rent times both socially and culturally. But in all communities and in all times, they are alike in having language. This essential connection between having language and being human is said to be one of the reasons that those interested in studying human nature have always been fascinated with language.Language is the most defining feature of human intelligence for without syntax - the orderly arrangement of verbal ideas humans will be a little more clever than a chimpanzee.To help us understand this neurobiologist Oliver Sacks took an eleven year old deaf boy named Joseph who could not hear spoken language, nor was exposed to fluent sign language, conducted tests on him and concluded, that because of Joseph's handicap, he did not have that opportunity to learn syntax during the critical years of early childhood, he seemed like an animal or an infant . Joseph seemed "stuck in the present, confined to literal and immediate perception, though made aware of this by a consciousness no infant could have." "Seeing Voices" by Oliver Sacks.From that study with Oliver Sacks, the question arises, Is the ability to learn language innate or whether there is need to learn it? Noted Psychologist B.F Skinner help by setting forth some ways in which language or speech is reinforced(a) By a child imitating what is heard.(b) Where a child produce a random sound, to which adults attach meaning .or.(c) A correct sound in the presence of adults.The conclusion is that language is learnt in the same way that a person learns everything else, through the laws of operant conditioning ; selective reinforcements, shaping and imitation. Other Psychologists such as Noam Chomsky (1968), gives more insight to help us understand how language is acquired. His view is that humans possess a brain mechanism for learning language. This he called the language Acquistion Device or LAD which enables children to understand the rules of grammar, without being taught them. He c...
