CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2.3 The Behaviourist Theory
The behaviourist theorist, Skinner (1957), argues that it gives a better account of how language is acquired from birth. Bloomfield and Thorndike share the same view with Skinner (Mwamwenda, 2014:175). They all agree that language is a set of habits which children acquire by imitation and constant repetition. They see language acquisition as a process that centers on habit formation that involves trial and error as the child is engaged in the process.
This means that the child keeps on failing to use the correct language, but will ultimately succeed. After the child has mastered the correct way of expressing an idea, he or she achieves mastery of a part of his or her set of habits (which is being able to say something correctly). Since habits are closely connected to behaviour, the personal achievement entrenches the behaviour that the child adopts.
The behaviourists point out that children imitate adults. For example, an adult can utter the word ‘bed’ which the child will repeat. The child will constantly repeat the word until he or she knows how to utter it properly or will produce it the way he or she has heard it from the adult.
The word ‘bed’ turns into a stimulus that attracts the child into responding by imitating the utterer of the word.
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The difference between this theory and cognitive development theory is that cognitive development theory does not see the ability to utter a word in isolation from understanding its meaning, whereas the behaviourist theory contends that understanding can come later as the child grows. The process of imitation is divided into three types of responses which are: the echoic response, mind response and tact response. The echoic response has to do with the child’s effort of echoing what an elderly person around has echoed. The echoed words and structures will, as they are repeated regularly, be internalised. The tact response is considered to be external to the child. If the child sees an object and an elderly person utters a word in relation to the object, the child will also utter the word. The object will then become the stimulus through which the child will respond by uttering the word he would have heard before from the adult (Mwamwenda, 2014:144). This theory could be seen as partly contributing towards an account on how language acquisition takes place, but cannot be completely trusted as 100% reliable. It has some shortfalls in that it puts words as separate from understanding.
This theory underscores the emphasis on language acquisition as a totally externally initiated process. It makes it appear as if the child gets everything from the outside world and that in acquiring language one depends entirely on what those who are around do or say. What an individual can use within to acquire language is neglected as such.
Since the study looks at Northern Sotho, which is the language spoken as L1 by the majority of people who stay in the two places chosen to conduct the study, it is important to look at how Behaviorism accounts for L1 acquisition. Because of the theory’s emphasis on external stimuli, this theory seems to be in favour of L2 acquisition as opposed to L1 acquisition. Behaviorism states that children hear from the people around them and then imitate, with reinforcement following from the elderly person who has uttered the imitated the word in question. It is akin to teaching. L1 acquisition does not take place through the instructions of anyone acting as a teacher of language to the child. L2 can better align with this theory more than L1 possibly can.
A better account on understanding L1 acquisition has to be through a theory that emphasises that language acquisition happens more naturally than it could occur through any form of external instruction.
14 2.2.4 The Nativist Theory
Chomsky (1975) came up with a theory called the Transformational-Generative Grammar Theory, which is also known as the Nativist or Innateness Theory. His argument is that the Behaviourist Theory fails to account for the fact that people produce sentences they have never heard before on a daily basis. The Behaviourist Theory puts more emphasis on the view that people say what they have heard from other people. The Behaviourists focus more on external factors that motivate behaviour and incorporate the concepts of punishment and reinforcement (Seligman, 2012:147).
Chomsky (1975) is points out that the nature of language acquisition cannot be explained merely on the basis of word association. His proposal of the LAD (Language Acquisition Device) is remarkable in that he discovered that humans can generate an infinite number of sentences. The LAD predicts the manner in which a child is likely to use a language. According to this theory children can construct an infinite number of sentences which are grammatically correct. Chomsky (1975) proposes the concepts of the surface (words used to express what is conveyed) and the deep structure (the message expressed). His TGG holds that a noun phrase can be transformed into a noun with optional articles (Mwamwenda, 2014:149).
Chomsky (1975) further rules out that all languages are following the rules of grammar. He refers to these rules as a generative grammar, because he sees them as being limitless, as they are based on the limitless creativity of these grammar rules. So, these grammar rules go from one generation of creativity to the next, hence the name generative grammar. The LAD referred to above, is the one, according to Chomsky, that enables the child to produce a limitless number of utterances of correct sentences that the child has never heard before.
According to this theory, the device has rules of grammar and syntax of any language of the world. Thus, Northern Sotho is also included. This would narrow down language acquisition to a point where one’s personal abilities to use language in a flexible way are restricted to be confined to imitation of what other language users have said before. Language would totally lose its dynamic nature. The L1 speakers, including those in Capricorn and Mopani, who speak Northern Sotho as L1, are flexible and their language is dynamic. It is a natural characteristic
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of the people staying in these regions to display a very good proficiency in their L1, which they take much pride in as well.
Chomsky (1975) does not necessarily maintain that the external factors play an independent part in the L1 acquisition of a child. He argues that all the sounds that the child hears and utters, including sentences, are processed simultaneously and related to the rules that control the production of such sounds and utterances in the LAD. So the external factors play a part, but are not limited to imitation of whatever is communicated externally.
The two theories, namely, the Cognitive theory and Transformational Generative Grammar (also known as the Nativist theory), provide a better account of how L1 is acquired from birth.
The arguments put forward by both Chomsky and Piaget count for a good representation of the advantages of using L1 as an official language in communicative interaction by people who are in the majority and speak that same language. The Cognitive theory highlights the stages of development which Chomsky also aligns himself with when he states that in all the distinct stages of language acquisition all children of the same age regardless of place or area where they grow up, will produce utterances of similar structure at the same stage of development.
Proponents of the Behaviourist theory, however, do not explain how language acquisition takes place from childhood.
In summary, it may be said that Northern Sotho could seriously considered if Capricorn and Mopani District municipalities need an official language that would meet the language needs of the majority of people in the two districts. A person who grew up speaking a language which is spoken by the majority of people will always feel more comfortable to use it in any domain. The processes that both Chomsky and Piaget outlined and propose as an account of how language acquisition takes place from birth, should be viewed in the same serious light as the crucial aspect of deciding to make L1 a better choice for any person’s official language.
This study is, therefore, seeks to establish whether or not majority of the people who stay in the two municipal districts agree or disagree with the notion that L1 has more advantages if it is chosen as an official language where majority of people speak that same L1. Since majority of people grew up speaking Northern Sotho in the Mopani and the Capricorn Districts, it was
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appropriate to use Piaget and Chomsky’s theories regarding the value of L1 acquisition. The idea was to determine whether or not Northern Sotho L1 acquisition could benefit the speakers by equipping them to become better users of the language than those who were taught L2.
The focus was on promoting Northern Sotho as an indigenous official language. The three above-mentioned theorists concur that L1acquisition takes place mostly from birth; they also refer to the child when giving their accounts. Piaget and Chomsky view language acquisition as a natural process and they maintain that L1 acquisition has a universal nature. The aforementioned tenets by these theorists have been used as part of the theoretical framework of the study because they are all of the opinion that L1 acquisition is a process that is incremental to language development. Investigating how a person, who has developed language better than any other language, is given an opportunity to use that same language as an official language of communication, becomes crucial to achieving the objective of the study.
Since language is, in essence, a form of linguistic communication (Van der Walt, Evans &
Kilfoil, 2010:50), the following linguistic theories could not be excluded from an investigation of Northern Sotho as a minority language.