The Critical Period Hypothesis Supported by Genie's Case

The Critical Period Hypothesis Supported by Genie's Case PDF Author: Anne Fuchs
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638749398
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In 1967 Eric Heinz Lenneberg established his groundbreaking work "Biological Foundations of Language" in which he tries to push the biological view on language forward. One important point that is discussed is "language in the context of growth and maturation". The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) is the essence of this considerations. Lenneberg tries to find evidence for his theory in the study of retarded, aphasic or deaf children and in neurological studies. But at this time the most striking proof for the CPH, Genie, was still imprisoned in a small room in her parents home. Three years after Lenneberg published his work on the CPH, 131/2 years-old Genie was recovered by an eligibility worker and her case rapidly aroused the interest of neurologists, psychologists and linguists. Susan Curtiss, a graduate student of the UCLA Linguistic Department got the possibility to work with Genie for the years to come. Her work Genie - A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day ′Wild Child′ compiles her experiences on working with Genie added by a detailed case history. What Susan Curtiss found out about Genie′s linguistic development seems to be the evidence for the existence of a critical phase for first language acquisition. This paper gives a brief definition of Lenneberg′s Critical Period Hypothesis, summarizes the case history and the data of Genie′s linguistic development and, according to Susan Curtiss, relates Genie′s case directly to the CPH. Over and above that, it tries to explain, why Genie developed a certain amount of language and with this proved the ′strong′ version of Lenneberg′s hypothesis as wrong.

The Critical Period Hypothesis Supported by Genie's Case

The Critical Period Hypothesis Supported by Genie's Case PDF Author: Anne Fuchs
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638749398
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In 1967 Eric Heinz Lenneberg established his groundbreaking work "Biological Foundations of Language" in which he tries to push the biological view on language forward. One important point that is discussed is "language in the context of growth and maturation". The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) is the essence of this considerations. Lenneberg tries to find evidence for his theory in the study of retarded, aphasic or deaf children and in neurological studies. But at this time the most striking proof for the CPH, Genie, was still imprisoned in a small room in her parents home. Three years after Lenneberg published his work on the CPH, 131/2 years-old Genie was recovered by an eligibility worker and her case rapidly aroused the interest of neurologists, psychologists and linguists. Susan Curtiss, a graduate student of the UCLA Linguistic Department got the possibility to work with Genie for the years to come. Her work Genie - A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day ′Wild Child′ compiles her experiences on working with Genie added by a detailed case history. What Susan Curtiss found out about Genie′s linguistic development seems to be the evidence for the existence of a critical phase for first language acquisition. This paper gives a brief definition of Lenneberg′s Critical Period Hypothesis, summarizes the case history and the data of Genie′s linguistic development and, according to Susan Curtiss, relates Genie′s case directly to the CPH. Over and above that, it tries to explain, why Genie developed a certain amount of language and with this proved the ′strong′ version of Lenneberg′s hypothesis as wrong.

Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis

Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis PDF Author: David Birdsong
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135674892
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis is the only book on the market to provide a diverse collection of perspectives, from experienced researchers, on the role of the Critical Period Hypothesis in second language acquisition. It is widely believed that age effects in both first and second language acquisition are developmental in nature, with native levels of attainment in both to be though possible only if learning began before the closure of a "window of opportunity" – a critical or sensitive period. These seven chapters explore this idea at length, with each contribution acting as an authoritative look at various domains of inquiry in second language acquisition, including syntax, morphology, phonetics/phonology, Universal Grammar, and neurofunctional factors. By presenting readers with an evenly-balanced take on the topic with viewpoints both for and against the Critical Period Hypothesis, this book is the ideal guide to understanding this critical body of research in SLA, for students and researchers in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition.

