Behaviorism Theory in
First Language Acquitision
It
is believed that everyone already has language ability,
when they were born. They are getting language ability naturally. The first
language that they heard from their mother will be their first language. Firstlanguage acquisitionis the
generally process of the children to acquire the first language. Schutz
(2006:12) cites Krashenthat defines the acquisition language as "the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process they undergo
when children acquire their first language”. Generally, there are three
theories about first language acquisition. Thefirst is behaviorism theory which
states that language ability of children is affected by environmental side. The
second is natives theory which argues that children was born have brought
language skills. The last is cognitive theory which states that language
ability of children affected by interaction with people and the situation of
surrounding.
Adherent of behaviorism believes that learning is changes
in attitude which refers to habit formation, and in habit formation need
stimulus and obtains responses. According to BF Skinner in his book “verbal behavior” maintains that language
acquisition of children achieve through their parents. Their parents’ give an
example and then the children will be imitated it. In behaviorism theory, there
are three important concepts; stimulus (S), response (R), and reinforcement (P).
The term of stimulus refers to anything or changes in the environment. Stimulusmay comefrom outside(externalstimulus), such asloud noise, human voice, speech, or raysandcan befromwithin (internal
stimulus) suchas hunger,ordesiretospeak.
Responserefers tochanges inbehavior
thatinvolvestheactivitycaused by themuscles andglands. Similarly,
thestimulus, the responsemay be aresponse
tooutside(external) and the response ofthe inside(internal).
Reinforcementis an eventorsomething that isregardedas a
rewardorpunishment (Anwar Ibrahim: 2011).
That is true, if children imitate and repeat the word
that they heard. It is a process their first language acquisition.
Environmental side is important component. Children know the language that use
in around him/her. For example, children in Gorontalo will know about Gorontalo
language. However,there areopinionsthat disagreewith theopinion of
thebehaviorist, such as Natives theory that was pioneered by Noam Chomsky. He
argues that, behaviorism theory is weak.In reinforcement process, the
environment or parents are just strengtheningthe meaning of the word and do not
teach about grammar. For example, a child sees a dog, and he said “it is a
cat”, and their parents are correcting “no, it is a dog”. And when he said “it
a dog” their parents usually ignore that error. However, the children are able
to speak with good grammar finally. So, according to Chomskybrainof every
childhas been equippedwith"software" language, it called “language acquisition device”.
In conclusion, in this paper has discussed the views
of Behaviorism to first language acquisition. In this case, the Behaviorism,
emphasizing the importance of imitation and that learning a language involves
the establishment of the relationship between stimulus and response and
reinforcement.
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