In this exercise, review each of the following examples of language use by child

Question

In this exercise, review each of the following examples of language use by children and decide whether it best supports the position of B. F. Skinner or Noam Chomsky. Then explain your reasoning.

2. When his day care teacher asks 2-year-old Jack what he did last Saturday, he responds with "We goed to the zoo." His teacher smiles, marveling at the fact that all children Jack's age make this type of grammatical error.

3. Nicole, who is deaf and was not exposed to sign language until age 3, lacks the manual linguistic skills of deaf children born to deaf-signing parents.

4. Twelve-year-old Malcolm, who emigrated to the United States at age 4, understands English grammar much better than 20-year-old Maya, who was first exposed to English at age 12.

Explanation / Answer

1. This grammatical error is supported by Noam Chomsky. According to him, children learn language in the same way, no matter what language it is. They go through a phase where they overapply the rules of language, thus when talking about the past will use words such as 'knowed' and 'goed'. This is known as overgeneralization, where they apply the rules of language that they know to words or sentences where it doesn't fit. However, before long they are able to understand the difference and start using the accurate forms of the words.

2. This situation is supported by the views of BF Skinner, according to whom children are a blank slate and learn language that is taught to them through trial and error. He placed great importance on environmental influence. Keeping in mind that children learn everything that they know at a young age from their parents, or the people at home, in case of Nicole, who was not exposed to sign language, which is the predominant way that she communicates, she lacked the skills compared to a child who was exposed to the same thing a lot earlier.

3. This situation is again one that can be explained by what we know about language learning according to BF Skinner. Children learn languages best through environmental stimuli, where they imitate their parents or others around them. The positive reinforcement that they receive strengthens this learning. Children who learn a language before puberty are faster and better at learning it and using it to communicate effectively, as opposed to those who learn it at a later age.

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