The Role of LAD in the Acquisition of English Language Prior to the Teen-Age

Abstract

Certainly, acquiring a language is very complex ability that the humans acquire. It is a very strong subject that has been probed by scholars from various professions. And yet the Scholars are on their efforts to grasp the main aspects of a language acquisition. And history is evident that it took decades to develop different theories about the process of language acquisition in the humans. The aim of this research was to testify the role of LAD in the acquisition of trilingual skills established on the theory of acquiring a language by American linguist-cum-philosopher Noam Chomsky.
Innatism was the most effective theory of 1950‟s proposed by Chomsky. It is supported by the concept of Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in general. This focuses mainly on five arguments “Poverty of the Stimulus, Uniformity, The Critical Period Hypothesis, Species Significance and phonological Impairment”. Judgments indicate that these five opinions have a decisive role in the acquisition of language. These findings furthermore infer that language acquisition is obviously restricted to humans only. They have the capacity and capability to converse amongst each other all over the world. Criticizers speak about this mesmerizing dispute from various perspectives and show a disagreement on whether language gaining is instinctive or erudite. This problem remains utmost interesting concern that every linguist tries to tackle.
Being the researchers of the same issue, the researchers had applied the Chomskian theory of innatism on the samples collected from their own territory. No doubt, already proposed theories have more or less coherence but the theory of innatism is more appealing and practical. Its roots lie in the scientific arena, biological system of articulation of sound and acquisition of more languages.
The researchers had come to the conclusion that LAD is playing its significant role in the acquisition of L1, L2 and L3 within the teen age periods. The proficiency of the first acquired language (L1) remains deep-rooted and pivotal one in the cognitive development of child onwards in life. Furthermore, the Language Acquisition proficiency level in L1 augments the proficiency of language acquisition in L2 and L3 within teenage periods. However the structures of each L1, L2 and L3 remain parted or overlapping each other as shown in the Pie-Chart. It further strengthens the concept of subconscious process of language-acquisition over conscious process of language-learning during the teen age period.