Brief Historical Understanding of How Children Learn and Develop

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Views of Piaget

Jean Piaget, a well-known theorist in developmental psychology, tried to work out how children thought and developed cognitively. In the 1960s and 1970s,

Piaget's assumption was that children actively constructed knowledge from their experiences. From birth, he saw them as trying to make sense of the world through their actions. This made children central to their own learning. Piaget wanted to try to establish how children made sense of their world and how they tried to work things out for themselves. (Piaget 1967, Cameron 2001)

Developmental stages of children Based on the results from his work and research with children Piaget suggested that children developed through specific stages. These stages were: Sensori-Motor Stage (from 0 - 18 months) in which children seemed to learn through interaction with the world around them, largely through the use of their senses. This was a stage where Piaget felt children were particularly egocentric and were only able to think about things in terms of how they interacted and linked with themselves. Pre-operational stage (from 18 months - 7 years) in which children were developing towards the next stage. They were starting to use some aspects of the concrete world around them and were also beginning to internalize information in a very basic way through the use of their imagination and memory.

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Concrete Operational Stage (from 7 - 11 years) in which children were able to operate and learn through their interactions with the concrete world around them and were moving towards the final stage which would involve more abstract thinking.

Formal Operational Stage (from approximately 11 years of age to adulthood) in which children were able to develop more abstract thought and understanding in this final stage of cognitive development. Usually this stage coincided with puberty and the development into adulthood.

Language is Central to Child Development

Lev Vygotsky (1978) and Jerome Bruner (1983, 1990, Bruner and Haste 1987) believed, in contrast to Piaget, that language was central to the cognitive development of children. In particular, they thought it was instruction (provided by an adult, a teacher, or a more able peer) that helped children to learn and develop.

Vygotsky and Bruner believed that the act of internalization for children (moving thought from something that was spoken out loud to thought that was in their heads)

While Piaget talked of children working through different stages of learning on their own, Vygotsky (1978) described the difference between what children could achieve (and how they could develop) on their own and what children could achieve (and how they could develop) when an adult was able to work with them as the zone of proximal development.

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Encouraging development and growth Bruner (1983,1990, Bruner and Haste 1987) developed this idea further and described the cognitive support that could be given to children by a more knowledgeable other as scaffolding

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A view of scaffolding: Just as scaffolding can provide support to a building in its initial stages of development, a more knowledgeable other can provide support to a child and encourage him or her on to higher stages of development.

Margaret Donaldson (1978), through her research felt that children were able to achieve and understand more than Piaget believed they could. She found Piaget had not, for example, taken into account what sense children were making of the type of adult questioning that was used in the experiments he carried out, or the fact that the experiments were taking place in very unnatural and child-unfriendly settings, such as science laboratories. (Cameron 2001, Donaldson ) Donaldson felt that Piaget's view of the child as very egocentric and she showed how young children were able to think in ways that Piaget felt they could not.

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How Do We Think Children Learn Language? Language learning innate and universal? Critical period for language learning? Learning a language is a complex process. However, we can see in all corners of the world, that children somehow learn to speak their native language without formal training. If we move on to think about the learning and development of language in children, particularly their mother tongue, we find that Noam Chomsky (1959) believed that learning was innate. This idea was developed by the group called the Inatists, so called because they felt that learning (and therefore language learning) happened to all individuals, and therefore, must be innate and universal. Chomsky felt that there was an innate language capacity in all of us which he called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). This ability to acquire language was later referred to as Universal Grammar (UG). This idea of Chomsky's linked neatly with the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) suggested by Eric Lenneberg around the same time (1967). Lenneberg thought that there was a critical period, up to about the age of eleven, in which children were able to learn language. He believed that if language was introduced to children after this age (or this critical period) then it was extremely difficult for them to learn it. This hypothesis has often been cited as one of the main reasons for starting the teaching of foreign languages early in a child's schooling.

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Children are constantly learning, inside and outside the classroom. By watching them in the classroom and on the playground, we can see that individual children have different interests and that they learn about their world in different ways.

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Linguistic Reading, as well as the creative use of words (such as doing crossword puzzles) is usually enjoyed by those favoring this intelligence. We would probably see a journalist using this intelligence more than other people. Logical-mathematical Sorting and ordering are favored by this intelligence, which also includes classifying, ranking and sequencing. People who enjoy research and organization of research results would likely show high tendencies to use this intelligence more. Spatial This intelligence links well with the use of diagrams, maps, charts, plans, pictures and seeing how things fit together. Cartographers and designers are likely to show strong signs of this intelligence. Kinesthetic This intelligence leans toward the physical. Interaction with and manipulation of themselves and objects is important to this intelligence. Dancers, acrobats, gymnasts and sportspeople use this intelligence a great deal. Musical The use of rhythm, music and song is particularly important to this intelligence. Songwriters, singers and musicians would use this intelligence much more than others

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Interpersonal This intelligence links well with personal interaction with others and people favoring this intelligence usually relate well to others. People who enjoy counseling, teaching, training and demonstrating use this intelligence a lot. Intrapersonal This intelligence favors reflection and personal thought about what is happening to individuals and the world around them. Often religious leaders have a strong tendency to use this intelligence more than others.

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Considering your learning styleDo you feel you use some of these intelligences more than others? We all do, though it is interesting and very revealing to be aware of the intelligences you favor. With reference to language learning in particular, Berman (1998 in Ellis and Brewster 2002) felt that there was a clear link between success in language learning and preferred learning styles, so he carried out some research in an average adult class of learners. He found that 29% were visual learners, 34% were auditory learners and a surprising 37% were kinesthetic learners. This seems to be a very interesting result and as such, we cannot underestimate what the implications might be for our own classroom teaching. How Do We Think Children Learn a Foreign Language? If we were to observe language classrooms today, we might see many different approaches to teaching and learning underway from class to class (and from learner to learner and from teacher to teacher). Two types of language (BICS and CALP) Some really interesting work has been carried out by Jim Cummins (1979) who suggests that there are two types of language that can be acquired. These are Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS)and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). As the names suggest, BICS-type language is the everyday social interactive language that we all use when interacting from a very early age, while CALP-type language is a rather sophisticated language we use as we focus on and study a subject at an academic level using more analytical language.

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Linking language learning with everyday life Before embarking on teaching a foreign or second language to younger learners, then, we need to remember that we are trying to provide opportunities for these learners to find out about and use this other language. Teachers need to show them how the new language can have a link with their everyday lives and be fun. Teachers can also, depending on the age of the learners, introduce the idea that it is positive to speak another language and communicate more easily in a world that is becoming smaller. Language teachers, also need to act as mentors and modelers of this target language. As mentors, they must support and scaffold the learning, and as modelers, they must provide good examples of the language in use. They must also help young learners share their ideas about everyday things around them and expand their general knowledge while learning a new language.

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