Psychology

The process of language acquisition is marred by hot debates, as to what role does nature (innate, inherent genetic ability) play in influencing or determining an individuals ability to acquire and learn language, and what role does nurture(the experience and environment one is exposed to) play in determining an individuals ability to learn and acquire a language. The proponents of the nature school of thought argue that human beings are born with the ability to acquire a language, and attribute the differences in acquisition of language to our different genetic make ups. On the other hand, proponents of the nurture school of thought attribute the differences to the fact that we are exposed to different experiences and cultural environments.

Cognition is the process of organizing and making new meaning of experiences that individuals encounter in their day to day lives while language is a medium through which human being express the knowledge acquired by individuals through experience within their socio-cultural environments. Cognition is mostly seen as an innate ability, which differs from an individual to another Gardner, H, (1983). It is this innateness of cognition, which is a prerequisite to the learning or acquisition of a language, which makes some children acquire a language faster than others. This ability is found in the genes of the individuals. However, it has been argued that the ability to acquire a language does not depend entirely on the individuals inborn ability, but rather, on the socio-cultural environment in which the individual is exposed to Clark, A. (1997), who likens language development as the development of things like computers, to be used by human beings for their conveniences. Another example is that of cooking food, in which we did not have a cooking gene in human beings, yet cooking was invented by human beings for their own good, and the procedure varies from society to another, just like languages vary from a society to another. This argument appears to be based on John Lockes idea of Tabula rasa, in which, he argues that the brain of an infant is like a blank slate, which is open to sensory experiences and other aspects of culture. In this sense, language cannot be entirely genetic, simply because, for example, a child can be born and is taken to another racial setting different from that of the mother, that child will still learn the language its exposed to. This shows that exposure to a language and culture is actually a determinant of the language and culture which a child acquires. Similarly, a child cannot learn a language which its not exposed to even if its the mothers tongue.

Cognition and language interact to make sense of something, through perception. This means that a community A may perceive something as good or positive while community B perceive it as bad or negative, either through the names given to that thing or a particular symbol. For example, the odor of dried fish was described as excrement by the Germans, while among the Japanese, it was described as something edible Ayabe-Kanamura et al., (1998) Herz  von Clef,( 2001) Richardson  Zucco, (1989).The difference may be attributed to the fact that among the Japanese, fish was usually consumed on a daily basis, while in German, it was not the case. This can create some problems among the two groups, due to the different perceptions they have towards fish and could intensify the differences and reduce the similarities between the two cultural groups, thus affecting their perceptions towards each other. It is thus reasonable for one to argue that the cognitive processes which underlie the perception of odor may be regulated by cultural experience through the association of language to odors in a given culture. The ability to name a particular odor therefore influences how it is perceived (Distel  Hudson, 2001 Herz  von Clef, 2001)

This can lead to a barrier or an error in communication between the two cultural groups because, when they are interacting, the Japanese may be mentioning the term dry fish with ease, while the Germans may shy off, thus creating a missing link in communication and interaction between the two cultural groups. One strategy to be used to minimize these kind of errors is through the emphasis of the diversity of cultures when teaching languages, and de-emphasizing the aspect of ethnocentrism, which makes individuals view their culture as superior to other peoples culture and make them to see the culture of other people as retrogressive, primitive or poor, and instead, acknowledge ,through language learning and acquisition process, that other people are unique in their own way, and we ought to respect them the way they are.
                                                         
Language and cognition therefore interact with each other, to bring cultures together or apart, depending on the nature of the whole process of language acquisition, cognition and perceptions attached to different languages and symbols.