Free English Language Dissertations - Description Chomsky’s ‘language Acquisition Theory’ Appears To Directly
DESCRIPTION
Chomsky’s ‘language acquisition theory’ appears to directly contradict behaviourist theory in assuming that, through its innate presence, contributions from social interaction were not necessary for the development of language within a normal human infant , a feature with which McNeill concurred (McNeill, 1970, page 151). Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development correlated with a child’s language development in terms of conveying concepts of culture (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 105), directed into acquiring new skills through adult supervision, eventually leading to the scaffolding theory, directly attributable to Bruner, being developed in accordance with Vygotsky principles (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 113).
Child Directed Speech
Bruner recognised the social interaction that resulted from children responding to adults’ direction as a characteristic that contributed to the child’s developing sense of identity, encouraging them to ‘play around with possible worlds’ (Bruner, 1986 cited in Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 102), having the effect of motivating them to increase their usage of language, mentioned by Graddol et al with reference to generative grammar (1994, page 86). From birth, children interact with the familiar adults around them and react to stimuli provided by those carers whose distinct intonation and simplified language when speaking to their charges, is often expressed in tones pitched higher than normal and has been labelled ‘motherese’ (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 15), or more accurately ‘child directed speech’ (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page15), although this is not a universal phenomenon (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 36).
Various distinctive features of ‘semantically contingent utterances’ can be revealed in terms of enforced repetition, choice questions, WH type questions, personal contribution, and phatics (Mercer and Swan, 1996, pages 22 24). Child directed utterances featured in research undertaken in 1965 by Cazden who recorded that CDS almost provided sufficient input to enable children to effectively develop language (Cazden, 1965, page 123). It was also noted that correcting errors within the context of discourse through re-phrasing a child’s statement provided adequate stimuli for complex syntax to develop (See Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 90). It is interesting to note, however, that this feature might be more prevalent in Western childcare and cannot be considered to be universal as research amongst various societies, e.g. Quiché in South America, has produced evidence that minimal adult-child speech interaction still results in fluent speech (Mercer and Swan, 1996, page 15 16). ‘Motherese’ has been noted to adapt into ‘semantically contingent utterances’ as the child ages (Snow, 1986) and is realised in speech that is pitched at a level applicable
to the child’s cognitive development.
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