COGNITIVISM- SCHEMA
INTRODUCTION
Psycholinguistics is an integration of two disciplines; psychology and linguistics.
Psychology is the study of mind and behaviour; linguistics is the study of language.
So, in general, psycholinguistics can be defined as the study of mind and language.
It is concerned with the relationship between the human mind and the language as it
examines the processes that occur in brain while producing and perceiving
language.
Psycholinguistics covers three main points; language production,
language perception and language acquisition. Language production refers to the
processes involved in creating and expressing meaning through language.
Language perception refers to processes involved in interpreting and understanding
both written and spoken language. Language acquisition refers to processes of
acquiring a native or a second language. Psycholinguistics has provided numerous
theories that explain the three points above. The theories have been very useful in
the field of language teaching. Some experts use them as the basic theories in
developing language teaching methods. It is known as psycholinguistics approach.
Psycholinguistic approach views that language and thought as related but
completely independent phenomena. Learning is viewed as a cognitive individual
process happening within the individual and then moves to the social dimension.
Psycholinguistics as a study of the psychology of language is
realized in language teaching. It helps to study the psychological factors that are
possibly involved in languages learning. Psycholinguistics focuses on the application
of the actual language and communication. It is necessary to make a decision in
applying various methods that allow students to easily understand a language. As an
approach, there are some methods which were developed based on
psycholinguistics theories and the methods have been used widely in the field of
language teaching over the countries.
Psycholinguistic approach views learning as a cognitive individual
process happening within the individual and then moves to the social dimension. As
an approach, there are some methods which were developed based on
psycholinguistics theories such as natural method, total physical response method,
and suggestopedia method. These methods apply psycholinguistic principles that how a person acquires his/her mother tongue or first language (First Language
Acquisition), learns his/her second or third language (Second Language Learning),
perceives a language (Language Perception), and produces language
(Language Production). Language perception refers to listening and reading, while
the language production refers to speaking and writing.
Listening, reading, speaking and writing are called as the
four of language skills. Specifically, psycholinguistics helps to understand the
difficulties of these four skills both intrinsic difficulties and extrinsic difficulties.
Psycholinguistics also helps to explain the errors students do in the language
learning. Moreover psycholinguistics also defines some kinds of brain disorders that
affect language learning performance such as agraphia and aphasia which must be
treated properly. Psycholinguistics mainly helps teachers to consider the use of
appropriate method to teach that four language skill.
COGNITIVISM
The genesis of cognitivism as a learning theory can be traced back to the early
twentieth century. The shift from behaviourism to cognitivism stemmed from the
behaviourist tradition’s failure to explain why and how individuals make sense of and
process information (i.e. ,how the mental processes work). In other words, it was the
limitations of behaviourism that spawned the cognitive movement. Dissatisfied with
behaviourism’s heavy emphasis on observable behaviour, many disillusioned
psychologists challenged the basic assumptions of behaviourism. They claimed that
prior knowledge and mental processes not only play a bigger role than stimuli in
orienting behaviour or response but also intervene between a stimulus and
response. It is argued that people are neither machines nor animals that respond to
environmental stimuli in the same way .
The works of Edward Chase Tolman, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky,
Jerome Bruner, and German Gestalt psychologists were instrumental in engendering
the dramatic shift from behaviourism to cognitive theories. Edward Tolman is usually
considered a pioneer in initiating the cognitive movement . In the 1920s, Tolman’s
experiment with rats suggested that rats knew how the maze in which they were put
was structured because they had its mental map. Accordingly, Tolman asserted that
rather than an automatic response to an event, behaviour had both purpose and
direction and occurred without reinforcement. He saw motivation as the key to
transmuting expectations into behaviour.
It was during the mid-1950s that the impact of cognitive theories in
education was so tremendous as to be called the “cognitive revolution.” The second
half of the twentieth century witnessed an outburst of theoretical and empirical
works on such cognitive processes as memory, attention, concept formation, and
information processing within a cognitive framework. This newline of research is
characterized by a search for new ways to understand what learning is and how it
occurs. These cognitive psychologists investigated mental structures and processes
to explain learning and change in behaviour. Like behaviourists, they have also
observed behaviour empirically but only in order to make inferences about the
internal mental processes. As opposed to behaviourist orientation’s emphasis on
behaviour, the cognitive school focuses on meaning and semantics. The primary emphasis is placed on how knowledge is acquired, processed, stored, retrieved, and
activated by the learner during the different phases of the learning process.
The cognitive school views:
(1) learning as an active process “involving the acquisition or reorganization of the
cognitive structures through which humans process and store information”
(2) the learner as an active participant in the process of knowledge acquisition and
integration.
