Show:
Mr. Chomsky's Life
Theory
Theory (cont.)
Theory (cont.)
Bibliography
100
What book began to revolutionize the study of language?
Syntactic Strucures
100
What does L.A.D. stand for and what does it contain?
Language acquisition device, knowledge of grammatical rules common to all languages.
100
According to Chomsky what is the optimal learning age?
Between the ages 3 to 10 a child is the most likely to learn a language in its entirety and grasp fluency.
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What is Chomsky's thoughts on children learning a new language?
If provided with the correct input, the LAD predisposes all people to the acquisition of a second language in basically the same manner.
100
1
Cohn, W., N. Chomsky, K. Windschuttle, C. Hitchens, B. Levine, and D. Soloman. "Noam Chomsky: Profile." Discoverthenetworks.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
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What is Chomsky known as
father of modern linguistics
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Is Chomsky a learning perspective theorist or a nativist perspective theorist?
Nativist theorist
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What is the second factor Chomsky used to support his theory?
The child does not need a trigger to begin language acquisition, it happens on its own.
200
What did the minimalist program do?
Attempted to demonstrate that the brain’s language faculties are the minimum faculties that could be expected, given certain external conditions that are imposed on us independently
200
2
"Noam Chomsky Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
300
What was his 1951 master's thesis titled?
The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew
300
What does the nativist perspective argue?
That humans are biologically programmed to gain knowledge.
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What is the third factor Chomsky used to support his theory?
It does not matter if a child is corrected, they still grasp the language in the same manner and speak the same way.
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What program did Chomsky's research in the 1990's focus on?
Chomsky’s research focused on what he called the “minimalist program”.
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3
"Noam Chomsky." Psychology History. N.p., muskingum.edu Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
400
When did Chomsky start working for MIT?
1955
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What was one of his biggest contributions?
Chomsky Hierarchy, a division of grammar into groups, moving up or down in their expressive abilities.
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What is the fourth factor Chomsky used to support his theory?
Children go through stages of language acquisition in which they learn certain parts of the language
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What is the evidence against Chomsky's theory.
Critics of Chomsky’s theory say that although it is clear that children don’t learn language through imitation alone, this does not prove that they must have an LAD – language learning could merely be through general learning and understanding abilities and interactions with other people.
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4
Shaffer. "Theories of Language Development." Theories of Language Development. N.p., LanguageDevelopment.tripod.com Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
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What famous Greek Philosopher did Chomsky write about?
Plato
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What was Chomsky's theory?
His theory asserts that languages are innate and that the differences we see are only due to parameters developed over time in our brains, helping to explain why children are able to learn different languages more easily than adults
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What does Chomsky argue in his theory?
Chomsky argues that language is innately organized.
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List two pieces of evidence to support Chomsky's theory.
Children learning to speak never make grammatical errors such as getting their subjects, verbs and objects in the wrong order. If an adult deliberately said a grammatically incorrect sentence, the child would notice. Children often say things that are ungrammatical such as ‘mama ball’, which they cannot have learnt passively. Mistakes such as ‘I drawed’ instead of ‘I drew’ show they are not learning through imitation alone. Chomsky used the sentence ‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’, which is grammatical although it doesn't make sense, to prove his theory: he said it shows that sentences can be grammatical without having any meaning, that we can tell the difference between a grammatical and an ungrammatical sentence without ever having heard the sentence before, and that we can produce and understand brand new sentences that no one has ever said before.