2.2.5

Nativism - Exam Answer

Test yourself

Nativism - Exam Answer

Here's how you move up the Assessment Bands in your examination:

Illustrative background for AO2 – ChomskyIllustrative background for AO2 – Chomsky ?? "content

AO2 – Chomsky

  • At level 3, I can show detailed knowledge:
    • You should aim to write like this: “Within his theory, Chomsky states that children make virtuous errors (errors which are made with good intentions e.g. ‘I hurted his feelings’.) In addition, he states that children have a universal grammar which states a set of rules on how to structure language. His theory is supported by the fact that many languages follow the SVO syntax – Brown’s research states that 75% of languages use this syntax.”
Illustrative background for Level 4Illustrative background for Level 4 ?? "content

Level 4

  • At level 4, I can challenge this:
    • You should aim to write like this: “However, there has been some debate over Chomsky’s thoughts. It can be argued that children make lexical mistakes in the sense they miss out words rather than syntactical mistakes.”
Illustrative background for Level 5Illustrative background for Level 5 ?? "content

Level 5

  • At level 5, I can evaluate this:
    • You should aim to write like this: “Chomsky’s theory is often dismissed by critics because it is based on hypothetical thinking rather than real-life children. As such, leading linguistics like Tomasello have dismissed Chomsky as an ‘armchair linguist’. This criticism of Chomsky’s research throws into question the validity of his theory, however, his research does critique interactionalist theories...
Illustrative background for Level 5 (cont.)Illustrative background for Level 5 (cont.) ?? "content

Level 5 (cont.)

  • ... As Pinker points out, nearly every utterance a child produces is a brand-new combination of words, and therefore questions whether a child can learn from imitation. Overall, Chomsky’s theory is limited due to not having scientific evidence, but is still very important in considering how a child learns language.”

Jump to other topics

1Language Levels

2Language, The Individual & Society

3Language Diversity & Change

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