ABSTRACT
Chomsky’s ideas stimulated the interest in L1 (and, indirectly, FL) acquisition that there has been over the past few decades. For him, L1 acquisition is a conundrum, even a miracle. The big question (which, as we saw in 3.2.5, he refers to as ‘Plato’s problem’) is: how is it that the very young child, so poorly developed in many areas, is able to learn the rudiments of their native language so quickly and so successfully? Chomsky’s answer was, as we have seen, that the individual has a machine in the head, an LAD, that does the job for them.
