I.

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

- is a hypothetical module of the human mind posited to account for children's innate

predisposition for language acquisition.

-is an instinctive mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce

language.

-first proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960’s.

-is believed to be found at the left hemisphere of the brain because the left hemisphere

has been proven to be lateralized for functions related to language acquisition/learning.

-viewed during the period of the nativists.

*Nativists - are those who claim that every human being is born with a built - in device of

some kind that predisposes us to language acquisition - to a systematic perception of

language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language.

Eric Lenneberg (1967) proposed that language is a “specie-specific” behaviour and that

certain modes of perception, categorizing abilities, and other language-related mechanisms

are biologically determined.

Noam Chomsky (1965) similarly claimed the existence of innate properties of language to

explain the child’s mastery of his native language in such a short time despite the highly

abstract nature of the rules of language. This innate knowledge is embodied in what

Chomsky calls “a little black box.”

McNeill (1966) was actually the one who gave the name LAD as consisting of four

(innate) linguistic characteristics:

1. The ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in the environment.

2. The ability to organize linguistic events into various classes which can later be

refined.
 3. The knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is possible and that

other kinds are not.

4. The ability to engage in constant evaluation of developing linguistic system so as to

construct the simplest possible system out of the linguistic data gathered.

The following areas of the human brain are worth considering in relation to language

according to the Brain Language Center:

(1) Broca’s Area -Controls the speech mechanisms.

-Damage to this are results in aphasia.

(2) Wernicke’s Area -Discovered in 1874 by Carl Wernicke

(German Neurologist).

-Involves receptive functions. It is the word

receiver and selector. Words are selected

from the verbal memory. If the word are to

be written, hand muscle controls go into

action. If spoken language is required, signals

are fired to Broca’s Area.

-Damage by this area characterized by an

impairment or a total loss of

comprehension.
(3) Angular Gyrus -Involves only when language depends in

vision. It connects the visual context to the

Wernicke’s Area to call up words for things

seen and to permit the ultimate use of

language in reading and in writing.

II. Latency Factors

Latent define as something hidden; something potential but not obvious. (Dictionary)

Latent means dormant but capable of normal development under the best condition.

(Biology)

Latency factors are those variables which are not explicit observable or shown but

nevertheless affect language acquisition/learning.

Some of these factors are:

A. Neurological Considerations

There is an evidence in neurological research that as the human brain matures certain

functions are assigned - or “lateralized”- to the left hemisphere of the brain and certain
other functions to the right hemisphere. In the left hemisphere of the brain intellectual,

logical, and analytical functions appear to be largely located in it. While in the right

hemisphere it controls functions related to emotional and social needs. Language function

appear to be controlled mainly in the left hemisphere.

According to Eric Lenneberg (1987) theorizes that the lateralization of the brain is a

slow process which takes place from age 2 up to puberty. The development of the brain’s

Broca area, making talking possible, the Wernicke area for perceiving/responding verbal

matters, the Angular Gyrus for reading, and the motor cortex for speaking is crucial at this

stage. But Norman Geschwind (1970), among others, suggested that lateralization
completes in an earlier age.

Also, according to Stephen Krashen (1973) the development of lateralization may be

complete around age 5. Krashen’s suggestion does not grossly conflict with research on first

language acquisition if one considers “fluency” in the first language to be achieved by age 5.

Scovel (1984:1) cautioned against on Krashen’s assumption, “One must be careful to

distinguish between ‘emergence’ of lateralization (at birth, but quite evident at 5) and

‘completion’ (only evident at about puberty).”If the lateralization is not completed until

puberty, then one can still construct arguments for a critical period based on lateralization.

In cases of brain damage, a child may still have chances of re-learning his language since

during childhood, the brain is still in the state of “plasticity” wherein certain bodily functions

originally assigned to the cerebral hemisphere can be transferred to the other hemisphere.

