ED PSYCH 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Language Acquisition Device, Noam Chomsky, Universal Grammar
7 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Development of perception and cognition prepare the child for language. Language is learned through operant conditioning (reinforcement) and imitation. Limitation cannot account for why humans, but not other species, acquire language. Language is a uniquely human accomplishment, etched into the structure of the brain . Rules of sentence organization are too complex to be taught directly or learned from observation. Language acquisition device (lad): innate system in all children that contains universal grammar. Enables children to understand and speak in a rule-oriented fashion. There is a sensitive, or optimal, period for learning language. Ability to learn language gradually decreases with age. Deaf 5 month-old given cochlear implant language development was typical at 3 to 4 years of age. If hearing is not restored until after age 2, children remain behind in language development. If implantation occurs after age 4, language delays are severe and persistent. Children do not immediately generalize grammatical rules.
