the cognitive tradition and second language acquisition

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1、3TheCognitiveTraditionandSecondLanguageAcquisitionChomsky’sTheoryofUniversalGrammarAfterrejectingbehaviorismandstructuralism,thefieldofSLAem-bracedthecognitivetradition.ThistrendinSLAtheoryisalsolinguisticallybased,owingtoitsheavyrelianceonNoamChomsky’slinguistictheoryoffirstlangu

2、ageacquisition.Chomsky(1965,1980,1981a,1981b)madeacon-vincingargumentfortheexistenceofaninnatedomain-specificlanguagefaculty,whichhecalledthelanguageacquisitiondevice(LAD).TheLADincludesuniversalgrammar(UG),whichisindispensableforthechild’sabilitytoacquirehisorhernativelanguage.C

3、homskydoesnotviewlanguageasspeechtobeusedinreal-lifecommunicationbutasasetofformalproper-tiesinherentinanynaturallanguagegrammar.Chomskyacknowledgesthatthereismoretolanguagethangrammaticalcompetence.Thenativespeakeralsopossessespragmaticcompetence:‘‘Wemightsaythatpragmaticcompet

4、enceplaceslanguageintheinstitutionalsettingofitsuse,relatingintentionsandpurposestothelinguisticmeansathand’’(Chomsky1980,225).HistheoryoffirstlanguageacquisitionbasedontheoperationofUGis,however,exclusivelylimitedtothechild’sacquisitionofgrammaticalcompetence.Histheorydoesnotatt

5、empttoexplainthechild’sabilitytousethisgrammaticalknowledgeinreal-lifesituations;that30TheCognitiveTradition31is,itdoesnotdealwithpragmaticcompetence,primarilybecausepragmaticcompetencecontainsvariabilityandalsoismoreconcernedwith‘‘knowledgeofconditionsandmannerofappropriateuse,

6、inconformitywithvariouspurposes’’thanwith‘‘theknowledgeofformandmeaning’’(224),whichisthemainfocusofhisscientificinquiry.ForChomsky,grammaticalcompetenceisconfinedtothedomainofsyn-tax,withsomereferencestosemanticsandphonology.Thisknowledgeofformalpropertiesofgrammarisimplicit(that

7、is,unconscious,intuitive).Forexample,thenativespeakermaybeabletocorrectlydeterminethatthesentence*Israining?isungrammaticalwithoutbeingabletoprovideanexplicitexplanationastowhy.Chomsky’stheoryoflinguisticcompetencereferstothenativespeaker’simplicitratherthanexplicit(conscious)kn

8、owl-edgeoftheformalpropertiesofL1grammar.Noteth