How Children Learn to Talk: Two Views of Language: Reading Answers & Explanations
IELTS Reading practice test · 14 questionsAcademicmedium
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About this passage
The passage opens: “One of the most remarkable achievements of early childhood is also one of the most familiar: learning to talk. In the space of a few short years, and without any formal teaching, almost every child comes to understand and produce a language of astonishing complexity, mastering thousands of words and an intricate…”
- Passage length: about 705 words
- Questions: 14
- Question types: Matching Features, Note Completion, Yes / No / Not Given
“How Children Learn to Talk: Two Views of Language” is an original IELTS-style practice passage written by IELTS-Bank. It is not taken from an official IELTS or Cambridge test, so these answers only apply to our version.
Answer key at a glance
How Children Learn to Talk: Two Views of Language answers with explanations
Questions 1–5: Matching Features
Look at the following statements and the two views below. Match each statement with the correct view, A or B. You may use either letter more than once.
- A. the nativist view associated with Chomsky
- B. the usage-based view associated with Tomasello
- 1
Humans are born with a specialised mental capacity dedicated to language.
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Answer: A — the nativist view associated with Chomsky
Why: The passage states that Chomsky's nativist view argues humans are born with an innate, specialised capacity for language, which is a key feature of his theory.
Where to find it · Paragraph 2 “Human beings, he proposed, are born with an innate, specialised capacity for language, a kind of mental equipment dedicated to grammar that is unique to our species.”
- 2
Language is learned through social interaction and general learning abilities.
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Answer: B — the usage-based view associated with Tomasello
Why: The passage states that the usage-based view, associated with Tomasello, argues that children learn language through social interaction and general-purpose learning abilities, rather than a specialized language faculty.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “Children, they contend, learn language in much the same way as they learn other complex skills: through social interaction, imitation and the powerful general-purpose learning abilities of the human brain.”
- 3
The speech children hear is too limited to explain what they come to know.
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Answer: A — the nativist view associated with Chomsky
Why: The passage states that the nativist view argues children's language input is fragmentary and insufficient, suggesting much of the language structure is innate, supporting the idea that the stimulus is too limited.
Where to find it · Paragraph 3 “The everyday speech that children hear, they point out, is fragmentary, full of slips, false starts and incomplete sentences, and it simply does not contain enough information to explain the rich and consistent grammatical knowledge that children reliably end up with.”
- 4
Children work out grammar by tracking patterns in the speech around them.
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Answer: B — the usage-based view associated with Tomasello
Why: The passage states that the usage-based view argues children learn grammar by tracking statistical patterns in speech through social interaction, aligning with Tomasello's perspective.
Where to find it · Paragraph 5 “From this rich social exchange, and by tracking the statistical patterns in the speech they hear, children gradually work out how their language behaves.”
- 5
A single 'universal grammar' underlies all human languages.
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Answer: A — the nativist view associated with Chomsky
Why: The passage states that Chomsky's nativist view proposes a 'universal grammar' as an innate structure present in every child, underlying all human languages.
Where to find it · Paragraph 2 “Underlying all the thousands of different human languages, on this view, is a single deep structure, a 'universal grammar', which every child already possesses at birth and which allows them to acquire whatever particular language they happen to be exposed to.”
Questions 6–10: Note Completion
Complete the notes below.
Complete the notes using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Two views of how children learn language Children learn to talk without any formal (6) ______ . Nativists argue that humans are born with an innate (7) ______ grammar. They call the everyday speech children hear too limited: the 'poverty of the (8) ______ '. Usage-based researchers stress the importance of social (9) ______ . They argue that children track statistical (10) ______ in the speech they hear.
- 6
Children learn to talk without any formal ______ .(max 2 words)
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Answer: teaching (also accepted: instruction)
Why: The answer is found in the first paragraph, where it states that children learn to talk in a few years without any formal teaching.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “In the space of a few short years, and without any formal teaching, almost every child comes to understand and produce a language of astonishing complexity, mastering thousands of words and an intricate system of rules for combining them.”
- 7
Nativists argue that humans are born with an innate ______ grammar.(max 2 words)
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Answer: universal
Why: The answer "universal" comes from the section where it explains that Chomsky proposed a "universal grammar" as a deep structure underlying all languages, which every child possesses at birth.
Where to find it · Paragraph 2 “Underlying all the thousands of different human languages, on this view, is a single deep structure, a 'universal grammar', which every child already possesses at birth and which allows them to acquire whatever particular language they happen to be exposed to.”
