Major Theories of Language
Development
several theories exist to explain
language development in children.
Theories
of language development fall into one of two camps: empiricist or nativist.
Empiricists believe language is a learned behavior. Nativists, on the other
hand, believe we are born with some innate language ability. Empirical
researchers focus on learning theories to understand how children acquire
language skills, while nativists look for biological components responsible for
the universal rules underlying all of the languages spoken by people.
- Vygotsky
- For Lev Vygotsky---a Russian
psychology researcher who began developing his empirical theories of
cognitive development after the Russian Revolution in the early 20th
century---children learn by solving problems with the help of other
people, such as parents and siblings. Language develops as a tool for
helping them solve problems more effectively. They learn the skill by
practicing or modeling the language behaviors they hear being used around
them. In his theory, language development is closely tied to social behavior,
putting him in the empiricist camp.
Skinner
- B. F. Skinner, an American
psychologist best known for his work in behaviorism, proposed behaviorism
as the basis for language development in a book published in 1957. The
core of behaviorism is learning through reinforcement. The reinforcement
takes different forms. For example, if a parent says to the child,
"Can you say mommy?" and the child responds accordingly, the
parent provides positive reinforcement. If the child uses language to
make demands, such as asking for a cookie, and the demand is granted, the
child receives positive reinforcement for using language. This approach
places Skinner in the empiricist camp of language development.
Piaget
- According to empiricist Jean
Piaget, a Swiss psychologist known for studying how knowledge develops in
children and in adults during the first half of the 20th century,
language development is connected to a child's cognitive development. As
the child moves through the different stages of cognitive development---sensorimotor,
pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational---his
language skills change, too. For example, during the pre-operational
stage, children can grasp the existence of things even when they cannot
see those things. Likewise, they can use language to think about those
non-present things.
Chomsky
- Noam Chomsky, an American
linguist and cognitive scientist, believes children are born with innate
knowledge of the rules governing language. This makes him a nativist. His
research during the late 20th century also suggests that the rules are
universal among the known human languages. For example, Japanese and
English seem very different, but both languages include verbs and in both
languages verbs take an object. The difference is where the object of the
verb is placed in the sentence. According to Chomsky, the reason children
learn language so quickly is because they already know its rules.
Bruner
- Jerome Bruner, a nativist and
American cognitive psychologist, believed language development comes
easier to most children because of a combination of innate biological
"endowments" and social encouragement. Bruner's research on the
subject began in the 1960s. Bruner notes that even children who cannot
distinguish between their thoughts and things attempt to use language,
suggesting they are born with an inclination towards communication. The
role of encouragement is to provide necessary support as the child
develops linguistically.
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