I just wanted to go over the models to make sure that I am on the right track. Piaget said cognition comes first and then language. Chomsky was the opposite, he said language comes first and then cognition. Vygotsky stated language and cognition were interdependant. Pinker believed the opposite the they were completely independant of each other. Skinner said "we learn from what we see" and that we need to experience things to understand them. If I am completely off base please someone fill me in to what I did wrong or if you have another way of explaining it better let me know. Thanks for your help!
P.S.- I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I really enjoy this class! I am completely engaged from start to finish and I can definitely not say that about most of my other classes.
2 comments:
Leslie, you've done an excellent job of beginning to summarize the thinking of these folks.
Keep Piaget, Chomsky, Vygotsky and Pinker in one discussion - WHEN thinking develops and WHEN language develops and the relationship each have on the other.
Put in the next group, Skinner, Chomsky (again), Bloom and Bruner. Their theories address more of HOW language is ACQUIRED. What is happening around children to assist them in acquiring or developing language.
Example:
Skinner would state, Children imitate what they hear spoken around them. Based on modeling and imitation they develop language.
Chomsky would state, "Children are exposed to very little correctly formed language. When people speak, they constantly interrupt themselves, change their minds, make slips of the tongue and so on. Yet children manage to learn their language all the same."
Chomsky believe that children do not simply copy the language that they hear around them. They deduce rules from it, which they can then use to produce sentences that they have never heard before. They do not learn a repertoire of phrases and sayings, as the behaviourists (Skinner) believe, but a grammar that generates an infinity of new sentences.
Where does that put Bloom and Bruner?
I enjoyed your blog because what you summarized seemed like the straight to the point information I got from class as well so looking at your comment from Mrs. White helped me out a lot which is great and gave me a better idea and more input to each theory.
My question to Mrs. White is while studying this information and learning it, how will these different concepts and theories be used on the test. I remember you mentioned that the little videos we watched will be part of the test, and i wasn't sure if we would have to compare the different concepts of language or cognition first and then explain it with the different videos because in that case i feel like I don't completely understand the extent language and cognition is used. For instance we once talked about any little sound is language then i feel like last time we debated on if baby talk was language or not. While i believe language and cognition can be precieved in so many different ways.
Im not sure if I just confused my self more but if you understand where I'm coming from that would be great if you could maybe clear it up a little for me.
Thanks,
Amanda
P.S. I completely agree with you this is the one class that I enjoy and once the 2 1/2 hour class is over I cant believe it went so fast and I'm still ready to learn more.
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