Many linguistics departments offer a course entitled 'language and brain' or 'language and mind.' such a course examines the relationship between linguistic theories and actual language use by children and adults.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom findings are presented from research on a variety of topics, including the course of language development, language production and understanding, and the nature of language breakdown due to brain injury.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom these topics provide examples of what is currently known about language and the mind, and they offer insights into the central issues in this area of linguistic research.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Language is a significant part of what makes us human, along with other cognitive skills such as mathematical and spatial reasoning, musical and drawing ability, the capacity to form social relationships, and the like.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom as with these other cognitive skills, linguistic behavior is open to investigation using the familiar tools of observation and experimentation.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

It is wrong, however, to exaggerate the similarity between language and other cognitive skills, because language stands apart in several ways.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for one thing, the use of language is universal—all normally developing children learn to speak at least one language, and many learn more than one.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom by contrast, not everyone becomes proficient at complex mathematical reasoning, few people learn to paint well, and many people cannot carry a tune.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom because everyone is capable of learning to speak and understand language, it may seem to be simple. But just the opposite is true—language is one of the most complex of all human cognitive abilities.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the language instinct

Even outside the laboratory, one can make many interesting observations that one can make about the course of language development.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom many of the most complex aspects of language are mastered by three- and four-year-old children. It is astonishing for most parents to watch the process unfold.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom what many parents don't realize is that all children follow roughly the same path in language development. And all children reach essentially many of the same conclusions about language, despite differences in experience.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom all preschool children, for example, have mastered several complex aspects of the syntax and semantics of the language they are learning. This suggests that certain aspects of syntax and semantics are not taught to children.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom further underscoring this conclusion is the finding, from experimental studies with children, that knowledge about some aspects of syntax and semantics sometimes develops in the absence of corresponding evidence from the environment.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

To explain this remarkable collection of facts about language development, linguists have attempted to formulate a theory of linguistic principles that apply to all natural languages (as opposed to artificial languages, such as programming languages).Cognitive learning theory in the classroom these principles, known as linguistic universals, offer insight into the acquisition scenario set out before us: why language is universal, why it is mastered so rapidly, why there are often only loose or incomplete connections between linguistic knowledge and experience.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom these features of development follow from a single premise--that linguistic universals are part of a human 'instinct' to learn language, i.E., part of a biological blueprint for language development.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

There is another way in which knowledge of language and real-world experience are kept apart in the minds of children; they do not always base their understanding of language on what they have come to know from experience.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom for example, children do not combine the words of the sentence 'mice chase cats' in a way that conforms with their experience; if they did, they would understand it to mean that cats chase mice, not the reverse.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in other words, children are able to tell when sentences are false, as well as when they are true. This means that children use their knowledge of language structure in comprehending sentences, even if it means ignoring their wishes and the beliefs they have formed about the world around them.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom modularity

Research on adult language understanding is also concerned with the architecture of the mind and with the possibility that linguistic knowledge and belief-systems reside in separate 'modules'.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom to investigate the issue of modularity, studies of adult language understanding ask when different sources of information are used in processing sentences that have more than one possible interpretation.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom it is in the nature of language that many sentences are ambiguous. Yet, ordinarily, by the time a person reaches the end of an ambiguous sentence, only a single interpretation remains, the one that is consistent with the conversational context.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in the absence of any context, e.G. In a laboratory setting, the interpretation that survives is often the one that best conforms with a person's general knowledge of the world.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Adopting a modular conception of the mind, some researchers contend that the preference for one interpretation over its competitors is initially decided on linguistic grounds (syntactic and semantic structure); real-world knowledge comes into play only later, on this view.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the availability of different sources of information is difficult to determine, however, because the resolution of ambiguity takes place as a sentence is being read or heard, rather than after all the words have been taken in.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom in order to establish the time-course of various linguistic and nonlinguistic operations involved in language understanding, sentence processing is often measured in real time, by recording the movements of the eyes in reading, for example.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the jury is still out on the question of the modularity of mind in language processing, but there are some suggestive research findings, and few researchers in the area would deny the contribution of linguistic knowledge in the process.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom

Another source of evidence bearing on the modularity hypothesis comes from studies of language breakdown. Language loss, or aphasia, is not an all-or-nothing affair; when a particular area of the brain is affected, the result is a complex pattern of retention and loss, often involving both language production and comprehension.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the complex of symptoms can be strikingly similar for different people with the same affected area of the brain. Research in aphasia asks: which aspects of linguistic knowledge are lost and which are spared?Cognitive learning theory in the classroom the fact that language loss is not always associated with a corresponding loss of pragmatic knowledge supports the modularity hypothesis, bringing the findings of research on aphasia in line with those from the study of child and adult language understanding.Cognitive learning theory in the classroom