Human beings are projected as more sophisticated creatures than the rest of the members in kingdom Animalia because of their ability to communicate. One of the earliest tools that humans have always had is language. Other members of kingdom Animalia can communicate among fellow species through natural instinctive gestures and mimics. Nevertheless, language is a more complex communication tool developed over a long period of time. Scholars have been debating about the subject of acquiring a language regarding the role played by nature and nurture.
Several researchers have concluded that language acquisition and use is innate in humans. Other researchers and scholars argue that language is a communication process acquired after an interaction with the environment. Noam Chomsky and Fredrick Skinner as serve ideal examples of authors who have expressed different perceptions regarding the process of language acquisition. The debate on the role of nature and nurture in language acquisition has been discussed by several articles with different authors expressing varied opinions on the subject.
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The Views of Noam Chomsky And F redrick Skinner on The Role of Nature and Nurture Acquisition of Language
Chomsky vehemently argues that language is innate and natural to humanity. He points out the human beings were created with the power to formulate language. According to Chomsky , human beings acquire the first language based on the common words they here while in childhood. Language acquisition according to Chomsky is a phenomenon that is tied with a natural ability to form words and gestures from local stimuli. For instance, Chomsky argues that all children naturally learn the use of language in a similar f ormat of a stop consonant and then a vowel (Goddard, 2018). Chomsky supports his argument on language acquisition by stating that the intelligence of young children has similar procedure of mastering the formation of a language. He argues that first utterances in children are naturally associated with the word’s "mother" and "father". The evidence provided by Chomsky is overwhelming because children begin language acquisition with natural sounds such as 'pa, 'ba' or 'ma' which are close to "mother" and "father".
Chomsky discredits the influence of environment in influencing the process of language acquisition in young children. An analysis of the process of word formation and pronunciation is universally the same in children (Goddard, 2018). Moreover, Chomsky ices his argument by claiming that young children are not instructed by a parent to learn the language and attempt speech, rather it is an intrinsic natural act all human being. Chomsky expresses the attainment of language of language as an involuntarily act in humans. He argues that young children master language without instructions to do so.
Fredrick Skinner holds a different perception regarding the role of nature and nurture in language acquisition. Skinner perceives language acquisition as a gradual process that emanates from observance of the environment and behaviorism of fellow humans. Skinner approaches the subject of language acquisition from a pragmatic view (Goddard, 2018). Unlike Chomsky's argument that language is acquired naturally, Skinner associates language acquisition with the behaviorism principle that inclines words with meanings. According to Skinner, children learn basic language from the influence of the surrounding environment.
One of the main conflicts between Chomsky's argument and Skinners' views is about the contribution of the surrounding environment to the process of acquiring language. While Skinner holds that the environment helps in assigning meaning to words, Chomsky thinks that language acquisition is natural and that the surrounding environment does not have a role in developing language in a child (Goddard, 2018). The arguments of Fredrick Skinner depict the environment is what defines meaning to words and actions. Chomsky on the other hand discredits the environment as being passive. The arguments of Chomsky present the environment as a natural entity in the process of language acquisition. Chomsky argues that children naturally develop their first pronunciations based on the people they are passionate about such as the mother or father. Chomsky continues to argue that it is a natural phenomenon for children to begin language acquisition by learning the intimate words to them. Chomsky's argument accounts for the reason children form the first syllables as 'ma' or 'pa' because they are naturally associated with the parents. On the contrary, Skinner holds that the first language developed by any child depends on the meanings that the environment has assigned to words and actions (Goddard, 2018). Skinner strongly argues that the process of acquiring language is inspired and directed by the existing meanings that the environment has assigned to words and actions.
Review of the articles addressing the role of nature and nurture on language acquisition One of the articles that provide credible information regarding role of nature and nature in language acquisition is "Individual differences in language acquisition and processing.” The article demonstrates the influence that surrounding environment has in language acquisition. The authors of the article have succeeded in expressing how the environment can account for the differences in languages used by human beings. The authors depict the variations in language acquisition and use are shaped by the environment that surround humanity.
