Behaviorism was a very influential theory in psychology in the mid 20th century. The theory, developed by B.F Skinner, held that all language is learned through constant reinforcement and instruction. A debate on the behaviorist theory of language could focus on whether the theory is plausible, or whether a better topic is available. Resolutions on the topic include "resolved that behaviorist theory can explain how we acquire language" and "resolved that Chomsky's critique of behaviorism defeats the theory."
Universal grammar is the theory that human beings have an innate capacity to learn language based on inborn grammatical knowledge. This theory was developed by Noam Chomsky, an intellectual opponent of B.F. Skinner. Debates on universal grammar could focus on the theory itself, or on comparing the theory to other theories. Possible resolutions include "resolved that humans have an innate capacity to understand grammar" or "resolved that universal grammar is a better explanation of language acquisition than behaviorist theory".
There are two areas of the brain associated with language acquisition: Broca's area and Wernicke's area. When these parts of the brain are stimulated, a test subject will either lose some of their language functioning, or start speaking in bizarre patterns. The theory that language is centralized in these areas of the brain is the "localization theory". There are many possible debate topics on this theory. For example, "resolved that the Broca and Wernicke's have sole responsibility for human language acquisition" or "resolved that Wernicke's area is more important to language acquisition than is the Broca's area."
The "critical period" is a phase in language acquisition that occurs in the first few years of a child's life. If someone learns language after this period, the process will be much slower than it would have been had it occured in the critical period. This has some bearing on questions of innate language, since it suggests that there is a relationship between brain plasticity and language acquisition. Resolutions dealing with this topic include "resolved that studies on the critical period support the theory of innate language" and "resolved that the human brain is naturally equipped to learn language early in life."