Social Interaction Language Acquisition Theory

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This essay will be explaining how language is used by children in early childhood settings and how language is acquired, developed and fostered. The essay will also explain three language developmental theories which are the behaviorist, nativist and the social interaction language acquisition theory and how language is acquired, developed and fostered according to each perspective and how I use these theories in my teaching to support children’s language development.

Language has a vital role in children’s development. Much learning takes place through their interaction of language and experience (Ministry of Education, 2007). Language enables the children to explore and explain their world, to obtain new experience, and to add depth to their knowledge which is already grasped (Ministry of education, 2007). Schiller (2003) stated that "early years is a critical moment in which children develop language skills and it is essential to early childhood educators to understand and support to this learning.

John Watson and Frederic Skinner are the main theorists related to the behaviorist theory. This theory is central to psychology and it is observed through the actions of people rather than considering what is going on in their brains. The behaviorist theory considers that language to be a visible behavior, and behavior is acquired therefore language is learn. Language is developed "by rote" and through imitation, with lots of repetition and is fostered by praising the children when they say the word correctly, I use this theory in my teaching by using appropriate praises which I believe helps a child foster a sense of self-worth and correct them when they say a word incorrectly. Through this type of reinforcement, language is eventually learnt. Skinner (1957) proposed that language, like any other behavior, is acquired through operant conditioning. Berk (2010) emphasizes that "operant conditioning children act or operate on the environment" (p.134). Language is a set of rules and principles that must be obeyed and reinforced. According to Berk (2010), "behaviorism is an extreme view and language is developed due to environmental issues" (p.173).

Linguist Noam Chomsky proposed a nativist theory which regarded children’s language skill as etched into the structure of the human brain. He argued, " all children have a language acquisition device, an innate system that contains a universal grammar, or a set of rules common to all languages," this enables children , no matter which language they hear, to understand and speak in a rule oriented fashion as they pick up enough words (Berk,2010,p.173). This theory believed that children are born knowing the set rules of language, Children acquire to understand things such as grammar and structure through universal grammar and through their communication they develop their own set rules about their own specific language. According to Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa Early Childhood Curriculum "language is a vital part of communication" (p.72). This means that communication skills are an ability to use language. The Nativist believes that children are sensitive to sound are able to decipher where the sound is coming from and the children prefer to listen to human voices and can differentiate and discriminate different sounds. Berk (2010) assumes "children are "pre-wired" to master the intricate rules of their language" (p.173). Children are fostered by adults shaped speech and adults reinforce the babbling of an infant that sound most like words. I will use the nativist theory into my practice by speaking a sentence that is structurally incorrect at mat time and ask the children why I don’t make sense and according to the nativist theory the child will be able to change the sentence around in their brain to the correct structural order.

The social interaction language acquisition theory is about the child’s experience which influences language acquisition. Language researchers believe that children everywhere arrive in the world with special social and linguistic capacities. A child acquires language development by environmental influences and parents who provide rich environments enable many positive benefits this means that parents who pay attention to their children’s language and expand on their child’s utterances and reading to their children and also play games and label things in their environment. Language is described in early childhood settings by singing songs, playing games, sign language, posters. The foundation of language would be observing and body language which is nonverbal communication and infants interacting with sounds. For example, when the infant is sad and hungry or uncomfortable the infant will cry and when the infant is happy and comfortable the infant will smile and laugh. Learning language is a vital part for infant’s learning and development. The children develop phonemic awareness which begin from birth and is developed Children need to take risks with language and experiment in order for them to discover how to combine words, phrases and form sentences. Theorists (Bates, 2004; Elman, 2001; Munakata, 2006) assume that, "children make sense of their complex language environments by applying powerful cognitive capacities of a general kind. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, created a model of human development now called the sociocultural model. He believed that all cultural development in children is visible in two stages, first children observe the interaction between other people then the behavior develops inside the child and then eventually the child becomes more capability of problem solving independently. Social interaction language theory is fostered by adults scaffolding with language. When adults talk with a child eventually the child will know how to respond. The social interaction language acquisition theory is believed to be similar to the nativist theory