- Question
Is the ability to learn language hardwired into children's brains?
After children are born, they typically learn their first language(s) seamlessly and without any instruction or correction needed. This has prompted some to think that children are born with the necessary structures in their brains to learn language, but not everyone agrees with this view.
We have no innate language learning faculty
This position holds that children have no innate, hardwired faculty for learning language. Drawing on the 'blank slate' hypothesis, it argues the mind is empty at birth and that language is acquired entirely through experience and environment, not built-in instinct.
Language learning is hardwired into our brains
This position holds that the ability to learn language is hardwired into children's brains. Drawing on the innateness hypothesis, it argues children are born with the mental structures needed to acquire language—including an inbuilt 'Universal Grammar' common to all humans.