REPORT IN LING 215

BY: R-MIE PAMELA SALVALEON

TEACHER: PROFESSOR GRACE C. PASTOLERO
TOPIC: ISSUES IN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

IMITATION
Is Language acquired through Imitation?
By Grover J. Whitehurst & Ross Vasta -Journal of Psycholinguistic Research volume 4

-The role of imitation in language acquisition is examined, including data from the psycholinguistic, operant,
and social learning areas. From the psycholinguistic data, four empirical statements have been extracted:
(1) there is no evidence that spontaneous imitations of adult speech influence grammatical development,
(2) imitation of speech does not appear to occur with frequency beyond age 3 years, (3) speech and hence
imitation are not necessary for the comprehension of linguistic structures, and (4) most utterances of a child
are novel and therefore could not have been exactly modeled. The first and second propositions are seen to
be based on a too restrictive definition of imitation-immediate and exact copying. Selective imitation-a
functional relationship involving similarity of a particular form or function of the model's responses-is
proposed as an alternative, thus leaving the validity of statements (1) and (2) in question. Concerning
assertion (4), certain data from the operant literature are presented as evidence of the compatibility of
novel responding and modeling, imitation, and reinforcement. Finally, it is proposed that statement (3)
suggests a mechanism by which selective imitation can be understood. A three-stage process is proposed in
which comprehension of a grammatical form sets the stage for selective imitation of that structure, which
leads in turn to spontaneous production. Thus imitation is a process by which new syntactic structures can
be first introduced into the productive mode.

- Imitation is a big part of childhood. At every stage we learn by watching, listening and doing, playing hours
of repetitive games, repeating countless jokes to each other and mimicking the words to songs, to name
only a few ways that we imitate. We learn social rules by imitation, studying facial expressions and body
language – and, not surprisingly, a big part of language is actually learned by imitation. Well before they
know language, babies deliberately imitate facial expressions as well as the sounds, intonations and volume
of what they hear, learning the pitch and contour patterns of their native language well before they
understand individual words. Once the child becomes a toddler who can say a few words (and who
understands many more), they really ramp up their efforts to imitate. Young children need to imitate the
language they are hearing around them to help them understand how the components of language all fit
together and to work out what it all means!
“Blocks fall” “Yes blocks fall down” “Blocks fall down”
Although it varies widely, about 20% of what toddlers say is imitation. The exact amount an individual child
imitates is linked to how much the caregiver imitates the child. yes you read that right. Caregivers play a
vital role in the process, naturally modelling the language by playing games with their babies - like copying
sounds, intonations and later, when the child is a toddler, their words. The trick is, they don’t imitate them
back exactly – the adult generally extends the child ever so slightly each time, by modelling the right
pronunciation and showing them other words they could use in the sentence. This isn’t a conscious process,
but one that evolves within the child-caregiver relationship. Adults imitate children back to extend their
knowledge, and also to show that they understand what the child said.

Imitation helps with:

Comprehension
-Imitation helps toddlers firm up their knowledge. Most of the meaning in a language is held within the way
the sounds and symbols are combined. Children learn the language structure and the individual words
through imitation.
Vocabulary Growth
-Imitation is vital for the child’s growing mental dictionary. Children usually imitate something that’s a tiny
bit too hard for them, which helps them learn. Children with older siblings tend to imitate less because big
brother or sister jumps in to do the talking for them. There’s that birth order difference again!
So it’s not rocket science really, the notion that children imitate language while they’re deep in the process
of learning it through these early years. Of particular interest though is that they don’t imitate everything
they hear. This ‘selective imitation’ is a technique children use to learn more about the language. It is an
active process where they choose exactly what to imitate – usually picking words that they may not fully
understand or aren’t quite up to yet. A very young child might repeat the nouns in a sentence (‘cat’ ‘milk’)
and later pick out one noun and extend on what is said (for example in response to “oh the cat’s at the
door, she’s hungry” the child might say “cat” “door” “eat” showing that they understand the cat comes to
the door at mealtimes). Children imitate themselves too, talking about words they understand. This ‘self-
imitation’ is often a little boost they give themselves to take the leap from single word talking to stringing
words together in short sentences.

- To What Extent Do Children Acquire Language by Imitating Adults?

