• Children learn through support from a more knowledgable other
• The child is directed to move within the zone of proximal development
• The child is challenged and given support for them to venture beyond their current level of ability
• This will result in their level of linguistic knowledge being developed

• Developed a usage-based model of language acquisition and development
• The ability to learn language is primarily social (driven by human pre-disposition to be cooperative and collaborative)
• The ability to learn also relies on using the same kinds of cognitive processes as other forms of learning, e.g. walking, drawing

Children develop their own understanding through exploring and questioning the world around them - Piaget focuses on the need for conceptual understanding. Piaget divided the stages of learning language into 4 sections...

• Sensorimotor (0 - 2) - child begins interacting with their environment using senses and physical movement -> child remains egocentric and object permanence is learnt
• Pre-operational (2 - 6/7) - child learns to speak and imagination focuses - can represent words symbolically -> child remains egocentric and struggles to understand other's  POV - begin to question frequently and try to develop an understanding of things
• Concrete operational (6/7 - 11/12) - child stops being egocentric & begins to yo understand other's POV - become more capable of logical thought
• Formal operational (11 - 16+) - no longer an issue with logical thought and thinking becomes increasingly abstract 

Bruner's social interactionism

(LASS)

• Important for children to have lots of interaction with their caregivers
• Emphasis placed on social situations where a child takes part in conversation
• Adults must provide a meaningful input by questioning, encouraging and supporting the child
• It is important for quality input to be provided to facilitate learning e.g. explaining the difference between a zebra and horse so the child can differentiate between the two animals in future

• In the first few years of life social interaction and exposure to language is essential for a child to fully master a language
• Early childhood is the best time for a child to acquire language

• Children learn through imitation and operant conditioning (positive/negative response given by a caregiver influences how a child talks in future occasions)
• With positive reinforcement they will be more likely to speak that way again
• With negative reinforcement e.g. no praise or a correction, they will be less likely to attempt again
• Children do not respond well to corrections

Chomsky's nativism

(LAD)

• We have a programmed ability to learn language - universal grammar - globally children learn language at similar rates and in similar ways
• Virtuous errors are often made by children when they are attempting to apply the rules they recognise from the language around them, e.g. i swimmed
• Children are unlikely to have heard these virtuous errors from a caregiver, therefore it will not be imitated