Quick questions on Language acquisition: how children acquire language - Eduqas A-Level English Language

Children acquire spoken language in a predictable sequence: crying, then cooing and babbling, the holophrastic stage (single words standing for whole meanings), the two-word stage, the telegraphic stage (content words, function words omitted, as in 'daddy go work'), and the post-telegraphic stage with increasingly complete grammar. Written development follows later, from emergent mark-making and the alphabetic principle through invented spelling to conventional writing. Knowing the stages lets you read child language data and tie features to a developmental point.

The debate runs across four positions. The behaviourist account (Skinner) holds that children learn through imitation and reinforcement (praise and correction). The nativist account (Chomsky) holds that children are born with an innate capacity, a Language Acquisition Device, evidenced by the speed and universality of acquisition, the poverty of the stimulus (children acquire more than the input could teach), and virtuous errors. The cognitive account (Piaget) holds that language develops alongside and follows cognitive development.

The decisive skill is to argue the theories against evidence, not to recite them. Virtuous errors and the speed of acquisition tell against pure imitation; but the importance of input, child-directed speech and interaction (and evidence from cases of neglect) shows that the social account matters too. The strongest position usually recognises that acquisition is both biologically enabled and socially supported. Argue from the evidence to a critical conclusion.

"The behaviourist claim that children learn purely by imitation cannot account for virtuous errors. A child who says 'I goed to the park' has never heard an adult produce 'goed'; the form results from over-applying the regular past-tense rule '-ed', which the child must have internalised actively. Such errors are strong evidence for the nativist view that children construct grammatical rules rather than copying input, and they recur predictably across children, supporting the idea of an innate, rule-seeking capacity."

"The evidence resists a single explanation. The speed, universality and rule-governed errors of acquisition support an innate capacity, yet the role of child-directed speech and interaction, and the language deprivation seen in cases of neglect, show that input and scaffolding are also necessary. The most defensible position is that language acquisition is biologically enabled but socially supported: children are equipped to acquire language, but they do so through interaction."

What is a virtuous error, and why is it important evidence? [2 marks]

Name the four major theories of language acquisition and a key figure for each. [4 marks]

Discuss the view that children acquire language mainly through imitation. [18 marks]