part 2 - by David

Cognitive theory and Linguistic Perception through reading

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which says that a child acquires language
through stages of development and which considers a human individual as a critical
thinker from birth, shows that the child develops gradually from infant stage to the stage
(including preoperational and concrete operational stages) of formal operations that
begins in adolescence. From birth, though all the stages of life, the human individual
builds on knowledge through memory.

This innate construction of knowledge through memory is known as schema. The schema
theory of memory storage consists of interpreting new information and allowing it to
enter and become part the knowledge store. That is to integrate it into one’s existing
cognitive structure. Whenever the human interprets and stores new information in his
memory, he does not lose the existing information but he updates it instead.

While reading a text for example, (or when exposed to any other kind of information such
as pictures, objects, words, etc), the existing knowledge (schemata) allows a successful
interaction between the reader and the text. The reader applies his prior knowledge to the
new textual information which in turn helps him comprehend it and acts as an outline
which guides him in organizing and storing the information into his memory.

The process of activating and using schema involves a high level of abstraction
categorization and inference. The individual needs to balance the information and match
it with the existing memory before storing it. The information is taken by the eye and is
transmitted to the brain where it is processed and understood and stored if necessary. If
the reader can’t bring to mind a schema that matches the new information, he fails to
understand it. And the information is rejected. So this process requires critical thinking.

Schema theory then offers a context for developing conscious procedures that students
learn and practice to improve comprehension in difficult learning situation. Schema
building and using are essential to reading for meaning which involves comprehension
monitoring.
Three factors are considered by Berker and Brown in the area of training study:
1 . the student’s metacognitive environment, with focus on skills training, self-regulation
in the practical use of skills and awareness training in which the student is conscious of
significant outcomes and is able to transfer to other learning situations.

2 . the student diagnosis in which the teacher and the students decide which skills need
special study and which may already be mastered ( student centered). In this design we
are dealing with teacher – student interaction where the teacher models and stimulates
cognitive activity.

3 . the contextualization of skills which involves the teaching and use of learning
strategies as part of reading in subject, than in isolated practice sessions.
It therefore clear that the cognitive skills can be trained for comprehending and studying
texts even with students who are uncooperative. Different kinds of texts can be used here
to activate schemata and to focus attention on the new material and strategies: structured
overview, story preview, pretesting, self questioning, visualising text scenario, etc.
E.g. using brainstorming as a way of activating schema and pooling available information
in the pre-reading stage of a reading lesson.

The information above entails that the theoretical concept of schemata as a characteristic
or process of human memory, a way of recognizing and organizing external stimuli, is
applied in practice as a tool for understanding and interpreting an author’s schemata
presented in textual form.

It is also contributive to mention that metacognitive strategies would better be taught,

modeled and reinforced with children at all ages of development. So helping students
develop text comprehension skills would contribute greatly to developing their critic
thinking and information processing capacity. Another way of reinforcing student’s
Metacognition is creating interactions between students-students, teacher-students or
group interaction. In addition, we can reinforce students’ Metacognition by asking
questions. Practice and repetition of successful comprehension experiences is seen as
essential to students’ cognitive growth and achievement.

In this aspect, Chall divides six stages of reading development in a child’s life:

- Stage zero (0 – 6years) she considers it as the pre-reading or pseudoreading stage,

stage in which the child has a specified level of knowledge (read to), at this stage
he is able to examine and consider a printed page and has a working oral
knowledge of thousands of words.
- Stage 1 (6-7 years) – the child is able to relate or connect his spoken language to
his written language, mainly through decoding.
- Stage 2 (7-8 years) this stage is characterized by confirmation and fluency
achieved through practice and reinforcement of decoding skills.
- Stage 4 (9-13years) in which reading is used to learn new ideas and knowledge,
which requires strategies for locating and processing information and mastering
new concepts and content.
- In stage five and six the reading development of a child will be dependent to the
availability and complexity of the material, the purpose for reading and the
capacity of synthesizing and integrating information to create new knowledge.

Cognitive styles

Zmiles refers to cognitive style as “a characteristic made of cognition that is closely

interwoven with aspects of an individual’s temperament and personality. It is related to
aspects of impulse control and affective expression. Cognitive styles are ways in which
individuals conceptually organize the environment.
The human has at his disposal from birth a number of cognitive mechanisms for
retrieving an assimilating information. He is predisposed by innate capacity to favor one
or another set of perceptually based schemata.

The frequent disparity between teacher’s and students’ cognitive styles is another
obstacle since teachers are likely to use instructional methods that reflect personal
cognitive stiles. For this reason, teacher needs to be metacognitively aware of their own
perceptual biases and to adopt instructional knowledge to fit a wide range of students’
learning styles. That is to say that teachers should know very well their students’
difficulties, limitations, problems so that they can design appropriate strategies for
teaching and learning.

Teachers can also be able to combine knowledge of brain functioning with knowledge
teaching. This can be done by stimulating the right brain learning through visual thinking,
fantasy, evocative language, direct experience, multisensory learning, music, metaphor…

Types of intelligence

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence hypothesizes seven types of intelligence:

linguistic, musical, logical, mathematical, spatial, bodily –kinesthetic, personal-self,
persona-others. Each type has a distinctive developmental pattern of growth, a definable
set of core operations and recognizable “end-state” performances. Each is based on
supporting evidence from research on conceptual individuals and the nervous system. In
addition, each can be encoded in symbol system that articulates and transmits knowledge
trough combinations of words, numbers, pictures, music and movement.

Biber combines cognitive theory with psychodynamic developmental theory. He sees

dramatic play as an essential growth process because it engages children’s
cognitive/intellectual and affective/social capacity. It allows the child to release his
illusion and expresses it through speech, movements and interaction with others.

Voluntary reading of print and non-print works of imagination engages the reader on both
cognitive and affective levels. Dramatization of stories and plays also involves
intelligence in a creative synthesis and reinterpretation.

Application of cognitive theory to language class

Now knowing that human being from birth through all the stages of life builds knowledge
by interpreting new information and storing it in his memory, the teacher's task is first of
all to understand his students (needs, behavior, cultural aspect…) and help them develop
both performance and competence in language learning/ acquisition by using different
gammas of strategies such as dramatization (using real environment and tradition),
storytelling, poetry, plays, visuals, etc.

Additionally, while teaching, the teacher should provide students with mechanism and
support in activating and using their schema while reading or when exposed to any
information so that they can effectively interact with it and plausively interpret and
comprehend it.

The teacher should also be able to control his own perception of the matter in the light of
students’ cognitive styles or learning styles.