(Thomas Scovel, 1969)

B. Psychomotor Considerations

Stephen Krashen contend that brain lateralization is already complete at age 5 and

that the child is capable of achieving an “authentic” pronunciation in the second language

that he shall be learning after age 5 since at this age, the child’s psychomotor skills are

already fully developed.

C. Cognitive Considerations

Jean Piaget outlines the course of intellectual development in a child through various

stages:

1. Sensori-motor stage (from age 0-2)

Substages

The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are

characterized by the development of a new skill:

a. Reflexes (0-1 month): During this substage, the child understands the environment

purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.

b. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): This substage involves coordinating sensation

and new schemas. For example, a child may suck his or her thumb by accident and then

later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the infant

finds them pleasurable.

c. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): During this substage, the child becomes

more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to

trigger a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a

toy in order to put it in his or her mouth.

d. Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months): During this substage, the child starts to show

clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve a

desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often

imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins

during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific

qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when

shaken.

e. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Children begin a period of trial-and-error

experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different

sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.

f. Early Representational Thought (18-24 months): Children begin to develop symbols to

represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. During this

time, children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental

operations rather than purely through actions.

 2. Pre-operational stage (from age 2-7)

Ages: 2 to 7 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

 Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent

objects.

 Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the

perspective of others.

 While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think

about things in very concrete terms.

3. Operational stage (from age 7-16), also indicating that there is a crucial change from

the concrete operation stage, to the formal operation stage at age 11.

Ages: 7 to 11 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes

 During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events.

 They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a

short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example.

 Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete.

 Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a

general principle.

4. Formal Operational Stage

Ages: 12 and Up

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

  At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and

reason about hypothetical problems.

 Abstract thought emerges.

 Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and

political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.

 Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to

specific information.

It is in the stage of operation that a person becomes capable of abstraction - of formal

thinking which transcends concrete experiences and reflective perception, thus bringing

about a stage most conductive to language learning.

D. Affective consideration:

Human beings live by emotion.

Brown (1987) includes personality factors such as extroversion, introversion, inhibition,

anxiety, etc. as being crucial hidden factors that affects first and second language

acquisition/learning.

Alexander Guiora proposes the language ego, that a person develop their identity in

reference of a language spoken. So identity will be confirmed, shaped and reshaped. Ego

language clings to the security of native language. But we can develop a Second identity.

People should overcome inhibitions in SLA. (Second Language Acquisition). Attitude to

second language can be reinforced or affected in negative way. Peer pressure will provide

necessity of learning a language.

III. Sex

Do women and men speak differently? English speakers are often aware that the

answer to this question is almost “yes” for all speech communities. The linguistic forms used

by women and men contrast – to different degrees – in all speech communities. Sex

differences in language are often just one aspect of more pervasive linguistic differences in

the society reflecting social status or power differences. If a community is very hierarchical,

for instance, and within each level of the hierarchy men are more powerful than women,

then linguistic differences between the speech of women and men just one dimension of

more extensive differences reflecting the social hierarchy as a whole.

According to Dorothy McCarthy theorized that girls are probably more adept with their

language function compared to the boys. This has something to do with language

acquisition as related to physiological development. Biologically speaking females mature

earlier compared to males, which may result in a more adept way of getting at the

language.Dr. Norman Geswhind also theorized that the male production of testosterone has

an effect on the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain, which, as has been mentioned

earlier, controls the language functions of human being.

IV. Innateness Controversy

Does our inherent nature include any ideas, concepts, categories, knowledge,

principles, etc, or do we start out with blank cognitive slates (tabula rasa) and get all our

information and knowledge from perception?

The environmentalists and behaviorists assert that a child acquires/learns a language

through a process of conditioning and reinforcement.

Chomsky challenged and weakened this view by asserting that the child is born with an
innate knowledge of or a predisposition to acquire/learn a language. He said that this is true

to all normal human beings and that this accounts for certain language universals. To

strengthen his position, Chomsky pointed out the creative aspect of language which, he

stressed, is never learned from the environment.

