Eastern Theological College

Rajabari, Jorhat, Assam

Course Title: Theories of Personality and Personality Development

M.Th 1 Counselling Course Code: MCM013
First Semester, 2022-2023
Seminar Paper

Topic: 1. Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory

2. Noam Chomsky’s Linguistic Theory

Presenter: Samuel Lotha

Respondent: Arjun Baglari

Course Guide: Dr. S. Ekonththung Ezung

Date: 12-08-2022

Introduction

1. A Brief Biography of Jean Piaget

2. Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory
2.1. Sensorimotor stage (0 to 2)
2.2. Preoperational stage (Ages 2 to 7)
2.3. Concrete operational stage (Ages 7 to 11)
2.4. Formal operational stage (Ages 12 and above)

3. Factors that Influence Children’s Learning and Growth

3.1. Schemas
3.2. Assimilation
3.3. Accommodation
3.4. Equilibration
4. Evaluation

5. A Brief Biography of Noam Chomsky’s

6. Linguistic Theory
6.1. Language Acquisition
6.2. Universal Grammar
6.3. Key Concepts
7. Evaluation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Books
Article in Books
Journal
Net Source

1
Introduction

This paper will deal on Jean Piaget’s stage theory and Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theory.
The four different stages of cognitive development and the factor that are influencing
children learning and growth are being discussed. Also, the Linguistic Acquisition and
Universal language of Chomsky is elaborated in this paper.

1. Brief biography of Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland on August 9, 1896, and began showing an interest in the
natural sciences at a very early age. By the time he was 11, he had already started his career
as a researcher by writing a short paper on an albino sparrow. Piaget continued to study the
natural sciences and received his doctorate in zoology from the University of Neuchatel in
1918. While his early career consisted of work in the natural sciences, during the 1920s he
began to move toward work as a psychologist. He married Valentine Chatenay in 1923 and
the couple went on to have three children. Piaget’s observations of his own children served as
the basis for many of his later theories.1

1.1. Jean Piaget’s Stage Theory

Piaget’s stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive

development involves changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget’s view, early
cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses to changes
in mental operations.2 According to Piaget, changes and developments in one’s cognitive
structure are brought about by interaction with one’s physical and social environment. 3

Piaget’s theory relies on stages and biological maturity. Hence an individual must be ready
for all the stages and their components. Therefore, Piaget advises that one should only teach a
child a concept that the child is prepared to learn and understand. Piaget also argues that there
are concepts that teachers and caregivers should not teach children until the children have an
appropriate cognitive development to handle such ideas.4 Piaget’s four stages are:

1 Kendra Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 StagesofCognitiveDevelopment,”https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-

stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457 (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
2
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
3
Walter. M. Vernon, Introductory Psychology, 3rd ed., (Chicago: Rand McNally College Publishing
Company, 1980), 166.
4 “Jean Piaget- Complete Biography, History and Invention,” https://history-computer.com/jean-

piaget-complete-biography/(Accessed on 25-07-2022).

2
1.2. Sensorimotor stage (0 to 2): The development of knowledge during this stage is simply
sensory and motoric.5 At this point in development, children know the world primarily
through their senses and movements. As children interact with their environment, they
continually make new discoveries about how the world works.6

1.3. Preoperational stage (Ages 2 to 7): The foundations of language development may
have been laid during the previous stage, but the emergence of language is one of the major
hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development. Children become much more skilled at
pretend play during this stage of development, yet they continue to think very concretely
about the world around them.7 Piaget demonstrates that the child learns to use and to
represent objects by images and words. In other words, they learn to use symbolic thinking.
Thinking is still egocentric at this stage and the child has difficulty taking the view of others. 8

1.4. Concrete operational stage (Ages 7 to 11): During this stage, children also become less
egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think and feel. Kids in the
concrete operational stage also begin to understand that their thoughts are unique to them and
that not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. 9 Thus, at this
stage, the child is able to focus his/her attention on the changes that takes place in the world
around them.10

