English cognitive development theory of language acquisition
(First slide)
//there are several cognitive development theories that have been developed by various researchers
in the past. However today we will focus on on particular theory proposed by Jean Piaget
somewhere around 1920s. It closely links the child’s language with their cognitive development.
Hence, it is important to understand what the term cognitive development means.
?Anybody from the audience knows what cognitive development is? - the mental process involved in
gaining knowledge through thought, experience and senses.
?Does anybody have a good example for cognitive development? - understanding object
permanence, recognising faces, abstract thinking etc.
//this means that according to the cognitive theory of language acquisition, as these cognitive skills
develop in a child over time, so does the language. As the child understands the objects
permanence, meaning that objects exist separately from themselves, their language evolves, so
now they can name things like “ball”, “train”, “mummy” etc. Likewise, when the child’s cognitive
development reaches abstract thinking, so does their language by the means of using abstract lexis
such as “happy”, “true”, “beautiful” etc.
(Last slide)
//In short, cognitive theory of language acquisition divides child’s cognitive development along with
language development into four main stages namely sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete
operational and formal operational. Although it was later proved that for children it takes less time to
go through all of the stages of cognitive development, the theory was used a lot for developing the
educational system for children.