Give an example for each of the main views of language development.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A sample answer follows. Behaviorist: Parents constantly say simple words or sentences to their infant daughter, Susan. The mother often says “I'm your mommy,” and the father often say “I'm your daddy.” At around 12 months, Susan says “mama.” Hearing this, both parents are ecstatic and praise their child. Doing this encourages the infant to imitate more word sounds said by her parents. Innatist: A young child named Chao has an inborn capacity to learn language and is at the best age for learning them. He hears two languages constantly spoken by his parents: Chinese and English. As a result, Chao easily learns both the Chinese words and the English words for objects and actions. When he attends kindergarten, he is able to speak both languages very well. However, when Chao takes French in high school, he finds learning it is more difficult than learning either Chinese or English was because he is no longer at the age where he’s hard wired for learning language. Interactionist: When a child named Ernie begins to mentally represent objects, he begins to rapidly learn language. This learning process is greatly enhanced by the fact that his parents constantly have conversations with him, read books to him, and encourage him to draw objects.