SLA Presentation

Innateness Theory of
Language Learning
Noam Chomsky
 Noam Chomsky
Father of Linguistics.
 Chomsky concluded that children must have an inborn
faculty for language acquisition.

According to this theory, the process is biologically

determined - the human species has evolved a brain whose
neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth.

Noam Chomsky
Father of Linguistics.
 Chomsky concluded that children must have an inborn
faculty for language acquisition.

According to this theory, the process is biologically

determined - the human species has evolved a brain whose
neural circuits contain linguistic information at birth.

This natural faculty has become known as

the Language Acquisition Device (LAD).

Noam Chomsky
Father of Linguistics.
The Functions of LAD
• The ability to distinguish sounds of
language and another sound
• The ability to organize the linguistic units
• The insight of language system
• The ability to use the language system
based on development linguistic system.
Universal Grammar

All Languages
Have common Nouns
qualities
Verbs
Adjectives
Contain
Structures and
Rules
Evidence to support the
innateness theory
Human Anatomy
• Slobin has pointed out that human anatomy is
peculiarly adapted to the production of speech.
• Unlike our nearest relatives, the great apes, we
have evolved a vocal tract which allows the
precise articulation of a wide repertoire of vocal
sounds.
• Neuro-science has also identified specific areas
of the brain with distinctly linguistic functions,
notably Broca's area and Wernicke's area.
Human Anatomy
• Stroke victims provide valuable data: depending on the site of brain damage, they
may suffer a range of language dysfunction, from problems with finding words to an
inability to interpret syntax.
• Experiments aimed at teaching chimpanzees to communicate using plastic symbols
or manual gestures have proved controversial. It seems likely that our ape cousins,
while able to learn individual "words", have little or no grammatical competence.
The Formation of Creole Varieties
• The formation of creole varieties of English appears to be the result of the LAD at work.
• The linguist Derek Bickerton has studied the formation of Dutch-based creoles in
Surinam.
• Escaped slaves, living together but originally from different language groups, were forced
to communicate in their very limited Dutch.
• The result was the restricted form of language known as a pidgin. The adult speakers
were past the critical age at which they could learn a new language fluently - they had
learned Dutch as a foreign language and under unfavourable conditions.
• Remarkably, the children of these slaves turned the pidgin into a full language, known by
linguists as a creole. They were presumably unaware of the process but the outcome was
a language variety which follows its own consistent rules and has a full expressive range.
Sign Languages Used By The Deaf

• Studies of the sign languages used by the deaf have

shown that, far from being crude gestures replacing spoken
words, these are complex, fully grammatical languages in
their own right.
• A sign language may exist in several dialects.
• Children learning to sign as a first language pass through
similar stages to hearing children learning spoken language.
• Deprived of speech, the urge to communicate is realised
through a manual system which fulfils the same function.
 Limitations of
Chomsky's theory
Limitations of Chomsky's theory
• Chomsky's work on language was theoretical. He was
interested in grammar and much of his work consists
of complex explanations of grammatical rules.
• He did not study real children.
• The theory relies on children being exposed to
language but takes no account of the interaction
between children and their carers.
• Nor does it recognise the reasons why a child might
want to speak, the functions of language.
 Language Acquisition
During
Critical Developmental Stages
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
1. The pre-linguistic stage:

Beginning from birth up

to 7 months, the child
articulates distress via
crying and making
various noises.
2. The babbling stage:

• beginning at the age of 6

months, a child can
produce sounds using
their speech organs and
begin to arrange these
sounds into syllable-like
noises.
3. The one-word stage:

 Between the ages of 11

months and 18 months, the
child can produce sounds and
begin using one-word
utterances to express
themselves.
 Vocabulary is limited to 1 word
only. (One Word for All)
 Parrot Talk
4. The two-word stage:

• Between the ages of 18

months and 24
months, the child can
begin making two-
word ''sentences.''
5. The telegraphic stage:

