Noam Chomsky's Theory of Language. First, a bit about the theorist himself. Noam Chomsky is an American philosopher, theorist, cognitive scientist, and linguist.
Chomsky was born in 1928 and is currently 86 years old. He is widely known for his role in both linguistics as well as political activism. Chomsky describes the study of cognitive linguistics as the study of the language faculty of the human mind. The theory.
Chomsky's theory is based on the idea that all children are born with the innate ability to learn any human language. Based on Chomsky's theory, all children have an LAD, otherwise known as a language acquisition device. The LAD's job is to encode into a child's brain the major principles of language and grammatical structure of the language. According to Chomsky, a theory of language should be known as a theory of competence. He believes once a full theory of competence is developed, then other cognitive abilities and performance will be integrated.
Factors in his theory. First, he believes that all children have an optimal learning age. Between the ages of 3 and 10 is when children will learn to talk in its entirety and they will grasp fluency. Second, children do not need a trigger to learn a language.
Language comes naturally. Parents do not need to coax their child to speak. Simply speaking around the child will help the child to produce a language on their own. Third, even if a child is corrected, they will still speak in the same way they spoke before they were corrected.
My thoughts. After learning about Noam Chomsky's theory, I've come to several different conclusions. I do not agree with this theory in its entirety.
I do believe there is an optimal age from which a child will learn language. I also agree with his theory in the sense that most children have an innate ability to learn any language. What I do not agree with him about is that children understand grammatical errors without being taught, and that children cannot be corrected in their speech. If children understood grammar and were never able to be corrected in their speech, teachers would never teach students language arts and writing skills. Conclusion In conclusion, Noam Chomsky has been a huge help in developing a theory on linguistics and language development in children.
Children have a born ability to learn any human language, and Chomsky demonstrates that in his theory of language development.