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: 20 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 beg