Controversies/Issues:

1. The LAD proposition simply postponed facing the central issue of the nature of human

being’s capacity for language acquisition. What exactly are the innate properties and

predispositions embodied in the LAD? Discovery of universals does not necessarily imply

innateness.

Ambrose Bierce (in Clark and Clark 1977) summed it up wryly in The Devil’s Dictionary.

“The doctrine of innate ideas is one of the most admirable faiths of philosophy, being itself

innate and therefore inaccessible to disproof.”

2. The “nature-nurture” controversy also muddied the LAD proposition with a lot of

questions. What are those behaviors which nature provides innately and what are those

which, by environmental exposure- by “nurture”, or by teaching are learned and

internalized?

3. The case of overgeneralization which is corrected through instruction - formal or informal

- proves that the environment has a lot to do with language acquisition/learning.

4. Variations in language development among individuals of the same development age

bracket show sharply that environment and exposure account for such phenomenon.

V. Competence and Performance

Competence refers to one’s underlying knowledge of a system, event, or fact. It is a

non-observable, idealized ability to do something. With regards to language therefore,

competence is one’s knowledge of the language system itself.

-introduced by Chomsky to describe the knowledge possessed by native users of a

language which enables them to speak and understand their language.

Two main forms of Competence

1. Grammatical

Linguistic abilities (our knowledge of language as a grammatical system) because of this we

know how to pronounce words (phonological knowledge) arrange them in phrases, clauses

and sentences (syntactic knowledge) and how to assign meanings to them (semantic

knowledge).

2. Communicative

Concerned with our use of this internalized knowledge to communicate effectively. Involves

knowing what counts as an appropriate reply.

Performance

Performance, on the other hand, is the overly observable and concrete manifestation or

realization of competence. It is the “willful act” (Saussure) of doing something or, as in the

case of language, showing one’s knowledge or ability of the language system.

-introduced by Chomsky to describe the actual use of language in concrete situations

-According to Chomsky this is “the physical execution of the linguistic system in terms of

actual utterances and pieces of writing.

Example:

The sentence “I hate linguistics”, it exists both as an abstract entity, something we are able

to construct and understand because of our native competence, and also as physical entity,

a sequence of sounds or letters capable of being reproduced or performed, by as many

speakers and writers as care to do so.

NOTE:

-being able to perform an utterance correctly is important in communicating successfully

but equally, we should hear in mind that performance errors do not necessarily reflect any

lack of linguistic competence

-everyone makes slips of the tongue occasionally; sometimes these reflect grammatical

uncertainty, but more often than not they are due to a variety of performance factors like

tiredness, boredom, drunkenness, drugs, external distractions and so forth

-the majority of linguists are more interested in competence than in performance but for

some particularly PSYCHOLINGUITS, performance is a very important concept.

Issue

Chomsky said that a theory of language had to be a theory of competence test as the

linguist vainly tries to categorize an infinite number of performance variables which are not

reflective of the underlying linguistic ability of the speaker-hearer.

Question: How can one really determine the linguistic competence of an individual

especially a child?

Children may already have linguistic competence even before they show linguistic

performance since their performance is greatly affected by the development of their speech

mechanism. Besides, even adult speech is loaded with a lot of false starts, circumlocutions,

hesitations, and others. Does this mean that the person concerned is not linguistically

competent?
VI. Role of Imitation

What part does imitation play in the child’s acquisition of its mother language?

What role did imitation play in the evolutionary origin and diversification of language?

How much has imitation to do with the sources of the words we use and the ways those

words are put together?

Imitation of any kind involves a relation between motor and perceptual functioning,

between the motor system of the brain and the visual and other sensory systems.

It is common informal observation that children are “good imitations.” We think of children

typically as imitators and mimics, and then conclude that imitation is one of the important

strategies a child uses in language acquisition. This conclusion is accurate and global.

Researches have shown that echoing is an important, salient strategy in early language

development and an important aspect of early phonological acquisition.

