THEORY OF EDUCATION

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (MR. BASOPO)

OBJECTIVES: By the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

(a) define language

(b) define language development
(c) identify at least (4) four theories of language development and give the substance of what
each theory propounds and show educational implications.

INTRODUCTION

 One major distinction between animals and human beings is that human beings are capable of
learning, mastering and using language.
 Language acquisition enables children to store numerous experiences in memory and to think
abstractly and symbolically
 Learning a language is thus perhaps the most fascinating and significant developmental task a
child has to master

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

 Language is a complex set of rules used in speaking, listening and writing

 Language consists of an agreed set of symbols that enable us to convey meanings and
converse with other members of the same culture that share the same language

LANGAUAGE DEVELOPMENT

It is the acquisition of language in human young

To achieve linguistics competence, children must master four sub systems of language namely

(a) Phonology i.e. ability to understand and produce speech sound

(b) Semantics i.e. the ability to understand words and the different combinations of words
(meaning of words and sentences)’
(c) Grammar i.e. the ability to understand the rules by which words are arranged into sentences
(d) Pragmatics i.e. the ability to understand the rules of effective communication e.g. initiating
and ending a conversation.

THEORY

 A collection of general principles which serve as an explanation of established facts and

observable data
 a theory can be seen as an honest attempt to explain a particular body of knowledge
NOTE that language, thinking and understanding are often referred to as the cognitive processes.

 Is there then a connection between thought and speech? Can we think and solve problems
without learning the language skills?
 Language is our basic medium of communication hence we can’t think about problem solving
and thinking without verbal ability and speech.

A BRIEF LOOK AT THEORIES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

1 What is a theory? Try and recall

2 Where does the ability to produce a complex language come from?

Several theories of language development try to explain how humans possibly acquire language

The theories tend to differ in terms of their emphasis on natural and experiential influences.

The Behaviourists Theory of Language Development

 Stresses the importance of conditioning and imitation in the acquisition of language

 Children are conditioned to talk
 How rapid q child talks depends on how often the child hears speech and how well it is
reinforced for talking
 Words and phrases children learn depend on type and frequence and timing of the
conditioning process
 Learning by association is also part of the process e.g. a mother labeling everything she does
for her daughter.
 Language is learned through the principle of operant conditioning to utterances of infants.
Consequences of a response determine the probability of it reoccurring in future
 Parents reinforce the child’s utterances until these become more like adult speech
 Imitation has also been added to behaviourist accounts to explain language development
 Imitation can combine with reinforcement to promote language learning.

THE LEARNING THEORY

 Has a lot in common with behaviourists

 Parental approval and attention is very important but not surfficient.
 Sensory reinforcement is inherenty in verbalization. Children enjoy hearing themselves talk.
 Stress importance of imitating and modeling in language learning
 Children copy and model what they see and hear whether they are rewarded or not (clash
with behaviourists)
 Children who spend more time with their parents communicate with greater ease than those
who have no time with parents
 But for children to have over 14000 words by kindergarten age means parents are engaging in
intensive tutoring. This is physically impossible. So how is language acquired?
 The home, the day care centre (environment) play a key role in language acquisition.
THE COGNITIVE APPROACH (THEORY)

 Have a different view to language acquisition

 Language development is taken as a function of the cognitive maturity of the child.
 Number of different sounds in a given verbal communication increases with age and stage.
 Language is a clue to one’s level of cognitive structures
 Ability to acquire language depends on intellectual abilities
 The more intelligent one is, the faster one is in acquiring a language
 Language learning involves cognitive processes e.g. attention, information processing and
retention
 No cognitive ability to remember words, no sentences
 Children understand something about an object or idea before using words in a meaningful
manner
 When children express thoughts e.g. “all gone” it means they understand some measures of
object permanence
 Children always first talk about what they know, favourite things, people and activities

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS THEORY

 Also known as the nativists approach (theory)

 All normal children naturally acquire their native language
 Language is not a skill that must be taught but it is something that biologically develops or
unfolds on its own.
 Language is too complex hence cannot be directly taught or independently discovered by
cognitively immature children
 Children only require exposure to the language prevailing in their culture.
 Children also acquire language through their” motheress”

MOTHERESS

 Motheress refers to baby talk----- a particular way people talk to infants

 It refers to the use of simplistic, redundant sentences. Parents use motheress to communicate
with their youngsters
 Infants pay more attention to motheress
 The higher pitch used in communication to an infant elicits the infant’s attention
 Baby talk differs from mother talk in a number of features:
a. it is a distinct in its pitch(high).
b. vocabulary is simpler and more concrete
c. sentences are shorter
d. adults who speak baby talk use more questions, commands and repetition e.g.
Haude? idya, mhamha, mhamha
e. there are fewer past tense, pronouns and complex sentences in baby talk (f)
men and women parents and non-parents all speak mothers with infants
DISCUSSION

1. Discuss the nature ---nurture controversy with regards to how children acquire language.
2. Compare and contrast the behaviourist & cognitivist views with regards to how children
acquire language.
3. The Psycholinguist theory of language acquisitions offers the best explanation of how children
acquire language. Discuss.

