Language Acquisition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Language Acquisition - Essay Example The myth that â€Å"Languages are learned mainly through imitation† is such a shallow concept of language learning and undermines the great researchers that have been dedicated to its study. No doubt, language may be learned through imitation, but the language learner does not stop at imitating a language model. He goes beyond that. There have been many theories conceptualized as to how language is acquired by human beings. Lindfors (1987) claims, â€Å"Virtually every child, without special training, exposed to surface structures of language in many interaction contexts, builds for himself – in a short period of time and at an early stage in his cognitive development – a deep-level, abstract, and highly complex system of linguistic structure and use. â€Å"( p. 90) This implies that every child is capable of learning the language. Skinner’s Behaviorist Model of language acquisition is consistent with the rules of operant conditioning, based upon a stimulus-response model. Simply put, infants are presented with language which they imitate. They are rewarded for their imitations so they continue to repeat what they have heard. Their imitation does not have to be exact or immediate in order for them to make use of it in learning the language (Brewer, 2001). However, as the child grows, imita tion should approximate the accurate pronunciation of words. According to the behaviorist view, an individual is reinforced (positively or negatively) for responses to various stimuli, hence, the external environment plays a great part in the formation of behaviors. By administering positive reinforcement such as praising or smiling when the desired behavior occurs and administering negative reinforcement such as scolding or correcting when an undesired behavior occurs, one is assumed to encourage the desired behavior and make it more likely that that behavior will recur (Lindfors, 1987).