Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2009 - Volume 32, Issue 05  

Open Peer Commentary

Widening the field: The process of language acquisition

Edith L. Bavina1

a1 School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. e.bavin@latrobe.edu.au http://www.latrobe.edu.au/psy/staff/bavine.html

Abstract

Evans & Levinson (E&L) argue against Universal Grammar on the basis of language diversity. A related and fundamental issue is whether the language input provides sufficient information for a child to acquire it. I briefly discuss the more integrated approaches to language acquisition which focus on the mechanisms, and research showing that input cues provide valuable information for the language learner.

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