THE PRINCIPLE OF

BEHAVIORIST THEORY
Behaviorism is a learning theory
that studies observable and
measurable behavioral changes,
which result from stimulus-response
associations made by the learner.
This theory stems from the work of Pavlov
who studied animal behavior, and was able
to condition a dog to associate the ringing
of a bell with food. Pavlovian conditioning
is known as classical conditioning.
Pavlov's premise was later developed by
Thorndike, Watson and Skinner. Skinner
introduced the theory of operant conditioning
(i.e., a behavior followed by a reinforcer results in
an increased probability of that behavior
occurring in the future; a behavior followed by a
punishment is weakened or suppressed in the
 BEHAVIORISM IN THE CLASSROOM

The learning process, according to

Behaviorism, places the teacher in a primary
role wherein he or she adjusts the learner's
behavior and directs learning through drill and
practice, through habit-breaking, and
punishment/reward.
 the learner's activity, be it
thinking or doing, is confined to
the framework of "behavior",
and is governed by the stimulus-
response-reinforcement process
Example: In Behaviorism

1.Follow the instructions.

2.Take the test.
3.Get the reward.
4.Learn.
BEHAVIORIST THEORY ON LANGUAGE
LEARNING AND ACQUISITION
 PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORISM
The behaviorist theory believes that “infants
learn oral language from other human role
models through a process involving imitation,
rewards, and practice. Human role models in
an infant’s environment provide the stimuli
and rewards,” (Cooter & Reutzel, 2004).
When a child attempt oral language or
imitates the sounds or speech patterns
they are usually praised and given
affection for their efforts. Thus, praise
and affection becomes the rewards.
 The behaviorist theory is scrutinized for a variety of reasons. If
rewards play such a vital component in language
development, what about the parent who is inattentive or not
present when the child attempts speech? If a baby’s language
learning is motivated strictly by rewards would the speech
attempts stop merely for lack of rewards (Cooter & Reutzel,
2004)? Other cases against this theory include “learning the
use and meaning of abstract words, evidence of novel forms
of language not modeled by others, and uniformity of
language acquisition in humans”(Cooter & Reutzel, 2004).
 The behaviorist theory believes that “infants learn oral language from
other human role models through a process involving imitation,
rewards, and practice. Human role models in an infant’s environment
provide the stimuli and rewards,” (Cooter & Reutzel, 2004). When a child
attempts oral language or imitates the sounds or speech patterns they
are usually praised and given affection for their efforts. Thus, praise and
affection becomes the rewards. However, the behaviorist theory is
scrutinized for a variety of reasons. If rewards play such a vital
component in language development, what about the parent who is
inattentive or not present when the child attempts speech? If a baby’s
language learning is motivated strictly by rewards would the speech
attempts stop merely for lack of rewards (Cooter & Reutzel, 2004)?
STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
 BABBLING
Within a few weeks of being born the baby begins to recognize it’s mothers’ voice.
There are two sub-stages within this period. The first occurs between birth – 8 months.
Most of this stage involves the baby relating to its surroundings and only during 5/6 – 8
month period does the baby begin using it’s vocals. As has been previously discussed
babies learn by imitation and the babbling stage is just that. During these months the
baby hears sounds around them and tries to reproduce them, albeit with limited
success. The babies attempts at creating and experimenting with sounds is what we call
babbling. When the baby has been babbling for a few months it begins to relate the
words or sounds it is making to objects or things. This is the second sub-stage. From 8
months to 12 months the baby gains more and more control over not only it’s vocal
communication but physical communication as well, for example body language and
gesturing. Eventually when the baby uses both verbal and non-verbal means to
communicate, only then does it move on to the next stage of language acquisition.
 HOLOPHRASTIC / ONE-WORD STAGE
 The second stage of language acquisition is the holophrastic or one word
stage. This stage is characterized by one-word sentences. In this stage
nouns make up around 50% of the infants vocabulary while verbs and
modifiers make up around 30% and questions and negatives make up
the rest. This one-word stage contains single word utterances such as
“play” for “I want to play now”. Infants use these sentences primarily to
obtain things they want or need, but sometimes they aren’t that obvious.
For example, a baby may cry or say “mama” when it purely wants
attention. The infant is ready to advance to the next stage when it can
speak in successive one-word sentences.
 TWO-WORD STAGE

