2.4 Interactionist/developmental perspectives: Learning from inside and out
• The time frame of this theory is 1980s, 1990s & early 2000.
• Main advocates are Piaget & Vygotsky
• Interactionists focused on the interplay between innate learning ability of children and the environment in which they develop.
• Language is part of child’s cognition. It is acquired through cognitive development.
For Piaget, language is a symbol system that could be used to express knowledge through interaction with the physical world.
For Vygotsky, interaction is the origin of both language and thought where
thought is an internalized speech, and speech emerged in social interaction.
Connectionism
• In another Connectionist view, language learning is part of learning in general.
• Language acquisition is a process of making the link between language and meaning.
• Language is compared to other cognitive and perceptual learning, including learning to ‘see’.
• Language learning is a process of
▫ associating words with elements of external reality in which the child makes the connection between a word or phrase heard and what it represents. (e.g. ‘cat’ is miaowing and belongs to the family of pet.
▫ associating words and phrases with other words and phrases that occur with them or associating words with grammatical morphemes