There are two types of Imitation:

1. Surface-Structure Imitation

This happens when a person repeats and mimics the surface strings, attending to a

phonological code rather than a semantic code. The earliest stages of child language

acquisition may manifest a good deal of this type of imitation, since the baby may not

possess the necessary semantic categories to assign “meaning” to utterances.

2. Deep-Structure Imitation

This happens when the child perceives the importance of the semantic level of language

and attends primarily, if not exclusive, to that meaningful semantic level. In fact, the

imitation of the deep-structure may even block the child’s attention to the surface-structure
so that he becomes, in the face of it, a “poor” imitator. This is because at this stage, the

child is concerned about the truth value of his utterance and not in the “correctness” of the

forms of the language.

VII. Language Universal

Closely related to the innateness controversy is the claim that language is universal and

is universally acquired in the same manner, moreover, that the deep structure of language

at its deepest level may be common to all languages.

Werner Leopold (1949) made a rather eloquent case for certain phonological as well as

grammatical universals in language. Leopold inspired later works by Greenberg (1963,

1966), Bickerton (1981), and Slobin (1986, 1992). currently, research in Universal Grammar

continues this quest. One of the keys to such inquiry lies in research on child language

acquisition across many different language in order to determine the commonalities.

Interesting universals of pivot grammar and other telegraphese or telegraphic utterances

are emerging.

Different binary classifications of language universals made by Chomsky and Greenberg.

1. Formal And Substantive Universal

This classification has been made by Chomsky. Formal Universals can be defined as a

universal of language, which pertains to the form of a grammar, can take. On the other hand

, substantive universals area any formal object which universally present in grammars, or at

least available. It can be said that the main categories of the language forms the substantive

universals. Comrie (1981:15) states that "substantive universals delimit the class of possible

languages".

2. Implicational And Non-implicational Universals

 Some universals are stated without the need of any references to any other properties

of the different languages. They do not require another property of the language in order to

be existent as a universal. For example, the fact that all languages have nouns, verbs and

objects and these would be used to form a sentence in some order is a non-implicational

universal and it stands as a statement which has its truth value without any need of some

other state to be realized. On the other hand in the case of implicational universals there is

another universal, mostly a non-implicational one, to be realized in a particular language. It

can be said that the existence of such kind of a universal in a language presupposes or

bound to the existence of the first one. This kind of a universal is easily recognized in the

pattern due to the fact that they have the single direction conditional phrase structure.

3. Absolute Universals and Tendencies

An absolute universal is the one that has no counter arguments in any of the world's

languages. Such as " if a language has the VSO as the basic word order then it has

prepositions." This is an absolute universal because there are no languages with VSO word

order and postpositions in the world, namely it has no counter arguments. On the other

hand some times we may talk about some universals that are revealed in most of the

languages but has ,usually, a handful number of languages that do not obey this

generalizations. e.g. nearly all languages have nasal vowels. (Some Salishan languages have

no nasal consonants.) n this distinction it is again easily understood whether a universal is

absolute or it is a tendency by examining the structure of the statement.

If a universal has terms that imply a possibility like nearly all, most probably etc., then is

said to be a tendency, on the other hand if the statement lacks this kind of possibility telling

terms and has terms like "all languages in the world etc. " it is then an absolute universal.

4. Semantic, Phonological and Syntactic Universals

 Semantic universals are the ones that govern the composition of the vocabulary of

world's languages. e.g. body part terms, animal names and verbs of sensory perception are

of this kind. It is important to keep in mind that the semantic universals deal with less

marked, basic terms in language. For example it deals with the existence of blue rather than

the turquoise etc. On the other hand as understood, phonological universals deal with the

phonology of the languages. For instance the fact that there exists high front unrounded

vowel, a low vowel and a high vowel at least in all languages, is this kind of a universal.

Finally, there are syntactic and morphological universals as will be exemplified in section 3-

Greenberg's Syntactic Universals.