This is a keynote speech Prof. Ben Ambridge (University of Liverpool, UK) gave at the BAAL (British Applied Linguistics Association https://baal.org.uk)- Routledge Research workshop in December 2017, organised by Dr. Fatma Said (https://www.york.ac.uk/education/our-staff/academic/fatma-said/) and Dr. Ursula Lanvers (https://www.york.ac.uk/education/our-staff/academic/ursula-lanvers/)from the University of York.
The workshop focused on Bilingual First Language Acquisition: (https://baalyork2017workshop.wordpress.com/) Current theories and methodologies. This developmental workshop provided a unique opportunity for those new to the field to explore current and established theories about BFLA (bilingual first language acquisition) as well as those already part of the field to further survey new directions and discuss their research with others. It was highly successful due to the keynote speakers, presenters and attendees.
Prof. Ambridge’s keynote was titled: Which theory? Finding your way through generative and non-generative approaches to first language acquisition.
Abstract
Newcomers to the field are often bewildered by the variety of theoretical approaches taken to language acquisition (even by monolingual learners). My goal in this talk is to set out the two main overarching approaches to the acquisition of morphosyntax: generativist and constructivist. I will illustrate these contrasting theoretical positions with examples from four domains: Basic syntax, inflectional morphology, movement constructions and c-command phenomena. I will also give examples of experimental methods and studies designed to mediate between them. I conclude that the researcher’s choice of one theoretical framework over another should arise not from personal preference or tradition, but from a dispassionate consideration of the explanatory power of the rival approaches.