Animals other than humans have not developed communication comparable to
Human language. But is it possible that animals have the capacity to learn a
language if they are adequately taught? Obviously,this is a fascinating notion. The idea
of communicating directly with another species has long been a part of human folklore and
children's fantasies. But on scientific level, the question of whether animals can learn a
language is important primarily because it relates to the controversy between the cognitive and the learning approaches to language. if language is dependent on and is actually an
outgrowth of the intellectual structure of the human mind,there is the strong supposition
that only humans are capable of using language. Therefore, Noam Chomsky and other
psycholinguists have argued that only humans can learn a laught, while most
behaviorists feel that with sufficient patience it should be possible to teach an animal some
sort of language Although the two schools of thought clearly differ on this point, it is not
really a crucial test of the two theories. if a chimpanzee can master a simple language all
it would mean is that the chimp's intellectual capacity and brain structure are more
similar to ours than we thought. it would not necessarily imply that our intellectual
structure is unimportant in our own mastery of language. thus, teaching an animal
language is an impressive demonstration of the power of learning technique, but it is not
evidence that langnage is developed entirely through learning.