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In my (admittedly low level) psychology class, I was taught that it's impossible to acquire language after a certain age. The case study of Genie ( http://en.w

In my (admittedly low level) psychology class, I was taught that it's impossible to acquire language after a certain age. The case study of Genie ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child) ) was used and the conclusion was that if a person does not learn some form of language during a critical period early in life, they never will.

drunkpotato 16y ago
I wouldn't be too hasty about using Genie's case study to generalize about language acquisition. Genie was also horribly abused and neglected, without adequate access to sunlight or nutrition, for the formative years of her life. In other words, lack of access to language was not the only variable in her case. Of course, a controlled study of this would be unethical, so case studies are all we have, and we can't be picky about them. But neither should we make assumptions about what variables are actually being measured in a case study. That requires a controlled experiment.
- loewenskind 16y ago
  >Of course, a controlled study of this would be unethical, We can't do as the Pharaoh did for testing purposes, of course, but if the estimates are right about how many people make it at least to late adolescence without language I think there are probably enough cases out there to learn a great deal.
loewenskind 16y ago
There is more than just this case to suggest this. There were other Feral children who developed to a similar level to Genie (though, as pointed out by another commenter, it's impossible to say how much of their lack of development is a result of the abuse itself and has nothing to do with language). There is the Pirahã who don't have numbers as part of their language and are apparently unable to learn them passed a certain age (note: AFAIK both these points are contested). Another part of the idea comes from the observation that our brains stop forming new connections at some point. But I think all of this is touched on in the article. I was in the "language first" camp until I read this. Fantastic stuff.

drunkpotato 16y ago

I wouldn't be too hasty about using Genie's case study to generalize about language acquisition. Genie was also horribly abused and neglected, without adequate access to sunlight or nutrition, for the formative years of her life. In other words, lack of access to language was not the only variable in her case. Of course, a controlled study of this would be unethical, so case studies are all we have, and we can't be picky about them. But neither should we make assumptions about what variables are actually being measured in a case study. That requires a controlled experiment.

loewenskind 16y ago
>Of course, a controlled study of this would be unethical, We can't do as the Pharaoh did for testing purposes, of course, but if the estimates are right about how many people make it at least to late adolescence without language I think there are probably enough cases out there to learn a great deal.

loewenskind 16y ago

There is more than just this case to suggest this. There were other Feral children who developed to a similar level to Genie (though, as pointed out by another commenter, it's impossible to say how much of their lack of development is a result of the abuse itself and has nothing to do with language). There is the Pirahã who don't have numbers as part of their language and are apparently unable to learn them passed a certain age (note: AFAIK both these points are contested). Another part of the idea comes from the observation that our brains stop forming new connections at some point. But I think all of this is touched on in the article. I was in the "language first" camp until I read this. Fantastic stuff.