Over the last 30 years, linguists, especially Noam Chomsky, have advocated that much of our knowledge of language is innate. In other words, human beings are prewired for language acquisition; they are born with a Universal Grammar which underlies the specific grammars of all human languages. Over this same period of three decades, linguists have accumulated an impressive amount of evidence in support of the Innateness Hypothesis, much of which is discussed in various places in your textbooks.
Write a clearly organized, detailed, and convincing argument supporting the Innateness Hypothesis. Write as if you were presenting the paper to someone who knows little about the topic.
Although I will be more concerned with the content of the paper than with style, I expect the paper to adhere to Edited American English. In addition, the paper should be between six and eight double-spaced pages, have one inch margins on all sides, and be written in a size 12 font.
You are not required to use any sources other than the textbooks for the course. Therefore, citations may be fairly informal, and you do not need to create a page of references. If you wish to cite, use the following format as an example. "A sentence is not a chain but a tree" (Pinker, 1994, 97). I do not object to your using quotes from the textbooks, but do so judiciously as you are trying to convince me that you know what you are writing about.
You may turn in your paper when you take the final examination on August 16.
To successfully write a paper defending the innateness hypothesis, you must include evidencethat actually supports the hypothesis. You should be able to support the hypothesis fairly easily after reading the two textbooks; however, a few students in the past have presented evidence that is less than convincing. As you read the two textbooks, think about the following points, and decide which ones are solid evidence for the innateness hypothesis:
Children learn their first language at approximately the same time.
Children acquire certain grammatical structures in the same order.
Deaf children babble with their hands just like hearing children babble orally.
Different creole languages have similar grammars.
Children never make some grammatical errors.
These are just a few points; use them if they are strong, and develop them well. Other points may be very important to your paper as well.
English 415 Online: Course Syllabus.