Introduction

This chapter analyzes the different interpretations of several basic concepts in language acquisition research. Children’s language acquisition is a very meaningful field of research. Its significance is reflected in the external argumentation of linguistic theory; it is an indispensable part of linguistics, psychology, and even cognitive science, having important promoting effects on both linguistic research and cognitive psychology research. Constructivist theory believes that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Universal Grammar is genetically inherited and that children’s language is gradually constructed based on general cognitive abilities through interactions with adults. The language input children receive during the interactions is an important driving factor for children’s language acquisition. The differences in these viewpoints also lead to variations in the judgment criteria for acquisition at the operational level – specifically, whether to use correct comprehension or correct production as the criterion. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.