sentence. Through this step-by-step method, the baby finally mastered the complex language system.
2. Chomsky's evaluation of reinforcement theory.
Chomsky, a famous American linguist, made a "fierce attack and thorough analysis" on Skinner's reinforcement theory. Chomsky believes that it is impossible for infants to form the operant conditioned reflex system of speech through reinforcement for the following three reasons.
If every baby's speech activity (especially the combination of words) needs to be established through intensive conditioned reflex, then the number of times and time required will be too much, and it is impossible for the baby to acquire speech in such a short time as 1~3 years old.
Miller (1765) pointed out that it takes 1000 times longer than the age of the earth to listen to all sentences that may consist of 20 words. Therefore, for a baby, it is impossible to learn all the words word by word and sentence by sentence. He needs to find some general rules so that he can understand and create new sentences.
The grammatical structure acquired by infants is different from that acquired by adults. For example, the baby often says: He is out. This can't be a direct imitation of adult speech, nor is it a casual mistake, but they are systematically and meaningfully creating their own language system.
Adults often don't correct the baby's "wrong words" when talking to him, but always try to understand him and even imitate his words. The main purpose of their conversation is to get to know each other and accomplish some practical goals at present, and there is not much time to pay attention to the details of the language.
It must be admitted that Chomsky's analysis has some truth, and he points out the fatal weakness of reinforcement theory. However, it is undeniable that reinforcement theory has its rationality, which can be used to explain some speech activities, especially the occurrence and development of low-level speech such as initial pronunciation and single words.
(C) Transformation generation theory
Chomsky (1957) put forward a language theory in his book Syntactic Structure. From 65438 to 0959, his profound criticism of the "reinforcement theory" in skinner's speech act greatly shocked the American linguistics and psychology circles, which was called the "linguistic revolution" and had a wide influence on psychology, linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science all over the world.
(1) Key points:
Chomsky believes that language is the innate ability of human beings. Normal babies living in any social environment can successfully acquire a language. The main contents of the transformation generation theory are as follows:
Language is creative. In other words, acquiring a language is not learning specific sentences, but using sentence-making rules to understand and create sentences, and the number of sentences is unlimited.
Grammar came into being. Children are born with a set of universal grammar, the essence of which is a special state of the brain related to language knowledge, a physical and corresponding psychological mechanism that enables babies to learn any language of human beings. It is with the help of this universal grammar that babies analyze and understand the language materials in the language acquisition environment. The baby's speech acquisition process is a process from universal grammar to individual grammar, which is realized through the innate "language acquisition device" (LAD). This language acquisition device is Chomsky, which is more universal than language. Suppose that the human brain has a ready-made device for processing language materials.
Every sentence has two structural levels: surface structure and deep structure.
The surface structure is the external form that sentences can be directly perceived-the structure of pronunciation and grammar; Deep structure is the structure of sentence meaning. The surface structure and external form of baby's perceptual language.
Through the transformation and processing of LAD, the material of words can generate countless sentences, so that a baby who has mastered the basic grammatical form can creatively use the language and say sentences that he has never heard before. He stressed that it is precisely because of the existence of LAD that children can only hear a limited number of sentences, but they can produce an unlimited number of sentences, so that they can use the language fluently in just a few years.
(2) Simple evaluation
Advantages: Chomsky's theory makes us get rid of the bondage of behaviorism speech acquisition theory to some extent, recognizes the important role of nervous system in infant speech acquisition, and puts forward the psychological mechanism of studying speech process, which has important theoretical significance and reference value.
Disadvantages:
2 LAD device is only a hypothesis, and it is not easy to prove this hypothesis. So far, there is no strong factual evidence.
He emphasizes the concept of talent, and thinks that the innate underestimates the important role of environment and education in the process of language acquisition and ignores the sociality of language.
Cognitive theory
Since the 1960s and 1970s, the Geneva School, represented by Piaget, has put forward a new viewpoint on the relationship between cognition and speech development, which has had a great influence on children's language acquisition and the study of corresponding theories, and has gradually become the leading theory with extensive influence in this field.
(1) Key points:
Piaget believes that language is children's symbolic representation function, not the driving force for the development of logical operation, but only for children.
As one of the most important symbolic tools, language comes from intelligence. Cognitive structure is the basis of language development, and language structure develops with the development of cognitive structure. In this regard, he demonstrated from the following aspects.
2 From the perspective of individual development, language appeared around 1.5 years old. Studies show that nastic movement's wisdom existed before this, and it is a kind of "action thinking" based on sensory perception. Logic came into being before language, so it doesn't need the help of language.
Piaget's cooperative researcher Sinclair's research on the relationship between operation stage and language stage of children aged 5-8 shows that mastering certain expressions only through language training can not guarantee the acquisition and development of logical operation structure, while intellectual operation promotes the development of language rather than the opposite.
The comparative study of deaf-mute children, blind children and normal children by Orton and Fowles proves that deaf-mute children have no language, but they have thinking, and they are still going through the same development stage as normal children, only one or two years late; Compared with normal children, blind children have to delay doing the same thinking homework for four years or more. The main difference between them is that the perceptual movement schema of congenital blind children is hindered from the beginning, and the general coordinated movements are slow, but their language development is not enough to make up for this defect. Therefore, the development of cognitive level precedes and restricts the development of language.
(2) Evaluation:
Advantages: Piaget's theory is different from reinforcement theory and transformational generation theory, and it particularly emphasizes the important role of the interaction between subject and object in children's language acquisition. This paper expounds the mutual influence and restriction between thinking and language, which makes us have a deeper understanding of the internal mechanism of speech occurrence and is of great significance to our understanding of how babies acquire speech.