Non-human creatures also possess language. Furthermore, Montessori education can be applied to non-humans as well. Let us unravel the history of language.
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Profile
Yati Obara
Editor-in-Chief, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1989. CEO of Motherhand and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Holds an M.Eng. and is an AMI-certified teacher. Focused on Montessori developmental theory and AI. Mother of two.
Hiro Obara
Publisher, Scientific Montessori
Based in Japan, born in 1990. CEO of StudyX and Co-Director of the nonprofit think tank Polymath Research. Works as a software developer and game designer. Father of two.
The history of the universe, the Earth, life, humanity, and language begins.
Yati
In the Montessori elementary curriculum, we first trace the history of the universe, then the history of Earth, the history of life, and the history of humanity, in that order, and then we trace the history of language.
Hiro
Right. There’s a flow where we present the big picture first, then move toward the details.
Yati
Why do we learn this way during the age six to twelve period?
Hiro
Because it’s more efficient for learning. In conventional education, it’s the opposite. There’s an arrow going from familiar things to the world, and with effort, toward the universe. That’s inefficient.
Yati
When you learn about your local area, then Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Tohoku, Japan, Asia, the world, people overseas feel like very distant beings. But in the opposite direction, universe, galaxy, solar system, Earth, people of the world feel very close.
Hiro
Right. In the universe, if you live within one parsec, you’re like “neighbors.” One parsec is about 30.8 trillion kilometers, but in the universe, that’s “quite close.”
Yati
Right. [laughing] It’s not just spatial distance. There’s a similar sense with temporal distance too. When you think about the history of life, the origin of language must have been just recently.
Hiro
So even when we say “global,” within the universe, Earth is a “local” planet, and events that happen here are “local” events. Learning things with that awareness helps maintain intellectual humility.
Yati
Because you realize you don’t understand anything at all.
Hiro
In Socratic terms, “knowing that you don’t know.” In Buddhist terms, “avidya,” meaning ignorance.
Yati
Right.
Hiro
Trying to understand even a little of that cosmic unknowability is cosmic inquiry, and the education and learning that happens everywhere daily is trivial in comparison.
Yati
What is language from a cosmic perspective?
Hiro
There are various definitions of language, and first it’s difficult to determine “what language is.” Academically, there are more than twenty different definitions.
Yati
I see. I want to unravel the history of language, but what is language in that context?
Hiro
The simplest definition is “language as a medium of information exchange.” Following this definition, facial expressions, gestures, attitudes, whistles, hand signals, writing, mathematical language, and programming languages, that is, computer languages, are all included in the concept of language. Ants’ chemical language and honeybees’ dance language are included too. So it refers to all forms of communication expression.
Yati
With that definition, we can also address non-human communication.
Hiro
Following this definition, the numerous bioacoustic information exchanges made at frequencies inaudible to humans, that is, organisms producing sounds, also count as language. For example, the audible range of an average fifteen year old human is about ten octaves, from thirty to eighteen thousand hertz. Birds, frogs, dogs, and others all produce sounds within this range. However, some organisms produce infrasound, below thirty hertz. For example, blue whales, elephants, and crocodiles. Sounds produced by ocean waves, volcanoes, and earthquakes are also in this frequency range.
Yati
Maybe the elephants at the zoo were greeting us in voices we couldn’t hear.
Hiro
Maybe. Also, in the ultrasound range, above eighteen thousand hertz, insects, bats, dolphins, and shrews produce sounds. But language includes not just vocal communication. It includes much broader things. Like affection, for example.
Yati
Like grooming.
Hiro
Worrying about someone. Caring. When we talk about the history of language, we humans unconsciously think of the history of human language. But if we consider the “communication media” used by organisms as language, then amphibians have their own history of language, and fish have their own history of language. This has become clear through recent bioacoustics research.
Yati
How can we unravel that history? It can’t be excavated like writing.
Hiro
Sound doesn’t remain. Humans encode it digitally and inscribe it on stone tablets and such, reproducing and preserving sound based on that code. That became possible through the advancement of modern science and technology. Historians from this point forward can trace the history of sound, but they can’t trace history before the invention of sound recording technology.
Yati
So it hasn’t been researched?
Hiro
Actually, humans are clever. From bone structure and such, we estimate muscle attachment and reveal what kinds of sounds could be vocalized. There’s also a method of tracing biological evolution in reverse. Specifically, the history of human language might be unraveled through research on the language abilities of great apes.
Yati
What do you mean? That apes have evolved to use language?
Hiro
Great apes are the animals closest to humans, a general term for apes with well developed cerebral cortexes. It refers to gibbons and hominids, that is, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans. When orangutans were taught sign language, they learned about twenty signs.
Yati
They can communicate.
Hiro
When gorillas were taught sign language, they learned about one thousand words. There was a female lowland gorilla named Koko who had over five hundred active vocabulary words, meaning words she could use, not just understand, and five hundred receptive vocabulary words, meaning words she understood but couldn’t use. This is about the same as a human toddler. And it’s not just a rich vocabulary. She also had high empathy. When she saw “a horse with a bit in its mouth,” she signed “horse, sad.”
Yati
She understood feelings other than her own.