1.5. Formal operational stage (Ages 12 and above): The final stage of Piaget’s theory
involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of
abstract ideas. At this point, adolescents and young adults become capable of seeing multiple
potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them. 11
Piaget however believed that they still fall short of the adult level. Even though those who
have reached the stage of formal operations are capable of engaging in advanced form of
thoughts.12

5
Domenic Mabaniang, “Developing Cognitive Abilities in Children at School,” Holistic Child
Development: Foundation, Theory and Practice, edited by Jesudason Baskar Jeyaraj et.al., vol. I (Bangalore:
Christian Forum for Child Development, 2013), 157.
6
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
7
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
8
Mujibul Hasan Siddiqui, Educational Psychology (New Delhi: A P H Publishing Corporation, 2008),
35.
9
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
10
Bhatia, A Textbook of Educational Psychology,10th ed., (Delhi: DOABA House Book Sellers and
Publishers, 2011), 126.
11
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive, (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
12
Robert A. Baron, Psychology, 5th ed., (New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd., 2008), 301.

3
In a nutshell, Piaget’s Stage theory helped our understanding of children’s intellectual
growth. It also stressed that children were not merely passive recipients of knowledge.
Instead, they are constantly investigating and experimenting as they build their understanding
of how the world works.

2. Factors that Influence Children’s Learning and Growth

Piaget suggested several factors that influence how children learn and grow:13

2.1. Schemas: Schemas are categories of knowledge that help us to interpret and understand
the world. In Piaget’s view, a schema includes both a category of knowledge and the
process of obtaining that knowledge. As experiences happen, this new information is used
to modify, add to, or change previously existing schemas.
2.2. Assimilation: The process of taking in new information into our already existing
schemas is known as assimilation. The process is somewhat subjective because we tend to
modify experiences and information slightly to fit in with our pre-existing beliefs. For
example, seeing a dog and labelling it “dog” is a case of assimilating the animal into the
child's dog schema.
2.3. Accommodation: Another part of adaptation is the ability to change existing schemas in
light of new information. This process is known as accommodation. New schemas may
also be developed during this process.
2.4. Equilibration: As children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is
important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge (assimilation) and
changing behaviour to account for new knowledge (accommodation). Piaget believed that
all children try to strike a balance between assimilation and accommodation using a
mechanism he called equilibration. Equilibration helps explain how children can move
from one stage of thought to the next. 14

3. Evaluation

It can be clearly seen that Piaget’s theory played a significant role in the field of development
psychology. In particular, Piaget established dominance on the studies of intellectual
development of children. He described growth of children from birth to adolescence. The
theory of cognitive development of children studied by Piaget involves a description of the

13
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).
14
Cherry, “Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive.., (Accessed on 25-07-2022).

4
feature of early ages. Piaget’s suggested that as children pass through these stages, they
construct their knowledge by interacting with social surroundings and knowledge of children
consist of experience, therefore he emphasized the importance of activities for children. He
thus brought a new method in the field of education. It is known as discovery learning, for
instance children learn more easily in actions rather than observation and teachers can
understand better about the development of children by using these stages and approaches.
However, Piaget’s theory was criticized by psychologists because the method he used in the
theory was unscientific. The theory was based on his observations. Nevertheless, it is
undeniable for the influence of Piaget’s theory on intellectual growth of children in modern
psychology.15

4. Brief biography of Noam Chomsky’s

Noam Chomsky's parents, Dr. William (Zev) Chomsky and Elsie Simonofsky, were both
Russian Jews and also teachers and linguists. His father was the author of a seminal book on
the grammatic structure of Hebrew and the faculty president of Gratz College for eight years.
Noam grew up in an intellectual atmosphere, and several members of the extended family
had ties to labor or communist movements. He attended a progressive elementary school,
where he wrote for the school newspaper. His first article was about the fall of Barcelona,
during the Spanish Civil War. (Barsky, 9-17.) He later attended Philadelphia's Central High
School. He did not enjoy his experience with the public education system, but during this
period he began to pay regular visits to relatives in New York City, especially an uncle whose
newsstand served as a literary and political salon for members of the Jewish intellectual
community. During this period he began reading anarchist literature and leftist journals. 16

