How Do People Learn (Language) - 829 Words

How do people learn (language)? How we teach language should be based on how people learn language. Do we learn language the way we learn everything? Or is there some special way our brains learn language? Today we will talk about some of the hypotheses which have been suggested for how people learn (in general) and learn language (in particular). This child has learned sign-language from his parents – but how? NATURE vs. NURTURE People who argue for language learning by NATURE believe that humans are born with a built-in ability to learn language – that it is part of the structure of our brains. People who support NURTURE side of the argument believe that we learn language the same way we learn everything else, e.g.†¦show more content†¦S: I played basketball. T: I’m not very good at basketball. This responds to the meaning. NATIVISM (INNATE LANGUAGE ABILITY) Shortly after Skinner wrote his book, a young linguist named Noam Chomsky (1959) wrote a strong critique of the Behaviorist theory for language learning. Chomsky’s main argument against Behaviorism was this: IF CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE BY CONDITIONING AND IMITATION, WHY DO THEY SAY THINGS THEY HAVE NEVER HEARD BEFORE? WHY CAN ADULTS MAKE COMPLETELY NOVEL SENTENCES? †¢ Fish feet †¢ My brother only eats the blue monkeys. Chomsky also argued that the language children are exposed to is â€Å"deficient† for language learning. Chomsky claimed that the language children hear is full of â€Å"performance errors† such as grammatical mistakes, false starts, slips of the tongue, etc. CHOMSKY’S LAD Therefore, Chomsky argued, children must be born with some special built-in ability to learn language. He called this special built-in ability, the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). This device supposedly contained the main rules for all possible human languages. Chomsky called this set of common rules Universal Grammar (UG). All the child needed was a small sample from some specific language (e.g. English or Japanese) to be able to add a few language-specific rules. For example, English is said to be a â€Å"head first† language because it builds structures like: The man - who is wearing - a hatShow MoreRelatedWhy Students Should Be A Foreign Language1714 Words   |  7 Pagesuse different languages to communicate. Students in different countries have many opportunities to learn any language they desire; however, in America, there are not as many opportunities as other countries. No matter the country, students should be given the chance to learn whatever language their heart desires, and students should be able to travel to different countries to become appreciative of the country they are visiting. 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