What are the basic four theories of language learning?

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Humans, especially children, have an amazing ability to learn language. Within the first year of life, children will have learned many of the necessary concepts to have functional language, although it will still take years for their capabilities to develop fully. As we just explained, some people learn two or more languages fluently and are bilingual or multilingual. Here is a recap of the theorists and theories that have been proposed to explain the development of language, and related brain structures, in children.

B. F. Skinner believed that children learn language through operant conditioning; in other words, children receive “rewards” for using language in a functional manner. For example, a child learns to say the word “drink” when she is thirsty; she receives something to drink, which reinforces her use of the word for getting a drink, and thus she will continue to do so. This follows the four-term contingency that Skinner believed was the basis of language development—motivating operations, discriminative stimuli, response, and reinforcing stimuli. Skinner also suggested that children learn language through imitation of others, prompting, and shaping.

Noam Chomsky’s work discusses the biological basis for language and claims that children have innate abilities to learn language. Chomsky terms this innate ability the “language acquisition device.” He believes children instinctively learn language without any formal instruction. He also believes children have a natural need to use language, and that in the absence of formal language children will develop a system of communication to meet their needs. He has observed that all children make the same type of language errors, regardless of the language they are taught. Chomsky also believes in the existence of a “universal grammar,” which posits that there are certain grammatical rules all human languages share. However, his research does not identify areas of the brain or a genetic basis that enables humans’ innate ability for language.

Jean Piaget’s theory of language development suggests that children use both assimilation and accommodation to learn language. Assimilation is the process of changing one’s environment to place information into an already-existing schema (or idea). Accommodation is the process of changing one’s schema to adapt to the new environment. Piaget believed children need to first develop mentally before language acquisition can occur. According to him, children first create mental structures within the mind (schemas) and from these schemas, language development happens.

Lev Vygotsky’s theory of language development focused on social learning and the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The ZPD is a level of development obtained when children engage in social interactions with others; it is the distance between a child’s potential to learn and the actual learning that takes place. Vygotsky’s theory also demonstrated that Piaget underestimated the importance of social interactions in the development of language. Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories are often compared with each other, and both have been used successfully in the field of education.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): This park ranger is using the ZPD to increase these boys understanding. (Image by the National Park Service is in the public domain)

Language acquisition refers to how humans can develop the ability to understand and use language. Numerous language acquisition theories aim to understand and explain how the process begins and progresses. Let's take a look at some of the most notable theories of language acquisition.

4 theories of language acquisition

There are 4 main theories of language acquisition that we learn in English Language. These are:

• Behavioral Theory
• Cognitive Theory
• Nativist Theory
• Interactionist Theory

Let's have a look at each theory in more detail!

Behavioural theory (BF Skinner theory of langauge acquisition)

The Behavioural theory of language acquisition, sometimes called the Imitation Theory, is part of behaviourist theory. Behaviourism proposes that we are a product of our environment. Therefore, children have no internal mechanism or ability to develop language by themselves. BF Skinner (1957) suggests that children learn language first through imitating their caregivers (usually parents) and then modifying their use of language due to operant conditioning.

What is operant conditioning?

Operant conditioning is a way of learning that focuses on the reward (positive reinforcement) or punishment (negative reinforcement) of desired or undesired behaviour.

You can train a dog to sit by feeding it a treat when it obeys your commands, or you can stop it from sleeping on your bed by ignoring it or verbally discouraging it.

How does operant conditioning apply to language acquisition?

Skinner suggested that children first learn words and phrases from their caregivers or others around them and eventually try to say and use those words correctly. In this case, operant conditioning occurs when a caregiver responds to the child's attempt at using language. If the child uses language correctly, the caregiver may respond by telling the child they're clever or otherwise showing their approval. If the child makes a request, such as asking for food, the caregiver may reward the child by providing it. This is positive reinforcement.

If the child uses language incorrectly, makes a mistake, or is incoherent, they are more likely to receive negative reinforcement from the caregiver. They can be told they're wrong and then be corrected or simply be ignored. Negative reinforcement teaches the child which mistakes to avoid and how to correct them.

Cognitive theory (Jean Piaget theory of language acquisition)

The Cognitive theory of language acquisition suggests that the primary drives behind our actions are our thoughts and internal processes. Jean Piaget (1923) assumes that children are born with relatively little cognitive ability, but their minds develop and build new schemas (ideas and understanding of how the world works) as they age and experience the world around them. Eventually, they can apply language to their schemas through assimilation (fitting new information into what is already known) and accommodation (changing one's schemas to support new information).

