Behaviourism, Innatism, Cognitivism: Considering the Dominance to Provide Theoretical Underpinning of Language Acquisition Conjecture

Abstract

The language specialists have discerned that language is a species-specific and a biologically determined scheme for the human beings. After a child is born, it goes under pre-linguistic and linguistic stages of language acquisition. Although there are many different approaches to learning, three basic kinds of learning theory are prominent, like Behaviourism, Innatism, and Cognitivism. All these theories centered around 'nature' and 'nurture' theories or on 'empiricism' and 'nativism' concepts. According to empirical research usually knowledge comes through experience from the environment. Nativism holds that at least some knowledge is not acquired from the environment but is genetically transmitted and innate. The theoreticians never agree or disagree with any of these theories, whether environmentalist or nativist. The principle focus of this study is to investigate the dominance among three main doctrines by delving into the fundamental differences among them. The specification of these theories is also given prominence in this article. Finally, in the findings session, it has been tried to trace the dominance of one particular theory, among others.