Applying Theoretical Perspective to Curriculum Content
ECE315 Language Development in Young Children
Victoria Phillips
February 20, 2012
Amy Brown

There are theorist all who have different views on how children learn and develop. It is important that teachers learn about the different the theories when it comes to educating students. Students learn differently and in different learning environments.
Nativist main focus is the acquisition of syntactic knowledge. Noam Chomsky believed that children are born prepared to learn language. “Chomsky proposes that this universal grammar is an innate property of the human mind”(Otto, B. (2010) p.28). “Steven Pinker(1994) contended that language is an instinct, not simply a cultural invention: “Language is a biological adaption to communicate information language is the product of a well-engineered biological instinct”(Otto, B. (2010). The nativist perspective encourages teachers to use a curriculum in a way that will provide opportunities for children to explore language. Syntactic knowledge teaches children about word order and its importance in creating meanings. An activity for syntactic knowledge would be a game of “Bingo”. The teacher must first make sure that the each child understands the rule and the categories of the game. I feel that this should be done in a small group of students. Bingo will help students learn new words, how to pronounce the words and most importantly it teaches them to put words in order. There are many other games a teacher can use to help students learn syntactic knowledge. A teacher can use opposites as example: (thin/fat pencils or old/ new shoes). Comparative questions are another good source of syntactic knowledge an example would be: Is the red house bigger than the blue one?” syntactic knowledge addresses the linguistic stage.
Cognitive Developmental Perspective is based in the work of Jean Piaget. Piaget contended the “capacity for mental representation must be present”. (Brainerd,1978, p.110). “The emphasizes of this perspective is that language is acquired as maturation occurs and cognitive competencies develop”(Otto, B. 2010, p.30). Piaget’s Development Theory shows us how children think and learn during different stages in their developmental growth. With this theory teachers are able to better plan their curriculum to fit their specific age group. Piaget’s Theory includes four stages: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete operations and Formal operations. The stage I am focusing on is the first stage sensorimotor stage. Infants are learning about their environment through sensory. They are using their bodies to discover and explore. A teacher should help the infants learn about language by providing stimulating activities and some of those activities would include brightly colored toys, age appropriate music and sensory objects which include soft stuff animals. The cognitive developmental perspective encourages teachers to pay attention to a child’s cognitive skills when planning activities in the classroom.
Behaviorist Perspective emphasizes the role of “nurture” and considers learning to occur based on the stimuli, responses, and reinforcements that occur in the environment. A child is considered to be a “blank slate”)Karmiloff & Karmiloff-Smith, 2001). Giving the correct response when exposed to the behaviorist is not concerned with how or why students obtain knowledge. They are concerned rather the answer or response is correct. Activities would be provided that encourage children to communicate verbally through imitation and repetition. How the behaviorist theory can be used in the classroom would be with the use of technology. Having computers in the classroom for the learning process is a good resource. Teachers can incorporate math skills in a fun for their students. With a math program like “Math Blasters” can provide a positive and negative reinforcements to students when they answer a question correctly or incorrectly. Another behaviorist theory would be rote memorization. This teaches students how to memorize facts about math or state capitals.
Interactionist perspective “focuses on the primary role of social-cultural interaction in children’s development of language knowledge (Bruner, 1983, 1990; John Steiner, Panofsky & Smith, 1994; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986). This perspective contends that children acquire language through their attempts to communicate with the world around them”(Otto, B. 2010). Vygotsky believed that children learn language through social interaction. “Another interactionist perspective is its focus on the language development process rather than on language development process rather than on language as a product of development” (Otto, B. 2010 p.33). With the interactionist perspectives it encourages teachers to focus on providing students with social interactions. Both oral and written language can and will be used. Starting with infancy, language begins and continues to move forward. “Interactionist perspective acknowledges that “nature and nurture are inseparably interwined”(Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl, 1999, p. 131). There are different ways to learn and there are different views on how learning is developed in children. No two children will learn the same so it is important that teachers implement a curriculum on the individual need of the child.

References:
Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood (3 rd. ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.