I sent my last column (‘Thought experiment’, Nov 15) to Prof Noam Chomsky. Just as Ludwig Wittgenstein, whom I had cited in that column, was the leading philosopher of language of the first half of the 20th century, Chomsky is the leading theorist of language acquisition and cognitive development of its second half. I solicited his opinion as a linguist on the choice of language for early childhood education.
Here is the relevant part of Prof Chomsky’s reply: “There’s no doubt that instruction is more successful in the native language, and there are obviously also important reasons to gain fluency in an international language. Should be possible to balance these needs. Linguistics doesn’t tell us much beyond what common sense provides.”