Chomsky attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he met and married Carol Doris
Schatz in 1948. Finding his college experience similar to that of his high school, he
considered dropping out, only to find the intellectual atmosphere he desired with linguistics
chair Prof. Zelig Harris and his friends, who also shared an interest in politics. He recieved
his B.A. in linguistics in 1949 and embarked on postgraduate work in the subject. Harris'
work on linguistics was part of the inspiration for Chomsky's own, though Chomsky's would
follow a radically different path. He recieved his Ph.D. in 1955 and joined the faculty of MIT
the same year. In his doctoral thesis and his first publications, Chomsky began the creation of
a body of work that would transform the study of linguistics. 17

15
Fatih Sobaci, “Grand development theory: Outline of the strengths and weakness of Piaget’s theory.
?”https://www.academia.edu/16314736/Grand_development_theory_Outline_of_the_strengths_and_weakness_
of_Piaget_s_theory(Accessed on 28-07-2022).
16“Chomsky’sBiographicalInformation,”http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/chomsky/cho

mskybio.html (Accessed on 13-08-2022).

17 Biographical Information, (Accessed on 13-08-2022).

5
At the time, linguistics was dominated by the Bloomfeldians, followers of Leonard
Bloomfeld, a behaviorist who theorized that language was acquired through a process of
conditioning and reinforcement. Critical of behaviorist theories and curious how children
could formulate all the complex rules of language based on the limited amount of speech they
heard, Chomsky decided that human language ability must have a genetic basis. As the basis
of his theory, Chomsky developed the idea of a Universal Grammar, a set of principles that
describe the formulation of all human languages. With a more or less instinctive knowledge
of this Universal Grammar, an infant could construct the rules for a language using the
random pieces it was exposed to. Other avenues of Chomsky’s work led to the creation of an
entirely new field of linguistic research known as transformational grammar. 18

4.1. Linguistic Theory

Noam Chomsky is probably the best known and the most influential linguist of the second
half of the Twentieth Century. He suggests that language is an innate talent that is to say that
we are born with a set of rules about language in our minds, which he refers to as the
‘Universal Grammar’.

4.2. Language Acquisition

Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition views language acquisition as a biologically

determined process in the brain which have evolved to contain linguistic signals. Chomsky
concluded that language acquisition requires an inborn faculty in children, a concept known
as the language acquisition device. In other words, humans are born with an innate language
“device” that enables them to learn any human language. Prior to Chomsky, it was widely
agreed that language was acquired through experiential learning, but his theory argues that
human brain structures naturally allow for the capacity to learn and use languages. 19

According to Chomsky, humans acquire language by unconsciously storing information in

the brain. He also believes in the importance of children acquiring and developing effective
language skills during early critical development stages. This is because language helps the
child to function in society, teaching them how to socialize and learn. 20

18
Biographical Information, (Accessed on 13-08-2022).
19
Sydney Baxter, “Noam Chomsky’s Language Theory,” https://study.com/academy/lesson/noam-
chomsky-on-language-theories-lesson-quiz.html, (Accessed on 28-07-2022).
20
“Noam Chomsky’s Language Theory,” (Accessed on 28-07-2022).

6
4.3. Universal Grammar

According to Noam Chomsky, Universal Grammar focuses to answer three basic questions
about human language:21

a. What constitutes knowledge of human language?

b. How is knowledge of language acquired by children?

c. How is knowledge of language put to use in communication?

The Universal Grammar claims that all human beings inherit a universal set of principles.
Chomsky believes that children could not learn their first language so quickly and naturally
without the help of an innate language faculty. Children create a mental representation of
language image which not only goes beyond the input, they are exposing but also achieves
at an age when they have difficulty grasping abstract concepts. Universal Grammar is
concerned with knowledge of language that is with the abstract mental representation of
language and the computational mechanisms associated with it, which all human possess
called competence not performance.22

4.4. Key Concepts

The basic key concepts of Chomsky’s Linguistic Theory are:

