Innatist

Innatist

1. Who?

   • Noam Chomsky
     • Sparked revolution in linguistics and psychology

2. Principles

   • Universal Grammar (UG)
     • All human languages based on innate human principles
   • Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
     • Humans are genetically programmed to acquire certain knowledge and skills at specific times in life
       • If this specific time is missed, the skills will be no longer attainable

3. Problems and Deficiencies

   • Does not account for language deficits or exceptionalities
   • Difficult to find evidence for Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)

4. Relation to SLA

   • Does not deal with the psychological processes involved with learning a language
   • UG scholarship is only concerned with whether parameters are set or not, not with how they are set.
   • Developed into Communicative Approach

5. Implications for Teaching

   • Lots of social interaction.
   • Co-operative learning
   • Content Based - role plays, interviews, games, etc.

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