- 8
They call the everyday speech children hear too limited: the 'poverty of the ______ '.(max 2 words)
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Answer: stimulus
Why: The answer is found in the section where Chomsky's followers argue that the everyday speech children hear is insufficient and refer to it as the 'poverty of the stimulus'.
Where to find it · Paragraph 3 “A central pillar of this argument is what Chomsky and his followers call the 'poverty of the stimulus'.”
- 9
Usage-based researchers stress the importance of social ______ .(max 2 words)
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Answer: interaction
Why: The answer is found in the section discussing the usage-based tradition, which emphasizes the significance of social interaction in language learning, highlighting that children experience language through shared activities with caring adults.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “Children, they contend, learn language in much the same way as they learn other complex skills: through social interaction, imitation and the powerful general-purpose learning abilities of the human brain.”
- 10
They argue that children track statistical ______ in the speech they hear.(max 2 words)
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Answer: patterns
Why: The answer "patterns" is found in the section where it explains that children learn language by tracking the statistical patterns in the speech they hear during social interactions.
Where to find it · Paragraph 5 “From this rich social exchange, and by tracking the statistical patterns in the speech they hear, children gradually work out how their language behaves.”
Questions 11–14: Yes / No / Not Given
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the passage? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.
- 11
Children generally learn their first language without being formally taught.
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Answer: YES
Why: The passage states that almost every child learns to understand and produce language without any formal teaching.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “In the space of a few short years, and without any formal teaching, almost every child comes to understand and produce a language of astonishing complexity, mastering thousands of words and an intricate system of rules for combining them.”
- 12
The nativist and usage-based traditions agree about how language is learned.
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Answer: NO
Why: The nativist and usage-based traditions disagree on language learning, with nativists believing in an innate language capacity and usage-based researchers emphasizing learning through social interaction and general cognitive abilities.
Where to find it · Paragraph 4 “Researchers in what is often called the usage-based tradition, whose leading figures include the psychologist Michael Tomasello, argue that there is no need to assume a special, dedicated language faculty at all.”
- 13
The debate between the two schools of thought has now been settled.
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Answer: NO
Why: The passage describes two opposing schools of thought on language acquisition, indicating that the debate is ongoing and has not been settled.
Where to find it · Paragraph 1 “How this feat is accomplished has been one of the central questions of the study of the mind, and it has produced two very different schools of thought.”
- 14
Girls learn to talk earlier than boys do.
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Answer: NOT GIVEN
Why: The statement claims a difference in language acquisition timing between girls and boys, but the passage does not address gender differences, focusing instead on general language learning processes in children.
Closest related text · Paragraph 4 “Children, they contend, learn language in much the same way as they learn other complex skills: through social interaction, imitation and the powerful general-purpose learning abilities of the human brain.”
Estimated band score for this test
Your raw score out of 14 scaled to the 40-question IELTS Reading (Academic) conversion table. This is the same estimate the practice page shows after you submit. A single passage is a small sample, so treat it as a guide.
| Correct answers | Estimated band |
|---|---|
| 14 / 14 | 9.0 |
| 13 / 14 | 8.5 |
| 12 / 14 | 7.5 |
| 11 / 14 | 7.0 |
| 10 / 14 | 6.5 |
| 8–9 / 14 | 6.0 |
| 7 / 14 | 5.5 |
| 6 / 14 | 5.0 |
| 5 / 14 | 4.5 |
| 4 / 14 | 4.0 |
| 3 / 14 | 3.5 |
| 2 / 14 | 3.0 |
| 1 / 14 | 2.0 |
| 0 / 14 | 0.0 |
Full-test score? Use the IELTS band calculator.
Tips for the question types in this test
Matching Features
- Read the list of options (the features) and locate each one in the passage, underlining every place it appears — names and dates are easy to spot.
- Read the statements and identify the claim or characteristic each one describes.
Common trap: Assuming each option is used exactly once — some are reused and some are distractors.
Full Matching Features strategyNote Completion
- Use headings and indentation to identify the topic of each blank.
- Predict the answer type and mark the word limit.
Common trap: Treating bullets as unrelated when they belong to one passage section.
Full Note Completion strategyYes / No / Not Given
- Identify the claim in the statement and, crucially, whose opinion it represents — these passages often quote several people, so track who is speaking.
- Scan the passage for opinion signals: verbs like "argues", "believes", "suggests", "claims", and phrases such as "in the author’s view".
Common trap: Treating a reported opinion (someone else’s view mentioned by the writer) as the writer’s own conclusion.
Full Yes / No / Not Given strategyPractise “How Children Learn to Talk: Two Views of Language” under exam conditions
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