Considering the statements presented by Lightbown and Spada, in How Languages are Learned, about the behaviourist perspective, a theory of learning that was very influential in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in the United States, analyze the following assertions.

I- The behavourists viewed imitation and practice as the primary processes in language development.

II- This theory gives great importance to the environment as the source of everything the child needs to learn.

III- Traditional behaviourists hypothesized that when children imitated the language produced by those around them, their attempts to reproduce what they heard received ‘positive reinforcement’.

IV- Encouraged by their environment, children would continue to imitate and practice the sounds and patterns until they formed ‘habits’ of correct language use.

V- According to this view, the quality and quantity of the language the child hears, as well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the in the environment, would not shape the child’s language behaviour.


It is correct only what is stated in