KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

AEN 303 GROUP ASSIGNMENT

UNIT TITLE: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
UNIT CODE: AEN 303
DEPARTMENT: LITERATURE, LINGUSTICS AND
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
LECTURER’S NAME: DR. PURITY NTHIGA
DATE OF SUBMISSION:
NAME REG. NUMBER PHONE NUMBER SIGNATURE

VENA OKODE E35/2251/2019 0745375945

PURITY KALUNDA E35/2199/2019 0796270014

TONNY OCHERE E35/2269/2019 0717870159

NGIMA SHARON E35/1865/2019 0795908862

JOSEPH KWANYA E35/2243/2019 0722857895

SAM MAZIGA E34/0529/2019 0790542633

MEKUBO MATINI E35/2131/2018 0717034988

EMILY KATHINI E35/1921/2019 0795205195

GEOFFREY OMBATI E34/0555/2019 0701266974

ROBIN NYUNJA E35/2381/2019 0706578087

TASK:
Summarize Chomsky’s theory of language universals and indicate its relevance to second
language acquisition.
Noam Chomsky a pioneering linguist put forth an idea called the language acquisition device or

LAD in short. A language acquisition device is a theoretical tool. It is used to explain how

children learn and understand language quickly. The language acquisition device (LAD) is a

general term used to explain the many complex processes the brain has for learning languages.

Compared to other species, humans have developed a complex language with structure and rules.

The LAD is part of the reason for this. According to him, babies are born with a biological

propensity, an inborn device to learn language and every child is born with an understanding of

the rules of language and thus only needs to acquire the vocabulary. The role of the LAD is to

encode the major skills involved in language learning, but with a focus on the encoding of

grammar. The language acquisition device contains universal grammar, a set of inborn linguistic

principles which comprises of the initial state of language and controls the form in which the

sentences of any given language could take and accounts for rapid language development in

human.

According to Chomsky, children would never be able to learn language from the input they

receive. In other words, children acquire mental grammar spontaneously and without formal

training. Children of the same speech community reliably learn sane grammar. Children do not

simply copy the language that they hear around them. They deduce rules from it, which they can

then use to produce sentences that they have never heard before. They do not learn a repertoire of

phrases and sayings, as the behaviorists believe, but a grammar that generates an infinite number

of new sentences. This information is insufficient for uniquely determining the underlying

grammatical principles. To acquire language, the child needs only universal grammar but also

evidence about a particular language. He needs to hear sentences of English to know how to fix
the parameter for the order of verb, subject, and the object. Since learning a new language is

never easy, studies have shown that after early childhood, acquiring a new language becomes

much harder. Children however, are great at learning new languages. They acquire language

quickly and seem to have a natural understanding of grammar and syntax. But how

While language acquisition theory is still influential on the field of linguistics, Chomsky has

moved forward with an updated theory he calls universal grammar. Universal grammar builds on

the ideas of the existence of the LAD. It basically argues that universal rules of grammar can be

recognized in languages around the world, which humans can recognize. Under Language

universals, Chomsky made a distinction between the core rules of a language from those that are

peripheral. According to him, Peripheral rules are specific to a language(unique) and are not

governed by universal principles. The core rules are governed by universal principles and are

innate. So the relevance According to our understanding comes in during L2 acquisition when

we talk about sounds, every language has a pool of sounds (phonemes). And this is a core rule.

But the distinction comes in when we get into the specific sounds that are unique to the language.

Chomsky theory assigns a precise role to the environment, negatively it denies that it provides

sufficient evidence for the learning of particular aspects of linguistic knowledge without the aid

of a powerful inbuilt grammar; positively, it suggests the environment provides positive evidence

to help fix the ways in which universal grammar applies to the language he is learning.

Chomsky’s arguments for universality in grammar constitutes language Universals where all

human languages share certain properties, convergence where children are exposed to different

input yet converge on the same grammar and lastly, poverty of stimulus where children acquire

knowledge for which there is no evidence in the input.

