Evaluate the behaviourist theory of language acquisition as proposed by Pavlov, Skinner, and Watson.

the correct form In this way language becomes a habit According to behaviourists language learning is not mental It is only a response to external situations Pavlov and Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov - was a Russian physiologist He is famous for the idea of classical conditioning Pavlov showed that learning happens through association He rang a bell every time he gave food to the dogs After some time the dogs reacted to the bell because they thought food was coming Behaviourists later applied this idea to language learning According to this view children connect sounds with objects For example when a child hears the word milk and receives milk the child learns the word Slowly the child connects sounds with meanings Language is learned by repeated association However Pavlov did not study language directly His work only gave a basic idea for later behaviourists Skinner and Operant Conditioning American psychologist B F Skinner - gave the most important behaviourist explanation of language He used the idea of operant conditioning Skinner said that children produce sounds randomly When a sound is correct parents respond positively They smile clap or give attention This is called reinforcement Reinforcement encourages the child to repeat the sound Slowly words and sentences are formed Skinner believed that grammar is also learned this way According to him children learn language step by step through reward and punishment Language is not special It is only a learned behaviour Watson and Habit Formation Another American psychologist John B Watson - popularized behaviourism He believed that all human behaviour comes from learning According to Watson language is a set of habits Children copy what they hear from adults Repetition makes these habits strong Watson rejected the idea of the mind or thinking He believed that only observable behaviour is important Language learning therefore depends fully on the environment Parents teachers and society help develop the child s language through training and control Evaluation and Limitations The behaviourist theory has some strengths It shows the importance of environment practice and parental role in language learning It explains how vocabulary is learned It shows that correction helps children However the theory has many weaknesses Children often say sentences they have never heard before This cannot be explained by imitation alone Parents do not always correct grammar but children still learn correct grammar The theory also ignores the mental ability of children Language is creative but behaviourism cannot explain creativity In conclusion the behaviourist theory explains language as a habit formation Pavlov gave the idea of conditioning Skinner explained reinforcement and Watson supported habit formation Together they showed the role of environment in language learning However the theory fails to explain how children create new sentences Therefore behaviourist theory is important historically but it is not a complete explanation of language acquisition