Its Jerome Bruner.
The creator of
“LASS”
As Chomsky suggests, a Language
Acquisition Device, or LAD, there must also
be a Language Acquisition Support System,
or LASS. He is referring to the family and
entourage of the child. So basically you can
look round at your family and blame them
for your intelligence! Good or bad thing? If
we watch closely the way a child interacts
with the adults around her, we will see that
they constantly provide opportunities for her
to acquire her mother - tongue. The child
soon starts to predict its parent’s actions.
Bruner’s got his own
book. Must be worth
listening to then!
Child language acquisition theorists.
By Peter Beadle 13 NS
Loam Chomsky = The “LAD” of child
acquisition. Chomsky proposes that "all
children share the same internal contraints
which characterize narrowly the grammar
they are going to construct." His “LAD”
theory concerns the idea of an innate
ability to acquire knowledge. Although
Chomsky has gradually left this concept
behind in favour of a parameter setting
model, he’ll still be the first “LAD” to us.
The wise man
that is Loam
Chomsky.
The man that opposes Chomsky. It’s
B.F Skinner.
Skinner argued that language acquisition is
like any kind of cognitive behaviour – it is
learnt by reinforcement and shaping. So in
“human” language its about trial and error
until glorious success. I’m sure we’ve all
been there in exams trying to remember
those key phrases, this is what Skinner is
proposing. The “shaping” concept is done
through the parents gestures and their
reaction to “babble” by the child.
Vs.
Piaget – genius or misguided?
Piaget argues that language
development is related to cognitive
development. Cognitive? (Come again
Sir!) that is, the development of the
child’s thinking which determines when
the child can learn to speak and what the
child can say. Still confused? Here’s an
example, before a child can say, “This
car is bigger than that one”, she/he must
have developed the ability to judge
differences in size. In Piaget’s view,
children learn to talk ‘naturally’ when
they are ‘ready’ without any deliberate
teaching by adults. The concept of
intelligence is finally questioned.
Loves the pipe
smoking.
Important notes for all those wanting a
light read!
•Loam Chomsky – LAD. (Language
acquisiton device)
• B.F Skinner – Learnt by reinforcement
and shaping. Basically trial and error and
influence of parents.
•Piaget – Cognitive behaviour theorist.
(Come again Sir!) that is, the development
of the child’s thinking which determines
when the child can learn to speak and
what the child can say.
• Jerome Bruner – LASS. (Language
acquisition support system) (family)
• Vygotsky – Language progressed over
time with development.
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky’s theory.
(What a mouthful!)
According to Vygotsky, thought and speech
have different roots in humankind, thought
being nonverbal and language being non-
intellectual in an early stage.
(Heavy stuff this)
But their development lines are not parallel
they cross again and again. At a certain
moment around the age of two, the curves
meet and join to initiate a new form of
behaviour. That is when thought becomes
verbal and speech becomes rational. A
child first seems to use language for
superficial social interaction, but at some
point this language goes underground to
become the structure of the child's thinking.