Splash!

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Genie

I watched a very interesting documentary in linguistics class yesterday. People have warned me about taking this class. Apparently, the course is difficult and it is hard to acquire that "A". Hey, do I come to university to register in easy courses, which are very often lame, boring, and illogical, so that I can get A's?

I find that courses like these are worth it because they question our everyday lives and civilization. Stuff like psychology is interesting. I have never heard anyone said psychology was boring. This course that I am taking teaches us about child language acquisition. Is the ability to learn language innate in us? Is there a critical period of time where we can learn language? So far, I have watched three videos in class, and they have discussed these theories more in depth.

The video that I watched yesterday was based on a true story. Back in the 1980s, a 13-year-old girl was found locked up in a dark room. The girl had been living in isolation for thirteen years in this dark room. She was tied to a potty chair when social workers found her, but according to her mother, she had been tied to the potty chair ever since she was a baby. Needless to say, she could not talk because previously she never had any contact with anyone. Her father was charged for child abuse, but before the police arrived, he shot himself. Her mother was blind and deaf. She admitted that she was a victim of her husband's abusive nature too.

It was shocking. Linguists and scientists named her Genie because they assumed that she never had a human childhood. It was as though she popped out from a bottle into the human world. In the 1900s, a similar case was studied by a famous scientist named Itard. A young boy, about the age of twelve, was found in the forest acting like a savage. He was given the name Victor and was known as the wild child. I believe the movie, "The Wild Child" is still available - I remember watching it on Hallmark). However, Victor's case did not have a happy ending. Itard gave up on the experiment and let the boy live with his servant. Victor died at the age of 40.

When Genie was found, it was another great opportunity for scientists and researches to investigate the case. At the same time, it was a pity.

They taught Genie how to talk, teaching her vocabulary to represent things instead of just pointing with her finger without saying anything. Some were skeptical about Genie's progress because they felt that Genie's brain could have been damaged since birth. They recorded her brain waves when she slept and found abnormal sleep patterns. However, her mental ability to learn was just like a baby's. Each year, she progresses well just like any other baby born into this world.

After two years, Genie could understand other people and talk. However, she was unable to use grammatically correct sentences. We say "what is in the red box?" but Genie would think of it as "what red, blue, yellow the box?"

In the later stages of the experiment, they taught her sign language and she was able to learn it very well. This was probably due to the fact that sign languages were not ruled much by grammar. It was remarkable. However, research and tests had to stop because Genie's mother filed a lawsuit against the research team members on the grounds that they were exploiting the funds allocated for Genie's experiments. A lot of people knew that the team members were not exploiting Genie but they did not have proof to show that they were conducting a real research. They took videos, but they were not labelled, and the reports were not official. Stuff like that. And this was where Genie's life took a change. Social workers had to place her in foster homes because she could no longer stay at the children's hospital.

She was abused in these homes and after living in about 4 different homes, she finally returned to the children's hospital to meet her old friends (the team members) before being sent to the National Learning Institute for the Deaf and Blind in USA.

It was a pity. She was a beautiful child. My teacher said that Genie is still alive. Well, I pray that she will be well.

Yun @ 6:27 AM | |

about me

Home: KL, Malaysia
School: U of A

I am someone who frets a lot - I call it a psychological disorder. I am constantly trying to escape my complex mind which, very often, drives me and my close companions to the edge of insanity. Born under the sun star Libra, I am greatly affected by a disease called "indecisiveness". Nicknames were never part of my dictionary until I met some people who decided to name me "turtle". Soon, I was representing a zoo of hamsters, "sotongs", pigs, cats, etc...

chat

How are you today?

My voice got lost in a paper cup...

Back to school (Winter 2005)

Gearing up for Christmas!