LANGUAGE IS LEARN OR INNATE

LANGUAGE IS LEARN OR INNATE

Language is one of the most important aspects of human communication. Without the language a lot of human activities would not take place, this is because of language as a means of communication bonds human beings to understand each other (Evans 2015). Without language human being’s life would be very difficult, in the universe, there are many different languages used with races, communities and tribes.in the study of linguistics many debates have been brought on the discussion on whether language is learnt or innate, the debates have brought a lot of controversial alongside many evidence to support whether language is learnt or innate. Innate in languages means the ability of one to know the language through natural existences as from time one was born, this can start from the period a child is born and grow with the first language from the parents (Xia 2014). Leaning languages means studying the language as the second language or third language, the ability to master and know the language one was not born with is not innate but learning it through a period to make it familiar with an individual.

Newborn babies learn their native language with a lot of ease when they are still young, this kind of learning is not applied to old people since it usually takes times for one to know the second or third language, as result linguists conclude that human beings might have stages when the first language is learned (Snow 2017). Children’s grow differently after their births, there are a group of children who grow with two languages, while other are exposed to the first language only this different brings a difference in why some linguists think language is learnt or innate(Snow 2017. Linguists Chomsky emphasized n on the idea that human being is born with the language acquisition device that helps them to come to learn the first language easily without struggle immediately after birth. In children at their younger age, they can learn grammar for their first language without struggle is the ability to know these grammars is called universal grammar technique.

Many evidence has been put in place for the argument that language is mostly innate but not learned, the nativists explain the innate knowledge of a language by trying to link the environment a child is born, and the time of language the child is exposed to at the first breathe after birth (Wan 2017). The environmental exposure is one of the important aspects which makes language to be innate, without the support of the child environment, the child can’t know the first language easily. The ability of a child to know the fits language by the innate process by linking the environment is known as the theory of universal grammar, the theory helps the child to master all the first grammar and come up with the suitable ways of communication.

Despite the shreds of evidence from the theory of universal grammar by Chomsky, other nativists linguists believe that’s languages are learnt and not innate. The theory of behaviourism explains that human being a response to the stimulus, it takes the language as the Imitation process (Burns & Garcia 2017) The approach emphasizes that child learn the first language through stimulation activities, the child starts by trying to utter words, by utterance if the child makes mistakes the correction is provided this increases the ability of mastering of the language and knowing its grammar correctly, the theory also depends on the environment to some extends this happen by the provision of feedbacks and corrections of some simple mistakes from the poor utterance. behavioural approach doesn’t explain where language comes from, how and when the language started.

Conclusively, by the weight of evidence from different arguments it can be said that, the ability to communicate by a language is mostly innate and not learnt.This is because language itself is process of learning and must be learned for one to communicate it fluently without struggle, languages are different depending on their first origins this portrays that the ability of one to communicate a language is inborn. Innate of language facilities its communication to an individual since when one is born it is easy for the child to know the first language from the parents compared to when the child is exposed to learn second or third language.

Reference list

Evans, D., 2015. The Identities of Language. Language and Identity: Discourse in the World, pp.15-35

Argyle, M., 2017. Social interaction: process and products. Routledge.

Burns, L.V.F. and García, M.R., 2017. Comparative language learning beliefs: Why aptitude matters. Studies in Linguistics and Literature, 1(2), pp.129-141.

Guðlaugsdóttir, E.B., 2016. Children’s first language acquisition: What is needed for children to acquire language? (Doctoral dissertation).

Xia, Y., 2014. Language Theories and Language Teaching—from Traditional Grammar to Functionalism. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 5(3).

Kirby, S., Griffiths, T. and Smith, K., 2014. Iterated learning and the evolution of language. Current opinion in neurobiology, 28, pp.108-114.

Wan, Y.S., 2017.  Drama in Teaching English as a Second Language- A Communicative Approach. The English Teacher, p.13.

Snow, C.E., 2017. Issues in the study of input: Finetuning, universality, individual and developmental differences, and necessary causes. The handbook of child language, pp.179-193.