ASSIGNMENT OF: English for Specific Purpose

ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO: Mam Rehana

TOPIC: Mentalist Theory

ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED BY:

FATIMA GUL

SITARA AYAZ

ABIDA PARVEEN

MARYAM TARIQ

DATE: 3rd April.2013

1

Mentalism

Mentalism, a theory based on mental perception and thought processes, can be learned through

experience or through an apprenticeship with an experienced mentalist. The doctrine that objects

of knowledge has no existence except in the mind of the perceiver

Mentalism is a general term for scientific approaches to various phenomena that try to study the

properties of the human mind, rather than just their directly observable manifestations. In

linguistics, mentalism is associated both with generative linguistics and with more modern

approaches that go under the heading of cognitive linguistics. Mentalist linguists try to describe

the mental patterns of language (or the internalized grammars) that underlie linguistic behavior.

The term was originally used for the old view that the mind is a non-physical entity controlling

but distinct from the body, especially at the beginning of the 20th century (e.g. in Leonard

Bloomfield's writings). At that time, it was opposed to mechanism (or physicalism). Later the

view that in linguistics is associated with Bloomfield came to be known as behaviorism, and the

term mentalism came to acquire its modern meaning.

"The mentalism theory, which is by far the older, and still prevails both in the popular view and

among men of science, supposes that the variability of human conduct is due to the interference

of some non-physical factor, a spirit or will or mind...that is present in every human being. This

spirit, according to the mentalist view, is entirely different from material things and accordingly

follows some other kind of causation or perhaps none at all." (Bloomfield 1933:32)

2

The major principle of Mentalistic language acquisition theory is that "everybody learns a

language, not because they are subjected to a similar conditioning process, but because they

possess an inborn capacity which permits them to acquire a language as a normal Maturational

Process" (D.A. Wilkins, 1972: 168). In 1965, in a book titled Aspects of the Theory of Syntax,

Chomsky claimed that there are innate properties of language because a child masters his native

language in a very short time in spite of the highly abstract nature of rules. After this, in an

article entitled "Linguistic Theory" Chomsky called this innate knowledge as Language

Acquisition Device (LAD hereafter). He also insisted that every normal human being is born into

a society with a LAD, which embodies the nature and the structure of human language. LAD is

what counts for language acquisition where in environment has got no importance for the

learning process at all.

Philosophy of language Chomsky’s characterize for his own approach to linguistics. On the basis

of the distinction between competence and performance, he claims that linguistics should study

competence, that is, the speaker's internalized transformational-generative rules of language.

Introspection is one excellent source of data for the study of language. Linguistics is a branch of

cognitive psychology that deals with structure and process in human minds and can be connected

with observed behavior only in an indirect way. Such a mentalistic approach is opposed to

behaviorist approaches, which reject introspection, consciousness, and other mentalistic terms

for the purpose of explaining behavior. The contrast between mentalism and behaviorism in the

philosophy of language is essentially a contrast between rationalism and empiricism.

“Mentalistic linguistics is simply theoretical linguistics that uses performance as data (along with

3

other data, for example the data provided by introspection) for the determination of competence,

the latter being taken as the primary object of its investigation.”

Noam Chomsky supported the mentalistic language acquisition theory, through such concepts

like Nativist Position (Nativism), Innateness Position, Rationalist Position claims that for the

basic structure of language and how it is mastered and how human language develops, it is not

the environment but language structures, processes, and ideas that dwell in mind at birth serve

for the acquisition of languages. According to this theory then, the speaker's inborn knowledge

(Innateness Position) of language, not the consequences of behavior, can be held responsible for

the acquisition of language.

It is an obvious fact that Mentalist language learning and teaching theory is a clear-cut challenge

to many claims of Behaviorist language use. A specific contribution of Mentalism to language

learning theory is that it has bestowed a strong emphasis on human language learning behavior.

In other words, according to Chomsky, human behavior is considerably more complicated.

Behaviorists analyzed the results of animal behavior in labs, drew conclusions deeply dependent

on laboratory experiments, whose conclusions cannot lead to explain the intricacies of human

behavior. It is clear that it is not a reliable attitude to describe and explains the human verbal

behavior through the learning behavior of animals.

After 1960s, as a vivid contribution of Mentalist learning theory, the child, not the animals, it

began to play by and by a major role in the analysis of the learning process "This revolution was

strongly influences by the rapid rise of a new development In linguistics, which can also be

traced back to Chomsky: Transformational-Generative Grammar (was a source of inspiration for

all sorts of experiments in language learning research" (Thco Van Els, et al, 1984: 28). Because

4

TG assumed that language learning ability is inborn and it is the LAD that allows the Kids to

make hypotheses about the nature and the composition of the language.

Language learning is conditioned by the way in which the mind observes, organizes and stores

information. In other words, the key to successful language learning and teaching lie not in the

analysis of the nature of language but in understanding the structure and processes of the mind.

So it can be said that mentalistic theory could be of great help in ESP classes to make the

students learn targeted language. Affective concerns are extremely broad and have yet to be very

well classified, that is, very clearly classified. This fact, however, does not stop us from noticing

the tremendous importance affective factors have across the board in all types of learning and

especially in foreign language learning. Effective factors touch on every single aspect of the

learning process. The main idea being that learning will only occur in so-called optimal

conditions. In reality, the fact remains that people will only learn when they want to learn: when

they feel like it. As teachers, we need to try to find ways and means as well as topics and practice

types which will make our students want to learn. 1

As a teacher of ESP class our role should be, beautifully summarized in the Chinese proverb

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day

Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for life time

ESP teacher not only make his learner well equipped, with the target language but also make him

efficient to use it properly in common day life.

1 Stephen van VlackSookmyung Women’s UniversityGraduate School of TESOLEnglish for Specific Purposes (ESP)Spring 2006

5

Work cited

http://www.efdergi.hacettepe.edu.tr/19894MEHMET%20DEM%C4%B0REZEN.pdf

http://www.ncsu.edu/aern/TAS11.1/TAS11.1_Oyelakin.pdf

http://www.theassc.org/files/assc/Mentalistic%20Metatheory%20and%20Methodology.pdf

http://www.udveksling.com/ESP2006/ESP2006Week4

6