Self-paced
Psychologist: Although studies of young children have revealed important facts about the influence of the environment on language acquisition, it is clear that one cannot attribute such acquisition solely to environmental influences: innate mechanisms also play a role. ███ ███ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████
Summary
The Psychologist claims that one cannot attribute children’s development of language solely to environmental influences. Why? Because children’s innate mechanisms also play a role in the development of language.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
So, the most reasonable question that ought to be studied is whether innate mechanisms or environmental factors play a more significant role for a child’s language development.
9.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ████████
a
language acquisition can ████ ██ █████ █████████
The Psychologist is not concerned if the development of language could ever be fully explained. Rather, the Psychologist is concerned with how language development could be partially explained.
b
innate mechanisms are █ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████
The Psychologist already claims that innate mechanisms play a role in the development of language.
c
language acquisition is ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████
The Psychologist concedes that innate mechanisms are not the sole factor for language development. Rather, the Psychologist is claiming that these mechanisms play a role.
d
parents and peers ███ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ████████
We don’t know whether parents and peers are the most important influence for developing language. We only know that environmental factors and innate mechanisms influence this development in some way.
e
innate mechanisms play █ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ████ █ ███████ █████████ ███████████
We know from the Psychologist that innate mechanisms play a partial role and environmental factors are not the sole influence on the development of language. Therefore, the next logical step is to consider what proportion of language development could we attribute to each of these factors.