se_zew-ga,
I consulted with some college psychology students (emphasis on Early
Childhood Education) in formulating part of my Answer (for
verification purposes). You asked for strengths and weaknesses
concerning any one approach to the development of language, so I chose
to examine one of the most well-known cognitive psychologists: Jean
Piaget.
First, let’s lay a little groundwork. All languages consist of a
number of agreed upon rules that the child must learn. Although the
specific rules of each language differ, they all share certain common
characteristics.
A child must begin grasping the basics of four components of language
in order to be able to communicate with others. The four components
are phonology (study of sounds) morphology (study of smallest
meaningful units), syntax (rules of organization) and semantics (rules
that govern what the meaning of a language conveys).
Developmentalists have long debated how it is possible for children to
learn the complexities of their native language within such a short
period of time. After all, there are no grammar teachers for toddlers.
According to the environmentalist school of thought, children learn to
speak mainly through the examples and guidance of the people around
them. (This is the familiar viewpoint of “nurture”). Others, however,
say that biological factors are more important—this school of thought
is known as “nativist,” and parallels the “nature” side of the “nature
vs. nurture” debate. Children seem to acquire language skills through
a combination of inborn capabilities and outside influences, assuming
they are around an adult who can and will speak with them.
Children do show preadaptions to attend to human speech. Furthermore,
human language is a species-species quality, meaning that all humans
are predisposed genetically to learn to speak.
The development of speech, patterns and learning depends upon a
child’s ability to hear. Hearing is a sensory motor development. These
basic facts led to language and cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget to
his theory of language development.
Swiss born Piaget (1896-1980) was a “maturationist.” Piaget’s
approach to language came from a maturationism viewpoint (Note: the
following link, from the North Central Regional Educational
Laboratory( NCREL)offers a good explanation of "maturationism":
[ http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/earlycld/ea7lk18.htm
].
This is a psychological theory that describes conceptual knowledge as
dependent on the learner’s developmental stage, which in turn is the
result of innate biological programming. Learners view as active
meaning-makers, but limited by their cognitive structures that are the
result of maturation. For maturationists like Piaget, age norms are
important predictors of behavior. Put another way, Piaget’s view was
that children acquire knowledge by constructing it through their
interaction with the environment. Piaget separated knowledge into
three distinct areas: physical knowledge, logico-mathematical
knowledge and social (or conventional) knowledge.
Piaget also defined the following developmental stages:
Sensori-motor stage (ages 0-2)—
Begins to make use of imitation, memory and thought; begins to
recognize that objects exist even when they disappear; moves from
reflex-actions to goal-directed activity. Language is introduced.
Pre-operational (ages 2-7)—Develops use of language and ability to
think symbolically; able to think operations through logically in one
direction; has difficulty seeing other person’s point of view
(geocentricism).
Here are the strengths of Piaget’s approach:
The application of Piaget’s approach gives numerous opportunities for
children to explore their environment. It also encourages symbolic
play, which is a very important learning tool. (According to Piaget’s
theories, toddlers are beginning to form the ability to create
symbols—to let a word, thought object or action stand for something
else. Through symbolic action, a child is able to manipulate things,
thus creating new thoughts and words). It gives teachers the
opportunity to observe the children and to plan activities for
individual children or small groups.
Piaget suggests that increases in cognitive performance cannot be
attained unless both cognitive readiness brought about by maturation
and appropriate environmental stimulation are present. This view has
been most influential in determining the nature and structure of
educational curricula and the way children are taught.
Piaget’s theory and methods have also been used to investigate issues
surrounding animal cognition such as whether primates show object
permanence (they do seem to) [ Dore & Dumas, 1987 ].
Despite the criticisms of Piaget’s theory which I will list below,
most developmental psychologists agree that although the processes
that underline the changes in cognitive abilities may not unfold in
exactly the manner suggested by his theory, Piaget has generally
provided us with an accurate account of age-related changes in
cognitive development. Moreover, the influence of his theory has been
enormous [Ginsburg & Opper, 1988; Beilin & Pufall, 1992; Demetrion,
Shayer & Efklides, 1993].
Now, for some of the documented weaknesses of Piaget’s approach:
There are some criticisms/limitations of Piaget’s work, mostly
relating to the fact that new research utilizing newer methodologies
indicate that infants exhibit behaviors even earlier on than Piaget
thought. Piaget’s categories and ages are not global for all learning
and all cultures (i.e. especially for those children with learning
disabilities or certain diseases).
Some developmental psychologists suggest that cognitive development
proceeds in a more continuous fashion than Piaget’s theory implies.
Instead, they propose that cognitive development is primarily
quantitative in nature, rather than qualitative. They argue that
although there are differences in when, how and to what extent a child
is capable of using given cognitive abilities—thereby reflecting
quantitative changes—the underlying cognitive processes change
relatively little with age [ Gelman & Baillargeon, 1983; Case, 1991 ].
Another criticism directed towards Piaget is that he in some ways
underestimated the age at which infants and children are able to
understand specific concepts and principles. They seem to be more
sophisticated in their cognitive abilities than he believed
[Tomlinson-Keaset, et al., 1979; Bornstein & Sigman, 1986 ]. For
instance, recent evidence suggests that infants as young as five
months have rudimentary mathematical skills [ Wynn, 1992 ].
The following website [http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk ] also outlines
criticisms of Piaget’s theories:
[http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/chimp/langac/LECTURE3/3crit.htm ].
Here are some more general links to sites about Piaget. The following
link is to the Jean Piaget Society’s website:
[http://www.piaget.org/ ].
Here’s a link directly to his biography page from the same site:
[http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html ].
Besides Piaget, the other two most notable language development
psychologists to date are Lev Vygotsky [see this Massey University,
New Zealand page for more information:
http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/virtual/trishvyg.htm ], and J. Bruner [
see this TIP.psychology.org page:
http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html ] for more information.
The following sources were used in formulating this Answer, including
these three college psychology textbooks:
1. Understanding Psychology, 4th Edition, Feldmen, McGraw-Hill, Inc.,
1996.
2. Child Development, Its Nature and Course, 4th Edition (from the
Time to Grow series, 3rd Edition), Dehart, Sroufe and Cooper,
McGraw-Hill, 2000.
3. Match and Science for Young Children, Charlesworth and Lind,
Thomson Delmar Learning, 2003.
Google search strategy:
Keywords:
“piaget”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=piaget
,
“piaget theory”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=piaget+theory
,
“piaget criticisms”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=piaget+criticisms
,
“piaget strengths”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=piaget+strengths
,
“cognitive development theories”:
[://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=cognitive+development+theories
] Note the Piaget’s name is on the #2 search result for these
keywords.
“Vygotsky”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=Vygotsky&btnG=Google+Search
,
“J. Bruner”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=J.+Bruner
,
“language development theories”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=language+development+theories
,
“cognitive development research”:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=cognitive+development+research
,
"language and cognitive psychology"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=language+and+cognitive+psychology&btnG=Google+Search
I hope this Answer satisfies your need for the information you have
requested. If it does not, or if anything here is not clear or you
need anything explained in more detail, please do not hesitate to ask
for Clarification.
Good luck in continuing your inquiries!
Sincerely,
omniscientbeing-ga
Google Answers Researcher |
