Critical Period hypothesis

Linguist Eric Lenneberg (1964) stated that the crucial period of language acquisition ends around the age of 12 years. He claimed that if no language is learned before then, it could never be learned in a normal and fully functional sense. This was called the "Critical period hypothesis."

An interesting example of this is the case of Genie, also known as "The Wild Child". A thirteen-year-old victim of lifelong child abuse, Genie was discovered on 4 November 1970 when her mother entered a social services office to apply for financial aid. The child drew attention because she was undersized for her age and did not speak. It was discovered through questioning the mother that Genie was daily strapped to a potty chair and wore diapers when strapped into her bed each night. She appeared to be entirely without language. Her father had judged her retarded at birth and had chosen to isolate her, and so she had remained until her discovery.

It was an ideal (albeit horrifying) opportunity to test the "forbidden experiment" theory that a nurturing environment could somehow make up for a total lack of language past the age of 12. She was unable to acquire language completely, although the degree to which she acquired language is disputed.[12]

Detractors of the "Critical Period Hypothesis" point out that in this example and others like it (see Feral children), the child is hardly growing up in a nurturing environment, and that the lack of language acquisition in later life may be due to the results of a generally abusive environment rather than being specifically due to a lack of exposure to language.

A more up-to-date view of the Critical Period Hypothesis is represented by the University of Maryland, College Park instructor Robert DeKeyser. DeKeyser argues that although it is true that there is a critical period, this does not mean that adults cannot learn a second language perfectly, at least on the syntactic level. DeKeyser talks about the role of language aptitude as opposed to the critical period.[citation needed]

[edit] References

1. ^ a b Chomsky, N. (1975). Reflections of Language. New York: Pantheon Books.
2. ^ Yang, Charles (2006). The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn All the Languages of the World. New York: Scribner.
3. ^ Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Harper Collins.
4. ^ Yang, Charles (2006). The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn All the Languages of the World. New York: Scribner.
5. ^ Yang, Charles (2006). The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn All the Languages of the World. New York: Scribner.
6. ^ Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Harper Collins.
7. ^ Courtney Cazden (1972). Child Language and Education. New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston.
8. ^ Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Harper Collins.
9. ^ Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Harper Collins.
10. ^ Bickerton, Derek (1990). Language and Species. United States: University of Chicago Press.
11. ^ Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: Harper Collins.
12. ^ Jones, Peter E., 1995, 'Contradictions and unanswered questions in the Genie case: A fresh look at the linguistic evidence', Language and Communication, vol.15, No.3, pp.261-280, a version of which is available online

[edit] Further reading