How Does Language Assist Learning?

Nearly every creature on this planet uses some form of language to communicate with their own species or with another outside of their group. That language may be used to warn of impending danger or the availability of food. Human beings, however, have the innate ability to not only communicate the location of food, but at what time it will be available, how it is prepared, the recipe followed to organize the food and who will be eating it. We are able to convey messages that are remote in time and space. We may step outside of the "real" world and into the world of the abstract. With this ability, we are able to learn as no other creature can.

Learning is a continuous cycle that requires the use of language in its various forms. Whether it be in the classroom or daily life, we use the sounds, words, symbols, and body language we see, hear, and touch to understand the world in which we live. With constant practice since the moment of birth, our thought processes become more automatic in sorting the steady onslaught of information we receive. We have learned to make instant judgments based on what we have previously ascertained, and therefore act accordingly. This automatic thought process, acquired and strengthened through repetitiveness, assists humans not only in their very survival, but in progressing as a race.

Without it, we would be overburdened in thought and overwhelmed with information, making it impossible to function as we do.

In order for communication to be effective, the giver and receiver of language in any given situation must understand the socially appropriate translation. The person asking for directions is not going to be expecting the "thumbs up" gesture as the socially agreed-upon norm in response. In fact, making this gesture that is a common and accepted form of communication via body language in America will also be interpreted as an insulting challenge to a fight in some other countries.

Indeed, the response desired to the request for directions might come in the form of vocal communication as well as signs on a map or the written words of street names. Therefore, language is most efficient when its translations are equally understood in all its forms, be it vocal, written, symbolic, or physical action.

Does our learning stop where our language does? No, it does not. We creative humans benefit from using an open system of communication. As we move forward in our lives, new objects are invented or new ideas come into existence. We have the ability to take the sounds we already possess and give them new meaning as the need arises. While five hundred years ago, the word "light" may have meant a candle or the sun, and the word "bulb" meant a flower root that is planted, the two words have come together in our day to create "light bulb". This object and its name, which is used by millions of English speakers on a daily basis, would have had no meaning four hundred years ago to anyone, yet, the exact same sounds are vocalized today as they were previously. They have been placed together to convey a new message or idea.

An idea that has come under criticism as well as support is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Anthropologists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf argued that every language structures the world in a particular way for it speakers; that language shapes our thoughts. The idea originated upon discovering that the Hopi language has no terms for the past or the future because the Hopi have no concept of time as something concrete or real. While even Sapir and Whorf did not agree on all aspects of this hypothesis, one can recognize the idea behind it through the various cultures we encounter.

The Inuit have three thousand words for "snow" and the German language has one word for "pretty". Have these languages shaped the thoughts of those who speak them or is it perhaps the environment that has shaped their language out of necessity? No one statement or belief can adequately sum up the vast complexities belonging to the language of the human being. We can, however, use our language to continue to learn more about ourselves, our race, and how we shape the world around us through communication with each other.