The Critical Period Hypothesis

The Critical Period Hypothesis PDF Author: Katharina Dellbrügge
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640545893
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,5, University of Cologne (Englisches Seminar), course: The Acquisition of English, language: English, abstract: Encounters with feral children have been attracting intellectual examination and curiosity since the early seventeenth century. Among others, Anthropologists, Psychologists and Linguists hoped to find answers to central questions of mankind: What makes us human beings? What distinguishes us from animals? Nature or nurture, what has greater impact on us? In linguistics these case studies are frequently cited. Especially with respect to the assumption of maturational constraints on language acquisition, scholars tried to draw conclusions from the success or failure feral children exhibited after discovery. Respectively, they were interpreted as evidence or counter-evidence for the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) which postulates that language can only be acquired normally up to a certain age. This term paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 a general de-scription of critical periods is given before turning to Lenneberg's hypothesis. Section 3 focuses on two cases that are often taken as evidence for the CPH, namely Victor and Genie. Both didn't master language acquisition to a satisfactory level. Section 4, on the other hand, deals with three children who are expounded as counter-evidence for the CPH because they caught up quickly on language learning close to age seven. In both sections, after a short description of the individual experiences prior to dis-covery, a detailed account of linguistic achievements and shortcomings is presented. Section 5 will discuss the outcomes and put them into a broader scientific context by adding results of further research. Section 6 offers a preliminary conclusion, namely that cases of feral children should be included as indirect evidence but that this needs to be done carefully.

Child Language

Child Language PDF Author: Matthew Saxton
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1526421909
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Presenting the latest thinking and research on how children acquire their first language, this book takes the reader from a standing start to the point where they can engage with key debates and current research in the field of child language.

Genie

Genie PDF Author: Susan Curtiss
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483217612
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day “Wild Child reports on the linguistic research carried out through studying and working with Genie, a deprived and isolated, to an unprecedented degree, girl who was not discovered until she was an adolescent. An inhuman childhood had prevented Genie from learning language, and she knew little about the world in any respect save abuse, neglect, isolation, and deprivation. This book is organized into three parts encompassing 11 chapters. Part I provides a case history and background material on Genie's personality and language behavior. This part describes the interaction between the authors and this remarkable girl. Part II details Genie's linguistic development and overall language abilities, specifically her phonological development, as well as receptive knowledge and productive grammatical abilities of syntax, morphology, and semantics. This part also provides a comparison between her linguistic development and the language acquisition of other children. Part III presents a full description of the neurolinguistic work carried out on Genie and discusses the implications of this aspect of the case. This book will prove useful to neurolinguistics and pyscholinguistics.

Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis

Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis PDF Author: Alexandra Berlina
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638345084
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine", course: PS Language Acquisition, 3 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In his fundamental work, “Biological Foundations of Language”, the biolinguist Eric Lenneberg presents, among other things, his “Critical period” hypothesis. It consists, roughly, in the idea that a certain age is appropriate for learning a language, so that it is impossible to achieve full competence before or after it. In this essay, I will focus on the second borderline, which is usually drawn by later interpreters at the beginning of puberty – the reasonability of this will be discussed in the next chapter of this essay. Lenneberg subdivides the ongoing process of lateralization into five levels: an infant up to 20 months has identical hemispheres without functional differences; a toddler up to 36 months develops a preference for either the right or the left hand, but the responsibility for language still can easily switch an other hemisphere; a child up to 10 years is still able to reactivate language functions in the right hemisphere; in the early puberty – up to 14 years – the equipotentiality rapidly declines, and after that it is lost completely. Lenneberg talks about a “reactivation”, not “creation” of the language function in the right hemisphere. He thereby implies that at the beginning this function is present in both hemispheres and later (partly) disappears from the right one; it does not develop in the left half of the brain only right from the start (with the option to migrate to the other hemisphere in emergency cases during the childhood). According to later studies, he was right in this point; apparently, he even overrated the monopolistic role of the left hemisphere as he wrote that in about 97% of the entire population language is definitely lateralized to the left (p. 181). He wrote the “Biological Foundations...” in 1967, ten years before the Russian scientists Balanov, Deglin and Chernigowskaya proved experimentally that every hemisphere contains certain speech ability: they caused a temporary aphasia of one hemisphere in healthy persons and detected that people with a blocked hemisphere were able to talk – even if it was the left one. In that case the used vocabulary shrunk, the test persons spoke very little, in short simple sentences, and only about concrete, visible objects, whereas persons with the right hemisphere blocked became very talkative, fantasized, used complicated grammatical constructions and a lot of abstract terms.

