Language Developement:Theoretical Perspectives

1. BF Skinner (1904-1990) Learning in based on stimuli, Nurture, Children are "blank slates", Language is taught through situations of imitation, Operant Conditioning, Semantic,Syntactic, Morphemic

1.1. Behaviorist

2. Noam Chomsky (1928-Present) Nature, Universal grammar, Discovery of language structure, Language Acquisition Device, Children use hypothesis testing, Syntactic

2.1. Nativist

3. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Nature, For Language to develop specific cognitive development must occur first, Object permanence, Use of symbols, Schemata Development, Semantic, Morphemic

3.1. Developmentalist

4. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) Sociocultural Interaction, Language as process not a product, Builds on previous three theorectical perspectives, Children in tentionally expand effort, Language Acquisition Support System, Pragmatic

4.1. Interactionist