Two Methods of Language

Describe in detail, the two methods of language acquisition.

"Learning - theory approach suggest that language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and condition" (Feldman, 2011). As children develop they first learn how to speak by being awarded for the sounds that approximate speech. The more time that parents take to speak with their children, the more proficient there language will become. Board books with one worded picture are a great way to help with their language development. When a child is three years old that end up hearing higher levels of linguistic sophistication within their parents speech does show a greater rate in vocabulary growth, use, and also general intellectual achievement than those will parents that provide a more simple speech. Children are not only reinforced when they use language correctly, they are reinforced when they used language incorrectly. We go day my day listening, answering, correcting I child speech. Honestly if we don't they won't ever learn the actually way that words are put together in a sentence structure.

Nativist approach to language was introduced my Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argued that all humans are born with an innate ability to acquire language and that all languages do share a common underlying structure that is called universal grammar. Chomsky did also suggest that a human's brain has a language acquisition device or neural system that allows a human to understand the structure of language and also gives each person the techniques for learning a unique form of characteristics of a person's native language.

Outline the third method of language acquisition that is a combination of the two language acquisition methods described in question "1."

Interactionist approach combines both the learning-theory approach and the nativist approach by suggesting that language development is produces through the combination of genetically determined predispositions and environmental circumstances.

Compare and contrast these three theories of language acquisition.

The learning-theory approach argues that children imitate what they hear and see on a daily bases. It also argues that children also learn from punishment and reinforcement. B.F. Skinner is the main theorist that is associated with the learning-theory approach. "Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children by reinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words" (Language Development: Theories of Language Development).

The nativist approach argues that humans are biologically programmed in order to gain knowledge. Noam Chomsky is the main theorist that is associated with this approach.

The Interactionist approach argues that language development is both social and biological.