Theories of Language Development

What are the 5 major theories of language development?

Behavioral

Nativist

Cognitive

Information-Processing

Social Interactionism

Who developed the **Behavioral** Theory?

B.F. Skinner

What does the **Behavioral** Theory entail?

That language is **learned**.

Learning is NOT an innate mechanism.

The events in the child’s environment and social interactions are important.

Who developed the **Nativist** Theory?

Noam Chomsky

What does the **Nativist** Theory entail?

Language is **innate**.

There are universal rules of grammar that apply to all languages.

Children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD).

Children are born with an innate capacity to learn language; language is NOT learned through environmental stimulation, reinforcement, or teaching.

Who developed the **Cognitive** Theory?

Piaget

What does the **Cognitive** Theory entail?

Language is **emerging** as a result of **cognitive growth**.

Includes Piaget’s stages of cognitive development.

While nonlinguistic, cognitive precursors are innate, language is NOT; this theory views language as emerging as a result of cognitive growth.

What does the **Information-Processing** Theory entail?

Language is developed through **cognitive functioning processes**.

Two broad categories include: Phonological Processing and Temporal Auditory Processing.

What does the **Social Interactionism** Theory entail?

Language is due to **social-communicative functions/interactions**.

Language develops because people are motivated to interact socially with others around them.

Proponents emphasize language function, not structure.