Core Studies Summary Teaching Sign Language to a Chimp (1969) Gardner & Gardner

Aims and context (Put aims of study & backg set on history): The aim of the study was to mystify the question to what extent (how much) might an opposite species be strung-out to part human language? One way to sum this was to teach a form of human language to a non-human animal. Gardner & Gardner aimed to investigate if they could teach a chimpanzee (considered to be a most intelligent and sociable animal) to communicate using a human language, specifically that of American Sign lecture. Context - row makes us unique as an animal, Chomsky (1965) believes language is unique to humans, some other species cant acquire language, humans have a language acquisition device, animals dont. Early attempts to teach chimps to chaffer were wontless, a chimps vocal apparatus is inappropriate to making speech sounds, however the Gardners felt that chimps can use a non-spoken language like ASL, this language is used by the deaf in America. The Gardners were the first to attempt to teach a chimp ASL. Bryan (1963) reports that the vocal apparatus of the chimpanzee is very remote to that of man. Even though chimpanzees are capable of making more than different sounds, vocalization tends to occur in situations of high indicate or excitement; when undisturbed, chimpanzees are normally silent.

Gardner & Gardner therefore gauge that a vocal language was not appropriate for this species. switch & Hayes (1951) worked extensively with a chimpanzee called Vicki. They aimed to teach her to agnize a vocal language, however in their 6 historic period of work with Vicki, she was only able to make four sounds which approximated to toss words. In the 1960s, the American Linguist Charles ! Hockett produced a list called the figure Features of Language. He believed that animal and human communications had round features which were similar, but that even the most basic of human languages contained many features which animal communication did not. There are problems in how we hazard findings...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderEssay.net

If you want to get a full information about our service, visit our page: How it works.