1.2. From a behaviorist’s perspective theoretically speaking of course, language is based on the contact children have and the association of the stimuli involving other people as well as their responses. “Many types of environmental responses serve as reinforcers” (Otto, B. 2010 p.32). We can thank Skinner for his insight regarding this behaviorist theory based on the nurturing of language in the semantic, syntactic and morphemic aspect of language knowledge as children learn to communicate.
2. NATIVIST
2.1. Theorist: CHOMSKY, N.
2.2. When it comes to a nativist’s theoretical perspective, we see that children also learn to communicate through their teachers, as they are second yet necessary responders to a child’s need in language skills. Their natural instinct to learn enables them to excel at a fast pace for children are like sponges, they absorb whatever is say to them or what they see. Chomsky is associated with this finding and Language Development in Early Childhood, 3rd Edition states; “Chomsky contends that all people inherently have the capacity to acquire language due to cognitive structures that process language differently from other stimuli” (Otto, B. 2010 p.28).
3. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTALIST
3.1. Theorist: PIAGET, J.
3.2. The cognitive developmentalist along with its theoretical perspective applies to the same ideas, as does the nativist but not of an innate nature. Instead, the cognitive developmentalist insist, “the close relation between cognitive development and language is based on the belief that, for language to develop, specific cognitive growth must occur first” (Otto, B. 2010 p.30). Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood, (3rd ed.). Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
4. INTERACTIONIST
4.1. Theorists: VYGOTSKY, L., BRUNER, J., & HALLIDAY, M.
4.2. For the interactionist perspective to take effect with its sociocultural ideologies of language knowledge and its development one has to see the implications it incurs. It is said that”This perspective contends that children acquire language through their attempts to communicate with the world around them. One of the major Theorists associated with this context of language development is Vygotsky who said, “higher mental functions are socially formed and culturally transmitted” (Otto, B. 2010 p.33 [Vygotsky, 1978, p.126]). Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood, (3rd ed.). Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
