Marisol Leal Prado

INNATENESS THEORY

Noam Chomsky's Innate Theory

• • Children (even with IQ of 50) can acquire• language.

• • Children acquire language effortlessly.• • Children acquire language in relatively

short• period of time.

• • Language is a complex system.• • A child does not have to be formally

taught to• acquire language.

• • Children discover the system of language from an

• unsystematic and small amount of data .• • Language acquisition involves very little

• imitation, if any.• • Reinforcement = correction and reward:

very• little role in acquisition.

•• Language acquisition is an active process .• Children say things that they have never

heard• from adults.

The Innate Theory

•The Innate Theory (also known as Innatist Theory, Nativist Theory, Rationalist Theory, Mentalist Theory) of language acquisition was developed in the mid-20th century (1959) by the renowned American linguist Noam Chomsky. •“Language is an innate faculty”•“We are born with a set of rules about language in our heads”

• The innateness hypothesis is a linguistic theory of language acquisition which holds that at least some linguistic knowledge exists in humans at birth. • Facts about the complexity of human language systems, the universality of language acquisition, the facility that children demonstrate in acquiring these systems, and the comparative performance of adults in attempting the same task are all commonly invoked in support.• The idea that there may be an age by which this learning must be accomplished is known as the critical period hypothesis.•Noam Chomsky is responsible for the innateness hypothesis. Hilary Putnam published a critique of the innateness hypothesis entitled "The 'Innateness Hypothesis' and Explanatory Models in Linguistics".

Theoretical Bases

• The theoretical assumptions underlying the Innate Theory are as follows:• • Language acquisition is innately determined; that is, children are biologically programmed for language learning. They develop language in the same way as other biological functions. They start to speak at roughly the same age and proceed through roughly the same stages.• • Children are born with a special ability to systematically discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system. This special ability enables them to learn the complexities of language in a relatively short period of time.• • Environmental differences may be associated with some variation in the rate of language acquisition.

Counterarguments on the Innate Theory

•To some extent, the Innate Theory seems complementary to the Behaviourist Theory, whose major principles are further clarified and then developed by the innate theorists. Theory should be refined:• •Language acquisition is not totally of inborn nature nor is it just a matter of biological make-up. There is also an undeniable effect in language learning coming from the social environment since infants grow up biologically in a social environment from which they cannot be divorced. The presence of a mother and father in front of a child establishes a natural social environment.

•The psychologist Jerome Bruner opined that language acquisition not only depend on LAD (language acquisition device)but also LASS or Language Acquisition Support System. It is possible that children have inborn capability to follow certain grammatical principles, but their acquisition of words depends crucially on their environment. For example, English children learn English because; their Language Acquisition support System is English.

•The use and influence of imitations and reinforcements cannot totally be denied or disregarded by saying that they destroy or relegate the possible creativity in language learning. For example, the role of imitations and repetitions cannot be wholly denied in such areas like learning vocabulary items and structural patterns.

Criticism

• Although this theory provides what some claim is a reasonable explanation about acquiring language, this theory lacks sufficient evidence. Some of the cases against this theory include:• Firstly, the LAD is an abstract concept and lacks adequate scientific support.• Secondly the theory is heavily based on the learner’s linguistic competence which is again abstract phenomenon.• Thirdly, the theory placed more emphasis on the linguistic competence of adult native speakers, but not enough on the developmental aspects of language acquisition.