Savage Girls and Wild Boys

Savage Girls and Wild Boys PDF Author: Michael Newton
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312423353
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
A collective history of feral children who were brought up in the wilderness, raised by animals, or locked up in solitary confinement examines the stories of Peter the Wild Boy, Victor of Aveyron, and a boy raised by monkeys in Uganda.

Introducing Second Language Acquisition

Introducing Second Language Acquisition PDF Author: Muriel Saville-Troike
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139447324
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Written for students encountering the topic for the first time, this is a clear and practical introduction to second language acquisition (SLA). It explains in non-technical language how a second language is acquired; what the second language learner needs to know; and why some learners are more successful than others. The textbook introduces in a step-by-step fashion a range of fundamental concepts – such as SLA in adults and children, in formal and informal learning contexts, and in diverse socio-cultural settings – and takes an interdisciplinary approach, encouraging students to consider SLA from linguistic, psychological and social perspectives. Each chapter contains a list of key terms, a summary, and a range of graded exercises suitable for self-testing or class discussion. Providing a solid foundation in SLA, this book is set to become the leading introduction to the field for students of linguistics, psychology, and education, and trainee language teachers.

Language and Cognition in Bilinguals and Multilinguals

Language and Cognition in Bilinguals and Multilinguals PDF Author: Annette M.B. de Groot
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1136897224
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
Psycholinguistics – the field of science that examines the mental processes and knowledge structures involved in the acquisition, comprehension, and production of language – had a strong monolingual orientation during the first four decades following its emergence around 1950. The awareness that a large part of mankind speaks more than one language – that this may impact both on the way each individual language is used and on the thought processes of bilinguals and multilinguals, and that, consequently, our theories on human linguistic ability and its role in non-linguistic cognition are incomplete and, perhaps, false – has led to a steep growth of studies on bilingualism and multilingualism since around 1995. This textbook introduces the reader to the field of study that examines language acquisition, comprehension and production from the perspective of the bilingual and multilingual speaker. It furthermore provides an introduction to studies that investigate the implications of being bilingual on various aspects of non-linguistic cognition. The major topics covered are the development of language in children growing up in a bilingual environment either from birth or relatively soon after, late foreign language learning, and word recognition, sentence comprehension, speech production, and translation processes in bilinguals. Furthermore, the ability of bilinguals and multilinguals to generally produce language in the "intended" language is discussed, as is the cognitive machinery that enables this. Finally, the consequences of bilingualism and multilingualism for non-linguistic cognition and findings and views regarding the biological basis of bilingualism and multilingualism are presented. The textbook’s primary readership are students and researchers in Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, and Applied Linguistics, but teachers of language and translators and interpreters who wish to become better informed on the cognitive and biological basis of bilingualism and multilingualism will also benefit from it.

Fundamentals of Psychology

Fundamentals of Psychology PDF Author: Michael Eysenck
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317568583
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 713

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Book Description
Aimed at those new to the subject, Fundamentals of Psychology is a clear and reader-friendly textbook that will help students explore and understand the essentials of psychology. This text offers a balanced and accurate representation of the discipline through a highly accessible synoptic approach, which seamlessly brings together all the various related topics. Fundamentals of Psychology combines an authoritative tone, a huge range of psychological material and an informal, analogy-rich style. The text expertly blends admirably up-to-date empirical research and real-life examples and applications, and is both readable and factually dense. The book introduces all the main approaches to psychology, including social, developmental, cognitive, biological, individual differences, and abnormal psychology, as well as psychological research methods. However, it also includes directions for more detailed and advanced study for the interested student. Fundamentals of Psychology incorporates many helpful textbook features which will aid students and reinforce learning, such as: Key-term definitions Extremely clear end-of-chapter summaries Annotated further reading sections Evaluations of significant research findings Numerous illustrations presented in attractive full color. This textbook is also accompanied by a comprehensive program of resources for both students and instructors, which is available free to qualifying adopters. The resources include a web-based Student Learning Program, as well as chapter-by-chapter lecture slides and an interactive chapter-by-chapter multiple-choice question test bank. Combining exceptional content, abundant pedagogical features, and a lively full-color design, Fundamentals of Psychology is an essential resource for anyone new to the subject and more particularly those beginning undergraduate courses. The book will also be ideal for students studying psychology within education, nursing and other healthcare professions.