This document discusses Noam Chomsky and his theories of language acquisition. It covers Chomsky's view of an innate language acquisition device (LAD) that gives children the ability to learn language. The document contrasts this nativist or innateness theory with behaviorist views that language is learned through imitation and reinforcement. It also discusses Universal Grammar and how Chomsky believed children are born with innate principles that allow them to learn the grammar of their native language by analyzing the utterances they hear. The document notes criticisms of both the behaviorist view and innate theory, and covers educational implications of Chomsky's ideas.
5. American linguist, philosopher,
cognitive scientist, historian, social
critic, and political activist.
Born on Dec 7,1928.
"the father of modern linguistics"
major figure in analytic philosophy
and one of the founders of the field
of cognitive science
6. Imitation/Nativism/Behaviourism
Main Figure: B. F. Skinner
Language has long been thought of a
process of imitation, and reinforcement
Imitation theory is based on an
empirical or behavioural approach
Child’s mind as a tabula rasa ("blank slate")
and thus treats language as learned behaviour.
Stimulus Response Feedback
Reinforcement
9. Limitations of Behaviourist view of
language acquisition led in 1960’s to the
alternative ‘generative’ account of
language
Main Argument: Children must be
born with an innate capacity for
language development
Main Figure: Bloomfield & Noam
Chomsky
10. oChomsky originally theorized that children were born
with a hardwired language acquisition device (LAD) in
their brains.
o He later expanded this idea into that of Universal
Grammar, a set of innate principles and adjustable
parameters that are common to all human languages.
oThe child exploits its LAD to make sense of the utterances
heard around it, deriving from this ‘primary linguistic
data’ – the grammar of the language
13. Role of adult speech can not be ruled
out in providing a means of enabling
children to work out the regularities of
language for themselves.
Difficult to formulate the detailed
properties of LAD in an uncontroversial
manner
15. •Linguist Noam Chomsky challenged
old ideas about language acquisition
in his first book, "Syntactic Structures"
published in 1957.
•He rejects the notion that all
language must be learned afresh by
each child.
•Instead, Chomsky says, normal
children everywhere are born with a
kind of hard-wired syntax that
enables them to grasp the basic
workings of language.
17. Educational Implications
Child learn without making grammatical mistakes
(SVO)
Child would notice if an adult make a
grammatical mistakes.
Not learning through imitation alone – know the
difference between I know and I knew.
18. Bibliography
Chomsky, N. (2000). Chomsky on
Miseducation. Oxford.
Chomsky, N. (2002). Chomsky on
Democracy and Education.
Chomsky, N. (2006) Language and
Mind 3rd Ed. Cambridge, United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
