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Javier F. Aguilar
EDCI- 6304.60
Dr. Michael Sullivan – Dr. Mari Evans
The University of Texas at Brownsville
Project one - Noam Chomsky - Theorist
July 26, 2012
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Professor Avram Noam Chomsky (complete name) is an intellectual, linguist, political
analyst of international reputation that has visited different countries where he makes speeches at
prestigious universities. Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, PA on December 7, 1928 to William
and Elsie Chomsky. As a result of growing up as a local cultural minority, Chomsky has stated
on several occasions that as a child he had an "instinctive panic" of Catholics, one that took him
a long time to overcome. Chomsky attended high school studies in Philadelphia before moving
on to the University of Pennsylvania where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy
in the year 1945. The first article Chomsky wrote was published in the school newspaper that he
attended at the age of ten years old regarding the Spanish Civil War. Chomsky at the age of
twelve years old continues to write articles of anti-fascist and anarchism. Chomsky has been a
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of
Sciences. In 1949, Chomsky married Carol Schatz who was his partner in his childhood; together
they had three children, two girls and one boy – Aviva, Diane and Harry. Carol Chomsky passed
away of cancer at the age of 78 in 2008. Chomsky continued his instruction and established his
thesis at Harvard University and ultimately received his PhD in linguistics in 1955 from the
University of Pennsylvania. In 1955, Chomsky presented a doctoral thesis on syntactic structures
entitled “Transformational Analysis”, which placed emphasis on the concepts of
transformational grammar (Chomsky, 2001). Chomsky participated in anti-war movements in
the 1960’s. He has since been focusing his career in linguistic at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology – M.I.T.; until 2005 when he decided to retire.
Professor Chomsky’s projects in the political and communication areas make him a great
intellectual influence in American society and around the world. In his books and interviews,
Chomsky gives his point of view on actual events in the United States such as the economy,
education, and politics. In his thirty eight year career, Chomsky research in linguistics made
vocal his concern over political imperialistic actions like when President Ronald Reagan took
control of the White house and Chomsky opposed the Vietnam war and other wars (1991-2004).
He continues to bring attention of current conflicts with other countries i.e. Afghanistan, and
Iran.
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The Power of the Media in the United States is another issue that Chomsky criticizes because he
believes they want to have control of our society and encourage and persuade citizens to accept
the decisions of powerful political groups. This manipulation by the media, he believed, was the
way that powerful organizations could control their way of thinking. Chomsky is recognized for
his "10 strategies of manipulation by the media” (Chomsky, 2002).
Chomsky Noam has demonstrated his unrelenting work as a debater and intellectual
commitment with his followers. Professor Chomsky has written over one hundred and fifty seven
books. Additionally, he has around two hundred and five articles and conferences in different
countries and universities. He was recognized for his participation in a historic debate with the
French thinker Michael Foucault on Holland television in 1971 for the International Philosophers
Project. Chomsky saw how American politicians would not support his investigations and his
works. However, important newspapers such as the New York Times, The Boston Globe and the
Chicago Tribune recognized him as the one of the most important intellectual citizen in the
United States (Chomsky, 1988).
Chomsky confirms in his college speech how individuals learn based on universal
grammar and the genetics of language theories and studies that he investigated in his early years.
I will discuss in this paper some important theories that Chomsky researched such as, the theory
of the Language Acquisition Device (L.A.D.).
His central contribution in the field of linguistics is the influential "transformative-generative
grammar" which is an attempt to describe the syntactical processes common to all human
language mathematically. The Language Acquisition Device (L.A.D.) is the imaginary mind
mechanism that according to Chomsky explained the acquisition of syntactic structure of
language. Chomsky theorized that the language acquisition method was the system that
determined the features of the child's inborn language (Chomsky, 2006). An example of this
theory is where Chomsky explains the ability of how a child learns to speak with the minimum
assistance from external individuals and without the knowledge of reference for their
comprehension. Children are not born programmed with a specific language. Children will learn
and simulate the sounds around them as they grow and can adapt to learn any language that they
are exposed to at an early age.
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An example of this would be to have a Hispanic child born in the US learning to speak English
as their primary language mostly influenced by their surroundings i.e. Television and radio.
Chomsky with these examples has demonstrated the universal grammar underlying the structure
of all languages. Chomsky’s revelations in the universal grammar have opened doors and
opportunities for other theorists to begin making their own investigations and bring about more
research on neurological and genetics studies.
The theory of Value describes the educational goals. Traditionally, schools have been
used as a device to transmit knowledge; however Chomsky preaches that the skills and
knowledge educated are often not worthwhile. "The goal of education", according to Noam
Chomsky, "is to produce human beings whose values are not accumulation and domination, but
instead are free association on equal terms." Chomsky criticizes that children are not skilled to
challenge and think self-sufficiently, yet they are educated to repeat, follow orders and obey.
Education is described as a period of oppression and regulator, with a system of false beliefs.
Based on these analyses, the goals of education should be to encourage the development of the
child's natural capacity (McGilvray, 2005).
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The theory of knowledge: Generative Grammar and Cognitive stated, the majority of
Chomsky's writings with regard to the nature of knowledge relate explicitly to the construction
and use of language. His theory of Generative Grammar, though constantly progressing, stands
as a microcosm of his views on the human mind's methods of taking in and storing information.
While much of it is principally applicable to the field of language, there is more than enough
here to illustrate his core ideas about education and the formation of human belief and
knowledge. This is a very natural method, but one that has found ever increasing recognition
amongst experts in the field; in addition, to his naturalistic view of humans and their abilities to
think and communicate, Chomsky also believes there is universality to these traits, especially
with regards to morality, that can be found across different cultures (McGilvray, 2005)..
Theory of Transmission states the character of the teacher, according to Chomsky, is to
help encourage growth and help students become involved in their own learning. He states that
students, "typically they come in fascinated, and the process of education has a way of driving
that defect out of their minds. But if children's normal interest is sustained or even stimulated,
they can do all kinds of things in ways we don't understand. In other words, the teacher's role in
the transmission of learning is to keep the children involved in the learning process and
fascinated in examination and individuality. The emphasis is on the students learning rather than
the teachers teaching (McGilvray, 2005).
An anecdote that I read in one of the sources when Professor Chomsky presented in MIT,
a student asked him what topics were to be covered during the semester and Chomsky responded
“it does not matter what is covered, but what is discovered”. This response should be vital to all
students learning process and should inspire us to discover our abilities and limitless opportunity
to learn and achieve great things. Chomsky stated “education should be aimed at helping
students to reach a point where they learn by themselves, because that is what they will do in life,
not just absorb information given by someone else and repeat it.” I personally intend to use these
quotes and inspiration to further my learning path in my educational future (Chomsky, 2011).
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Works Cited:
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its origin, nature and use. Westport:
Greenwood
Chomsky, N. (1988) Noam Chomsky: language & politics, Montreal: Black Rose Books.
Chomsky, N. (2002). Chomsky on democracy and education.
Chomsky, N. (2006) Language and mind 3rd Ed. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press.
"Chomsky on Civilization, Society, Power, and Human Nature." (2008.) Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8tbEXYeT0
McGilvray, J. (Ed.) (2005). The Cambridge companion to Chomsky. Cambridge, United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Noam Chomsky: Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. (2001) Retrieved
from http://www.chomsky.info/bios/2001/02.htm
"The European Graduate School, Graduate & Postgraduate studies: Noam Chomsky –
Biography (2012) retrieved from
http://www.egs.edu/library/noam-chomsky/biography/
"
"The New Foundations: The Educational Theory of Noam Chomsky –
(2011) retrieved from
http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Chomsky.html.
"University of Cologne: Noam Chomsky on Society". (2011) Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6XFkSwVys&feature=related