Language is inextricably linked with thinking. When a person speaks a language, their thinking process is directly descended from that language. In this sense, language is the scaffolding from which thoughts are constructed. Language diversity, or the ability to speak two or more languages, endows a person with the ability to think in different manners and process thoughts in different ways. It is for this reason that cultures are tied to the languages that their people speak; it is impossible to conceive of the French culture without considering the French language.
Language is crucial to critical thinking skills because it is the window through which individuals glimpse the world. In this sense, an individual can be seen as to be "constantly building on previous encounters with the world in a search for meaning and value carried out in an environment where social practices, including linguistic practices, play a very large role" (Corson, p. 9). As an individual develops, then, the way they take in the worldùtheir culture, their surroundings, and the language that they speakùhas a direct effect on their thinking patterns.
The reason for this is that the very structure of a language can determine how an individual perceives the world. Languages are constructed differently, and they perceive the world their speakers live in differently. A key example of this is the way that something as simple as a metaphor can affect one's interpretation of the world. "as children, we...acquire a mastery of everyday metaphor. It is conventional: metaphor is an integral part of our ordinary everyday thought and language... metaphor allows us to understand our selves and our world in ways that no other modes of thought can" (Lakoff, p. xi). The metaphors that we grow up with, that we internalize as children, define the world around us. Without this framework, or scaffolding, the edifice of thought would crumble to the ground.
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