theories of language acquisition

1. INNATISTS
Dr. Hashim Noor

2. Innatism / Nativism
Chomsky (1959) attacked on Skinner and
behaviourist theories of L1 acquisition
“I have tri
ed to sugg
of languag est that th
e may ver e study
traditional y well , as
ly suppose was “
remarkabl d ,provide
y favorabl a
the study e perspec
of human tive for
processes mental
.”
(Chomsky
,1968)

3. First Language Acquisition
(FLA)
is complex system of rules.
Language Acquisition Device Output
Input (LAD) Universal Grammar (UG)

4. INNATISTS
• Language acquisition,
according to INNATISTS
is a complex system of
r ules w hich enable the child
to:
1. Understand
2. Create an infinite number
of sentences
Dr. Hashim Noor

5. INNATISTS
• Understanding takes place
according to the following
steps:
1. T he child receives
(hears) the langua ge.
Dr. Hashim Noor

6. Understanding
2. His/her brain star ts naturally
wor king to discover or
recognize the shape of the
sounds of this language
(what is it?)
3. T he brain then analyses these
sounds (to see how this
language operates).
Dr. Hashim Noor

7. INNATISTS
 The creativity of the child can
be noticed from the child’s
ability to extract abstract
knowledge of rules from
concrete examples.
Dr. Hashim Noor

8. creativity
For example, the child, from the
language he hears, may generalize the
past –ed sign for all verbs he uses
without thinking that there are some
exceptions.
Dr. Hashim Noor

9. Human infant is born with an innate
predisposition to acquire language.
He/she must be exposed to language
for the acquisition process to start.
He/she possesses an internal
mechanism which enables
Hy him/her, from the limited data
Inn ate
pot
hes available to him/her, to
is construct a grammar of a
particular language.

10. INNATISTS
This led many people to believe
that children are born with an
innate capacity for acquiring
and developing the language.
Dr. Hashim Noor

11. INNATISTS
The brain of the child is ready for
the language.
When the child is exposed to
speech, certain general principles
for discovering or structuring
language automatically begin to
operate.
Dr. Hashim Noor

12. INNATISTS
These principles constitute a
child’s Language Acquisition
Device LAD.
Dr. Hashim Noor

13. INNATISTS
 How LAD works?
1. The child uses its LAD to
make sense of the
utterances (the primary
linguistic data) heard
around him.
Dr. Hashim Noor

14. How LAD works?
2. Deriving from these
utterances (the primary
linguistic data) hypotheses
about the grammar of the
language.
Dr. Hashim Noor

15. ?How LAD works
3. This knowledge is then used to
produce sentences. These
sentences go through many
stages until they correspond
those in adult speech.
Dr. Hashim Noor

16. ?When LAD works
LAD works when stimulated at the
right time (the time which starts
from the day of birth till puberty).
This period is called the critical
period.
Dr. Hashim Noor

17. INNATISTS
• LAD UG
LAD is commonl y
known now as UG
( Univer sal Gr ammar ).
Dr. Hashim Noor

18. INNATISTS
• UG consists of
principles w hich are
common to all
langua ges.
Dr. Hashim Noor

19. UG
 Children have to learn the ways
by which their own language
makes use of these principles
and the variations on these
principles which may exist in
particular language they are
learning.
Dr. Hashim Noor

20.  Questions to be answered…
1- How are the children able to
acquire the language in such a
short period of time?
Dr. Hashim Noor

21. • Questions to be answered…
2- How to explain children’s
similarity in the way they
acquire grammatical
patterns in different
languages?
Dr. Hashim Noor

22. Questions to be answered…
3- How children are able to extract
abstract knowledge of rules
from the primary linguistic data
(the adult speech) although this
speech is too complex and
disorganized?
Dr. Hashim Noor

23. Dr. Hashim Noor