Section 2.7 Theories of language development and learning

This theory states that language development occurs in the context of social interaction, that is, as children interact with adults and other children. This means that language development is interactive, that is, adults mediate language through interactions designed to elaborate and extend meaning (Vygotsky, 1978).

An example of such interactions is seen when an infant makes his or her first sounds. The result is that the parent is delighted and responds with gentle words that encourage the child to repeat the sounds. As the children grow older, they can formulate consonant, and vowel sounds then they try them out.  By six months, it is common to hear children vocalize sounds such as ba, ba, ba or ma, ma, ma.

The theory recognizes the valuable support from the caregiver whereby the introduction of Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) describing the support from caregivers/parents/ teachers in a child’s early language development such as:

• Adjusting language to suit the child. This is sometimes referred to as ‘motherese’, ‘caregiver speech’, ‘baby talk’, or ‘Child-Directed Speech (CDS)’.
• Collaborative learning such as joint reading. This can involve an adult looking at picture books with a child and pointing out key vocabulary, for example, by saying ‘this is a banana’ as they point to a picture of a banana.
• Encouraging the child and providing feedback through interactions. For example, the adult may smile when the child talks and say ‘yes, good, that’s a banana!’
• Providing examples for the child to imitate. This includes using certain vocabulary in certain social situations, for example, by encouraging the child to ‘say hi!’ or ‘say thank you!’
• Games such as “sakwe-sakwe” in Kinyarwanda that practice the turntaking that is necessary for interactions.