Language Acquisition Theory by Lev Vygotsky
Vygotsky was of the view that language was a system of symbolic representation which had been perfected over many generations. He believed language came into three categories, which were Social, Egocentric and Inner. For Vygotsky, language was a tool which made thinking a possibility and which differentiated between thinking at an elementary level and on a higher level.
Origins of thought and language… Vygotsky proposed theory that thought and speech have different roots in mankind. Thought is non-verbal and speech is non-intellectual at an early stage of development.
Language acquisition theory by Lev Vygotsky From birth to age of two, the development lines run separate but at the age of two, they join together to initiate a new form of behavior where thought becomes verbal and speech becomes logical. Initially a child’s language appears surface level conversation but at some point later on it becomes the structure of the child’s thought.
Word meaning and concept formation When a child realizes that everything in the world has a name, he faces problem when something nameless and new is presented to him. He himself names the object then but when he, the child, is unable to find any name for the new object, he asks it from the adults. These early word-meanings form the roots of concept formation in the child’s mind.
Vygotsky’s social constructivism According to Vygotsky, all fundamental cognitive abilities develop in light is social history and context. This means that a child’s thought patterns and cognitive skills are not primarily determined by innate factors but the products of the activities a child practices in the society. In this process language is a crucial tool which determines how a child learns to think because more novel thoughts are transmitted to the child by means of words.
Thought and language, and intellectual development Vygotsky believed that in order to understand intellectual development, one must understand the interrelations between language and thought. Language for him is not merely an expression of the knowledge a child has but there is a relation between thought and speech, providing resource to other i. e. language is essential for thought formation.
Zone of Proximal Development… It is the difference between the child’s capacity to solve problems on his own and his capacity to solve the problems with assistance. It can also be defined as denoting the distance between what a child actually knows and what the child can learn under supervision of an adult or peer.
…Zone of Proximal Development. The ZPD includes all the functions and the activities that a child or learner can perform only with the assistance of someone else. The assistant can be an adult like parent or teacher or it can be another peer who has already mastered that ability.
Vygotsky’s theory in contrast with Piaget’s theory… Vygotsky criticized Piaget’s assumption that developmental growth is independent of experience and based on a universal characteristic of stages. Vygotsky believed that characteristics didn’t cease at a certain point but when one thing was learnt, it was used from then onwards.
Vygotsky also disagreed with Piaget’s assumption that development could not be accelerated through instruction. He believed that intellectual development continually evolved without any end point and not like Piaget theorized that it was completed in stages. Piaget’s stage theory only approaches up to and end at approximately age fifteen.
Vygotsky criticized that Piaget’s theory didn’t have any major factors after age 15. Another important fact to notice is that Piaget’s theory does not apply to children with disabilities, for a child suffering from autism or some brain dysfunction will not be able to go through all of Piaget’s stages.
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