CLA theories

Question	Answer
Behaviourism Skinner	Children learn language through imitation & reinforcement (positive//negative). Operant Conditioning
Instinctive & Innate ability Chomsky	Children have an innate ability to learn language with an internalised rule system. VIRTUOUS ERRORS Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is triggered by (incomplete) input from adults.
LAD works in a Critical Period Lennenburg	Explains why Genie couldn't learn language, which was a previous criticism of Chomsky.
WUG test Jean Berko	Children understand the rules for making plurals. They make Virtuous Errors. Supports Chomsky: children can recognise & apply rules of grammar.
Interactionism: Child Directed Speech Bruner	Emphasised importance of interaction between children & adult. Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)
Construction Theory (usage based) Tomasello	Adult input is important. Children build up templates by working out patterns from what adults say.
Cognitive/intellectual development & language development Piaget	Children have to understand a concept before they can linguistically articulate it. egocentrism -> realising object permanence -> seriation (in order/sequence) -> formal operational stage (action)
Social Interactionist Vygotsky (variant on Bruner)	Emphasised play. children learn what they are ready to learn Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): "the difference between level of performance unaided and what they can do with support.

Resource summary

	Created by Izzy Collinson about 8 years ago