Only human beings are gifted with the capacity to learn a language. But it is still a mystery how human beings attain this ability. Some people state that this ability is bestowed upon the humans by god while some others maintain that language is attained by social interaction. This dilemma has been scrutinized by generous number of linguists and child psychologists since ages. Resultantly, a number of theories prevail, but each having infinite amount of erroneous hypotheses.
As per Noam Chomsky the human brain is genetically programmed to learn language. For him this ability is programmed in LAD or Language Acquisition Device. This device is also referred to as Black Box. This so-called device consists of Universal Grammar, which is common to all world languages. Chomsky argues that B.F. Skinner’s behavioural activities have an insignificant role in language acquisition. He opines that the LAD is activated or triggered when the child hears a language. After receiving input the child tries to adapt his grammar structure with the language he is exposed to. To achieve this adjustment he then forms hypotheses about what he heard. Then he checks these hypotheses in his internal grammar for correctness. After successive checking and re-checking he then is able to form structurally sound sentences.
But the theory is not fully proven. Although created uproar since its proposition, the theory cannot explain how the child proceeds towards his journey of language acquisition. Moreover, it cannot explain how the cases like feral children are not contradictory with its principal assumption. Indeed, language acquisition is impossible without coming in contact with society or where we live. In this case the mother plays the central role. However, the greatest evidence in support of Chomskyan theory comes from Eric Heinz Lenneberg’s proposal for a critical period for learning. Lenneberg argued that language acquisition is restricted within a definite age beyond which language acquisition is virtually impossible. But this theory again lacks proper evidence. Modern researches have proven that human brain is capable of learning a language at any stage of life. Yet again it is also unresolved why children make mistakes despite having the universal grammar to check the errors.
The mystery in question couldn’t be resolved altogether. In fact, there are many mysteries around nature which are meant to remain unanswered. Therefore, the capability of language learning could be considered as a miraculous gift from nature, which distinguishes humans from all other species on earth.
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