Chomsky's language (nature) acquisition theory

Question 1

What did Chomsky believe?

Answer 1

• Language is innate.
• Children are born with a LAD that enables them to develop language.
• Children couldn’t learn a language through imitation alone as they only come into contact with a small amount of utterances.

Question 2

Criticisms of Chomsky’s theory

Answer 2

• There is a lack of evidence to support the theory.
• The model ignores the importance of social interaction.
• Chomsky didn’t take into account children who have learning difficulties.

Question 3

Strengths

Answer 3

Children who learn two languages from birth are most likely to be fluent in both rather than learning later on in childhood.

children follow similar patterns in their development of language which could be a result of biological programming and not the environment.