Chapter 1: How children think and learn, and how they learn
languages
Nunan (1989a: 12) stresses that ‘Although it is not immediately apparent,
everything we do in the classroom is underpinned by beliefs about the nature of
language and about language learning’. Thus, before attempting an investigation of
the teachers’ beliefs, it was considered essential for this initial chapter to provide the
reader with the necessary theoretical knowledge, in order to be able to understand the
research findings which follow.
This chapter consists of two main sections. The first section gives an account
of the most influential theories which psychologists and educators have developed, as
an attempt to explain how children think and learn, including the ones proposed by
Behaviourist Psychologists, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. The second section makes
a reference to a number of seminal theories of language learning, which are classified
according to whether they emphasise the contribution of external factors
(behaviouristic theories), the innate ability people possess (innatist theories) or the
role of interaction (interactionist theories) for the acquisition of language . Both
strong and weak points of each theory are discussed, supported with findings which
come from empirical investigation in the area of language acquisition.
It should be stressed from the beginning that, although no theory can provide a
full explanation of the phenomena it is aiming to investigate, theories are considered
an invaluable tool at the researcher’s disposal. This is because, as McLaughlin (1987:
154) stresses, they serve three functions. The first is that they allow us to understand
and organize the data of experience by summarizing relatively large amounts of
information via a relatively short list of propositions. The second function is that they
transform our thinking about phenomena and enable researchers to use empirical data
to draw conclusions that are not evident from the data taken in isolation. Finally,
according to McLaughlin (ibid), theories guide prediction and stimulate research.
1.1 How children think and learn
Theories about how children think and learn have been put forward by
philosophers, educators and psychologists for centuries. This section discusses the
most influential learning theories which have been developed during the 20th century,
namely those proposed by behaviourist psychologists, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner.
Such a discussion is considered essential at this step as, according to Wood (1988:
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