History of theories in language acquisition

[Mavis L. Donahue]

At the risk of old fogyism, my question is:  are we ignoring our
fascinating history?  In the Kuhnian tradition of using textbook analysis
as an indicator of paradigm shift, I just completed a content analysis of
historical themes in popular introductory textbooks on language
development.  (My presentation at the 2013 ASHA convention was titled
"Beyond Psammeticus:  Are we neglecting the history of language
development research?")  I was startled to find that about 25% of the
textbooks had no mention of our field's history.  Typical textbook
coverage was only about one page, usually in the introductory chapter, or
in a chronology of various theories and theorists.  Ironically, the most
frequently mentioned historical events of our field were two accounts
separated by 2500 years, and with the same nativist theme:  Herodotus'
description of the Egyptian King Psammeticus' experiment to deprive
infants of language input to determine what language they would create;
and Chomsky's 1959 scathing review of Skinner's book Verbal Behavior
(1957), which of course triggered the explosion of research on child
language development in the 1960s. (I'm intrigued that both stories had
strong political drama; perhaps that is why they have stood the test of
time?)  Of concern, connections between early research and the current and
recurring theoretical and methodological themes/dilemmas in our field were
rarely drawn in these textbooks.

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^V

Dr. Mavis L. Donahue
Professor Emerita
College of Education, m/c 147
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL  60607
312-996-5650


“To anyone who finds that linguistic study is a worthless finicking with
trifles, I would reply that life consists of little things; the important
matter is to see them largely.”

Otto Jesperson, 1860-1943, linguist and scholar of language acquisition














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