4.3.1 Some language ability is innate.

4.3.2. A Universal Grammar exists for all languages.

4.3.3. Children are equipped with a Language Acquisition Device. 23

5. Evaluation

Linguistic Theory formed by Noam Chomsky described language as having a grammar that is
largely independent of language use. Linguistic Theory argues that language acquisition is
governed by universal, underlying grammatical rules that are common to all typically
developing humans. Across many different cultures, there are a number of linguistic
developmental similarities. Chomsky argues that these similarities are due to the presence of

21
Md. Enamul Hoque, “The Universal Grammar Theory: Noam Chomsky’s Contribution to Second
Language (SL) Education,” The Journal of EFL Education and Research 6/2 (June. 2021): 58.
22
Hoque, “The Universal Grammar.., 58.
23
Hoque, “The Universal Grammar.., 58.

7
an innate language-acquisition mechanism housed in the brain called the Language
Acquisition Device. It is thus a specialized language processor that contains universal
underlying linguistic principles that provide children with the innate knowledge to speak and
learn language. Environment only serves to activate the maturation of the Language
Acquisition Device.24

Conclusion

The paper as a whole gives an insightful knowledge about the theories of Jean Piaget and
Noam Chomsky. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development helped add to our understanding
of children’s intellectual growth. It also stressed that children were not merely passive
recipients of knowledge. Instead, they are constantly investigating and experimenting as they
build their understanding of how the world works. While on the other hand linguists like
Chomsky have argued for a universal grammar in part because children everywhere develop
language in very similar ways in short periods of time with little assistance. Children show
awareness of language categories at extremely early ages, long before any overt instruction
occurs.

JustinC.Wise&RoseA.Sevcik“LinguisticTheory,”https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/li
24

nguistictheory#:~:text=Linguistic%20Theory%20was%20formed%20by,to%20all%20typically%20developing
%20humans. (Accessed on 28-07-2022).

8
Bibliography

Books

Bhatia. A Textbook of Educational Psychology, 10th edition. Delhi: DOABA House Book
Sellers and Publishers, 2011.

Baron, Robert A. Psychology, 5th edition. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd., 2008.

Siddiqui, Mujibul Hasan. Educational Psychology. New Delhi: A P H Publishing

Corporation, 2008.

Vernon, Walter. M. Introductory Psychology, 3rd edition. Chicago: Rand McNally College
Publishing Company, 1980.

Article in Books

Mabaniang, Domenic. “Developing Cognitive Abilities in Children at School.” Holistic Child

Development: Foundation, Theory and Practice, edited by Jesudason Baskar Jeyaraj
et.al., vol. I. Bangalore: Christian Forum for Child Development, 2013.

Journal

Md. Enamul Hoque. “The Universal Grammar Theory: Noam Chomsky’s Contribution to
Second Language (SL) Education.” The Journal of EFL Education and Research 6/2
(June. 2021): 58.

Net Source

Baxter, Sydney. “Noam Chomsky’s Language Theory,”

https://study.com/academy/lesson/noam-chomsky-on-language-theories-lesson-
quiz.html. (Accessed on 28-07-2022).

Cherry,Kendra.“Piaget’s4StagesofCognitiveDevelopment,”https://www.verywellmind.com/p
iagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457. (Accessed on 25-07-2022).

“Chomsky’sBiographicalInformation,”http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/choms
ky/chomskybio.html. (Accessed on 13-08-2022).

“Jean Piaget- Complete Biography, History and Invention,” https://history-

computer.com/jean-piaget-complete-biography/.(Accessed on 25-07-2022).

Sobaci, Fatih. “Grand development theory: Outline of the strengths and weakness of Piaget’s
theory.?”https://www.academia.edu/16314736/Grand_development_theory_Outline_of
_the_strengths_and_weakness_of_Piaget_s_theory.(Accessed on 28-07-2022).

Wise,JustinC.&RoseA.Sevcik“LinguisticTheory,”https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psyc
hology/linguistictheory#:~:text=Linguistic%20Theory%20was%20formed%20by,to%2
0all%20typically%20developing%20humans. (Accessed on 28-07-2022).

9
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