Interactionist Theory: Lev Vygotsky's Theory Of Language Development

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The Learning perspective argues that children imitate what they see and hear,and that children learn from punishment and reinforcement.(Shaffer,Wood,& Willoughby,2002). The main theorist associated with the learning perspective is B.F. Skinner. Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children by reinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words. (Skinner,1957,as cited in Shaffer,et.al,2002). This theory explains that the language starts on what they see or hear, the children will imitate what they see on their parents or the people around them. The guardian or the parents will reinforce the students and give them punishment so the children or the students will develop themselves. Interactionist Theory . Interactionists argue that language development is both biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others. The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others" ( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et al.,2002,p.362). The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev Vygotsky.Interactionists focus on Vygotsky 's model of collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older people can help children both cognitively and linguistically (