One of the issues of psychology is language acquisition, and different theories of how this process takes place have been offered. Each theory has its good points and its bad points, and none as yet seems to be definitive in explaining this complex learning experience. Two of the important theories are those of B.F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky, and they can be compared for their values and their problems.
Skinner discusses the issue of language acquisition in his overall context of behaviorist psychology. He notes that language was acquired relatively late in the development of the human species, and this involved a remarkable change as the species' vocal musculature came under operant control. This extended the range of the human social environment. Skinner draws a distinction between "language" and "verbal behavior." He notes that psychologists speak of the "acquisition of language" in the child and notes how language is structured out of words and sentences that express meanings, desires, needs, ideas, emotions, and propositions. For Skinner, language is behavior that has a special characteristics only because it is reinforced by its effects on people, first on other people, and then on the speaker him or herself.
For Skinner, then, the acquisition of language is a matter of operant conditioning, just as is all learning. Language acquisition is the result of exposure to a speaking community, but learning is not merely a matter of imitation. It is rather a matter of operant conditioning as certain behaviors are reinforced by community acceptance, by the understanding shown of what is being communicated. For Skinner, the human being first of all makes sounds just as do other animals: "Like other species, it had up to that point displayed warning cries, threatening shouts, and other innate responses, but vocal operant behavior made a great difference because it extended the scope of the social environment" (1974: 88).