The Effect of Variable Input on Comprehension: Evidence from Spanish

Language acquisition researchers agree that the grammar the child constructs is the result of the interplay between an innate capacity for language learning and properties of the input. Researchers differ, however, on the weight one should give to the input, and which properties of the input are necessary for the child to converge on a grammar that is like the adult grammar. Since we know that languages change, it must be the case that the input that adults provide for children (E-language) is not always sufficient for the child to construct a grammar that is identical to the grammar of the adults. There must be cases in which children acquire a grammar that is slightly different from their parents (Kroch 2001). Although we can say that the innate component is likely to be the same within the population of typically developing children (however large or small it may be, and however specific it may be), as noted by Wilson and Henry (1998), the input that each child receives will vary qualitatively and quantitatively as a result of the variety of speakers each child comes into contact with (e.g. speakers of different language varieties, young child speakers whose language is still developing vs. adult speakers) and the variety of language settings (e.g. formal