About this Site
Create your own website today!
Update your website
Vote for this Site
Message Board
Statistics
Refer This Site
To A Friend
The NA Home

Overview
The Natural Approach
Application
From Theory to Practice
How to Apply the Approach
How We Applied It
Treatment of Errors
Theory
Language Acquisition Theories
LA Theories (Part 2)
LA Theories (Part 3)
LA Theories (Part 4)
Computers and L2 Acquisition
CALL and Acquisition
Computer Supported Learning
The Role of Innate Knowledge
Innate Knowledge in L1 and L2
Plato and Chomsky
Domain Specific or General
Piaget and Skinner
Nativism
Wanna Contraction
Universal Grammar
Turkish Learners
Summary
The Role of Receptive Skills
From Reception to Production
Studies
Experimental Design
Leisure Time Activities
Conclusion
Online Sources
The Internet TESL Journal
TESOL Articles Online
TESL EJ
English Proficiency Plus
EFLWEB Magazine
Hands on English
NCLEnotes
CALL Journal
Teach English
Other TESL/TEFL Web Sites
Ellidokuzoglu on Krashen
Educational Technology
Krashen and SLA Theories
NCLE Eric Digests
Multilingual Research Center
EL Easton
Library
NCLE Publications
Language Education Associates
ALI Applied Linguistics Index
Books
Articles in Turkish
Temel Prensipler
Edinme - Ögrenme
Dil Edinim Cihazi
Dil Bilgisi
Edinimi Hizlandirma
Yeni Yuzyilda Dil Ogretimi




The Role of Innate Knowledge
in
First and Second Language Acquisition
by
Hasanbey Ellidokuzoglu


  NEW! Poetry and Doll Maker with Galleries!     [Learn About Our Ecommerce]
Graphics Gallery!



III. INNATE KNOWLEDGE:DOMAIN-SPECIFIC OR GENERAL?

Many scientists, especially the psychologists, however, are hesitant to attribute a domain-specific innate linguistic knowledge to the human infant. These psychologists view the human brind as a homogeneous computational system which analyze varying types of data using general information processing principles. Postulating a language-specific mechanism within such a general-purpose computational system is considered to be a violation of Occam's principle which favors minimum amount of principles to account for maximum amount of data rather than ad hoc explanations restricted to specific phenomena. Piaget, being a typical representative of this reductionist paradigm, views language acquisition as an instance of general human learning with no appeal to domain-specific innate knowledge. He asks, 'If one wants to introduce innateness into language, why not introduce it into the symbolic function in its totality, and finally into anything that is general' (Piaget, 1980, p.167). It is believed that linguistic concepts are reducible to general cognitive terms:

...Piagetians seek precursors of all aspects of language in the child's sensorimotor interaction with the environment ....Playing with containers--embedding objects one into another--is considered a necessary precursor to the embedding of clauses....Notions such as noun phrase, verb phrase, subject and clause are ... said not to be available to the young child's linguistic computations before the acquisition of elaborate cognitive structures. (Karmiloff-Smith, 1992, p.34)


Please, Click On The Parts Below To Read More:

4. Parallelism between Piaget and Skinner

5. Nativism and Occam's Razor

6. Wanna Contraction

7. Universal Grammar

8. Wanna and Turkish Learners of English

9. Conclusion


Contact the Author





Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

Language Translator

© Vedat Kiymazarslan, 1997-2007

Domain Lookup
         www..
Get www.yourdomainofchoice.com for your site with services!




.

Visitors: 09609
Page Updated Thu May 11, 2006 7:26am EDT