• Between 24 months and 30

months, the child can begin
producing expressions with more
than 2 elements with meaningful
characteristics; often, small
connecting words are missing, but
the child can convey the key
message.
• Toddlers omit words from
sentences
• Eg: mommy counting, shoe bed
Language Learning in Children
• Lenneberg (1967) emphasized the biological prerequisites of language
– only humans are capable of learning language.
• He claimed that the child’s brain was specifically adapted to the
process of language acquisition, but that the innate property was lost
as maturation took place.
• The child builds up the knowledge of his mother tongue by means of
hypothesis testing.
• The child connects the innate knowledge of basic grammar relations
to the surface structure of sentences in the language he’s learning.
Summary, Mentalist Views of L1 Acquisition
• Language is a human-specific faculty
• Language exists as an independent faculty in the human mind, i.e. although
it is part of the learner’s total cognitive apparatus, it is separate from the
general cognitive mechanisms responsible for intellectual development
• The primary determinant of L1 acquisition is the child’s LAD, which is
genetically endowed and provides the child with a set of principles about
grammar
• The LAD atrophies with age
• The process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which the
grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the
UG.
Innatist accounts of L2
Acquisition
Acquisition vs. learning
• Assumption that SL acquisition and learning are two different
processes.
• - Acquisition – refers to ‘picking up’ a second language through
exposure
• - Learning – conscious study of a second language
• However, most authors use them interchangeably.
The role of L1
• Until the 1960s, there was a strong assumption that most of the
difficulties facing the L2 learner were imposed by L1.
• It was assumed that where there were differences between the L1
and L2.
• The learner’s L1 knowledge would interfere with the L2, and where L1 and L2
were similar.
• The L1 would actively aid the L2 learning.
• The process responsible for this was called language transfer.
Individual learner differences
• Individual differences are potentially infinite and difficult to classify.
There are five general factors that SLA has been involved with:
• age
• aptitude
• cognitive style
• motivation
Age
• A question commonly asked is whether adults learn L2 in the
same way as children.
• There is no conclusive evidence that children are ‘better’
language learners than adults.
• Adults have a greater memory capacity and are able to focus
more easily on the purely formal features of a language.
Aptitude
• Aptitude is not to be identified with intelligence.
• The latter refers to the ability to master a range of skills, both
linguistic and non-linguistic.
• Aptitude refers to the special ability involved in language
learning.
• Various studies show that learners with higher aptitude
tended to score better in proficiency tests, but it remains
unclear what is aptitude – what cognitive abilities constitute
aptitude.
Cognitive explanations

• One obvious difference between the young child and the adolescent
is the ability of the latter to comprehend language as a formal system.
• According to Rosansky (1975) cognitive development is responsible
for the greater ease with which young children learn languages.
• The young child is cognitively predisposed to automatic language
acquisition, because he does not know he’s acquiring language.
• In Rosansky’s view it is the awareness that comes with age that
inhibits natural learning.
LAD vs Role of Input in
SLA
(Behaviourist View)
The role of the input
• Early theories of SLA insisted on the notions of habit
formation through practice and reinforcement.
• It was believed that presenting the L2 in the right-sized
doses and ensuring that the learner continued to practice
until each feature was ‘overlearned’ (i.e. became automatic).
• Learning an L2 was like any other kind of learning. It
consisted of building up chains of stimulus-response links
which could be controlled and shaped by reinforcement.
• In this approach – language learning is viewed as an external,
and not internal phenomenon.
LAD
• In the 1960s this view was challenged, especially by Chomsky,
who pointed out that in many instances there was no match
between the kind of language to be observed in the input and the
language that learners produced.
• This could best be explained by hypothesizing a set of mental
processes inside learner’s mind which were responsible for
working on the input and converting it into a form(ula) that the
learner could store and handle in production – Chomsky’s
‘mentalist view’.
• Chomsky postulated the existence of the learner’s ‘language
acquisition device’ which was the main factor of language
learning.
• Chomsky thus played down the role of the linguistic environment
– input only served as a trigger to activate the device.
• The incremental nature of L1 acquisition – two aspects:
1. length of utterances gradually increases,
2. knowledge of grammatical system is built up in steps (e.g. –ing and
‘do support’ are not acquired at the same time, but in sequence).
Interlanguage
• The term first used by Selinker (1972).
• It is a structured system that the learner constructs at any given stage
in his development.
• It is distinct from L1 and L2.
• Hypothesis testing is found in interlanguage just as in L1 acquisition.
Principal Features of Interlanguage
1. Interlanguage is permeable
– the rules that constitute the learner’s knowledge at any one stage
are not fixed, but are open to amendment.
2. Interlanguage is dynamic – it changes constantly.
However, the learner does not jump from one stage to the next, but
rather slowly revises the interim systems to accommodate new
hypotheses.
Paths of Acquiring L2 - Selinker
– one where the learner continues to use LAD (like the child in L1
acquisition), reactivating the ‘latent language structure’,

– the other, which does not involve recourse to UG, but mechanisms
responsible for other types of learning apart from language.