Theoretical Perspectives in Language Acquisition

1. Noam Chomsky: Nativist Perspective

1.1. Innate capability to communicate.

1.2. Our Language Acquisition Device (LAD) assists in the development of language comprehension through hypothesis testing for which everyone has the ability to acquire communication skills in some form or another.

2. Lev Vygotsky: Interactionist Perspective

2.1. Language acquisition and learning is derived from social and cultural interaction.

2.2. Language is a process stimulated from our surroundings that include our culture and socialization experiences.

3. B.F. Skinner: Behaviorist Perspective

3.1. Language acquisition is akin to reinforcement theory in which the child is the operant of his or her learning experience and reinforcement of language stimulates this learning.

3.2. Opposes the Nativist perspective entirely.

4. Jean Piaget: Cognitive Development Perspective

4.1. Cognitive maturation is fundamental to language development.

4.2. Key concepts within the sensorimotor stages of cognitive development are object permanence and understanding of the preoperational stage.

5. Nurture Approach

6. Nature Approach