THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOUR AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES INCLUDING THE PROCESS, OF

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.

Psycholinguistics

Mentalist Theory Of Jean Piaget

Who Is Piaget? Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was employed at Binet

institute in the 1920’s, where his job was to develop French versions of questions on English Intelligence tests.

He became intrigued with the reasons children gave for their wrong answers on the questions that required logical thinking. He believed that these incorrect answers revealed important differences between the thinking of adults and children

Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contribution include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children.

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

The goal of theory is to explain the mechanisms and processes by which the infant and then the child, develops into an individual who can reason and think using hypothesis.

To Piaget cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience.

Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Cognitive development is gradual, orderly changes by which mental process become more complex.

He divided the cognitive development of children and adults in 4 stages. Sensory Motor: It starts from birth to 2 years. Pre-Operation: It starts from 2 to 7 years. Concrete Operation: it starts from 7 to 12

years. Formal Operation: Adults. In this stage rigidity

develops.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development:

Sensorimotor Stage: The sensorimotor stage which lasts from birth to 2 years of age is the first Pigetian stage. In this infant construct an understanding of world by co-ordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions.

Rapid change is seen throughout. Begin to understand cause and effect. Early on baby can’t tell difference

between themselves and the environment.

Pre-Operational Stage: It lasts from approximately two to seven years of age. It is the second pigetian stage. In this stage children begin to represent world with words, images and drawings.

Better speech communication. Can image the future and reflect on the

past. Has difficulty distinguishing fantasy

from reality.

Concrete operational stage: This stage which follows the pre operational stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 11-12 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. During this stage, a child’s thought processes become more mature and “adult like”. Piaget determined that children are able to incorporate inductive reasoning. In contrast children struggle with deductive reasoning which involves using a generalized principle in order to try to predict the outcome of an event.

Formal operational stage: The final stage is known as the formal operational stage ( adolescence and into adulthood, roughly ages 11 to approximately 15-20). Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. At this point the person is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Abstract thought: Children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages.

Metacognition: the capacity for thinking about thinking that allows adolescents and adults to reason about their thought processes and monitor them.

Problem solving: is demonstrated when children use trial-and-error to solve problems.

Conclusion How Piaget’s Theory impacts on learning? Curriculum: Educators must plan a developmentally appropriate curriculum that enhances their students logical and conceptual growth. Instruction: Teachers must emphasize the critical role that experiences -or interactions with the surrounding environment- play in student learning.

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