Cognitive psychologists place more emphasis on what learners know and
how they come to acquire it than what they do. For this reason, the cognitive
approach focuses on making knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize
and relate new information to prior knowledge in memory.
Cognitivism is not based on the works of a single theorist or a unified group
of theorists. Rather, it is in-formed by a number of theorists’ contributions and is quite
multifaceted. The following theorists and accompanying theories have contributed to
the continuous growth of cognitive theories: Piaget’s theory of individual cognitive
development, Vygotsky’s theory of social cognitive growth or zone of proximal
development, Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory, Spiro’s cognitive flexibility
theory, Sweller’s cognitive load theory, Bruner’s cognitive constructivist learning
theory, and Tolman’s theory of sign learning as a bridge between behaviourism and
cognitive theory. Out of the spectrum of cognitive theories, the individual cognitive
trend deriving from Piaget’s studies and the sociocultural trend based on Vygotsky’s
works constitute the backbone of cognitivism.
Piaget’s Cognitive Development (1896-1980)
Piaget is the famous psychologist from Swiss who describes cognitive theory in
the cognitive developmental theory. Piaget’s theory states the children actively
construct their understanding of the world and go through stages of cognitive
development. It means that Piaget described cognitivism in the stage development of
children when they are ready to construct the meaning of things through their own
understanding which starts from the simple to complex thing. There are two
processes underlie in cognitive construction. They are organization and adaptation.
Organization is important in order the children construct the meaning of thing which make sense to them by organizing our experience. For example, we specify the less
and important ideas then we connect them. While adaptation is useful when we add
the new information in our thinking system because there is important additional
information.
In this case, adaptation is differentiated into two ways. They are
assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation occurs when individuals adjust to new
Information. For example: New borns reflexively such everything that touches their
lips (assimilation), but after several months of experience, they construct their
understanding of the world differently. They don’t suck fuzzy blanket
(accommodation). Piaget developed the cognitive development because he believed
that the children pass the four stages of cognitive development.
The first stage is sensor motor (from birth to about two years of age). In
this stage an infant tries to construct the meaning of something that he or she is
seeing and hearing. This stage emphasizes in the infant’s motoric action. The
second stage is preoperational stage (two to seven years of age). In this stage, the
children try to represent the world through word, images, and drawing. The third
stage is concrete operational stage (seven to eleven years of age). In this stage, the
children can use the intuitive thought. It means that they try to learn from concrete to
abstract thing. The fourth stage is operational stage (eleven to fifteen years of age)
In this stage, the individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in abstract
and more logical terms. For instance, formal operational thinkers are more detail in
solving the problem.
➢ So, cognitivism is an approach in psychology that emphasises the role of
cognitive process in learning. It is theoretical perspective that focuses on the
realms of human perception, thought and memory. Jean Piaget, Jerom S
Bruner, John Dewey, David P Ausubel , Noam Chomsky and Tolman are the
fore runners of this thought.
Cognitivism emerged as a reaction to the Behaviourism. The
Behaviourists opine that if there is stimulus, there should be response. But
according to cognitivist, something must mediate between the stimulus and response, i.e. cognitive function.
Stimulus -----Cognitive Function----- Response
Cognitive theory assigns central role to mind, When the learners
mind reacts to the teaching, learning takes place. Though there is stimulus, the
learners think about that for some time, and then give response to that. So
Cognitivism doesn’t have mechanical approach towards meaning. The cognitivist
deal with the things that happen inside the brain as we learn. They examine the
mental process related to learning. The focus is on how the learner processes and
store information in the memory and remembers on demand. The change in
behaviour are observed but only as an indicator to what is going on in the learner’s
head.
Learning is a relatively permanent change in mental associations due to
experience. This definition focuses on a change in mental associations, an internal
change that we cannot observe, Learning is also seen as a change in knowledge
stored in memory. Learners actively process information and learning takes place as
the organise, store and link new knowledge to existing knowledge. They see the
outcome of learning is dependent not only on what the teacher presents but also on
what the learner does to process this information.
The focus of instruction is to create learning or change by encouraging the
learner to use appropriate learning strategies. Information is properly organised,
structured and sequenced to facilitate optimal processing.
Teacher
Teacher creates learning environment and assist learners as they explore it. Teacher
is considered as a facilitator and architect of learning. He helps the learners in
organising and structuring the information accurately so that it can be easily
assimilated. He links new information with the existing information. He uses
techniques to guide and support learners’ attention, encoding and retrieval process.
Teacher manages the class activities. He is a coordinator, motivator, counsellor,
guide etc.
