Skinner: How does a child learn language?
The main principle of operant conditioning, as defined by Skinner is positive and negative
reinforcement. Reinforcement is the process in which a behaviour is strengthened, and
thus, more likely to happen again. Positive Reinforcement is making a behaviour stronger
by following the behaviour with a pleasant stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever
and receives food. Negative Reinforcement is making a behaviour stronger by taking
away a negative stimulus. For example, a rat presses a lever and turns off the electric
shock.
Skinner viewed babies as ‘empty vessels’ which language had to be ‘put in to’. He said
children learn language from their environment and consequences of their actions (a
nurture view of language).
Skinner would say that a child learns language through positive reinforcement! His basic
explanation for the development of speech was that parents tend to reward infant
vocalisations (such as babbling) by giving the infant attention. This increases the
frequency of vocalisation. He would suggest that the child will not progress from babbling
to language unless the parent’s shape the child’s language behaviour.
After rewarding vocalisations for a while, parents become used to a child’s babbling and
pay less attention to it. This motivates the infant to vary the babbling. Sometimes, by
accident, the child produces more recognisable speech sounds e.g. if an infant suddenly
said ‘Dadadada’, parents might respond excitedly to this, thinking that the child is trying
to say the word ‘Daddy’. The response reinforces the child’s production of this type of
speech sound. Other sounds that are less like actual speech tend to be ignored. However,
parents soon get bored by repetitions of ‘Dadadada’, and this motivates the child to
modify such sounds until the shaping process results in recognisable words. This process
continues, resulting in sentences of increasing complexity and grammatical correctness.
In addition, the use of language is rewarded when a child asks for something and as a
result, succeeds in getting it. Skinner did not claim that parents intentionally set out to
shape the language development of infants, but that this happens naturally!
Another important feature of Skinner’s theory is the idea that children imitate speech
sounds and words spoken by caregivers and, provided this imitation is rewarded, learning
will take place. This is how children learn new words. However, this theory assumes that
without reinforcement, imitation will not result in learning. This is a rather unconvincing
explanation for several reasons:
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Some parents pay very little attention to the vocalisation of their infants, who still
develop language despite this – could use Chomsky (the biological approach here)
Shaping (as described above) is a very lengthy process, whereas a child’s language
development, particularly during the second year of life is rapid
Observational studies of parent-child conversations (Brown and Hanlon, 1970) show
that parents rarely reinforce correct grammar in a child’s speech, but instead tend to
focus on the truthfulness or accuracy of statements. This makes it less likely that
shaping enables children to learn grammar.
The theory assumes that imitation without reinforcement will not lead to learning
(explain Bandura’s theory of language to show that this is unlikely)