Theoretical perspectives

1. The nativist perspective emphasizes inborn or innate human capabilities (nature) as being responsible for language development. Noam Chomsky is major theorist and contends that all people inherently have the capacity to acquire language due to cognitive structures that process language differently from other stimuli.

2. Cognitive developmentalist focuses on nature and morphemic and semantic aspects of knowledge. Jean Piaget is best known for this perspective where language is acquired as maturation occurs and cognitive competencies develop. Proposing there is no unique language mechanism and that language is learned using same mechanisms as with all other learning.

3. Interactionist

4. Interactionist perspective contends that children acquire language through their attempts to communicate with the world around them. Vygotsky is the theorist whose basic premise was that language development is influenced by the society where the individual lives and culturally transmitted.

5. Cognitive developmentalist

6. Nativist

7. Behaviorist perspective emphasizes the role of "nurture" and considers learning to occur based on the stimuli, responses, and reinforcements that occur in the environment. Language is said to be learned as a result of these associations. Skinner is the theorist associated with this perspective.

8. Behaviorist