B.F. Skinner

                             B.F Skinner and the 
                     Language Acquisition theory

Skinner's theory of behaviorism links to his ideas on language. Basically, humans learn the differences between right and wrong through experience. And that experience involves either 'pleasure' or 'pain'. For example if you steal from a shop and get caught, the negative procedures that you would go through will most likely want to make you never do it again. And likewise if you give money to a homeless person, they are likely to thank you and you are likely to feel good about yourself. Well this is how Skinner's theory of language acquisition works. 
When a child is babbling and producing noises and 'words' that don't mean anything and eventually when the child produces a sound that sounds similar to a real word, for example:
'bah' when they mean 'ball', the parents would praise and encourage the child and say something like 'yes, that's a ball! Can you say ball?' with much emphasis on the word they want their chil to say. Over time, the child will learn that good things happen when they say what their parents encourage them to say. And soon enough they will be able to say the entire word.

Many people, however, have criticized Skinner for this theory because of its reductionist approach. In other words, many people believe that this theory is far too simple and fails to explain the complex working of the human body and brain.
On the upper hand, this approach is very easy to understand. Personally I think that Skinner's theory is very plausible, albeit simplistic. But then perhaps Skinner has grasped the most basic part of how humans acquire language, but there is more hiding away waiting to be discovered?