First language acquisition is remarkable for the speed with which it takes place. Long before a child starts school, he or she has become an extremely sophisticated language-user, operating a system for self-expression and communication that no other creature, or computer, comes close to matching. In addition to the speed of acquisition, the fact that it generally occurs, without overt instruction, for all children, regardless of great differences in their circumstances, provides strong support for the idea that there is an innate predisposition in the human infant to acquire language. We can think of this as a special capacity for language with which each newborn child is endowed. By itself, however, this inborn language capacity is not enough.

Basic requirements

During the first two or three years of development, a child requires interaction with other language-users in order to bring this general language capacity into operation with a particular language such as English. We have already seen, in the case of Genie (chapter 13), that a child who does not hear or is not allowed to use language will learn no language.