Language Acquisition Theories, Process and its Stages

Theories of language acquisition.

Prior to the advent of generative grammar, theoretical approaches to language development relied heavily upon the concepts ofdifferential reinforcement andimitation. Current studies of linguistic acquisition are largely dominated by the hypothesis that the child constructs his language on the basis of a primitive grammar which gradually evolves into a more complex grammar. This approach presupp...

Theories of early language acquisition.

What features of brain processing and neural development support linguistic development in young children? To what extent is the profile and timing of linguistic development in young children determined by a pre-ordained genetic programme? Does the environment play a crucial role in determining the patterns of change observed in children growing up? Recent experimental, neuroimaging and computa...

The initial stages of first language acquisition

Title: Verifying theories of language acquisition using computer models of language evolution Running title: Verifying theories of language acquisition

This paper presents a dense database study of child language acquisition from a usage-based perspective of language acquisition and a new analysis of data from an earlier study on simulating language evolution. The new analysis is carried out to show how computer modelling studies can be designed to generate predictions (results) that can be compared quantitatively with empirical data obtained ...

Language development and acquisition in children

Language acquisition is a natural developmental process and is unique to Homo sapiens in which a child acquiring his or her mother tongue as a first language.  The simplest theory of language development is that children learn language by imitating adult language. A second possibility is that children acquire language through conditioning. Noam Chomsky put forward innateness hypothesis. Piaget ...