Chomsky also discovered that during the process of learning how to speak, children don’t make

errors one would expect. Children tend to understand the structure of a sentence such as “subject-

verb-object” even before they are able to utter full sentences. He also noted that children have

the capability of noticing if adults around them speak in a grammatically incorrect manner even

before they reach fluency. Children are also capable of applying grammatical rules to words for

which their language makes an exception. For examples, being known that plurals are formed by

adding –ed, a child will go ahead and add –ed even where they shouldn’t. Most often, children

may be heard making such grammatical errors as “I goed,” and “runned” which they would

however learnt just by to hearing the parents or adults communicate. This is an indication that a

child uses LAD to master language rules. Chomsky proposed that native language speakers

would become fluent by the age of ten. He also argued that should a child learn two languages

from birth, they are more likely to be fluent in both.

Previous theories focused more on children's exposure to language as the main tool for acquiring

language. This theory was widely supported by behavioral psychologists. They believed that

children acquire language through hearing what others speak. The work of behavioral

psychologists focused heavily on stimulus and reinforcement. Stimuli are things that create a

response. Reinforcement is something that increases the chances that a response will occur again.

To these psychologists, when children heard language, this served as a stimulus. When exposed

to this stimulus, they observe language being spoken and are rewarded with reinforcement when

they speak for example if a child can utter the word milk correctly, the child is given milk as a

reinforcement. Children are then motivated to speak more to receive additional reinforcement.
Chomsky's theory of language emerged in this context. He disagreed with the exposure theory.

To him, children's language acquisition seemed much more complicated. It could not be

explained simply as a response to stimulus and reinforcement. He created the term poverty of

stimulus to describe his idea that exposure is not sufficient enough to explain children's rapid

language acquisition. Considering the little stimulus children receive, they learn language

remarkably fast. Children can deduce the rules of grammar naturally, with no formal instruction.

They don't just reproduce the language they are exposed to. They learn to form sentences that

they have not heard before.

It seems that recognizing grammar is a universal skill. Recent studies show that students

studying English are able to identify correct grammar, even if they have not had much formal

English education. In fact, one study found that participants with no prior study of English could

recognize proper grammar 85% of the time. This supports Chomsky's theory that recognition of

grammar and language is an innate human process. He used these ideas to further develop his

universal grammar theory. Across languages, one can recognize many of the same grammatical

rules, such as subject-verb agreement. One does not need to know another language to recognize

grammar. This tool, facilitated by the language acquisition device, helps children to learn

languages. With this new theory, Chomsky revolutionized the field of linguistics. Psychologists

and linguists began to look at language in an entirely new way.

Chomsky recommends the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) hypothesis to explain how a

human language is acquired by children. In principle, the LAD model can exhibit the process of

acquisition of any natural language. For example, L1 input data are provided; then, the input is
processed in the black box which contains UG principles and parameters; and finally, L1

grammar is produced. In the context of SLA, we can adapt the LAD model to L2 learning by

simply extending the model to take in L2 input. However, Cook and Newson (1996) argue that

the LAD diagram cannot represent the initial state of L2 learning due to the differences in L1 and

L2 acquisition. Children develop their L1 and finally reach a steady state of knowing many

things of the language.

Chomsky argues that the knowledge is richly articulated and shared with others from the speech

community. He suggests that the knowledge of language is not learned and the part of core of

Universal Grammar is a biological endowment. The Universal Grammar Language provides an

authentic description for the logical problem of the first language acquisition. Chomsky’s

approach has earned much popularity. One of the major reasons is that it suggests us a way of

emphasizing the significance of child language acquisition.

To draw some pedagogical implications for SLA and English Language Teaching, there are two

points that can be focused. To begin with, teachers should provide adequate authentic language

materials to raise students’ awareness of first language and second language differences, and

facilitate their processes of hypotheses revising and parameters re-setting. Secondly, the explicit

instructions and correction are very useful in English language teaching. Chomsky’s Universal

Grammar is a significant theory in the field of linguistics. It has given a solid explanation of the

way how a child learns a language. It is a fundamental and significant turn or shift from the

behaviorist opinion. The principle and parameter of Universal Grammar have gained much

focuses from the linguistics. It is full of value in understanding language acquisition. However, it

can be said that there are a few problems concerning the Universal Grammar approach to SLA,
which mainly include the fundamental differences between the L1 and L2 learning, and a

number of problems concerning language processing, cognitive mechanism as well as other

issues.
REFERENCES
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct: How the mind creates language. New York, NY:
William Morrow & Company Inc.

Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Gasser, M. (1990). Connectionism and universals of second language acquisition. Studies in

Second Language Acquisition, 12, 179―199

Curran, C. (1976). Counseling learning in second languages. Apple River, IL: Apple River Press