Cognitive Theory of Language Acquisition

• The cognitive theory of language acquisition posits that language learning is a conscious process developing alongside cognitive abilities.
• Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget first proposed this theory in the 1930s.

Key Ideas

• Language is part of a child's intellectual development, encompassing memory, attention, and problem-solving.
• Cognitive development occurs as children with limited cognitive abilities mature through life experiences.
• Language acquisition follows a universal, gradual, and progressive sequence of stages.
• Learning strategies help in processing information for comprehension, learning, and retention.

Language Stages

• Infants coo and babble in the pre-language stage.
• Children understand single words like "milk" or "eat" in the holophrastic stage.
• Children pair two words together, such as "baby chair" or "mommy eat," in the two-word stage.
• Children form phrases with similar meanings to sentences, even with incorrect word order, in the telegraphic speech stage.

Piaget's Argument

• A child must understand a concept before acquiring the language to express it.
• Seriation, comparing objects by size, illustrates this.
• A child who can arrange sticks in order of size can learn and use comparative adjectives like "bigger" or "smaller."
• Object permanence: During the first year of life, children are unaware of objects they cannot see.
• By 18 months, children realize objects exist independently of their perception, linking to vocabulary growth.
• Cognitive theory suggests individuals must first understand a concept before expressing it in language.
• Cognitive abilities must develop to understand new concepts and build a mental image of the world.

Classroom Applications

• Implement effective learning strategies.
• Foster a positive, low-anxiety learning environment.
• Connect language learning to students' interests and goals.
• Encourage students to set realistic goals and celebrate achievements.

Cognitive Learning Theory

• Language learning is closely linked to brain maturation and development.
• Exposure to the world allows a child's mind, and thus language, to develop.
• Children possess limited cognitive abilities that develop over time through life experiences.
• Cognitive ability encompasses thinking, reading, learning, memory, reasoning, and attention skills.
• Piaget introduced his cognitive development theory in 1936, dividing development into four stages.
• The developmental process has four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
• Children expand their knowledge as they progress through the stages, building a mental image of their world block by block via schemas.
• Schemas are 'blocks of knowledge."
• Vygotsky built on Piaget's work, developing a sociocultural cognitive theory and examining social and cultural facets of cognitive development.

Cognitive Theories

• Piaget's cognitive development theory
• Vygotsky's sociocultural cognitive theory
• Information processing theory

Piaget and Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss psychologist and genetic epistemologist.
• Children's thinking is fundamentally different from adults' thinking.
• Before Piaget, children were often seen as 'mini adults'.
• Piaget's theory influenced language acquisition, linking language learning to intellectual development.
• Language and cognitive skills are directly related, with stronger cognitive skills boosting language skills.
• Knowledge cannot emerge without a pre-existing structure to make sense of the world.
• Children are born with a mental structure upon to build new knowledge.
• Cognitive growth integrates simpler concepts into higher-level schemas.
• Schemas: building blocks children use to mentally represent the world.
• Children constantly create and recreate their model of reality based on schemas.

Four Stages of Cognitive Development

• Intelligence develops as children grow through set stages until adulthood.

Sensorimotor Stage:

• Children learn mainly through sensory experiences and manipulating objects.
• Children are born with basic 'action schemas', like suckling and gripping.
• Children use action schemas to understand new information.
• Egocentric language that is based on own experiences and struggle to understand others' feelings.
• Socialised language use as a tool to communicate with others.
• Children’s language is egocentric, and they communicate for themselves.

Preoperational Stage:

• Children develop symbolic thought and create an internal representation of the world via language and mental imagery.
• Children can discuss the past, future, and others' feelings.
• Rapid language progress during this stage.
• Mental schemas allow picking up many new words quickly.
• Shift from one-word utterances to basic sentences.

Concrete Operational Stage:

• Children think logically about concrete events and sovlve problems.
• Thinking remain literal.
• Language development highlights a shift from illogical to logical and egocentric to socialized thinking.

Formal Operational Stage

• Cognitive development has increased logical thought.
• Teengers have the ability to understand abstract and theoretical concepts increases.
• No stage can be skipped, although development rate varies.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

• Learning is a social process
• Children learn their cultural values, beliefs, and language with more knowledgeable people like caregivers.
• Environment greatly influences the way that children think.
• Cognitive development varies across cultures.
• Language shapes thought.

Cognitive Theory in the Classroom

• Involves cognitive learning as a teaching approach that encourages students to be active and engaged.
• Moves away from memorization or repetition
• Focuses on developing a proper understanding.
• Encouraging students to figure out answers for themselves, rather than telling them is imporant
• Encouraging students to reflect on their answers and explain how they came to their conclusions is importnant Helping students find solutions to their problems will help thier cognative developement
• Encouraging discussions can help children identify patterns in theor learning
• Visual aids help to reinforce new knowlegde
• Utilising instructional scaffolding techniques also helps children to learn.

Cognitive Theory Key Takeaways

• The theory was developed by Jean Piaget in the 1930's
• Children are born with limited cognitive ability
• They can develop knowlegde with "building blocks of knowlegde", named schemas
• Piaget identified 4 stages of developement
• The primairy types of cognitive theory is Piaget's, Vygotsky's and information process theory.
• Applying the theory encourages a student-led appraoch to teaching