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Post by ambercyw on Sept 26, 2017 1:01:05 GMT
Chomsky believed that language acquisition and behaviour was way too complex to be simply explained by classical and instrumental conditioning as explained by Skinner. His theory was that humans are born with an innate ability to learn and use language. There is a critical period in childhood in which language must be learned and if the child does not learn to use language during that time, they will have difficulty learning later on. Chomsky further stated that humans used language creatively and the amount of different sentences that can be put together are infinite. This could not be adequately explained by a behaviourist's point of view which claims that a child would learn to properly form a sentence by reward and punishment since children are able to form sentences that have never been said before, so they are not simply repeating sentences. Chomsky's explanation is a cognitive one since he implicates the mind and thought processes in language learning which behaviourists reject on the account of only studying observable behaviour.
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