Kabul University

Department of Foreign Languages &

Literature
Introduction to Language Learning
Theories (Linguistics)
Course Instructor: Khalid B. Waziri

March 25, 2023

Chapter Goal: Language learning in early childhood
Purpose: “This background is important because Both 2nd language research and
2nd language teaching have been influenced by changes in our understanding of how children
acquire their first language. In fact, one significant research finding concerns the similarities
between first and second language acquisition.” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006. p. xvi)

Activity #1
pg. xviii
Popular opinions about language learning and teaching -Handout
 Chapter Overview
1. Grammatical morphemes
2. Negation
3. Questions
4. The pre-school years
5. The school years
6. Explaining first language acquisition
7. The behaviourist perspective: Say what I say
8. The innatist perspective: It's all in your mind
9. interactionist/developmental perspectives: Learning from
10. inside and out
11. Language disorders and delays
12. Childhood bilingualism
Summary
 Explaining First language Acquisition

• “Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of

human development.” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006)
• Immense body of research on child or first language learning
• Much research done with North American and European Families but there is
also a rich body of cross-linguistic and cross-culture research
• Researches done through observations, recordings, and children’s early
language development has been studied.
• Similarities in first language acquisition
• “Any language boils down to a set of symbols representing sounds
and grammar governing the system. But contrary to what you might believe,
you don’t need to know grammar by heart to learn a language.” (Gudium,2020)
• “Grammar is the conventionalization system of a language, often wrongly distilled into a
single word, “rules.” The word “rules” suggests a language should have a set of rules
first, then people can speak it.
• However, languages do not work this way. As a matter of fact, it’s the other way around.
People collectively create the language, then come to the rules that describe it and
conventionalize it.
• Language is like a living creature. It grows, evolves, and changes over time. Grammar
rules simply reflect the usage of language at a particular time.
• Indeed, by learning grammar, you can develop an understanding of a language. But
grammar can’t explain language development as a cognitive, social, and cultural
phenomenon.” (Gudium, 2020)
 What really is language learning and what can
we do with language?
 Language development is a slow process that starts during early childhood, allowing children to grasp the spoken
word and communicate.
 The emergence of language in human children comes after a period of significant development of the brain.
 Language is the most significant human invention.
 Language plays a key role in unifying a vast and complex notion and in providing individuals with outlets for
developing diverse skills and abilities.
 Language is one attribute that sets humans apart from all other creatures and binds humans together across all
geographic barriers. A word can cause to sink into the deepest despair or lift us to inspired action.
 Language can be the tool for great achievement in any discipline.
 Good understanding of the capabilities and needs of the individual child and a sound knowledge and belief in the
goals of language acts programme are vital factors in successful individualization of instruction.
 Language is a means through which thought is organised, refined, and expressed.
 Language helps in the formation of concepts, analysis of complex ideas, and to focus attention on ideas which
would otherwise be difficult to comprehend.
 The Main Theories of 1st Language Acquisition
Daniel Everett (July 26, 1951)

• According to linguist Daniel Everett, nearly two million years have passed since “homo
Erectus” first started uttering meaningful sounds.
• They roamed the face of the planet for over 2 million years.
• The Erectus needed language. Why?
• Evertt’s work suggests that a language is a social tool that humans developed to communicate
and share knowledge to solve problems.
 Universal Grammar,
Innatist, Nativist
(December 7, 1928)

• Linguist Noam Chomsky thinks language is innate.

• For Chomsky language has a genetic component to it.
• What is grammar?
• It is “The whole system and structure of a language or of languages in
general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and
sometimes also phonology and semantics.”
• Chomsky thinks there could be a single master language that served as the origin of all other
languages.
• A child comes to the world with the prerequisites for language learning. Namely, a built-in
tool Chomsky calls the Language Acquisition Device (LAD).
 Theory of Behaviorism
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
(B.F. Skinner) (1904 – 1990)

• This theory suggests that learning a language is much like learning any new skill through
observation, imitation, repetition, errors, rewards, and punishments. Or what Skinner calls 
Operant Conditioning.
• Behavior theorists posit that language development is a learned behavior. When babies first
speak, they are trying to imitate the behavior of their parents and adults around them.
• A language would develop as responses to stimuli from the environment. Hugging the baby
for his or her first word is a reward that pushes them further on the learning curve.
 Vygotsky’s Social Interactionist Theory
(1896-1934)

• The basic notion of social interactionist theory is that language has a social origin.
• This concept suggests that the child, from birth, is continually engaging in social
interactions, which allows him to develop higher cognitive functions, namely
language, and thought.
• According to Vygotsky’s social development model, socio-cultural interactions
come first, then cognition and language development.
 Piaget’s Constructivist Theory
(9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980)

• For Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, language is not only due to genetic predisposition or imitation
• Piaget’s constructivist theory argues that language is constructed by following cognitive development. In
other words, people develop their language skills and construct overall knowledge based on their own
experience.
• Beyond just language development, Piaget’s theory focuses on understanding the nature of intelligence itself.
• He defines four stages that cognitive development goes through:
1) Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
2) Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
3) Concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years
4) Formal operational stage: 12 and up
 The Maturation Theory of
Language Development
(21 June, 1880-29 May, 1961)
• An American pediatrician, Dr. Arnold Lucius Gesell's Theory of Child development
focuses on how genetics influences development and other behavior.
• Gesell believed that human skills — adaptive, motor, and language — develop and unfold
naturally based on our biological makeup.
• Be that as it may, he didn’t disregard environmental factors’ influences on a child’s
development. However, the clinical psychologist was convinced that they were less influential
than genetics.
• Thus, Gesell focused his investigation on children’s physiological development — which he
called maturation.
• The rate at which children develop depends primarily on their nervous system’s growth. And
that includes the brain, spinal cord, and a complicated web of nerve fibers.
• Gesell’s language acquisition theories about maturation propose that language development
 The Maturation Theory of
Language Development
(21 June, 1880-29 May, 1961)

0-50 weeks: A child produces meaningful sounds.

1 – 2 old: The child uses longer phrases and straightforward sentences.
2 – 3 old: The child begins to communicate in complete sentences.
3 – 4 old: The child uses language as a tool to expand their knowledge of the world.
4 – 5 old: The child has a basic mastery of the language.
 References
Guedim, Z. (2020, December 18). 5 Theories of Language Development: How Languages Came
to be. https://edgy.app/theories-of-language-development
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. (2006). How Languages Are Learned. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford.
Nath, B. K. (2010). Major language theories influencing learning of mathematics. Theories of
Language in Learning of Mathematics. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512896.pdf,1-13
Useful Linguistics Videos:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cgpfw4z8cw
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdUbIlwHRkY&t=71s
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvVaTy8mQrg&list=RDLVNpDmRc8-pyU&index=2
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-E7-PXr35w&t=28s
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTsduRreug