Imagine a blank template, a white sheet of paper, thats how human being starts off.

From a
crying baby in a cradle, to babbling, to simple single words, slowly progressing into two-words,
then finally a complete sentence, ever wonder how one acquires the ability to produce the
language? Linguists throughout the ages have tried to find out how does one ACQUIRE a
language, is it a deep structure as claimed by Kimball? Or is it an innate ability, a build-in human
capacity propagated by Chomsky?

Various theories have arose since language studies came to fore, and the ability to acquire
language has interested various parties since the dawn of man. From the dunes of Egypt,Â
Psammeticus, the Pharaoh during the 7th century BC, believed language was inborn and that
children isolated from birth from any linguistic influence would develop the language they had
been born with. Fast forward to the 15th century, King James V of Scotland performed a
similar experiment; the children were reported to have spoken good Hebrew. Akbar, a 16th
century Mogul emperor of India, desired to learn whether language was innate or acquired
through exposure to the speech of adults. He believed that language was learned by people
listening to each other and therefore a child could not develop language alone. So he ordered
a house built for two infants and stationed a mute nurse to care for them. The children did not
acquire speech, which seemed to prove Akbar’s hypothesis that language is acquired and does
not simply emerge spontaneously in the absence of exposure to speech.Â

Henceforth, modern linguists have been trying hard to crack the codes which govern the
acquisition and learning of a language. Theories ranging from Jean Piaget’s Cognitive
Theory(1929), Skinner’s Behaviorist Theory (1957), to Chomsky’s The Innateness Hypothesis,
and Lambert’s Critical Period Hypothesis(1967) for first language acquisition, and finally
Krashen’s 5 hypothesis of second language learning have paved a way for an insight, a way to
unravel the way the mind works in acquiring and learning a language -which happen to be
distinct from one another-, and here, we will be looking at the theories that have been the
workhorse of language acquisition and learning.

Definition

First Language Acquisition is touted by linguist as the process of acquiring a language via
exposure whilst young. First language is defined as the primary language -not necessarily
mother tongue- which the speaker first acquires and use on a constant basis. According to
Lennenberg (1967) the language that one picks up during the critical period will generally be the
person’s first language. The Canadian census agrees that the first language that one acquires
during childhood is the first language.

A second language, however, can be a related language or a totally different one from the first
language. Language acquisition is a cognitive process cognitive process (reasoning, perception,
judgment and memory) of “acquiring” a language. It is usually done subconsciously, with the
mind slowly structuring the template to mold the language into shape. Language learning
however, means a person is trying to learn the language consciously through practice, training,
or experience.
Amongst the most prominent theories of language acquisition that has been put forward by
linguists is the:

Cognitive Development Theory

According to Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory (1970s), language is a subordinate part of cognitive
development. Language is mapped onto an individual’s set of prior cognitive structures. The
principles of language are no different from other cognitive principles. A person becomes
capable of abstraction, of formal thinking which excels concrete experience and direct
perception (Freeservers.com, 2012). Firstly, the child becomes aware of a concept, they acquire
the words and patterns to convey the concept. Simple ideas are expressed earlier than more
complex ideas even if they are grammatically more complicated. Piaget described four distinct
stages of childhood cognitive development which include sensorimotor stage, pre-operational
stage, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage and relates them to a person’s
ability to understand and assimilate new information (Springhouse Corporation, 1990). First
language learners are thought to creatively use their skills of cognition in order to figure out the
second language of their own. For adult learners, they have the ability to abstract, classify and
generalize gives them an advantage to systematically solve problems. Adult language learners
rely on their cognitive activities of general information processing because their Language
Acquisition Device gradually becomes unavailable for them (Hadley, 2002).

Piaget claims that the human mind has a template known as the schema: The representation in
the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas and /or actions which go together (Atherton , 2011). The
schema helps individuals understand the various happenings around them, an understanding of
oneself (self-schemata), other people (people schemata), events/situations (event schemata)
and roles/occupations (role schemata).

According to psychologists, cognitive development starts at adaptation, followed by

assimilation and accommodation close after. Assimilation is the process of incorporating new
information into pre-existing schema, more often than not leading to overgeneralization. For
example, the child refers to a whale as a fish, due to the fact the whales and fish, have fins and
lives in the ocean. After assimilation, comes accommodation, whereby the mind is able to
differentiate concepts made during the prior phase.

Piaget contends there are four stages of cognitive development which are sensorimotor stage
(birth-2years), pre-operational stage (2-7 years), concrete operational stage (7-11years) and
formal operational stage (11 years and up).

The first stage or the sensorimotor stage is the stage where a child learns about himself and his
environment through motor and reflex movements. The child’s thoughts are derived from
movement and sensation (Springhouse Corporation, 1990). They learn and progress by doing
simple motor movements such as looking, grasping, crying, listening, touching and sucking.
Further down the road, they will also gain a basic understanding of the relationships of cause
and effect. Object permanence appears around 9 months and further physical development
allows the children to begin developing new intellectual abilities. Piaget contends that some
basic language abilities are developed at the end of this stage.
Pre-operational stage follows after the child reaches at the age of 2. During that stage, a child’s
intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, and his language use matures,
advancing to basic sentences. The child’s memory and imagination are developed to a certain
extend but thinking is done in non-logical and non-reversible manner.

The following stage is the concrete operational stage -where the child reaches the age of 7-11-:
Children then develops seven types of conservation, namely number, length, liquid, mass,
weight, area and volume. The child’s intelligence is further demonstrated through logical and
systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects, and his operational thinking
develops exponentially, however, his thinking at this stage is still concrete.

The final stage in the cognitive development is the formal operational stage, where the child’s
developed intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract
concepts. This is reflected in his/her speech as in choice of words, and capability of metaphorical
usage.