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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter consists of a review of related literature. In this chapter, I acknowledge some current approaches and theories guiding foreign language
teaching to children today. Therefore, in this chapter, I give an overview of theory and research relevant to children’s language learning. This chapter examined the
views of Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner who, with ideas reflected and contributed into the theories of children’s language and cognitive development, language
learning and teaching.
Then the main point I present a review of theoretical concepts for the basis of the discussion of the types of scaffolding talks performed by the teachers
and the speech functions they perform in their scaffolding talks. All of the theoretical concepts are organized into the following subtitles:
children’s language and cognitive development, teacher talk, scaffolding, teacher’s scaffolding talks in children foreign language classroom, speech
functions in teacher’s scaffolding talks.
2.1 Children’s Language And Cognitive Development
2.1.1 Piaget’s View of Cognitive and Language Development
Piaget set up various experiments to ascertain how children thought in and about different situations and how they cognitively
developed. It seems he was particularly trying to understand how, going
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through life experiences, children solved problems and how this changed as they got older. His assumption was that children actively constructed
knowledge from their experiences. Based on the results from this work, he suggested that children develop through specific stages. These stages are the
Sensorimotor stage from birth to 2 years. During the sensorimotor, infant and toddlers “think” with their eyes, ears, hands and other sensorimotor
equipments. Therefore, children at this age are learning through interaction with the world around them. The next stage was the Preoperational Thought
from 2 to 6 years. At this age, according to Piaget, children acquire represent skills in the area of imagery. The next stage is, Concrete
Operational Stage from 6 to 12 years. Children at this stage are able to take into account another person’s point of view and their thought process being
more logical, flexible, and organized. Then, they move to more abstract thought within the final stage, the Formal Operational Stage. At this stage,
they are capable of thinking logically and abstractly Silverthorn in http:chd.gse.gmu.eduimmersionknowledgebasetheoristscontructivismPi
aget.htm .
Based on the explanation above, It can be concluded that preschool children aged between 2 - 4 years old are learning through their experiences
and interactions with objects in the environment. “What happens on with concrete objects continues to happen in the
mind, as problems are confronted internally, and action taken to solve them through. In this way thought is seen as deriving from
action; action is internalized, or carried out mentally in the imagination, and this way thinking develop” Cameron, 2002: 3
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Furthermore, from Piaget’s theory of development, it can be summarized that children are active learners and thinkers, sense makers.
They are constructing their own knowledge by thriving with objects and ideas as we often see children are continually interacting with the things
around them. They solve problems which are presented by the environment and then learning will occur through taking action to solve the problems.
Therefore, the practitioners of early childhood educations should create classroom settings and activities as creating as possible so that they offer
opportunities for children to learn. They should create the classroom environment interestingly and equipped with various educational play tools
that attract students’ attentions. Furthermore, children explore and gain knowledge from their experience with objects.
In addition,
Piaget argues
that cognitive development and language acquisition are closely interrelated process. Toddlers develop an abstract
knowledge about the world through experiences with objects around them and by observing the way one object is acted upon by another. This stage of
development closely linked to the sensorimotor period from birth to around 18 months. Goh and Silver, 2004: 14. In Piaget’s view, cognitive
knowledge about the world is seen as precursor to language. Without cognitive development, there can be little or no language acquisition. In
other words, language is the manifestation of a child’ developing cognition. Language is the means by which a child represents reality. This view often
referred to as cognitive determinism: the development of language forms
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governed by cognitive growth, that is, cognitive development before language. See figure 2.1 below.
Figure 2.1 Cognitive Determinism
Source: Goh and Silver 2004: 15
In Piaget’s view, language initially has internal function. Children first use language privately for ‘talking’ about the environment and their
experiences and only later for social interaction. Based from the explanation, it can be concluded that children make an exploration with objects around
them through activity provides the basis for cognitive development. In language learning this means that children are more likely to pick up
language e.g. vocabulary, grammatical functions from participating in activities which require their use than being taught formally.
2.1.2 Vygotskyan View of Cognitive and Language Development
