Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM
Background of the Study Language is the most important aspect in the life of all beings. We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture. Language can be defined as verbal, physical, biologically innate, and a basic form of communication.
Behaviorists’ often define language as a learned behavior involving a stimulus and a response (Ormrod, 2000). Often times they will refer to language as verbal behavior, which is language that includes gestures and body movements as well as spoken word. (Pierce, & Eplin, 2000). When we define language we have to be careful not to exclude symbols, gestures, or motions. This is because if

1 we exclude these from our definition, we will be denying the language of the deaf community. All human languages share basic characteristics, some of which are organizational rules and infinite generativity. Infinite Generativity is the ability to produce an infinite number of sentences using a limited set of rules and words. (Santrock, & Mitterer, 2001).
Verbalis"dealing with words" (especially in contrast to things orrealities), from L. verbal is "consisting of words, relating to verbs,"from verbum "word".Verbal conditioning is recorded from1954. Colloquial verbal diarrhea is recorded from 1823 as cited by Douglas Harper 2010. Nonverbal language is often too narrowly defined as gestures and body language. While these certainly form a great deal of the nonverbal language spectrum, they are not the sum total of all types of communication that could be classed as nonverbal. In addition to gestures and body language, sometimes what we don’t say can be classed as nonverbal. For