Genie Wiley's case

Genie Wiley's case and its impact on language

The relation between social interaction and language adquisition

Social interaction is fundamental to develop language adquisition, since we need this exposure to language in real-life contexts (input). Moreover, a MKO is able to provide us with feedback to correct our grammar mistakes. Furthermore, in this social interaction we can engage in the negotiation of meaning to ensure mutual understanding. FInally, through this social interaction we can adapt our language skills to communicate effectively in different contexts.

The role of culture on language adquisition

undoubtedly, culture is tied to language adquisiton as we learn a different vocabulary to communicate with our parents, a peer, an authority and so on. Aditionally, it has to do with pragmatics, especially with aspects of language such as politeness and implied meanings. Finally, we develop a cultural identity through language in order to belong within society or an specific group.

The Critical Period Hypothesis in Genie's case

To sum up, Genie was a victim of severe abuse and social isolation. When she was found, she had no verbal skills since she had never been taught to speak. According to the theory, young children could only learn certain things at certain times called “critical periods” and language was one of these critical periods. Genie proved the theory wrong since she was capable to learn new words. Nevertheless, she was not able to construct sentences.

The role of grammar in cognitive growth

Basically, grammar are those rules that we follow in order to communicate effectively, so it needs social interaction to be develop. Specifically, the left part of the brain has those neural systems responsible for speech and language. Thus, if it is not stimulated, it gets smaller, malformed and less functional. In other words, it does not develop the capacity of language.