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Noam Chomsky's Theory of Language Development

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky Portrait 1977

Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and had earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1955 and he has joined the University of Arizona in fall 2017 as a laureate professor in the Department of Linguistics. Professor Chomsky is considered the founder of modern linguistics and has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees from universities around the world. Besides his extraordinary accomplishments in linguistics field, professor Chomsky's work also has influenced the fields of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, computer science, mathematics, childhood education and anthropology. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences, the Helmholtz Medal, the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award, the Ben Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science, and others. Professor Chomsky is also an expert on foreign affairs and has published and lectured globally on U.S. foreign policy, Mideast politics, democratic society, and war. He is one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world and considered one of the great minds of our time.

Chomsky's Theory of Language Development

Noam Chomsky's theory of language development proposes that all human beings are born to acquire language because they are guided by an innate understanding of how language works. This innate knowledge is called "Universal Grammar" which is a general understanding of how language is structured. Children across the globe can develop language in a very similar way and short period of time without much assistance. "Children master complex linguistic rules and procedures in a very short time. They seem to master most of the intricacies of grammars by the age of 6 or so, and the rest by puberty." Chomsky believes that children can learn a language with innate ability unlike the faculty for learning science, music, arts, etc., and they do not need thorough understanding of the grammar when learning a language.

Characteristics of Chomsky's Language Developmental Theory

Innateness Hypothesis

The innateness hypothesis explains how human beings possess language knowledge after they are born and how children across the globe can learn a language so quickly and uniformly. Chomsky says that "children do not build grammar primarily from the evidence they hear, but according to an inner design - a genetic program (Chomsky, 1972, p.171; 1980, pp. 232-234)."

Linguistic Nativism

Linguistic nativism is a theory that human beings are born with knowledge of language and they learn a language innately.

Universal Grammar (UG)

Chomsky believes that children put words together with intuition and are already equipped with an understanding of the basic structure of any human language. The environment determines the language the children will use but the children are born with universal grammar to learn any language effectively.

Language Acquisition Device

Chomsky claims that Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a hypothetical tool in the human brain which allows children to learn and understand language in a very short period of time. Each child has a LAD in her/his brain to quickly learn and understand language as they mature. Chomsky believes "the human language-learning mechanism (the ‘language acquisition device’ or ‘LAD’) embodies built-in knowledge about human languages, knowledge that prevents learners from entertaining most possible grammatical theories."

Linguistic Competence and Performance

Chomsky describes linguistic competence is "the ability of the idealized speaker–hearer to associate sounds and meanings strictly in accordance with the rules of his language" Competence means "knowing" the language. People can produce and understand an infinite number of sentences and recognize grammatical mistakes.

Chomsky claims linguistic performance is, "furthermore, governed by principles of cognitive structure (for example, by memory restrictions) that are not, properly speaking, aspects of language" Performance means "doing" something (listening, speaking, reading, writing) with the language.

Use and Importance of Chomsky's Theory for Educators

Chomsky's theory proposes Universal Grammar is most active when children are in young age, which explains why young children can learn languages so easily, while adults find it much more difficult to learn new languages. From the "Interview with Noam Chomsky on education" by Arianne Robichaud in 2013, Chomsky thinks that motivation is the most important in learning, including language learning. The methods that teachers use can affect the motivation of students considerably. Teachers should design their curriculum to get students interested, excited, and motivated to pursue learning on their own with all types of devices, activities, games, etc.

"Students are being encouraged to challenge, to discover, to try out new things and not to repeat what they heard in class… I think that can be done in kindergarten too: in fact, there are interesting programs that are proposed, mostly about science education." Although Chomsky's work on language was theoretical and he did not study real children, it is evident that children learn language most effectively from birth into puberty. If children are exposed to multilingual environment during this period, they often can speak multi languages effectively. As educators, it is important to understand the intuitive ability of young children to learn language even without knowing the proper ways to use words and phrases.

It is also important for educators to know the difference between linguistic competence (knowing) and performance (doing). In my opinion, teachers should create curriculums for students to "know" the language as well as to "do" the language, which will help students to have both linguistic competence and performance.