Evaluation
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Imitation works for the learning of vocabulary yet cannot really be explained to work for complex aspects of language such as the meaning of words. – Children tend to convert sentences to their own grammar level when they imitate a sentence.
- Some adult language is grammatically incorrect – this therefore cannot explain why children acquire the correct grammar.
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Chomsky (1968) – Operant conditioning cannot be used to explain the creativity of language. – The ability to produce and understand a large number of sentences never heard before.
Social Learning Theory to explain Language Acquisition
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Similar to operant conditioning, the acquisition of language in terms of the social learning theory is still based upon observation.
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Main ideas of the social learning theory approach include imitation, watching and listening other people speaking and then repeating what was said, in order to get rewarded.
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The social learning perspective sees people as role models, especially for children. So that children can observe their role models, in terms of language, usually their parents and memorise what was said and repeat it. Imitate it.
- If the word repeated is rewarded, similarly to skinners approach, it will be reinforced and the liklehood of the word being repeated is increased.
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Social learning theory links well with the cognitive theory. This is because many cognitive factors are needed for the learning to take place. Attention – Listening and being aware of what is to be imitated. There will be greater attention paid if the model is strong and distinctive and also greater if behaviour being observed is useful for the learner. – Memory- remembering what there is to be imitated.
- Cognitive factors not needed in the behaviourist approach
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Children may also have self-efficacy. That is they will only bother to imitate a word or sentence, providing they know they will be able to repeat it. If someone tells a child a sentence that doesn’t make sense or is grammatically incorrect, then they cannot repeat it because they know it is incorrect and therefore socially unacceptable to say, because they wont be understood.
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People are more likely to copy models who are reinforced. – Vicarious reinforcement. For example if the child has an older sibling. The sibling might say something to his mother and receive praise for what he said. The younger brother may then repeat what his brother said in order to receive praise for him.
Explaining the acquisition of language through the biological approach has been subject to much debate. It has been decided that language cannot develop without some form of environmental input. However, psychologists such as Chomsky (1957) believe that environmental inputs are not enough to explain the acquisition of language. He and fellow psychologists believed that children are born with a ‘language acquisition device’ (LAD), where children are already programmed to formulate and understand sentences even if they have never heard them before. He believed the process was more complex and less predictable than behaviourist psychologists such as Skinner believed. Printer (1994) also backed up Chomsky’s theory by saying: ‘language is far too complex to be learned; it must stem from an innate programme hardwired into our brains.’
This therefore suggests that language is passed down through evolution. Horgan (1995) said that ‘language is a totally unique process to human beings – which may have been and incidental by-product of a spurt of intelligence or from the size of the human brain.’
The biological approach given by Chomsky has been challenged and was thought that the social interaction approach may be better to explain language acquisition. Smith et al (1998) suggested that ‘language and social-interaction approach’ sees language as being used to communicate needs and intentions.’ We cannot satisfy even our basic needs without communicating. Through regular interaction with people, are needs can be satisfied.
Psychology as a science
In order for an investigation or study to be scientific, it is usually expected that a hypothesis or prediction will be formed. There should be two types of variables to be considered in an experiment. An independent variable, the variable which changes or manipulates a condition and a dependent variable which is the result of the independent variable. A high level of control must also be present when conducting a scientific experiment. This is to ensure that the independent variable is the cause of the dependent variable and is not just due to chance factors. A high level of control can also establish a cause and effect relationship as well. High levels of control can lead to replication. Replication should be made when conducting an experiment. This verifies that the result of one experiment is sound. Doing the same experiment 100 times and getting the same result each time is better than doing this experiment once and getting the correct result.
Judging whether a perspective is either scientific or non-scientific can be decided mainly by looking at the methods used to investigate and later formulate theories. All the perspectives in psychology are either classed as scientific or non-scientific. Wundt was described as the ‘Father of psychology’ because he separated psychology from philosophy as a subject of its own discipline. His analytical techniques were mainly focused around introspection, which involves analysing and interpreting conscious experiences into their most basic elements.
John B Watson later decided that the results of introspection could not be proved nor disproved. He decided to take on a more scientific approach to psychology termed the behaviourist perspective. This saw psychology in terms of the way we behave. It proved to be far more scientific, whereby statistical data was being produced, which seemed to be of greater value than the biased descriptions of what goes on in the mind, as in introspection.
Research from Freud’s work on the psychoanalytical approach was mainly based on case studies. Freud found that accessing the human mind could be achieved through hypnosis, free association, dream analysis and Para praxes, which are not as scientific as the behaviourist perspective.
The humanistic approach was considered as the third force in psychology. The evidence to support this theory was again, very unscientific, perhaps due to the focus on humans and it would be very unethical to study on humans in this period of time. Also even if this approach was scientific, it is very individualistic because every individual in this perspective is different to another. Therefore results would be very hard to generalise.
The cognitive approach of the 1950’s is very scientific. The behaviourist approach didn’t take into account any cognitive processes, such as language, memory and perception for example. In terms of the cognitive approach and information processing approach, a stimulus is processed, stored and retrieved to provoke a response. Therefore one of these parts of the process can easily be manipulated to experimentally and scientifically see them effects on the rest of the process and indeed the whole mind. Computers are often also used in experiments, usually to compare computer systems with the human brain, which is a main assumption of this approach.
It goes without saying that the biological approach is scientific in its experimentation. Especially with the new advances in medicine such as MRI and CAT scans, which can visually assess functions in the brain in a quantitative form. We can also biologically test and experiment the responses of people given a stimulus as in both the cognitive and also behaviourist approach, with classical conditioning where reflex responses are crucial to its theory.