The two word stage (as you may have guessed) is made
of up primarily two word sentences. These sentences
contain 1 word for the predicate and 1 word for the
subject. For example “Doggie walk” for the sentence “The
dog is being walked.” During this stage we see the
appearance of single modifiers e.g. “That dog”, two word
questions e.g. “Mummy eat?” and the addition of the
suffix –ing onto words to describe something that is
currently happening e.g. “Baby Sleeping.”
 TELEGRAPHIC STAGE
 The final stage of language acquisition is the telegraphic stage. This
stage is named as it is because it is similar to what is seen in a
telegram; containing just enough information for the sentence to
make sense. This stage contains many three and four word
sentences. Sometime during this stage the child begins to see the
links between words and objects and therefore over generalization
comes in. Some examples of sentences in the telegraphic stage are
“Mummy eat carrot”, “What her name?” and “He is playing ball.”
During this stage a child’s vocabulary expands from 50 words to up to
13,000 words. At the end of this stage the child starts to incorporate
plurals, joining words and attempts to get a grip on tenses.
 TELEGRAPHIC STAGE
As a child’s grasp on language grows it may seem to us
as though they just learn each part in a random order, but
this is not the case. There is a definite order of speech
sounds. Children first start speaking vowels, starting with
the rounded mouthed sounds like “oo” and “aa”. After the
vowels come the consonants, p, b, m, t, d, n, k and g. The
consonants are first because they are easier to
pronounce then some of the others, for example ‘s’ and ‘z’
require specific tongue place which children cannot do at
that age.
 TELEGRAPHIC STAGE
As all human beings do, children will improvise
something they cannot yet do. For example when
children come across a sound they cannot produce
they replace it with a sound they can e.g. ‘Thoap” for
“Soap” and “Wun” for “Run.” These are just a few
example of resourceful children are, even if in our eyes
it is just cute.
 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AS A RESULT OF NURTURE

Behaviourists propose that a child’s environment

is the most important factor in first language
acquisition, and if a child is exposed to ‘rich
language,’ then ‘good habit formation,’ and proper
language development will occur. It is possible
that first language acquisition includes speech
imitation.
Children do not imitate everything they
hear; they appear to be very selective
and only reproduce unassimilated
language chunks. Therefore, their
replications seem to be controlled by an
internal language-monitoring process.
Children learn the basic rules of
language at around the age of five; the
behaviourist theory cannot account for
the speed that first language is
acquired.
WE ARE WIRED TO ACQUIRE LANGUAGE

“When we study human language, we

are approaching what some might call
the ‘human essence,’ the distinctive
qualities of mind that are, so far as we
know, unique to man.” (Noam
Chomsky)
 INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS
the ‘Innateness Hypothesis’
proposed by linguist Noam
Chomsky supports the idea that
language acquisition has a
biological foundation
 SUPPORTING FACTS TO INNATENESS
HYPOTHESIS
Children acquire language sounds in a certain
sequence, and the first sounds that children learn
are those that are common to all world languages: a
stop consonant followed by an open vowel: thus a
child’s first utterances are usually those found in
words for ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ sounds such as ‘pa,’
‘ma,’ ‘ba’ or ‘ta,’ as seen in French: maman, papa;
Greek: mama, baba; Hebrew: eema, aba.
 SUPPORTING FACTS TO INNATENESS
HYPOTHESIS

Children tend to learn language in the same

sequence, suggesting that universality of
language exists and the environment alone
cannot be responsible for language
acquisition.
SUPPORTING FACTS TO INNATENESS
HYPOTHESIS
Children acquire function words such as
‘or’ and ‘on’ and the less salient sounds
connected to possessives, pluralization
and third person singular in a certain order.
Interestingly, the plural ‘s’ and other forms
of ‘s’ are not all developed in unison.
 LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
AN INNATE NEUROLOGICAL PROCESS
For language development to occur, interaction has to
take place; language cannot be acquired passively.
Although imitation and habit forming do have a role in
language acquisition, children seem predisposed to
acquire speech and competency in language by being
able to map language, possibly onto what Noam
Chomsky calls a ‘language acquisition device.’