NATURE VS NURTURE

How do children learn to speak? Behavioural theory assumes that children imitate what they hear, and
thanks to continuous, positive reinforcement, children learn language through conditioning and habit
formation. Behaviourist theorists such as Skinner also claim that all errors during first language
acquisition are due to bad habit formation, which, in due course, children correct as they hear and imitate
accurate speech. In contrast to behaviourists, nativists, like Chomsky, believe that human beings are
born with an innate capacity for language development.
Deliberations continue between linguists regarding the importance of nature over nurture in acquisition
of language.

Language Acquisition as a Result of Nurture

Behaviourists propose that a childs environment is the most important factor in first language acquisition,
and if a child is exposed to rich language, then good habit formation, and proper language development
will occur. It is possible that first language acquisition includes speech imitation, but:

Children do not imitate everything they hear; they appear to be very selective and only reproduce
unassimilated language chunks. Therefore, their replications seem to be controlled by an internal
language-monitoring process.

Children learn the basic rules of language at around the age of five; the behaviourist theory
cannot account for the speed that first language is acquired.

Children say things that are not adult imitations; in particular they use inflectional
overgeneralisations such as goed, putted, mouses, and sheeps.

Children produce language structures that do not exist; you often hear, Where I am? instead of
Where am I?

Children that acquire language from habit formation seem to memorize certain structures
prematurely. These phrases become lodged in their minds as unassimilated chunks of information
that they cannot incorporate into their own verbal expressions.

Children produce many more sound-combinations than they hear, and understand many more
than they can produce.

Children are exposed to language performance and not to language competence. Often they are
exposed to debilitated language, yet, they manage to extract the language rules from these
utterances and speak correctly.

Understanding How Humans Acquire Language

written by: Finn Orfanoedited by: Emma Lloydupdated: 2/28/2015
How do human beings learn to use language? Is it innate or taught? This article discusses nature versus nurture in
language acquisition. Both approaches will be considered here.

Language
Many consider the use of a complex language as a uniquely human feature (maybe with the exception of some
whale species).
Furthermore, we are able to learn this complex skill quite quickly. The average child has a vocabulary of six-thousand words
by the time it turns five years old. It is this ability of language acquisition that is a particularly interesting field in the naturenurture debate. Is language acquisition and development innate or taught? This debate about nature versus nurture in
language acquisition has drawn heated testimony from both sides.

Nature?
The idea that language acquisition is an innate ability is called nativism. People supporting this view believe that
the human brain is prewired for language acquisition and use. Linguist Noam Chomsky is a strong proponent of this
perspective. He has spent a lot of time on developing a theory of grammar that is called universal grammar.
Basically, it states that underlying all the different languages there are some basic principles. The nativists consider
this universal grammar too complex to be acquirable through environmental stimuli (nurture).
The proponents of this innateness believe that the human brain developed certain brain structures for language
acquisition and use as a result of Darwinian evolution and the survival of the fittest tenet. The innate knowledge of
language is also called the language faculty. Chomsky considers this language faculty as a biologically autonomous
system in the brain that has an initial state which is genetically determined.
The fact that every known human culture developed some sort of language suggests that there is a genetic basis
for the ability to construct and produce language. Furthermore all human languages seem to have some
characteristics in common. They all have large vocabularies of words whose meaning is mediated through a
phonological system, they all have a grammatical system that governs the way in which words are combined and
they change through time by adding new words and losing old ones.

Or Nurture?
The second position concerning nature and nurture in language acquisition is defined by the premise that language
is a consequence of our large brains with the ability to learn many things and the fact that we are extremely social
beings. This is called empiricism. One the most prominent proponents of this approach is psychologist B.F. Skinner,

who believes that humans are capable of language because we have the time, the opportunity and the brain
capacity that is required to learn it.

Empiricists explain the universal presence of language in human cultures otherwise. They state that the beneficial
quality of language is responsible for the ubiquitous distribution. People who came in contact with it, adopted it
because of its beneficial effects and in this way, language spread across the earth.
Last, they claim that the ability of the human brain to understand and produce language can also be a consequence
of neuronal connections that are made in early childhood. When a baby makes a certain sound that is followed by
an action of a parent, there will be a neuronal connection in his brain that will be excited. After a lot of repetitions
this will lead to a neural path which connects a sound with a meaning.

Or a Little Bit of Both?

Is it truly nature versus nurture in language acquisition, or is it nature and nurture? Many aspects of human
behavior can be explained by a collaboration of genetic and environmental aspects. Maybe this is also true for
language acquisition. Perhaps some genetic features, such as our large brain or nutritional requirements have
predestined us in some way to develop vocal communication, which in turn has grown to a full language as a
consequence of environmental factors, such as upbringing, social system or the use of symbols.

References
Bates, E. (1999). On the Nature and Nurture of Language. In R. Levi-Montalcini, D. Baltimore, R. Dulbecco, & F. Jacob
(Series Eds.) & E. Bizzi, P. Calissano, & V. Volterra (Vol. Eds.), Frontiere della biologia [Frontiers of biology]. The brain
of h. sapiens Rome: Giovanni Trecanni.
Duke University: Exploring the Mind
National Science Foundation: Language Learning