Nativist

?

Chomsky

Advantages

  • Rate of development tends to be similar
  • Resist correction
  • Overgeneralisations - forms of lang adults don't use
  • Own rules that seem to understand all lang have grammatical rules
  • Correct lang when surrounded by 'impoverished' faulty adult-speech

Disadvantages

  • Stop overgeneralising and use lang correctly
  • Need input for more skills than grammar
  • Children deprived of social contact can't achieve complete communicative experience

Evaluation

Although Berko's wug test does infer that children can apply grammatical rules for themselves, the fact that feral children (e.g. Genie) show that some form of interaction is needed challenging Chomsky. This then led to Lenneburg's 'critical period'

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