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT LECTURE 2

OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lecture students should be able to identify proponents of language development
theories, what they say, and educational implications

For Purposes of this lecture, the following shall be considered

1 Vygotsky
2 Bernstein
3 Piaget
4 Skinner
5 Bruner
6 Chomsky

LEV VYGOTSKY (1962) (briefly)

- thought is not merely expressed words, it comes into evidence through them
- children speeches were a guide for their behavior and thinking
- when children speak to themselves, they are just telling themselves what they are doing
- When children converse and interact with members of the society, peers, teachers etc
cognitive development occurs.
- Members of the society enable children to grow intellectually
- Says that speech leads to development of cognition
- If you have not learnt to talk, you have not yet learnt to think
- If there is no word or words for a concept, then we can’t think about it
- Cognition and language development are intertwined from the start
- New language development is related to the development of new thinking processes
- Piaget says egocentric or undirected speech is related to an early developmental stage of
thinking but Vygotsky thinks it is not related to an early developmental stage. He says the
speech of very young children is private speech which they use to direct their own cognitive
processes.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

- Encourage children to converse and interact with their teachers and peers and members of
the society
- In class include activities such as drama, debate, poetry etc
- Teachers should be good role models worthy of emulation
- Encourage pupils to rephrase a message in their own words so as to establish how far they
have understood the meaning

BERNSTEIN ( briefly)

- Presented a theory on language and social class

- Says language forms are related to social class
 - Language forms have been described by Bernstein as the restricted code and the elaborate
code
- Restricted code ---- working
- Elaborate code ------middle class
- Restricted code user has short grammatically simple, unfinished sentences with poor
syntactical structure. Short commands and questions are frequently used
- The elaborated code user has accurate grammatical syntactical structure and uses complex
sentences
- Believes language is one of the most important means of initiating, synthethizing and
reinforcing ways of thinking
- Home background is important in language learning
- N.B restricted code is a type of speech code as formulated by Bernstein, it is characterized by
short, direct and context- dependent speech patterns. It was also called public languages e.g.
Do as I tell you. Or Get off it
- Restricted codes are fairly simple phrases which are readily understood in context but less
understood out of context e.g. “Get off it” makes sense to a child to which it is directed but
less sense to someone else.
- Married couples and peers frequently use the restricted code in conversation, because they
have common experience

Elaborated code is not context specific

- there is less dependence on the context

- Content can easily be understood by another listener. It is also called formal language

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

- Use of restricted code language disadvantages pupils who rely on it

- Formal education is conducted in the elaborate code
- Children who match their language code with that of the educational system are at an
advantage

CHOMSKY N ( briefly)

- human beings are pre programmed to learn a language

- They require only exposure to the language prevailing in their culture
- Humans are born with an innate biological ability to learn language. This is the L.A.D.
- Brain is innately patterned to understand the structure of language
- L.A.D. permits children to develop language early and swiftly
- Language is processed at two levels (a) surface structure-(sounds and words for any
sentences. (b) deep structure- underlying meaning

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
 - L.A.D. is activated by exposure to spoken language therefore debates, poetry, drama etc will
be of help
- Encourage pupils as listeners and speakers to interact with mature language users
- Expose children to lots of reading material
- Expose children to language prevailing in the are/ culture
- Teacher should know that all normal children can learn and master any language. So don’t
label learners as incapable of learning a language

PIAGET (briefly)

- Language, thinking and understanding are referred to as cognitive processes

- Language is our basic medium of communication. Therefore we can’t think of problem solving
and thinking without verbal ability and thinking
- Cognitive development proceeds on its own in discreet stages that increase in complexity
- Development of thinking is followed by or reflected in children’s language
- Cognitive growth is the necessary pre-requisite for language development
- Says language development follows cognitive development
- Piaget’s stages of language development (1) sensory motor stage (0-2 yrs) – child has no real
language (2) pre-operation stage (2 -7 yrs) child is learning a verbal language (3) concrete
operation (7-11yrs) has better use of language now (4) formal operation (11yrs +) use of
language is more advanced

*This is associated with cognitive advancement.

*Piaget says thinking develops before language ability

What about Vygostky ?

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Teach language suitable to the age of the child

(Add more from discussion)

SKINNER (briefly)

- How rapidly a child talks depends on how often the child hears speech and how well the child
is reinforced for talking
- -learning by association is important
- Language is learned through operant conditioning to the utterances
- Language is a skill fabricated by trial and error and reinforced by reward and extinguished by
non reward
- Skinner says that language is learnt in the course of human development through association,
imitation, practice, reinforcement, trial and error
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Many of them e.g.

- expose child to the spoken language

- Debates, drama, poetry must be used
- Reinforce correct utterance through giving a reward (some extrinsic motivation here)
- Label items so that pupils associate the word with the item
- Teachers must be good speakers so that children imitate and emulate

BRUNER (briefly)

- Says cognitive development preceeds linguistic development

- Says children know what they want to communicate and language become the necessary
vehicle to do so when they are mature enough to do so
- He acknowledges that children and their mothers work together in the development of
language

Can you write some educational implications ?

DISCUSSION TOPIC

WHAT ARE THE VIEWS OF THE FOLLOWING WITH REGARDS TO LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

1. VYGOTSKY
2. PIAGET
3. CHOMSKY
4. SKINNER
5. BRUNER
6. BERNTEIN
WHAT EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS CAN YOU DRAW FROM EACH OF THEM?

REFERENCE
Brady, N. C., Fleming, K., Bredin-Oja, S. L., Fielding-Gebhardt, H., & Warren, S. F.
(2020). Language development from early childhood to adolescence in youths with
fragile X syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 63(11), 3727-
3742.

Ebert, S. (2020). Theory of mind, language, and reading: Developmental relations from
early childhood to early adolescence. Journal of experimental child psychology, 191,
104739.