PSYC 100 Study Guide - Final Guide: Noam Chomsky, Universal Grammar

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jill L Atkinson

Document Summary

Lesson 12: language: describe theories of language acquisition (nativist vs. interactionist theories). Nativism is the philosophical view that we are born with knowledge already present. Nativists like noam chomsky argue that children are born with innate knowledge of universal grammar. They also believe that the brain begins to develop after our very first exposure to language. According to this perspective, no learning is involved in early language acquisition. Children have very little control over the growth of their linguistic understanding and require exposure to words for linguistic growth. (this is just like how our bodies require food for physical growth). The most obvious point in favour of this argument is that most people will develop a high competency in their native language a feat of which no other species is capable. Interactionism is the view that language acquisition is a product of an infant"s social development or learning experience guided by the infant.