Compare Two Theories of First/Second Language Acquisition

A3 Comp are two theories of archetypical/second actors line acquisition. The process by which humans acquire the capacity to distinguish properly as well as produce and use words to understand and communicate with others is known as graduation exercise language acquisition. It focuses principal(prenominal)ly on how infants pick up their native language, including syntax and some extensive dictionary items, having so little input. We can distinguish many theoretical approaches towards the first language learning process.Behaviourists, for instance, whose main motto is Say what I say usurp that learning of the language is the result of habit formation, imposture practice and feedback on success. Children naturally imitate what they hear in their environment, then if they receive positive reinforcement, they are able to form habits of proper language use. On the other hand, a linguist Noam Chomsky holds that language using may be compared to the most basic biological functions s uch as an ability to walk as every nipper will learn to walk as long as adequate diet and reasonable freedom of movement are provided (Lightbown and Spada 199915).Both theories emphasize the importance of the environment which plays a crucial routine when stimulating childs language development. Hence, in order to pick up the language in a proper way the child must be exposed to the language given. However, contradictory to the behaviourist theory, Chomsky claims that the language is, to some degree, confusing and the provided information is not sufficient for a child to learn the language only by imitating particular words and phrases.That is to say, the environment fails to provide all necessary information which the child needs. To sum up, the greatest difference between behaviourism and innatism is the opinion about childs mind. Behaviourists claim that child should be, in some way, programmed by the environment, meaning childs mind is a blank slate that has to be filled. Ho wever, Chomsky is of the opinion that every child comes to this world with a special ability to utter all language rules by itself. Bibliography Lightbown, P. and Spada, N. 1999. How Languages are Learned. Oxford OUP.