Discussion Questions: 21 Jan

1. Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff would like to strike a middle ground between what they see as the two competing approaches. Given the other readings, how possible do you think this is?

2. Pinker discusses how a critical period for language acquisition is consistent with his approach. How do you think those on "the other side," such as Elman et al., would respond?

3. How do Elman et al. resolve the issue of what "innateness" actually refers to?

4. In what ways do Elman et al. use connectionist models to argue that what appears to be innate and/or modular may not necessarily be?

5. (For the computationally minded) If you had to go out and build an actual model implementing one of the approaches to language acquisition you read about, which would be the least challenging?