1.1. The behaviorist theory claims that language is a set of habits that can be acquired by means of conditioning. According to some, this process that the behaviorists define is a very slow and gentle process to explain a phenomenon as complicated as language learning. Language acquisition was not as important for a behaviorist's analysis of human behavior as the interaction between language and overt behavior was.
2. Cognitive Developmentalist
2.1. Cognitive development is a field of studythat focuses on the child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive psychology. Jean Piaget was known for his cognitive development theory. A major controversy in cognitive development has been "nature vs. nurture", or nativism versus empiricism.
3. Interactionist
3.1. Interactionism is micro-sociological and believes that meaning is produced through the interactions of individuals. The social interaction is a face-to-face process consisting of actions, reactions, and mutual adaptation between two or more individuals. It also includes animal interaction such as mating. The interaction includes all language, including body language and mannerisms. The goal of the social interaction is to communicate with others. If it appears that the interaction is going to end before one wants it to, it can be prolonged by conforming to the others' expectations, by ignoring certain incidents or by solving apparent problems. Erving Goffman stresses the importance of control in the interaction. One must attempt to control the others' behaviour during the interaction, in order to attain the information one is seeking and in order to control the perception of one's own image.
4. Nativist
4.1. Nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are 'native' or hard wired into the brain at birth. Immanuel Kant argued that the human mind knows objects inate. Kant claimed that humans, from birth, must experience all objects as being successive (time) and juxtaposed (space).
