Formative Assessments for First Language Acquisition

Activity 1 (Discussion and Analysis)

1) Discuss why it is that behavioral theories can account sufficiently well for the earliest
utterances of the child, but not for utterance at the sentence and discourse level. Do
nativist and functional approaches provide the necessary tools for accounting for those
later, complex utterances?

Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, which explains how we learn by reinforcing an

action, can describe why we know. According to Skinner, we can condition someone by
strengthening an activity. For example, when teaching a youngster, the name of a person, we
will say the name and engage in a conversation with them to understand who "Carlo" is.
Every time the child shouts out that person's name, that person will come up to him and play
with him in return. And it is for this reason, Skinner's theory of learning by the operant
condition can account well for the phenomenon. Even while both nativist and functional
approaches can yield complex utterances, they do so by precisely describing how the brain
works. According to nativist philosophy, which is based on biology, humans are pre-
programmed with the ability to learn and communicate through language. On the other
hand, the functional approach is concerned with raising awareness. They compel me to
consider the importance of these two variables in terms of educational success. Humans are
the only animals who communicate using words; all other species communicate with sounds
that are pretty close to one another in terms of pitch. As a result, I believe they can make
more complicated arguments.

Activity 2 (Discussion and Application)

1) Young children do not always use the words they acquire in exactly the same way as
adults. In the following examples of situation and utterance, can you discern any
patterns in the use of verbs by these two- and three-year olds? Discuss each utterance
and the patterns in the use of verbs in the context of the situation.

Situation Utterance

1) (wanting to have some chees You have to scale it.

weighed)
2) (talking about getting dressed) Mummy trousers me.
3) (not wanting his mother to sweep Don’t broom my mess.
his room)
4) (Putting crackers in her soup) I’m crackering my soup.

5) (wanting a bell to be rung) Make it bell.

 6) (to mother preparing to brush his Don’t hair me.
hair)

Activity 3 (Discussion and Application)

The following two transcriptions are from conversations between the same mother and child,
the first (1) when the child was 24 months, and the second (3) months later. Can you describe
some of the changes which appear to have taken place in the child’s ability to use language
during that period? (These extracts are from Bellugi, 1970).

(1) (2)
Eve: Have that? M: Come and sit over here.
M: No, you may not have it. Eve: You can sit down by me. That will
Eve: Mom, where are my tapioca? make me happy. Ready to turn it.
M: It’s getting cool. You’ll have it in just a M: We’re not quite ready to turn the
minute. page.
Eve: Let me have it. Eve: Yep, we are.
M: Would you like to have your lunch right M: Shut the door, we won’t hear her
now? then.
Eve: Yeah. My tapioca cool? Eve: When Fraser won’t hear her too.
M: Yes, it’s cool. Where he’s going? Did you make a great big
Eve: You gonna watch me eat my lunch? hole there?
M: Yeah, I’m gonna watch you eat your M: Yes, we made a great big hole in here;
lunch. we have to get a new one.
Eve: I eating it. Eve: Could I get some other piece of
M: I know you are. paper?