Genie: Nature Versus Nurture and Keach Para.
Genie: Is it Possible for Nurture to Outweigh Nature? Is it possible that teenager, could not have the same fluency of language as most other human beings, based on the concept of nature vs. nurture, because she was heavily deprived of a nurturing environment? In Genie�s case nurture seemed to outweigh nature a great deal more. Her surroundings were a key player in her development of a �normal� human being. Not only was Genie�s lack of nurturing environment a huge question in the air, but also, was it too late for her? Was there still a chance for Genie to become part of society after being deprived for so long?
�Normal� as defined by Webster is �conforming with an accepted standard or norm; natural; usual.� In the definition of �normal� a key word is �conforming.� Genie was in her situation acting in a �normal� manner. How else is a young girl �supposed� to act when her parents have her tied to a chair unable to move and only speak to her every so often? How can a person possibly develop any linguistic skills in such an environment? If one were to define Genie in terms of �normal� in comparison to the rest of society, she would not even come close.
Genie is a woman, now an elder, that had the most horrific life any person could possibly imagine. Raised in isolation, Genie spent almost all of her childhood locked in her bedroom (Cronkite para. 3). She was found barely able to walk or talk, she was known as a �wild child.� �Wild Child� as defined by Stacie Keach �is a child who has grown up in severe isolation with virtually no human contact.� Every so often our society crosses path with such an unfortunate child. Genie was 13 when officers finally found her in her elderly parents home (Cronkite para. 2). It is said that she was tied to her potty chair with restraints and made to sit day after day with no communication to the outside world or her parents (Keach para. 3). For at least 10 years she was forced to sit often through the night,
�Normal� as defined by Webster is �conforming with an accepted standard or norm; natural; usual.� In the definition of �normal� a key word is �conforming.� Genie was in her situation acting in a �normal� manner. How else is a young girl �supposed� to act when her parents have her tied to a chair unable to move and only speak to her every so often? How can a person possibly develop any linguistic skills in such an environment? If one were to define Genie in terms of �normal� in comparison to the rest of society, she would not even come close.
Genie is a woman, now an elder, that had the most horrific life any person could possibly imagine. Raised in isolation, Genie spent almost all of her childhood locked in her bedroom (Cronkite para. 3). She was found barely able to walk or talk, she was known as a �wild child.� �Wild Child� as defined by Stacie Keach �is a child who has grown up in severe isolation with virtually no human contact.� Every so often our society crosses path with such an unfortunate child. Genie was 13 when officers finally found her in her elderly parents home (Cronkite para. 2). It is said that she was tied to her potty chair with restraints and made to sit day after day with no communication to the outside world or her parents (Keach para. 3). For at least 10 years she was forced to sit often through the night,
Bibliography: Curtiss, Susan; Fromkin , Victoria ; Rigler, David; Rigler, Marilyn; Krashen, Stephen. "An Update on the Linguistic Development of Genie." Language 2 (1975): 145-157. Fromkin , Victoria ; Krashen, Stephen; Curtiss, Susan; Rigler, David; Rigler, Marilyn. "The Development of Language in Genie: A Case of Language Acquisition Beyond the �Critical Period�." Brain and Language 1 (1974): 81-107. Matsuura, Chikako. "Critical Periods for Language Development-Are They Really Critical?." Nagoya Working Papers in Linguistics 16 (2000): 87-99. Jones, Peter E. "Contradictions and Unanswered Questions in the Genie Case: A Fresh Look at the Linguistic Evidence." Language and Communication 15 (1995): 261-280. Scovel, Thomas. A Time to Speak: A Psycholinguistic Inquiry into the Critical Period for Human Speech. New York : Newbury House, 1988.