Piaget believed that cognitive development had to come before language development because it would be impossible for children to express things that they don't yet understand. For example, a younger child with no sense of time couldn't express things in the future tense or speak hypothetically, no matter how much they are taught language.

Piaget proposed that this cognitive development could be split into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. Let's take a brief look at them.

Piaget's four stages of cognitive development

First is the sensorimotor stage. This takes place from birth to around two years of age. At this stage, the child is developing sensory coordination and interacting with their environment by feeling and playing with things. Their use of language extends primarily to babbles and few spoken words.

The next stage is the pre-operational stage, which takes place from ages two to seven. At this stage, children are able to use language with a better grasp of grammatical structure, context, and syntax. Child thinking at this stage is still very egocentric (their understanding of the world is limited to how it affects them).

Next is the concrete operational stage. It takes place from ages seven to eleven. At this stage, children understand concepts such as time, numbers, and object properties and gain reasoning and logic, which allows them to rationalise their beliefs and speak in greater detail about their own thoughts and the world around them. They can also speak to others about their beliefs and understand how outcomes or viewpoints may differ.

Finally, we have the formal operational stage. This takes place from twelve years old to adulthood. At this stage, children can engage in higher reasoning and think and speak about the abstract, such as hypotheticals, morals, and political systems. Language is essentially unlimited, as there is no cognitive limit to one's understanding of the world at this stage.

Nativist theory (Noam Chomsky theory of language acquisition)

Noam Chomsky (1957) proposes that children are born with an instinct or drive for language learning which he calls the language acquisition device (LAD). He argued that even if a child is not educated in their country's language, so long as they grow in a normal environment, they will still devise a system of verbal communication. Therefore, there must be an innate, biological component to language acquisition.

What is the language acquisition device?

Chomsky suggests that the language acquisition device (LAD) must be located somewhere in the brain, serving as an encoder that provides us with a baseline understanding of grammatical structure. As children learn new words, they are able to incorporate them into their use of language independently. Chomsky argues that this independent 'building' of language is evidence that language acquisition is biological and not purely a product of being taught or copying caregivers. Chomsky suggested that the LAD contained knowledge on universal grammar - the basic shared grammar rules that all human languages share.

Jerome Bruner (1961) believed that children are born with an ability to develop language but they require regular interaction with their caregivers or teachers to learn and understand it to a level of full fluency. This idea is known as the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). Caregivers tend to correct mistakes that children make when using language and also regularly teach them what objects are and what their purposes are. Bruner suggests that this helps to build the scaffolding that children will later rely on when further developing language.

A caregiver may also use child-directed speech (CDS), altering their own use of language to make it easier for a child to conceptualise language independently.

CDS or child-directed speech is commonly known as ‘baby talk’ in everyday life. It is when an adult changes their use of language when talking to a young child. This includes changes such as slower speech in a higher voice, more obvious intonations for different types of speech (i.e., questions, statements, orders), and very simple sentence structure. These strategies all simplify language to make it as easy as possible for the child to understand.

Bruner believed that CDS was adapted to make language more simple, accessible, and easy to understand. According to this theory, children cannot develop an understanding of the more complex parts of language alone. Thus, CDS acts as an infant-friendly introduction to language that can be built on throughout infancy, early childhood, and into school.

Theories of Language Acquisition - Key takeaways

• The four theories of language acquisition are BF Skinner's behavioural theory, Piaget's cognitive development theory, Chomsky's nativist theory, and Bruner's interactionist theory.
• BF Skinner believed that children learned language by imitating caregivers and responding to positive or negative reinforcement in a process known as operant conditioning.
• Piaget believed that children must first develop cognitive faculties before they can develop language. This development takes place over four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
• Chomsky believed that children are born with an innate ability to acquire language, due to the 'language acquisition device' which is thought to be a language encoder in the brain.
• Bruner believed that children are born with some capacity for language acquisition, but require attention and support from caregivers in order to develop language fully. This idea is known as the language acquisition support system (LASS).

• BF Skinner. Verbal Behavior. 1957
• Noam Chomsky. A review of BF Skinner's verbal behavior" Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. 1967
• Jean Piaget.The language and thought of the child. 1923
• Jerome Bruner. Child's talk: learning to use language. 1983