Cognitive approach to language acquisition

Cognitive approach to language acquisition

The Cognitive Approach in psychology is a relatively modern approach to human behaviour that focuses on how we think, with the belief that such thought processes affect the way in which we behave.

The term cognitive psychology came into use with the publication of the book Cognitive Psychology by Ulric Neisser in 1967.

Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then we need to understand the internal processes of their mind.

Cognition literally means “knowing”. In other words, psychologists from this approach study cognition which is ‘the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired.’

Language Acquisition

Language is a cognition that truly makes us human. Whereas other species do communicate with an innate ability to produce a limited number of meaningful vocalizations (e.g. bonobos), or even with partially learned systems (e.g. bird songs), there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas (sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words).

This ability is remarkable in itself. What makes it even more remarkable is that researchers are finding evidence for mastery of this complex skill in increasingly younger children.

Early Theories

One of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition was provided by Skinner (1957). As one of the pioneers of behaviorism, he accounted for language development by means of environmental influence.

Skinner argued that children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases. For example, when the child says ‘milk’ and the mother will smile and give her some as a result, the child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the child's language development

Universal Grammar

However, Skinner's account was soon heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, the world's most famous linguist to date. In the spirit of cognitive revolution in the 1950's, Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone.

Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.

For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g. a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats).

This Chomskian (1965) approach to language acquisition has inspired hundreds of scholars to investigate the nature of these assumed grammatical categories and the research is still ongoing.

Contemporary Research

A decade or two later some psycho linguists began to question the existence of Universal Grammar. They argued that categories like noun and verb are biologically, evolutionarily and psychologically implausible and that the field called for an account that can explain for the acquisition process without innate categories.

Researchers started to suggest that instead of having a language-specific mechanism for language processing, children might utilise general cognitive and learning principles.

An example of this gradual pattern learning is morphology acquisition. Morphemes are the smallest grammatical markers, or units, in language that alter words.

Approaching language acquisition from the perspective of general cognitive processing is an economical account of how children can learn their first language without an excessive biolinguistic mechanism.

Bilingualism

n  Multilinguals > Monolinguals

n  Individual Bilingualism – the use of two (or more) languages by an individual

n  Societal Bilingualism – the use of two (or more) languages within a given community

n  E.g., the bilingual setting in India, Canada, Switzerland, Malaysia, etc.

n  The term ‘bilingualism’ may mean different things to different people.

n  To the average person, bilingualism can be loosely defined as:

n  the use of two languages or the native-like control of two languages.

n  Bilingualism has often been defined in terms of language competence.  But a definition of bilingualism must also account for the impact of social, psychological and cultural variables on the bilingual individual.

n  Five important variables in relation to bilingualism:

            1]  degree of bilingualism

            2]  context of bilingual language acquisition

            3]  age of acquisition

            4]  domain of use of each language

            5]  social orientation

There are two major patterns in bilingual language acquisition:

n  Simultaneous Bilingualism

n  Sequential Bilingualism.

In simultaneous bilingualism,the child acquires two languages at the same time before the age of 3 years

n  In the first stage they may mix words or parts of words from both languages in the first stage.

            e.g. I like dondurma

Stage 2 occurs at 4 years and older when distinction between the two languages takes place ,and the child uses each language seperately

   e.g. I like  ice-cream.

         Dondurmayı seviyorum.

Sequential bilingualism also occurs before the child is 3 years old, but the child can draw on the knowledge and experience of the first language while acquiring the second language

Bilingual Studies

•         Additive bilinguals

–        Learn a second language without loss to the native language

•         Subtractive bilinguals

–        Learn a second language that interferes with the native language

•         Simultaneous bilingual

–        Learn two languages from birth

•         Sequential bilinguals

–        First learn one language and then another

Factors Influencing Bilingualism Fluency

–        The earlier in life a second language is learned, the more fluent the speaker will become

–        Bahrick & colleagues disagree

•         Vocabulary and fluency is acquired just as well in older participants but not fluency

–        Research showing advantages

–        enhanced executive functions

–        delayed onset of dementia

–        acquire more expertise in their own language

–        sensitive to subtle aspects of language

–        perform better on tests of nonverbal intelligence that require recognition of verbal patterns

–        Research showing disadvantages

–        have smaller vocabularies

–        access to lexical items in memory is slower

Single-System or Dual?

•         Single-system hypothesis

–        Two languages are represented in one system

•         Dual system hypothesis

–        Two languages are represented by separate systems

Language Mixtures and Change

Bilingualism is not a certain outcome of linguistic contact between different language groups. Here are some scenarios of what can happen when different language groups come into contact with each other:

• Sometimes when people of two different language groups are in prolonged contact

with one another, the language users of the two groups begin to share some

vocabulary that is superimposed onto each group’s language use. This superimposition results in what is known as a pidgin. It is a language that has no native speakers (Wang, 2009).

• Over time, this admixture can develop into a distinct linguistic form. It has its own grammar and hence becomes a creole. An example of a creole is the Haitian Creole language, spoken in Haiti. The Haitian Creole language is a combination of French and a number of West African languages.

• Modern creoles may resemble an evolutionarily early form of language, termed protolanguage (Bickerton, 1990).

Pidgins & Creoles

•         Pidgins

–        Communication between two language groups

–        Often used between immigrants and locals or missionaries and natives in order to be understood by each other without having to learn the language of the other group

•         Pidgin develops over time in such a way that it becomes a Creole

•         Creoles are complete languages, Pidgins are not

–        Does have native speakers

–        Has developed through expansion form and grammar

–        Is stable and autonomous in its norms

Dialects

A regional variety of a language distinguished by features such as vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation