INTERACTIONIST THEORY. According to the interactionist position, caregivers
play a critical role in adjusting language to facilitate the use of innate capacities
for language acquisition. This is in sharp contrast to the innatist view that adapting
language has little effect on a child’s acquisition process. The interactionist
view thus takes into consideration the importance of both nature and nurture in
the language acquisition process.
Interactionists study the language mothers and other caregivers use when
caring for infants and young children, with special attention to modifications
they make during these social interactions to assist children in communication.
One strategy often observed between English-speaking, middle-class mothers and
their toddlers is conversational scaffolding (Ninio & Bruner, 1978), as illustrated
in the following conversation: