Decoding the biology of language and its implications in language acquisition

ABSTRACT

Associating human genetic makeup with the faculty of language has long been a goal for biolinguistics. This stimulated theidea that language is attributed to genes and language disabilities are caused by genetic mutations. However, application ofgenetic knowledge on language intervention is still a gap in the existing literature. In an effort to bridge this gap, this articlepresents an account of genetic and neural associations of language and synthesizes the genetic, neural, epigenetic andenvironmental facets involved in language. In addition to describing the association of genes with language, the neural andepigenetic aspects of language are also explored. Further, the environmental aspects of language such as language input,emotion and cognition are also traced back to gene expressions. Therefore, effective language intervention for languagelearning difficulties must offer genetics-informed solutions, both linguistic and medical.