Learner
Learners are active processors of information. Learner occupies the central position in a cognitivist classroom.Learners explore the learning environment in concert with others and construct
meaning from experience. They apply knowledge in personally meaningful
situations.
Activity
Discussion is emphasised. Open ended assignments linked to the changing learning
objectives are given. There is active collaborations among pupils. They apply
principles and the points they learned in meaningful situations.
Assessment
Continuous evaluation is done. Process evaluation is given more prominence.
Product also is evaluated. Collaboration, participation in discussion, assignments,
projects etc are all timely assessed.
Cognitive Theory in Language Learning
Cognitive theory in language learning is in accordance with two modern theories:
cognitive linguistics theory and cognitive psychology theory. Cognitive linguistics
theory describes how language interacts with cognition, how language forms our
thoughts and the evolution of language parallel with the change in the common
mindset across time. Cognitive psychology theory is the scientific study of the mind
as an information processor. It received great popularity in the mid-1950s, shifting
from the study of conditioned behaviour to the understanding of human information
processing.
Features of Cognitivism
❖ Learning materials and activities meet individual differences.
❖ It ensures learners’ involvement in class activities.
❖ Reinforcement is important but not essential for learning to occur.
❖ Learning materials are divided into meaningful units.
❖ Learning materials are properly organised and structured.
❖ Teaching proceeds from simple to complex.
❖ The goal of instruction is communication of knowledge.
❖ New knowledge is linked with existing knowledge.
❖ Learner is the central figure in teaching- learning process.
❖ Teacher is a facilitator and architect of learning.
❖ Learning outcome depends on teacher and learner.
Limitations of Cognitivism
❖ It consumes a lot of time. It gives more importance to students and their
thinking ability.
❖ It is not useful in large classes. In large classes, it is not possible to think
about every individual student to do experiment.
❖ It requires creative teachers. Cognitivism is ideal but the problem is with the
teachers. It demands more from teachers.
SCHEMA
Piaget was interested in the developmental process and the change in
behaviour. The concept of schema applies to the sensori- motor behaviour of
the infant. Schemas are the basic structural units of human mind. They
constitute organised patterns of behaviour that an individual use in dealing
with objects in his environment. An infant’s first schemas represent those
instincts and reflexes that are biologically inherited. As the child grows, it
develops different schemas in the form of organised experiences .As the
development proceeds, the existing schema enlarges and it is co-ordinated
with new patterns of behaviour to form more complex mental representations.
The infant sucks the breast of his mother, he looks at the
object of his environment, listens different voices in his environment and
finally he tries to comprehend, conceptualise the articles, animals, space and
many other cognitive structures. The process of conceptualisation is closely
dependent upon the sequence of behaviour employed by infant to adapt to his
environment. Although a particular schema derives its name from the
behaviour sequence it describes, but it implies some internal organizational
disposition that enables the sequence to adopt itself to a variety of conditions.
The sensori-motor schemas develop out of reflex behaviour of the
infant. They are reduced and internalised as they continue to function and are
gradually converted into cognitive schemas. Piaget believed that schemas (
cognitive structures) exist in primitive form at conception and progressively
develop during the lifetime in certain systematic ways .According to him,
cognitive structures contain all the necessary energy for their emergence and
development without requiring some motivating force .Schema influence
attention and the absorption of new knowledge; people are likely to notice
things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the
schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit.
CONCLUSION
Cognitive theory is learning theory of psychology that attempts to explain
human behaviour by understanding the thought process. It is emphasized In
the conscious thought. The theory was born in the 1950s. There are four
factors influenced the development of it. They are experimental psychology,
the shift from behaviourism to cognition, language acquisition and computer
artificial intelligence. In this case, cognitivism is divided into three important
cognitive theories emphasize their conscious thoughts. They are Piaget’s
cognitive development theory, Vygotsky’s socio cultural cognitive theory, and
the information processing approach. All of the types of cognitive theory
stress on the important process that is happening inside the human’s mind.
The application of cognitive theory can be applied through problem based
learning, discovery learning, cognitive strategies, and project based learning.
Overall the goal of its application is to create the students to be active in
teaching learning process.
REFERENCE
Sivarajan,K, and P.P.John . The Methodology of Teaching English. Calicut
University central cooperative stores,2019.
Mangal,S,K . Advanced Educational Psychology. PHI publications,2011.
Purba,Nortia.” The Role of Psycholinguistics in Language Learning and
Teaching”. Researchgate, April.2018,
https://researchagte.net/publication/33479471Yilmaz,kaya. “ The Cognitive Perspective on Learning: Its Theoretical
Underpinnings and Implications for Classroom Practices”. Researchagte,
Aug.2011, https://researchgate.net/publication/241741103
