COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVES

Language Development Theory

Noam Chomsky
Do you remember when and how
did you acquire and learn your
language?
What is Cognitive Perspective?

The cognitive perspective is

concerned with
understanding 
mental processes such as
memory, perception,
thinking, and 
problem solving, and how
they may be related to
behavior.
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Behavioral Cognitive Perspectives

Perspectives
WHAT is the DIFFERENCE?
 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
DEVICE or LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION DEVELOPMENT

Avram Noam Chomsky

• He is an American linguist,
philosopher, cognitive
scientist, historian, social
critic, and political activist.

• Sometimes called "the father

of modern linguistics"
• He argued that linguistics
should be a branch of
cognitive psychology.

• He also theorized the

Language Development
Theory or Language
Acquisition Device Avram Noam Chomsky
December 7, 1928
Psychology and Linguistics
Language – the system of words or signs that
people use to express thoughts and feelings to
each other
Linguistics- is the study of language
Psychology- is the scientific study of the mind
and behavior.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)
 4 STAGES of LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
1. First Stage: Language Development Starts at Birth

• The first stage of language

development occurs immediately
upon birth, when infants are
preverbal, but possess an innate
LAD that will set them up to
developing a language.

Examples: Babbling, non-verbal

gestures such as crying.
2. Second Stage: Emerging Language Through
Universal Grammar
Universal Grammar-  is taken to be the set of properties,
conditions, or whatever that constitute the 'initial state' of the
language learner, hence the basis on which knowledge of a
language develops.

As toddlers, humans start to pick up on the

language use of those around them,
organizing it.
Examples: answering yes/no by verbal
or non verbal gestures
3. Third Stage: Developing Language Through
Universal Grammar

• The continued development of toddlers’ language use also occurs according

to the rules of their innate UG. More specifically, toddlers seem to naturally let
their most pressing desires guide their language use.

Example: Saying short phrases such as

“want,milk”
4. Fourth Stage: Advancing Language Through
Generative Grammar
• As humans grow older, Chomsky suggests, their language use advances
according to both their UG and something he terms generative grammar.
Unlike UG, generative grammar suggests a variability to language use
that is context-driven, rather than innate and universal.
• Example: Constructing
complete sentences such as
“Can I play outside?” and “I
want that toy, mommy!”
Disagreement With the Behaviorists
• Chomsky's theory differed quite a bit from other psychologists writing
about language and cognition, primarily the behaviorists who thought
that language was a behavior learned through our environment.
• The well known psychologist B.F. Skinner was one of those who put
forth this idea. According to this model, learning to speak a language is
like learning any other behavior. Children are conditioned by the outside
environment at a young age to learn how to speak. Parents and other
people are responsible for reinforcing this learning.
• He opposed the theory of tabula rasa by John Locke.
• The debate about NATURE VS. NURTURE