Validity

Constructionism

The seven basic philosophical views of cognitive and language acquisition have been examined with respect to their underlying assumptions and propositions. These views were monism, dualism, materialism, functionalism, behaviorism, impressionism, and constructionism. Also, quantification should be added because the clinical fields engage in various kinds of quantification such as mean length of utterance (MLU) values, frequency counts (often converted into percentages), test scores (from tests that lack theory-driven construct validity), and rating scales. Constructionism offers the most coherent philosophical view. The eminent scholars of language acquisition adhere to constructionism. The basic premise of constructionism is that an individual actively (intentionally) processes new information in accordance with what is transpiring in an event and what is said about the event. Moreover, individuals process those aspects of a message that they are ready to handle based on previous learning. Interestingly, behaviorism (reinforcement) was found to be the least coherent. Thus, reinforcement lacks credibility as an account of language acquisition.

Compatible Theoretical Perspectives

The Journal of Child Language identified the five most influential theories of language acquisition, all of which are compatible with constructionism. The following is a list of these theories:

• 1.
  Following Noam Chomsky, generative grammars have been influential. Learnability theories and parameter setting theory should be included with generative grammars. These theories share the underlying assumptions of innate capacity and maturation.
• 2.
  Relevance theory, which is a newer rendition of speech act theory, established intent as the irreducible nucleus of language acquisition.
• 3.
  Bootstrapping theories address different contexts for language acquisition. As many as 12 different kinds of contexts have been identified that support language acquisition.
• 4.
  [Page 2026]Modularity theory recognizes that some areas of the brain are encapsulated (i.e., they function relatively independent from other areas). Encapsulation accounts for selective development of cognitive faculties and selective brain injury.
• 5.
  Parallel distributed processing theory pertains to the ability to process, and hold in abeyance, relative clauses while processing a sentence.

Two other influential, and compatible, theories have appeared. They are dynamic systems theory and usage-based theory. Both of these theories are based on the centrality of intention in actual social commerce.

Construct Validity: The Essence of Assessment

A major paradigm shift has occurred in the field of Test and Measurement. While the 1974 American Psychological Association guidelines for test validity indicated that there are three options: content validity, criterion validity, and construct validity, Samuel Messick later considered 15 different kinds of validity and concluded that all kinds of validity are derived from construct validity. Furthermore, he concluded that all tests must have theory-driven construct validity.

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