-kHow far do children acquire their language skills by imitating adults?
A vast majority of theorists believe that children acquire their first language at an astonishing speed
however, what they don't agree is how they acquire language. Behaviourist theorists believe that language is
acquired through imitation and re-reinforcement but other theorists like Social Interactionists, Nativist and
Cognitive theorists believe in similar and different views. These theories are then divided into the nature
and nurture category as some of them believe that language is innate/inbuilt whereas others challenge this
and say that language is influenced by the environment. Behaviourist theorists like B.F.Skinner said children
acquire language through imitation. He conducted research on rats and pigeons which led him to believe
that language was just another form of learned behaviour. This bought him to the conclusion that children
learn language through nurture rather than it being biologically programmed or their genetic inheritance as
other theorist say. Examples of this would be if a father said "urr, that food's disgusting!" and then the child
replies by imitating "Dat's 'gusting!" or if a child says "when dinner ready?" the parent replies by saying "In
about 10 minutes" then the child says "10 minutes? Boys! Boys! Dinner ready 10 minutes!" The child is
copying what the parent is saying which is the theory that Skinner believes in that all children learn
language in this way.
This resource was uploaded by: Aamir

INTERFERENCE
From Glottopedia
-In research on second language acquisition and language contact, the term interference refers to the
influence of one language (or variety) on another in the speech of bilinguals who use both languages.
"Those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as
a result of their familiarity with more than one language, i.e. as a result of language contact, will be
referred to as INTERFERENCE phenomena." (Weinreich 1953:1)
Interference can take place at all levels of the linguistic system, i.e.
in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and the lexicon.

-The influence of one language on another in the speech of bilinguals is relevant both to the field of second
language acquisition (where the interference from the learner's native language is studied) and to the field
of historical linguistics (where the effects of interference on language change are studied).
In the context of second language acquisition, interference may lead to either negative transfer (transfer
which results in non-target-like use of L2) or positive transfer (transfer resulting in target-like use of L2).
Interference is mostly (and sometimes exclusively) used for instances of negative transfer, and the two
terms are often regarded as synonyms. Recently, many researchers investigating second language
acquisition have observed that interference carries a negative connotation and have therefore increasingly
tended to avoid it, preferring the term transfer instead.
Historical linguists have generally focused on languages rather than speakers, and have used the
term interference in a different, historical sense. However, since the term contact-induced change has now
widely established itself, interference is no longer common in historical linguistics.
There is a verb that is derivationally related to the noun interference, i.e. (to) interfere (e.g. "The
phonology of the speaker's native language interferes with the use of the second language").
 Examples:
-Phonological Interference
Phonological interference is a common type of interference, its most prominent manifestation being a
“foreign accent”.
Transfer from Dutch to English (Received Pronunciation): (cf. Swan, Michael and Smith, Bernard.
1988. Learner English – A Teacher’s Guide to Interference and Other Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, p. 4).
Dutch: Vinger (/ˈv̥ɪŋəʀ/ )
Incorrect learner English: Finger (*/ˈfɪŋə/ )
Correct R.P.: Finger (/ˈfɪŋgə/ )
Words including the combination “ng” may be pronounced incorrectly in English, since they are realized
as [ŋ] in Dutch. In that case, the [ŋ] pronounced by a native speaker of Dutch would be transferred to the
learner language English, where [ŋɡ] would be the correct pronunciation. Therefore, the realization of “ng”
as [ŋ] in the native language would interfere with the pronunciation of the learner language, e.g. the “ng”-
combination in Finger: Dutch: [ŋ] vs. Received Pronunciation: [ŋɡ]

Syntactic Interference
-Transfer from German to English (Received Pronunciation) (cf. König, Ekkehard and Gast, Volker.
2009. Understanding English-German Contrasts. 2., neu bearbeitete Auflage. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag,
pp. 86f, p. 91 or Template:Cite web):
German: Gestern habe ich Ball gespielt.
Incorrect Learner English: *I have played ball yesterday.
Correct Received Pronunciation: I played ball yesterday.
Since the German Perfekt (habe gespielt) is not used in the same way as the English Present Perfect, it may
come to interference at the syntactic level (cf. the learner English-example). Speakers of German apply the
Perfekt in similar contexts (here: a narrative use) as the German Imperfekt (~the German equivalent of the
Past Tense), whereas this is different with the English Present Perfect and the English Past Tense. Here,
reference to definite moments in the past requires the Past Tense.

Lexical Interference
-Transfer from English to German: cf. Template:Cite web
English: He wrote the letter on the blackboard.
Incorrect Learner German: Er schrieb den *Brief an die Tafel.
Correct German: Er schrieb den Buchstaben an die Tafel.
In English, letter carries various meanings. This example illustrates especially the following ones: i)
the letter that one can mail by post and ii) the letter as an element of the alphabet. Since each of the two
meanings has its particular counterpart in German, interference at a lexical level could arise. Therefore, a
strict word-by-word translation (i.e. with the help of a dictionary) could result in the incorrect choice
of Brief although the context of the English letter implied the German Buchstabe.

Polysemy
-Interference can refer to the influence on one language on another in speech (as in second language
acquisition research), or to the influence of one language on another in language change.