Theories Of Language Acquisition

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The subtlety of language acquisition has been the most fundamental question in the study of linguistics and human development. From Bow-wow Theory to Yo-He-Ho Theory, the major theories on language origins and learnability emerged at mid-20th century and has been heavily debated ever since. Among them, the idea of universal grammar in which is usually credited to linguist Noam Chomsky, remains the most notable and controversial theory over time. He introduced and developed the t heory from 1950s to 1970s as he proposed and championed linguistic nativism in language acquisition. Chomsky supports that language mastery involves knowledge of linguistic rules and conventions, which he later named that as ‘cognizance’. He believes that cognizance is present in some particular regions in human’s brain where it inherently contributes to the acquisition and usage of language. Such language faculty is the initial root of all linguistic grammatical rules and principles; it is the mental archetype of all languages. To begin with, Chomsky chooses to focus on children’s acquisition of language because children have the least pre-existing knowledge of language compared to adults. Children in this case are the primal study in the innateness of language. By looking into children’s interaction in language acquisition, Chomsky reasons his arguments with “primary linguistic data” where Primary linguistic data is the first-ever language experience in childhood. This learning experience simultaneously interacts and activates the initial cognizance of children, resulting to one’s linguistic knowledge from the exposed language. It is the crucial knowledge for the comprehension of speech and language. By studying children’s language acquisition, it is irr...

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... in an innate, distinct manner like a neurological network consisted of several individual functional competence. This innateness of human is especially confirmable when studying children’s acquisition of language.

Reference
1. JR, S. (2001, 11 6). The Acquisition of Language by children. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/98/23/12874.full
2. Tool module: Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_rouge06.html
3. Lydia, W. (2003). Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge University Press.
4. Laurie , B. (2008, 4 30). Speech and asl developmental milestones. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/languagedevelopment.htm
5. Steven , P. (Performer) ( 2011). Steven Pinker on How Children Learn Language [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7arILiqxg

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