Analyzing Genie's Desire To Learn Language

All language theorists acknowledge nature and nurture both play significant roles in children’s language development. However, the theoretical debate to whether nature or nurture is the dominant tool during a child’s language

Nature and nurture both play a significant role in language development. Language development refers to how children understand, organise, speak and use words in order to communicate at an effective, age-appropriate level (Karen Kearns, 2013, P.105). For centuries, theorists have been debating the roles of nature versus nurture. Although, each child’s language will develop at their own pace and there will be many individual differences based on culture, ethnicity, health and ability. As well as physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in which will contribute to a child’s language development.

* After a year of treatment, she even started putting three words together occasionally. In children going through normal language development, this stage is followed by what is known as a language explosion. Children rapidly acquire new words and begin putting them together in novel ways. Unfortunately, this never happened for Genie. Her language abilities remained stuck at this stage and she appeared unable to apply grammatical rules and use language in a meaningful way.

Do we learn language from our experiences and environment, or are we just born with the ability? “Genie” seemed to be a great “experiment” that helped me understand this questions. She was exposed to almost no language in a critical time in her life. Genie was kept in almost complete isolation for her entire life. She was strapped to a potty chair in a room always alone and had no outside stimulation. When Genie was found she had many different characteristics that did not fit with her age. She could barely walk almost infant like in the way her arms and legs looked. Her language was minimal, slow using mostly grunting sounds and would spit a lot, probable due to lack of

On November 4th 1970, Los Angeles child welfare authorities became aware of the abuse, neglect, and social isolation of Susan “Genie” Wiley. Upon farther investigation, they discovered that Susan, a thirteen-year-old, had been severely maltreated by her father. Susan’s father came to a conclusion early in her life that she was socially unfit or “retarded’ and was ashamed of her. He hid her in the back bedroom of the Wiley home and kept her from neighbors, family, and friends. Thus leaving Susan unable to develop language skills learned from communicating and interacting with other people. She was taking away from her home and placed in the care of the state. Scientist and Psychologist took this as an opportunity to test hypotheses and theories on language acquisition skills. Susan learned gradually, but because she was not exposed to early childhood language skills, she was not able to retain the information permanently. Even today in her late fifties, she is ward of the state in California and has limited verbal skills.

The case of “Genie” is a tragic look at the effects of child abuse and neglect on childhood development. Genie’s case was particularly extreme, as she lived the first 13 years of her life in isolation and confinement. With little to no human interaction throughout her entire life, she developed no language skills. Researchers were extremely interested in this case, as it gave them a chance to explore two theories of language development. One theory is Noam Chomsky’s view that children are born with an innate ability to learn and understand language. Chomsky termed this structure in our brain the “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD). An alternate theory by Eric Lenneberg stated that language development is a result of our environment, and stressed the importance of critical periods. Lenneberg believed that the critical period for language development only lasted until around 12 years of age, and inability to develop language during these critical periods would result in major deficits.

Although Jim did learn speech it became noticeably odd to others around him as he had developed his own, unique grammatical characteristics and his poor articulation meant he didn’t acquire normal language skills (Sachs et al 1981). Bruner suggests that this was due to lack of social interaction in his learning of speech, which again highlights the importance of nurture in promoting a child’s language development.

Why is this question ambiguous and why is it interesting to note that this question is ambiguous?

To begin, I am going to summarize the video of “Does learning languages make kids smarter?” of the program “Your voice” which you can find it in the following page multilingualliving.com.

Language is a communicative system of words and symbols unique to humans. The origins of language are still a mystery as fossil remains cannot speak. However, the rudiments of language can be inferred through studying linguistic development in children and the cognitive and communicative abilities of primates as discussed by Bridgeman (2003). This essay illustrates the skills infants have that will eventually help them to acquire language. The topics covered are firstly, the biological aspects, the contribution of the human brain to language development? Secondly, key theories of language development will be considered. Is the development innate? Is there a critical period? Thirdly, what must be learned? What are the rudiments infants must

After spending a few months in the hospital, researchers began testing Genie with seventeen different comprehension tests in September of 1971. According to these researchers, Genie could understand individual words, but she did not have the ability to utter these words herself. It was also found that while she could understand individual words, she was unable to comprehend any grammatical structure. The researchers concluded that Genie was “…faced with the complex task of primary language acquisition with a post-pubescent brain” (Fromkin et al., 1974). Due to Genie’s brain maturation, researchers were concerned that she would be unable to acquire language because she was past the critical period of language acquisition. But, as they continued

Not long after being admitted to the hospital, Genie seemed to recognize only her name and the word “sorry.” She scored as low as normal one-year-olds on maturity and preschool attainment scales. According to Piaget, there are six substages contained with the Sensorimotor stage of development. It seems as if Genie may have passed up substages three through six of the Sensorimotor stage. Throughout her first seven months of instruction, she identified hundreds of new words and began to speak. Eventually, Genie began using two-word phrases, much like most eighteen-month-olds do. Then, in turn, she progressed to using three-word phrases. She had a referential style of language learning since most of the words she used were ones that referred to objects. Furthermore, Genie never asked questions and didn’t comprehend a great deal of grammar. She never had a speech “explosion” like most children after reaching the two-word stage. Her language was in no way fully-developed.

From a baby 's first word to their first complete sentence, there 's a lot to debate with their language development. The average child has a vocabulary of up to six-thousand words by the time they turn five years old (Brighthubcom, 2016). Language development is one of the most critical roles for an educator in both early childhood and primary settings. It is this ability of language development that is particularly interesting in the nature vs nurture debate. In order for educators to provide effective communication, it is important that they have the knowledge and understanding of the four key concepts of language, such as phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic development and the underlying theoretical perspectives that explain the processes of language acquisition and development.

Most young children develop language rapidly, moving from crying and cooing in infancy to using hundreds of words and understanding their meanings by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten. Language development is a major accomplishment and is one of the most rewarding experiences for anyone to share with a child. Children learn to speak and understand words by being around adults and peers who communicate with them and encourage their efforts to talk.

According to Zukowski (2013), language development refers to the process of learning in early life where infants acquire various forms, meaning and word usage. In addition, language refers to the different utterances in regards to linguistic input. Language development in childhood focuses on major arguments in