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Behavioral Approaches:
The focus here is on reinforcement of linguistic utterances.  The response or utterance is rewarded or reinforced encouraging more linguistic attempts by the child.  The thought is that if a particular response is rewarded, it then becomes conditioned.  B.F. Skinner constructed a behavioral model of language acquisition called Verbal Behavior. This model embodied the Behaviorists' theory and approach focusing on Operant Conditioning- Response/Reinforcement/Stimulation.  "Verbal behavior, like other behavior, is controlled by its consequences" B.F. Skinner.

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The thought today is that Skinner's Verbal Behavior model can't account for the ability to acquire or develop language.  Nor can it explain the nature of language or it's meaning. Continuing on, it's hard-pressed to think a child's language can be created from conditioning and reinforcement without ever hearing it from another person (Brown, 2014, p. 25).

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This was an attempt to build on the behavioral theory.  This theory claims that a word or sentence elicits a "mediating" response that is covert and invisible, invisible within the learner (Brown, 2014, p. 25).
CRITICISM: Too much mentalism (speculating about unobservable behavior) and it is said there is little relationship between meaning and utterance (Brown, 2014, p. 25).

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This theory asserts that language acquisition is innately determined and that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systemic perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language (Brown, 2014, p. 26).  Here is a quick video that describes Noam Chomsky's contributions to this theory.

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It is said that through this theory, "aspects of meaning, abstractness, and creativity were accounted for more adequately as compared to the behavioral S-R theory" (Brown, 2014, p. 26). Chomsky (1965) claimed that innate properties of language explained the child's mastery of a native language in such a short time despite the highly abstract nature of the rules of language. UG is based on child language acquisition research that expanded on the LAD notion by creating a set of universal linguistic rules (Brown, 2014, p. 27).

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Challenges to the Nativist Theory and Chomsky

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Challenges to the Nativist Theory and Chomsky

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The main criticism of the Nativist theory is that a child's linguistic performance may be the consequence of many levels of simultaneous neural interconnections rather, than a serial process of one rule being applied, then another, then another, and so forth (Brown, 2014, pp.28-29). I dug a little deeper to synthesize this information and found a great article that, while it's a little technical and long, does a good job of analyzing Chomsky's views on language acquisition. The author, David Palmer of Smith College, reviews Chomsky from a behaviorist view point.  He outlines Chomsky's position that grammar is innate and interestingly highlights how Chomsky stubbornly believes it's the only possible explanation.  He discerns that Chomsky's objections to other approaches, namely Verbal Behavior, are weak and impossible to solve.  The paper goes on to question many of the terms he uses in his works as well as the idea of genetically determined grammar.  Please take a look:

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The theories and ideals that fall under these approaches move more deeply into the essence of language.  Identifying that language manifests from cognitive and affective ability to deal with the world, with others, and with the self.  Even more, it goes beyond forms of language that Nativist views looked at and focuses on deeper functional levels of meaning constructed from social interaction.  Functions of language are the meaningful, interactive purposes within a social context that we accomplish with the forms such as, words, sentences etc (Brown, 2014, p. 31). The following chart depicts some of the key ideas of the Functional approach: Cognition was founded out of the research of Lois Bloom who concluded that children learn underlying structures not specific word order as the Nativist concept of pivot grammar suggests.  Bloom's research led to a child language study centering on the relationship of cognitive development to L1 acquisition (Brown, 2014, p. 31).
Jean Piaget is prominent in this approach saying that, overall development is the result of children's interaction with their environment.
The social interaction theory states that language development is intertwined, not just with cognition and memory, but also with social and functional acquistion (Brown, 2014, p. 32).

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Summation of Theories of First Language Acquisition

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Summation of Theories of First Language Acquisition

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My feeling is that language and the acquisition of it is a very complex process.  As such, no one theory can or has previously explained the meaning or development of language.  However, all the theories explained here have aspects that are valid and can help and describe the development of language.

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Language competence is one's underlying knowledge of the system of a language while, performance is the actual production (speaking, writing) or the comprehension (listening, reading) of linguistic events. In sum, Performance is "doing" language and competence is an ability to perform language.  Obviously, performance is observable while competence is a unobservable characteristic.

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What Is The Difference Between Competence And Performance?

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Competence and performance in child language haskins 1 introduction to the classic competence vscompetence two different concepts ncbi. Competence and performance dictionary definition of linguistic competence wikipedia. Competency versus performance a url? Q sites. The relationship between competence and performance towards versus in language.

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It's important to note that the terms comprehension and competence are not interchangeable. Likewise, production and performance are not synonymous.  We all have the capacity for competence to both understand and to produce language.  We also, can perform acts of listening and reading just as surely as we perform acts of speaking and writing.

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Each stance on language acquisition has validity.  Each stance also strongly opposes the other.  What we have to discern is that language and the acquisition there of, is a complex topic and just one theory or idea cannot encompass all there is to know or say about it.

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There is certainly a lot of information and theories to weed through when discussing the topic of language and first language acquisition.  Much has been said on both ends of the debate spectrum as to whether the development of language is innate or socially driven.  I believe that there are good arguments for both sides.  However, there is so much that is unmeasurable and unknown about the workings of the human mind.  As such, in my opinion, it is virtually impossible to define or describe the process of language acquisition by any one theory or school of thought.  There are many aspects of all these approaches that could play a positive role in the contribution of describing a child's development.  That said, there is ongoing research that will continue to attempt to explain this ability in us and it will continue to be explored from many different areas.

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Brown, H., D. 2014. Principles of language learning and teaching. Pearson Education, Inc.
Palmer, D., C. 2000. Chomsky's Nativism, a Critical Review. The analysis of verbal behavior.