Chomsky

Chomsky developed a language acquisition theory as a criticism of Skinner’s behaviorist theory. Chomsky (1965) theorized that all languages contain nouns and verbs and other parts of grammar. He theorized that students just need to learn the nouns of the second language and then the verbs. He stated that children instinctively know how to combine parts of language such as nouns and verbs.

According to Bovitch, Cullimore, Bramwell-Jones, Massas, and Prerun (2013), “Chomsky draws a key distinction between the deep structure and surface structure of languages. He argues that the deep structure, which contains the meaning of a sentence, is not culturally determined but rather 'hardwired' in the human brain. The meaning is then converted by a transformation into surface structure, which includes the sounds and words in a sentence. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is the hypothetical brain mechanism that according to Chomsky explained the acquisition of syntactic structure of language. Chomsky hypothesized that the language acquisition device was the system that determined the features of the child’s native language. This falls under the realm of the nativist theory of language which states that humans are born with the innate ability for acquiring language” (para. 5).

When we apply Chomsky’s theory to teaching English language learners, we start with the hypothesis that everyone has an innate ability to learn a language. Another application of Chomsky’s theory is realizing that although adults might not speak the language in its purest form, since we all occasionally use slang or cultural phrases, students can learn the proper language use in spite of the language misuse of others.