Second Language Acquisition and Second ... - Stephen Krashen

was said, which became a routine for Adam. After several weeks of hearing this,
Adam was heard to say
(2) Wait for it to dry
when hanging up a washcloth. Also, many of Adam's long sentences were the result
of juxtaposing existing routines. For example,
(3) I want you to get a biscuit for me
consists of the pattern "I want _______" plus the underlined portion, which existed
as an independent routine for Adam.
Clark claims that routines and patterns were primary in Adam's development of
language: "In Adam's speech at this time a number of routine sequences seemed to
coexist with a few simple productive rules. Many, though not necessarily all, the
productive rules originated as invariable routines, which were in use for some time
with the original lexical items before new lexical items were inserted" (p. 4). Thus
Clark, while not denying the existence of a separate creative construction process,
supports position 3 as the central means for language development for Adam. This
seems to be in conflict with Brown's conclusion.
The work of A. Peters (1977) helps to resolve this apparent conflict. Peters
distinguishes "analytic" and "gestalt" styles of first language development. The
analytic style, which is used for referential, labeling functions, is the "one word at a
time" development described in most studies of child language acquisition, such as
those by Brown and his co-workers. The "gestalt" style, on the other hand, is the
attempt to use whole utterances in a socially appropriate situation; it is thus used in
more "conversationally defined" contexts. Peters suggest that there is individual
variation among children as to which style will predominate. One of the factors that
may determine which style a child will prefer is input type: the "analytic" child may
have received clear caretaker speech, while the "gestalt" child may have received
more rapid, conversational input.
A given child may use one style for one situation and the other for other situations:
Peters' subject Minh appeared to speak analytically when naming, and used the
gestalt style for social functions. Other investigators (Dore, 1974; Nelson, 1975)
have also noted this kind of
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