Theories of How Children Learn
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THEORIES OF HOW CHILDREN LEARN – LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
ASSESSMENT 03B/4 PART 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
MAIN STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
NURTURE, OPERANT CONDITIONING AND LEARNING THEORY
NATURE/NATIVIST THEORY
PIAGETS COGNITIVE THEORY
VYGOTSKY AND BRUNERS COGNITIVE THEORIES
CULTURAL RELATIVITY
FACTORS THAT AFFECT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
HOW ADULTS CAN PROMOTE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It endeavours to answer the question – what is language and how is it represented in the mind? Language is a system of symbols and rules; exclusive in its form to human beings that enables us to communicate. Symbols are things that stand for other things: words, either written or spoken, are symbols and the rules specify how words are ordered to form sentences. Language symbols are arbitrary, with no necessary connection between the symbol, be it word or gesture, and the object or idea to which it refers. For example, if one wanted to construct a new word for tree, they could use almost any legitimate combination of sounds that are not already being used for other purposes. However, symbols must be used systematically for effective communication to occur. The arbitrary symbol system must be shared; for communication to take place at least two people must have access to the system.
There are a number of dimensions to language acquisition and development and each stage occurs chronologically. These are as follows:
Phonology – study of the sound patterns of language. It is concerned with how sounds or phonemes are organised and examines what happens to speech sounds when they are combined to form words and how these sounds interact with each other. It endeavours to explain what these phonological processes are in terms of formal rules.
Semantics – is our knowledge of word meanings and how we acquire vocabulary. The semantic component is made up of morphemes, the smallest units of meaning that may be combined with each other to make up words. For example, the word paper and s are two morphemes that make up the word papers.
Syntax – syntax is the study of sentence structure. It attempts to describe what is grammatical in a particular language in terms of rules. These rules detail an underlying structure and a transformational process. The underlying structure for English, for example, would have a subject-verb-object sentence order (James kicked the football) and the transformational process would allow an alteration of the word order, which could produce something like the football was kicked by James. The syntactic component consists of the rules that enable us to combine morphemes into sentences. As soon as a child uses two morphemes together as in more juice, he or she is using a syntactic rule about how morphemes are combined to convey meaning. Syntactic rules become increasingly complex as a child develops. They progress to combine words with suffixes or inflections and eventually create questions, statements, commands etc. He or she will also learn to combine two ideas into one complex sentence. For example, Ill share my juice if you share your crisps.
Pragmatics – an understanding that words can be used to different effect, for example, to be humorous or sarcastic. Pragmatics deals with rules of language use and these rules form part of our communicative competence. In other words, our ability to speak appropriately in different situations, for example, in a conversational way at home or in a more formal way at a job interview. Learning pragmatic rules is as important as learning the rules of other components of language as people are perceived and judged based on both what they say and how and when they say it.
One of the most important characteristics of human language is that it can refer to objects, events and possibilities that are not physically present and it allows us to speak of the past and to learn from it, to imagine the future and to predict what may lie ahead. Language can be spoken, signed (using sign language) or written down.
Our system of language and the process of communication are closely linked. Communication can be described as any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that persons needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms and may occur through spoken or other modes.
Overall, it is important to recognise that not all communication is language (facial expression and gestures such as pointing); and not all language is communication (as when one sings the lyrics of a song purely to experience the pleasure of the sounds.)
MAIN STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
There are regularly observed stages of language acquisition, from random baby babble through to the advanced syntax used by an adult. The significant stages in the language development of typical children, sorted by age group, is presented in the following table:
Age of Child
Typical Language Development
0 to 4 Months
Limited to reflexive crying*
Production of vegetative sounds*
May start producing cooing or laughing sounds, though they may be hard to recognise so early on
4 to 6 Months
A period of babbling in which they are practising the sounds, intonations and rhythms of language*
Characterised by indiscriminate utterance of speech sounds*
Learn to replicate sounds