The authors of the article argue that understanding the process of language acquisition would require an analysis of the individual differences between people learning a language. The article argues that there are outstanding individual differences exhibited by humanity in the process of acquiring language (Kidd, Donnelly & Christiansen, 2018). According to the article, the individual differences that humans exhibit in developing language are defined by the surrounding environment. The article assigns the environment a role in developing and defining a language.
The article is consistent with Skinner's school of thought that highlights the environment as a significant contributor to the process of language acquisition . The authors of the article conclude that differences in the surrounding environments of various growing children accounts for the variations in the languages acquired (Kidd, Donnelly & Christiansen, 2018). According to the article, the environment in which a child is born and raised contributes to assigning meaning to words and events surrounding the child. The article is ideal for usage by researchers that seek to support a thesis that identifies the environment as a factor in language acquisition. I would laud the relevance of the article because of the effective organization of ideologies and the quality of the language used by the author is reader-friendly and jargon-free.
Another article that holds relevant information on the subject is "Theory of Mind and Linguistic Acquisition." the article was written by Ronnie Goodwin and published on the "Arabic World English Journal" (Goodwin, 2018). The article holds that the process of language acquisition is natural in all human beings irrespective of the environment that a child born and raised. The article assigns nature to the responsibility of developing language in a growing child.
Language acquisition can be understood by focusing on the Theory of Mind according to Goodwin in his article “Extending BF Skinner's Selection by Consequences to Personality Change”. The article presents the theory of mind as a conceptual argument that allows individuals to predict and anticipate the mental state of other people. According to the author, language acquisition in a child is based on the theory of mind. The theory of the mind holds that it is natural for human mind to express b eliefs, feelings, and desires (Goodwin, 2018). The article argues that language acquisition is a natural occurrence motivated by a natural need to express one's feelings and emotions based on the natural theory of mind.
The article assigns nature the role of developing language is any growing child. The article concludes that language acquisition is a natural phenomenon that is guided by the natural theory of mind. According to the article, it is natural for a growing child to have the innate zeal to express himself or herself (Goodwin, 2018). I would recommend the article for any audience that seeks to relate nature and the phenomenon's ability of humanity to develop and use language. The author of the article has specified his target audience by using jargoned language in his work.
"The impossibility of language acquisition" is another article that highlights the role of nature and nurture in language acquisition. The article is combined effort of four authors; Lila Gleitman, Mark Liberman, Cynthia McLemore, and Barbara Partee and was published in the "Annual Review of Linguistic" journal in January 2019. The authors of the article argue that language acquisition is subject to the influence of the surrounding environment.
The article argues that language in humanity is nurtured by the provisions of the environment in which a child is born. Unlike the previous articles, the authors have recognized nurture as the source of the language used. According to the article, the surroundings help a growing child to develop cognitive encoding ability (Gleitman, Liberman, McLemore & Partee, 2019). The authors further argue that the meaning in which objects and events are assigned by the environment defines the development of the encoding ability of a child. The authors argue that a child can acquire any form of language that is defined in the environment of upbringing. I would recommend the article for usage to researchers that seek to evaluate the effect of the environment in nurturing language development. The choice of language by the authors of the article credible and the style adopted in organizing the ideologies is effective and articulate.
The research on the originality of language has sparked a debate on whether it is the nature of nurture that influences the acquisition of language. Some scholars argue that language acquisition is a natural and innate action of humanity. The opposing school of thought argues that the environment in which a child born and raised has a role in the process of language acquisition of the kid. The majority of the authors that have contributed to the subject are aligned to the thought that language acquisition is natural and that nature has everything to do with the development of language. Researchers who might find future researches less conclusive should adopt the skeptical approach of analyzing information and situations .
References
Gleitman, L. R., Liebermann, M. Y., McLemore, C. A., & Partee, B. H. (2019). The impossibility of language acquisition (and how they do it). Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, 1-24.
Goddard, M. J. (2018). Extending BF Skinner's Selection by Consequences to Personality Change, Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Skill Learning, and Language. Review of General Psychology, 22(4), 421-426.
Goodwin, R. (2018). Theory of Mind and Linguistic Acquisition. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume, 9.
Kidd, E., Donnelly, S., & Christiansen, M. H. (2018). Individual differences in language acquisition and processing. Trends in cognitive sciences, 22(2), 154-169.
