Questions on Genie the Wilder Child

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Questions on Genie the Wilder Child
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Instructions

• Please write a short essay on the issues of human
  specificity of language and language acquisition
  based upon the answers you come up with for each
  of the following questions.

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Questions on the Genie story

• How old was Genie when she was found? How is her
  age relevant for her language situation?
• Was Genie brain-damaged at birth? If so, how
  would this have affected her case?
• What was Susan Curtisss relationship to Genie?
• When did Genie start using words?

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Questions on the Genie story

• How does Genies case compare to Victors or
  other wild (or feral) childrens case?
• Is language what makes us human?
• Do you think Genie could have had a success in
  mastering language if things had been different
  after she was discovered? For instance, what
  could the researchers have done differently to
  make that possible?

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Questions on the Genie story

• How does Genies story support or challenge the
  claim that children do not learn language through
  imitation?
• Does Genies story support the critical period
  hypothesis?
• Do you believe in this hypothesis yourself? If
  so, why? If not, why not?