Cognitive Developmentalist View of Language Acquisition
The cognitive developmentalist view, also known as the nativist perspective, emphasizes the role of innate cognitive abilities in language acquisition. It proposes that children are born with a Universal Grammar (UG), a set of innate principles and parameters that guide the acquisition of any human language.
Here are some key aspects of this view:
1. Innate Language Faculty:
* Children are born with a specific language learning module, separate from general cognitive abilities.
* This module contains a set of universal rules (UG) common to all languages.
* Children only need to learn the specific parameters of their native language based on this innate framework.
2. Universal Grammar (UG):
* UG provides a framework for understanding and generating grammatical sentences.
* It includes principles like recursion (combining phrases to create complex sentences) and parameters (variations between languages, like word order).
* Children's innate knowledge of UG allows them to learn language rapidly and efficiently.
3. Critical Period Hypothesis:
* There is a sensitive period for language acquisition, typically before puberty.
* During this period, children are more susceptible to learning language naturally.
* After this period, language acquisition becomes more difficult and less fluent.
4. Evidence:
* Children learn language rapidly and effortlessly, often surpassing adults in their ability to acquire new languages.
* Children's language development follows a predictable sequence, suggesting an underlying universal structure.
* Children can create novel sentences and understand complex grammatical structures they have never encountered before.
5. Key Figures:
* Noam Chomsky is the most prominent proponent of this view.
* Steven Pinker and Eric Lenneberg have also contributed significantly to this theory.
6. Limitations:
* Lack of empirical support for UG: While UG is a theoretical framework, finding direct evidence for its existence is difficult.
* Overemphasis on innate abilities: The role of social interaction and environmental factors in language acquisition is underplayed.
* Limited explanation for individual differences: This view doesn't fully explain why some children acquire language faster or more proficiently than others.
In conclusion, the cognitive developmentalist view emphasizes the role of innate cognitive abilities in language acquisition. This perspective highlights the importance of a Universal Grammar in guiding children's language development. However, it also faces criticisms for its limited empirical evidence and focus on innate factors.
Beyond the nativist perspective, there are other views on language acquisition, such as the social interactionist theory and the connectionist model, which focus on the role of social interaction, environmental factors, and cognitive processing in language development.