Noam Chomsky proposed the nativist theory of language acquisition, which argues that children are born with an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) that contains universal grammar. The LAD allows children to intuitively learn the rules of any human language when exposed to it. Chomsky's theory helped explain how children are able to acquire complex linguistic knowledge from limited environmental input.

2. ACQUISITION
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3. Language Acquisition
The process of attaining a specific variant of
human language.
The process of learning a native or a second
language.
By itself, language acquisition refers to first
language acquisition, which studies infants'
acquisition of their native language, whereas
second language acquisition deals with
acquisition of additional languages in both
children and adults.

4. Language
Acquisition Device
(LAD)
Properties of
LAD
Universal
Grammar
Noam Chomsky
Nativist Theory

5. Noam Chomsky
Born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
He is an American Linguist, Cognitive
Scientist, Philosopher historian, political
activist, and social critic
Achieved Bachelors Degree in Linguistic in
1941
Masters Degree in 1951 and Doctorate
Degree 1955
His parents were prominent Hebrew
Scholars

6. He said that every child is born with a
biological predisposition to learn language-
any language
He came up with the idea of a language organ,
which is known as the Language Acquisition
Device (LAD).
children have been observed to pick up
grammar and syntax without any formal
teaching (in spoken language).
They seem to learn these fundamentals of their
native language(s) purely from the input
around them.
Noam Chomsky

7. Acquisition is innately determined, that we are
born with a built-in-device of some kind that
predisposes us to language acquisition.
Children are biologically programmed for
language acquisition.
NATIVIST THEORY

8. Human abilities and development are innate
and haired-wired at birth.
By Noam Chomsky, stating that children's
brains contain a Language Acquisition Device
which holds the grammatical universals.
NATIVIST THEORY

9. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is the
innate biological ability of humans to acquire
and develop language.
He proposed to explain how children, when
exposed to any human language, are able to
learn it within only a few years following birth.
Chomsky argued that all humans are born with
the knowledge of what makes a human
language.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)

10. Included in this innate knowledge must be
details of important characteristics of all the
world’s languages.
The term universal grammar has been used to
describe the knowledge contained in the LAD.
The process of language development is
envisioned as one in which the child discovers
which grammar rules contained within universal
grammar apply to the language that the child is
learning.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)

11. Ability to distinguish speech sounds from
other sounds in the environment.
Ability to organize linguistic events into
various classes which can later be refined.
LINGUISTICS PROPERTIES OF LAD

12. Knowledge that only a certain kind of
linguistic system is possible and that other
kinds are not
Ability to engage in constant evaluation of
the developing linguistic system
LINGUISTICS PROPERTIES OF LAD

13. UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
A set of innate principles and adjustable
parameters that are common to all human
languages
Focuses on the structural relationships
rather than the linear order of the words
e.g. Your cat is friendly? Is your cat
friendly?

14. The child’s language at any stage is systematic in that the
child is constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of the
input received and then testing those hypotheses in speech.
As the child’s language develops, those hypotheses get
continually revised, reshaped or sometimes abandoned
LAD hypothesize the grammar in the language you are
exposed to
If it is fits to the grammar, then continue the hypothesis, but
if it is not, there is a testing of a new hypothesis again
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

15. Summary
Children are born with a specific innate ability to
discover for themselves the underlying rules of a
language system on the basis of the samples of a
natural language they are exposed to
Language acquisition is something that happens to a
child placed in a certain environment not something
the child does
Children acquisition of grammatical rules is guided
by principles of an innate UG which could apply to all
language

16. Group 2: Nativist Theory
Members:
Miralles, Victor A.
Mabute, Mesaley B.
Matela, Angelie May A.
Moldes, Cristy
Locsin, Jessa Mae G.
Gerez, Maricar
Baldos, Mark
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