* *Keep in mind what each theory holds about the following:
-Imitation
-Innate mechanisms
-Role of general cognitive skills
-Environmental influences (e.g., caregiver speech).

*Keep in mind what each theory holds about the following:
-Imitation
-Innate mechanisms
-Role of general cognitive skills
-Environmental influences (e.g., caregiver speech).

Overview of the main theories in FLA
* behaviorist: L L a matter of conditioning: a skill not special learned by AIF dogs salivate whenever the bell is rung infant associates the sound “bottle” with the actual bottle association was a key process in L L imitation Peter imitates; Dump truck, fall down
Children ability to imitate vary
To not be like parrot >> generalization feedback a crucial part, pos/neg no. that’s carrot… no body likes me>> [repeated/ignored does’t work at the end] leap from words to sen cooki>> say please.. not endowed with any innate – passive recipient of environmental influences – interested bystanders

*nativist: so special/complex that children must be born with some kind of linguistic knowledge guides the language acquisition process
UG basic rules about all language; innate housed in the Language Acquisition Device in the brain
Since a child is cognitively immature
Chomsky: L happens to the child placed in an appropriate/stimulation environment
L like L walk Universality all human acquire language spoken or signed Unless there are severe physical or mental limitations
Uniformity any language is easy to learn during childhood
Rapidity Most children reach near mastery age of 5
Consistency of stages Children pass major stages regardless culture, rearing conditions, talents, etc.
Poverty of the stimulus Adult input ‘degenerate’ becz their quality/quantity speech to children not enough to learn complex grammar

evidence evidence No negative feedback Children rarely receive so - Parents focus on content of utterance and not
evidence