Research Paper on:
Tutorial on the Acquisition of Language

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and simply moving directly into the content. We have utilized the second option here. Notice that we are still building a case for innateness of language acquisition.] The acquisition and  development of language in humans has been a topic of debate for more than a century. Until the late 1950s, it was traditionally believed that an infant acquired language from  the parent or caregiver. The infant simply mimicked the sounds that he or she heard. In the mid- to late-1950s, however, Noam Chomsky offered a different perspective. Chomskys theory was  that humans have an innate capacity for acquiring language. Chomskys theories regarding the innateness of language acquisition become controversial during the years following the 1964 publication of his first book,  Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (Soemarmo, 1999). Chomsky referred to what he called the Universal Grammar. This was the set of rules about language that already exists in humans  at birth. Human language, according to Chomskys Universal Grammar theory is the foundation for building language. Chomsky based his theory on the fact that young children acquire their native language  very quickly and relatively easily. Chomsky suggested that it would be something akin to a miracle if children learned language the same way they learn other things. He offered a  number of justifications for this proposition: * Children are exposed to very little correctly formed language. Listening to any conversation can validate this statement. People seldom speak in complete  sentences during the course of a conversation. They interrupt themselves and each other, they change topics in the middle, they make errors of speech and slips of the tongue. Despite  what amounts to poor language modeling around them, children still learn their native language. * Children do not simply copy the language that they hear around them. They must