Chomsky

Question 1

Who is he? What does he believe?

Answer 1

A language theorist
Believes that children are born with the ability to speak a langauge- innate ability

Question 2

What is Chomskys lad

Answer 2

Humans have an inborn biological capacity for language.
Knows as lad (language acquisition device)
Children are born with a predisposition to acquire language.

Question 3

Chomskys universal grammar

Answer 3

All human languages share a deep structure rooted in a set of grammatical rules and categories (syntax)
This universal grammar is understood intuitively by all.
Does not specifically need to be taught (hardwired into the brain)

Question 4

Poverty of the stimulus

Answer 4

Linguistic input received by young children is often insufficient for them to learn the complexities of their language solely through imitation or reinforcement.
Parental language input does not provide a neat and tidy model from which children could easily get language structures this is known as the poverty of the stimulus.

Question 5

Critical period

Answer 5

Children have to learn language within the first ten years of language or they wont naturally aquire language after that time without explicitly studying it.
Early years must give a lot of opportunity for interaction with adults.