Question

What did you learn about language development from the genie video ?

Answer 1

Genie Wiley' s story has provided insights into the manner in which language develops in humans. She was brought up in social isolation. She wasn't subjected to much human contact. most of her childhood was spent in her bedroom, locked. She was almost abused for a decade along with being isolated.

as a result of genie's case, the theory of critical period of language development was put under radar. The question was, someone who was completely in isolation during the critical period, could they develop language. Can nurture compensate for this?

She was almost locked for 13 years. She was completely silent. Her only interaction during those years was with her father when he wanted to yell at her. As a result, she did not develop the ability to learn language. Also, no language use meant not being able to test the mental abilities of the girl. But in some tests, her abilities resonated to that of a 1yo.

though, on training, she started to make progress in other areas such as toilet training, dressing herself, but language development remained a major issue. This further heated the case where language development being innate or not was questioned, nativist vs non nativist. It was stated by the non nativists, that after puberty hits, language acquisition becomes highly diffuse. The brain organization almost becomes intact and functional use of learning language becomes difficult.

genie's language development remained stuck to the place where she could only put together three words and that too occasionally. After this stage, there occurs explosion in children, but that did not happen with genie. But, genie was also not able to use grammar after puberty. This also supports the hypothesis of critical period.