Theories Of Language Development

Introduction

Language development is referred to the process through which children develop understanding and efficiency to communicate by using language in their early childhood (Saxton, 2017). The language development is essential for the children in their early childhood so that they are able to effectively communicate their needs and demands to others.

Chomsky's LAD theory inform that infants are born with an instinctive mental capacity that allows them to acquire as well develop the ability to produce language (Oviedo, 2017). Thus, the theory informs that humans are born with an innate facility to acquire language. The key argument put in favour of the theory is that unless the children are exposed to essential knowledge of grammar they are deemed as unable to acquire learning of languages easily like they do, given that they are given access to negative evidence and are rarely given direct instruction in relation to their first language (Mustafa et al. 2017). The limitation of Chomsky's LAD theory is that no importance is given on the way social interactions play a vital role in language development and the concept is developed on theoretical grounds only (Farazmand et al. 2016). Thus, the theory is unable to prove its practical implementation and it fails to explain delay in language development among children.

The Bruner’s LASS theory refers that the caregivers of the children support their language development under social situations where they by interacting with the child and encouraging them to speak executes the process (Zachary and Thinguri, 2016). This means that a good quality interaction between the children and the caregivers is able to make the children develop a more active role in social conditions to speak and interact. The strength of the LASS theory is that it promotes motivation to the children to develop language through active engagement. However, the limitation of the application of LASS theory in language development is that it requires increased resources and control from the caregivers which are usually unavailable in traditional classroom for the children (Beniston, 2018). The Bandura’s social mirroring theory informs that children develop language by learning from one another through imitation, observation and modelling (Snyder and Fisk, 2016). The strength of Bandura’s theory is that accurate picture is able to be developed for the children to understand the way language development has occurred. However, the limitation of the theory is that it does not take into account the physical and mental changes that occur in the child during their growth which also influences their language development (Devi et al. 2017).

Impact of socio-cultural context in relation to language development

The impact of socio-cultural context in language development is that it creates language differences. This is evident as cultural is referred to be the one that influences a person to have their own, beliefs, values and intellectual tools of adaption (Selmer and Lauring, 2015). For example, children belonging from Western culture are seen to have efficient language development to speak in English rather than other languages where as a child from Indian culture would have language development to be able to speak in local language (Sen, 2017).

Interrelatedness of language in cognitive development

The cognitive development is referred to the increasing ability of the child to think, remember, pay attention and learn which is developed through interaction with caregivers, parents and others. This often comes with increasing language development as more actively the child learn languages they are able to make sense of information and process them through their mental ability to improve their cognition (Sharkins et al. 2017). (Appendix 1)

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Conclusion

The discussion informs that language development is important for the children to efficiently communicate. Bandura's theoretical concept informs that language development in children occurs through social interaction. The increased language development is seen to create improved cognitive development in children.

Dig deeper into Theoretical Approaches to Mental Health Diagnosis with our selection of articles.

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• Brückner, S., Förster, M., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. and Walstad, W.B., 2015. Effects of prior economic education, native language, and gender on economic knowledge of first-year students in higher education. A comparative study between Germany and the USA. Studies in Higher Education, 40(3), pp.437-453.
• Devi, B., Khandelwal, B. and Das, M., 2017. Application of Bandura's social cognitive theory in the technology enhanced, blended learning environment. International Journal of Applied Research, 3(1), pp.721-724.
• Farazmand, Y., Mehrnoush, M. and Sadighi, F., 2016. The Most Influential Theories of Second Language Acquisition in the 20th Century. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 6(4), p.27.
• Mustafa, M.C., Masnan, A.H., Alias, A. and Radzi, N.M.M., 2017. Sociocultural Theories in Second Language Acquisition. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(12), pp.1168-1171.
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• Saxton, M., 2017. Child language: Acquisition and development. Sage.
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• Sen, S., 2017. Social Interaction of Anglo-Indians Within and Outside the Community. In Anglo-Indian Women in Transition(pp. 141-159). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
• Sharkins, K.A., Leger, S.E. and Ernest, J.M., 2017. Examining effects of poverty, maternal depression, and children’s self-regulation abilities on the development of language and cognition in early childhood: An early head start perspective. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(4), pp.493-498.
• Snyder, S. and Fisk, T., 2016. Applying Bandura's Model to Identifying Sources of Self-Efficacy of Teaching Artists. Research in the Schools, 23(2).pp.90-123.
• Wang, H.Y., Liu, G.Z. and Hwang, G.J., 2017. Integrating socio‐cultural contexts and location‐based systems for ubiquitous language learning in museums: A state of the art review of 2009–2014. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(2), pp.653-671.
• Zachary, O.A. and Thinguri, R., 2016. A critical analysis of child negligence by caregivers on the participation rates on ECDE learners in Kenya. IJAR, 2(12), pp.518-522.