Hiro
Right. When chimpanzees were taught sign language, they also acquired hundreds of vocabulary words. However, while they can communicate, they can’t articulate words because they can’t properly control their lips and tongue. That’s because the laryngeal structure of great apes can’t produce aspirated sounds like humans. They can only produce very simple vocalizations using the larynx, like “boo boo,” “kee kee,” “hmm hmm.”
Yati
So it might have been a very long time from when humans started using language like sign language until they could vocalize.
Hiro
This research on the language abilities of gorillas and chimpanzees made clear that great apes do have language ability. However, it was unclear whether this was actually an ability to use language, or whether it just showed that advanced training was possible, such as wanting rewards, or performing tricks in response to non verbal cues.
Yati
That’s true. There are dogs that do tricks and parrots that talk, and trained monkey performances too.
Hiro
However, language research with the bonobo Kanzi brought a breakthrough. To give you the conclusion first: great apes have the ability to use language. Not only that, but it was also shown that they have the ability to make stone tools, the ability to use fire and cook, and the ability to play games.
Yati
Wait, that’s a lot of information. [laughing]
Hiro
That’s what a breakthrough means. [laughing] The bonobo Kanzi was given an artificial language called “lexigrams” by Doctor Sue Savage Rumbaugh, a researcher of primate language in America. Lexigrams are a keyboard with symbols representing words or actions, and he uses this to converse.
Yati
I see.
Hiro
What’s interesting is that Doctor Sue draws out the bonobo’s language ability using a Montessori style approach. Kanzi manipulates hundreds of symbols and enjoys spontaneous, creative communication with humans and other primates.
Yati
So Montessori education extends beyond humans.
Hiro
Right. This is the story of Montessori education for primates. Kanzi’s language ability wasn’t acquired through operant conditioning like teaching tricks, so he’s clearly using language through intrinsic motivation. In other words, it was proven that he uses language for communication just like humans.
Yati
That’s thought provoking.
Hiro
Once, Doctor Sue had her keys stolen by one of the chimpanzees at the research facility. She asked Kanzi, “Go get the keys back for me.” Kanzi went to the culprit, muttered something quietly, and came back with the keys.
Yati
So he interpreted for her.
Hiro
Right. Bonobos are famous for loving peace and are endangered great apes found only in the forests of the Congo. When you actually see them moving, it evokes indescribable emotions. I’d like everyone to search “bonobo Kanzi” on YouTube.
Yati
I watched it too. The image of him walking on two feet while carrying things with both hands was impressive.
Hiro
Personally, I think bonobos are positioned somewhere between apes and hominins, before Australopithecus in our human ancestry. I think research on bonobo language ability is essentially research that traces back and reveals the history of human language.
Yati
I see. I hadn’t thought of that approach!
Hiro
So I want to mention two discoveries and insights gained from this. One is Doctor Sue’s approach. What Doctor Sue did to get bonobos to use language naturally was to prepare an environment where the humans around them “normally” used language in daily life. She didn’t use direct rewards or punishments to force language acquisition like a trick. She lived together with them and respected their spontaneity.
Yati
That’s exactly the Montessori approach. Can adult bonobos do it too?
Hiro
That didn’t work. Doctor Sue first tried to teach language to an adult female named Matata, but Matata showed no interest at all. However, her son Kanzi, who was watching, started using language purely out of intellectual curiosity, so they decided to implement the education program with Kanzi.
Yati
So bonobos have something like a sensitive period for language too.
Hiro
Probably. Getting back to the point, the other insight is that the habit of combining many sets of symbols to express one’s intentions and thoughts is essential for intellectual development.
Yati
What do you mean?
Hiro
All great apes can’t speak and converse because their skeletal structure doesn’t allow pronunciation like humans. But if they have a set of symbols like lexigrams, they can combine them to express complex concepts. That’s the essence of the language activity that humans engage in. In other words, we communicate by combining not just sounds, but all “symbols,” such as gestures, facial expressions, and writing, as “expression signs.”
Yati
I see. When our three year old second daughter watched the Kanzi video with us, she got hooked on combining words to express what she wanted to say, like “night, not sleep, bad kid” or “alone, sleep, good kid,” and she seemed to be having fun.
Hiro
Like “room, mess up, sad.”
Yati
[laughing]
Hiro
So language is made of combinations of simple symbols, and I think the experience of playing with combining them in daily life develops language ability. There are pattern differences derived from geography, culture, and customs, like Japanese, English, Chinese, and so on, but the essence lies in wanting to “convey” and wanting to “understand.” If you value just that, I think language ability will become refined.
Yati
As a human environment, it’s important for the adults around to communicate using proper language. Adults deliberately handwriting text or writing letters can spark children’s interest in written language.
Hiro
Right. Unlike the Congo forest, civilized society has libraries, and books are readily available anytime. By making use of that blessed environment, just as we evolved from great apes to humans, I’d like us to evolve from humans to the next species.
Yati
Right. [laughing]
Hiro
Reading and understanding Scientific Montessori is also quite an advanced language activity. We’d be happy if you read it thoroughly and it helps with your daily child rearing. So with that, “today, talk, finished.”
