Learning to Talk: A Historical Overview of Acquisition Theory

The theory of Behaviorism, proposed by B.F. Skinner during the 1950s, suggests children learn language through imitation, reward and reinforcement. This perspective sees language as a learned behaviour.
Noam Chomsky, a linguistics scholar, challenged Skinner in the 1960s with the idea of Innatism or Nativism. He proposed that children are born with an inbuilt capacity for language acquisition, known as the ‘Language Acquisition Device’, with universal grammar rules.
Chomsky’s theory evolved into the idea of a Universal Grammar, in which all human languages share a common underlying structure. His idea of ‘poverty of stimulus’ suggests that the language children are exposed to is too incomplete and ungrammatical for them to learn without some innate knowledge.
Jerome Bruner (1980s), advanced the Social Interactionist Theory, positing language development as a social process, through which the child uses language not only to express thoughts and feelings, but also to interact with others.
In the late 20th century, Connectionist perspectives suggested that language acquisition is a product of intricate neural networks in the brain that form and strengthen with experience and exposure to language.
Later, the Emergentist theory arose, which combines elements of social interaction and a cognitively based perspective. It argues language emerges from a child’s interaction with their environment, within their cognitive abilities.
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory (1930s) proposed that language is just one aspect of a child’s overall cognitive development, developing in stages.
The Zone of Proximal Development concept by Vygotsky suggests that a child’s potential for language development is directly influenced by their interaction with more proficient language users.
In the 21st century, researchers like Tomasello have promoted the Usage Based Theory, arguing that children acquire language based on the frequency and regularity of forms they hear in the language input.
Despite an array of theories, it’s generally accepted that language development likely stems from a combination of many influences, including innate abilities, social interaction, cognitive development, and environmental factors.