Blog Series: How Linguistics Got Stuck in the Cognitive Loop
Read the full [upcoming] series:
Introduction: Is Music the Universal Language, or Even a Language at All?
How Linguistics Got Stuck in the Cognitive Loop — You are here.
Breaking the Pattern: Alternative Theories in Second Language Acquisition
How the Music–Language Debate Began
Beyond Cognitivism: New Perspectives on Music and Language
What’s Next? A Transdisciplinary Future for Music and Language
(Links will be replaced with the actual blog URLs once published.)
Pt. 2
Over the last forty years, the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has been pushed to expand outside of its early, narrowly defined theories into something more social, environmental, and human. In this evolutionary effort to “shift” a fairly young field, scholars have worked to outline SLA’s history and recommend new directions for research (Gass & Selinker, 2008; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991; Lightbown & Spada, 2016; VanPatten & Williams, 2015).
It’s this historical timeline that provides a framework for comparison between music and language acquisition. If we take what we’ve learned from the timeline of SLA, we can apply it to the largely stagnant, cognitivist timeline of understanding music acquisition.
If we used the expectations currently held about music acquisition and applied them to SLA, the field of SLA would barely exist. Similarly, music acquisition, as a subfield, is essentially non-existent. The goal here is to get linguists more involved in this conversation so both disciplines, SLA and music studies, can meet where SLA has evolved to and move forward together.
Where It All Started: Behaviorism and Cognitivism
Lightbown & Spada (2016) categorize second language learning through behavioral and cognitive perspectives, but rarely mention alternative theories. Their timeline starts with behaviorism and innatism (the cognitive approach, both initially used to explain first language acquisition and later transferred to SLA.
Cognitive psychology’s influence soon took root. Thinkers like Robert DeKeyser in the 1990s introduced information processing models into SLA, forming the foundation of what we now refer to as the “cognitivist perspective.”
At the core of this is Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (UG), an innatist theory proposed as a rebuttal to behaviorism. UG suggested that humans are born with an internal linguistic faculty that allows language learning to unfold almost automatically. This theory shaped generations of linguistic thought, including how we compared music and language.
As the field evolved, scholars began questioning whether language acquisition was explicit (conscious learning) or implicit (subconscious development). These questions led to interactionist perspectives, which emphasized the role of environment and social context in shaping language learning.
Why This Matters for Music
This same timeline is directly relevant to music acquisition. It’s been over forty-five years since Leonard Bernstein drew his initial parallels between language and music, relying on Chomsky’s cognitive theory to do so. Yet, while SLA has evolved far beyond these frameworks, music research largely remains rooted in the same cognitivist assumptions.
We’ve built the idea of “musical learning” around a mental faculty or innate template, as if musical understanding were simply processed and stored in the brain like language syntax. This has kept the study of music acquisition locked inside the cognitive loop, focused on the brain’s internal systems rather than the rich, ecological and social realities of how humans actually learn and experience music.
If SLA had never moved past its cognitive roots, we would still be treating second language learners as computers processing input and output, rather than as human beings developing within living, adaptive environments. That’s exactly where music acquisition research sits today.
Looking Forward
The parallels between the two fields are striking. SLA has already taken the turns, from behaviorist to cognitive to interactionist to ecological and emergentist. Music research hasn’t yet followed.
So perhaps the next step is not to reinvent the wheel, but to borrow from SLA’s evolution. By tracing how linguists reimagined language learning over the decades, we might finally find new ways to understand how music is learned, communicated, and lived.
About the Author
Alison Bieber is a classically trained vocalist, applied linguist, holistic voice coach, and Owner of Vocalize GR based in Grand Rapids, MI. Her previous work explores the intersection of music, language, and cognition, challenging traditional theories of learning and communication through a transdisciplinary lens.
Interested in working with Alison? Reach out or book a lesson!
