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1. ASSIGNMENT OF: English for Specific Purpose
ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO: Mam Rehana
TOPIC: Mentalist Theory
ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED BY:
FATIMA GUL
SITARA AYAZ
ABIDA PARVEEN
MARYAM TARIQ
DATE: 3rd April.2013
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2. Mentalism
Mentalism, a theory based on mental perception and thought processes, can be learned through
experience or through an apprenticeship with an experienced mentalist. The doctrine that objects
of knowledge has no existence except in the mind of the perceiver
Mentalism is a general term for scientific approaches to various phenomena that try to study the
properties of the human mind, rather than just their directly observable manifestations. In
linguistics, mentalism is associated both with generative linguistics and with more modern
approaches that go under the heading of cognitive linguistics. Mentalist linguists try to describe
the mental patterns of language (or the internalized grammars) that underlie linguistic behavior.
The term was originally used for the old view that the mind is a non-physical entity controlling
but distinct from the body, especially at the beginning of the 20th century (e.g. in Leonard
Bloomfield's writings). At that time, it was opposed to mechanism (or physicalism). Later the
view that in linguistics is associated with Bloomfield came to be known as behaviorism, and the
term mentalism came to acquire its modern meaning.
"The mentalism theory, which is by far the older, and still prevails both in the popular view and
among men of science, supposes that the variability of human conduct is due to the interference
of some non-physical factor, a spirit or will or mind...that is present in every human being. This
spirit, according to the mentalist view, is entirely different from material things and accordingly
follows some other kind of causation or perhaps none at all." (Bloomfield 1933:32)
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3. The major principle of Mentalistic language acquisition theory is that "everybody learns a
language, not because they are subjected to a similar conditioning process, but because they
possess an inborn capacity which permits them to acquire a language as a normal Maturational
Process" (D.A. Wilkins, 1972: 168). In 1965, in a book titled Aspects of the Theory of Syntax,
Chomsky claimed that there are innate properties of language because a child masters his native
language in a very short time in spite of the highly abstract nature of rules. After this, in an
article entitled "Linguistic Theory" Chomsky called this innate knowledge as Language
Acquisition Device (LAD hereafter). He also insisted that every normal human being is born into
a society with a LAD, which embodies the nature and the structure of human language. LAD is
what counts for language acquisition where in environment has got no importance for the
learning process at all.
Philosophy of language Chomsky’s characterize for his own approach to linguistics. On the basis
of the distinction between competence and performance, he claims that linguistics should study
competence, that is, the speaker's internalized transformational-generative rules of language.
Introspection is one excellent source of data for the study of language. Linguistics is a branch of
cognitive psychology that deals with structure and process in human minds and can be connected
with observed behavior only in an indirect way. Such a mentalistic approach is opposed to
behaviorist approaches, which reject introspection, consciousness, and other mentalistic terms
for the purpose of explaining behavior. The contrast between mentalism and behaviorism in the
philosophy of language is essentially a contrast between rationalism and empiricism.
“Mentalistic linguistics is simply theoretical linguistics that uses performance as data (along with
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4. other data, for example the data provided by introspection) for the determination of competence,
the latter being taken as the primary object of its investigation.”
Noam Chomsky supported the mentalistic language acquisition theory, through such concepts
like Nativist Position (Nativism), Innateness Position, Rationalist Position claims that for the
basic structure of language and how it is mastered and how human language develops, it is not
the environment but language structures, processes, and ideas that dwell in mind at birth serve
for the acquisition of languages. According to this theory then, the speaker's inborn knowledge
(Innateness Position) of language, not the consequences of behavior, can be held responsible for
the acquisition of language.
It is an obvious fact that Mentalist language learning and teaching theory is a clear-cut challenge
to many claims of Behaviorist language use. A specific contribution of Mentalism to language
learning theory is that it has bestowed a strong emphasis on human language learning behavior.
In other words, according to Chomsky, human behavior is considerably more complicated.
Behaviorists analyzed the results of animal behavior in labs, drew conclusions deeply dependent
on laboratory experiments, whose conclusions cannot lead to explain the intricacies of human
behavior. It is clear that it is not a reliable attitude to describe and explains the human verbal
behavior through the learning behavior of animals.
After 1960s, as a vivid contribution of Mentalist learning theory, the child, not the animals, it
began to play by and by a major role in the analysis of the learning process "This revolution was
strongly influences by the rapid rise of a new development In linguistics, which can also be
traced back to Chomsky: Transformational-Generative Grammar (was a source of inspiration for
all sorts of experiments in language learning research" (Thco Van Els, et al, 1984: 28). Because
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5. TG assumed that language learning ability is inborn and it is the LAD that allows the Kids to
make hypotheses about the nature and the composition of the language.
Language learning is conditioned by the way in which the mind observes, organizes and stores
information. In other words, the key to successful language learning and teaching lie not in the
analysis of the nature of language but in understanding the structure and processes of the mind.
So it can be said that mentalistic theory could be of great help in ESP classes to make the
students learn targeted language. Affective concerns are extremely broad and have yet to be very
well classified, that is, very clearly classified. This fact, however, does not stop us from noticing
the tremendous importance affective factors have across the board in all types of learning and
especially in foreign language learning. Effective factors touch on every single aspect of the
learning process. The main idea being that learning will only occur in so-called optimal
conditions. In reality, the fact remains that people will only learn when they want to learn: when
they feel like it. As teachers, we need to try to find ways and means as well as topics and practice
types which will make our students want to learn. 1
As a teacher of ESP class our role should be, beautifully summarized in the Chinese proverb
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day
Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for life time
ESP teacher not only make his learner well equipped, with the target language but also make him
efficient to use it properly in common day life.
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Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women’s University
Graduate School of TESOL
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
Spring 2006
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