Researchers compare three groups of immigrants who arrived in an English-speaking country at ages 4, 12, and 22. After 10 years of immersion, syntactic test scores are nearly native for the youngest group, intermediate for the middle group, and significantly lower for the oldest group, despite equal exposure. Vocabulary scores show no group differences.
The pattern of syntactic but not vocabulary differences most directly supports:
- Acheck_circle
A sensitive period for grammar consistent with Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device
- B
B. F. Skinner's operant account of language as shaped verbal behavior
- C
Vygotsky's zone of proximal development
- D
Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis
Explanation
Selective decline in grammar with later acquisition while lexical learning remains intact is the classic signature of a critical/sensitive period for syntax, supporting an innate LAD.