What is the behaviorist view of language acquisition?
The behaviorist view of language acquisition is that children learn language by receiving reinforcement from their parents after speaking correctly (operant conditioning). If a child’s parents become ecstatic when the child says “mama”, the child will want to continue speaking to get the same positive reaction. If a child gets a sip of milk after saying “milk”, the speech is reinforced, and the child learns that it can get what it wants by saying so.
