Linguistis: first and second language acquisition

cLINGUISTICS
ACQUISITION AND ROLE OF FIRST LANGUAGE
 Introduction
In this chapter we will consider the role of L1 in the learning of a second language. Firstly, we will review the main theories on L1 acquisition. Then, we will describe how the first language is present and manifested in second language learning. In the last part we will compare and contrast between the processes of L1 andL2 learning.
Rules versus habits: behaviorism versus mentalism or cognitivism
 
Every individual, unless unfortunate enough to suffer from some disability, manages to learn his/her first language. How exactly does this almost miraculous process occur? Three main theories have been proposed to account for the acquisition of the first language or mother tongue: behaviorist, nativist anddevelopmental. We will turn to each of these in detail.

Behaviorist theory
 
According to the behaviorists children come into the world as blank slates and are influenced by the environment. In their view, the learning of a language is based on the formation of a series of habits that children gradually acquire by imitation. Children imitate the sounds and words they hear around them. They firstperceive a stimulus, and then they obtain a response from their parents or from the people around them which encourages the formation of a habit.
For example, a child feels the need to drink water and asks for it (stimulus). Somebody gives the child the water (response). With this association of ideas, reinforcement takes place as the child realizes that when s/he says "water", s/he will get it.It was B.F. Skinner in his extremely influential work Verbal Behavior, published in 1957, who formulated the notion of "operant conditioning" on which this theory is largely based. Stern (1983:315) defines an operant as follows:
An operant is defined as a form of behavior in which the behavior of the organism leads to a stimulus which presents rewards... Only the right operant is rewarded.Behaviorist theory was based largely on the observation of how rats and other animals respond under experimental laboratory conditions, and the findings were generalized to refer to human beings. In the subject Methodological Approaches we have already examined the implications of behaviorist theory for language teaching methods.
Nativist, Mentalist, Cognitive theories
 
As mentioned above,behaviorist theories were tested mainly on animals. Chomsky (1959) believed that while the theory might work with animals it did not necessarily apply to people. In his view, children come into this world with very specific innate knowledge of the nature of language and of the world. Language develops in the child in the same way as other biological functions.
The term nativist is derived from thefundamental assertion that language acquisition is innately determined, that we are born with a built-in device of some kind that predisposes us to language acquisition, that is, to a systematic perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language. This is what Chomsky called the LAD - the metaphoric Language Acquisition Device. The LAD was thushypothesized to be part of the child's inherited human character, and it consisted of three main components:
- substantive universals,
- formal universals, and
- evaluation procedures.
Thus, while learning his/her first language, the child is constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of linguistic information received, and then testing these hypotheses in speech and comprehension.
Chomskygradually abandoned the LAD concept, although it has remained a powerful metaphor in the circles of Applied Linguistics. He has gradually abandoned it in favor of a parameter-setting model of language acquisition called principles and parameters which is now considered to be the dominant form of mainstream generative linguistics.
Within this framework, the goal of linguistics is to identify all...