Chomskys ¿mentalistischer Spracherwerbsmechanismus¿ vs. Bloomfields bzw. Skinners ¿Behaviorismus¿

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 1995 im Fachbereich Didaktik für das Fach Deutsch - Deutsch als Fremdsprache, DaF, Note: 2,0, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (Sprachlernzentrum), Veranstaltung: Proseminar Spracherwerb und Sprachverlust, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: There are two basic theories for language acquisition. Noam Chomsky¿s theory, which is believed people have a basic pattern of learning language inside of their brain since they were born. On the other hand, B. F. Skinner¿s theory which is believed people have to be taught how to speak by someone for language acquisition. People usually don¿t remember how they learned to speak, but everybody usually speaks their first language without any problems, some children even speak more than two languages naturally. Language is a unique system which only humans have, however, if it¿s correct rules or grammars of language people might have to study. There also seems to be critical period for learning language. Chomsky says ¿human brain contains a language acquisition device (LAD) which automatically analyzes the components of speech a child hears.¿ The human brain has special function, unlikely animals; that¿s why only humans speak languages. Learning a language for a human is very easy because the human brain already contains the ability of language, so even children start to speak language naturally in their early age. According to Skinner¿s theory even young children speak language without learning, but they often make mistakes in their speech. While they are growing, their number of mistakes in their speech decreases. They are learning how to speak, so in this case some part of Skinner¿s theory is also correct. In conclusion, until people reach critical period of learning language, people learn their language automatically without being taught because of their innate ability of language. Nevertheless, the ability of language has to be activated in the first place by something otherwise people never begin to acquire their language. Once people past the critical period, it is hard to learn any language. That¿s why both Chomsky¿s and Skinner¿s theories seem to be correct in different cases and language acquisition system works with both of them together.