Challenging Interactionism
English Language: AQA A Level, topic 2.2.3
Challenging Interactionist Theory
You will often challenge interactionist theories with other schools of thoughts, mainly the nativists. The following theories challenge interactionist theory:
Cliff Pye
- Cliff Pye researched how different cultures learn language.
- His research detailed that children around the world acquired language at roughly the same time and that not all cultures used CDS.
- For example, Samoan families do not speak to the children until they are around 18 months old. This implies that language acquisition may be more innate.
Myzor
- Myzor believes that CDS helps to aid social development but does not help linguistic development.
- For example, it may teach children turn-taking in conversation but not aid their ability to use correct forms.
Chomsky
- Chomsky, in particular, takes issue with Skinner's work.
- In 1959, he published a paper criticising Skinners’s theory on a number of flaws.
- Chomsky questions how children produce utterances that are grammatically non-standard to the point where no caregiver would have said them – errors often happen that are not present in the template.
De Villiers and De Villiers
- De Villiers and De Villiers state that it is rare for caregivers to give direct feedback about the correctness of their language, so there must be something more innate.
Test yourself on Challenging Interactionism
Who stated that it is rare for caregivers to give direct feedback about the correctness of their language, so there must be something more innate?