The Chomskyan revolution in linguistics took place during a time in history when there was a massive effort in the United States to rectify injustice and restore rights to the socially disadvantaged. The underlying linguistic philosophy Chomsky offered was the innateness each individual had in theunfoldingof the mother tongue, which also implied an innate sense of equality. Chomsky did cause a real revolution and his theories are perhaps the most discussed linguistic theories around the world, all of which have lasted for almost half a century. Chomsky's primary aim was to establish a "holistic" framework for linguistics, beyond the S—R understanding of the times by philosophically placingintuitionat a higher level thanreflexes.This philosophy was admirable at that point in history; however, insurmountable problems have appeared within the practical components ofcompetence.One problem which arises, from a Vygotskian perspective, is the following: "of further importance to the structural or descriptive linguist was the notion that language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and that these units could be described scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole" (Brown, 1987, p. 9). In viewing Chomskyan linguistics from the perspective of the contemporary world, it appears that linguistics is not hermetically sealed from political and economic events that influence world opinion, hence scientific opinion, all of which change over time. Indeed, the scope and direction linguistic theories will take in the future will reflect a conscious (and unconscious) need to establish acceptable parameters, all of which will be defined by collective needs. The traditional picture of the "ideal speaker–hearer" will soon be a part of history, not only as a result of new images being produced, but also because of a global shift in dominant populations