Universalism in SLA: Data-driven and Theory-driven Approaches

This review article is an attempt at giving an account on the principles of the universalism in SLA. The aim is to especially present the differences between data-driven and Theory-driven approaches. The article does especially rely on Mclaughlin (1987). The major contribution of this paper is presenting Grammar Universals (GU) as opposed to Universal Grammar (UG) proposed by Chomsky. The article concludes that both data-driven and theory-driven approaches can complement each other in their attempt to provide a better picture of human language faculty.