Sociolinguistics: Secret of the Wild Child - Movie Review Example

Sociolinguistics Secret of the Wild Child Give the of film, producer and the year. The movie under consideration is a documentary called “Secret of the Wild Child” and produced by Nova in 1994. This film is devoted to a mysterious phenomenon of feral children and Genie in particular. Why did you select this film for your review? This issue poses significant interest for researches in sociology and psychology as it shows the result of children’s isolation and may someday help to define exactly what the features that distinguish a human from animals are. The phenomenon of feral children seems rather intriguing to me, and it mirrors somehow the development of a human and the role of language and social contacts in it. Had you seen it before? If so, how did a second viewing help in your understanding or enjoyment? I haven’t seen this documentary before but it aroused great curiosity because of the topic it illuminated. To my mind, the advantage of this film is the simplicity of the narration and the fact that all the scientific upshots were given in an understandable form clear for everyone. What was the film’s purpose or thesis? Was it clear or did you have to infer it? The purpose and the message of the film is quite transparent and lies oin the surface. As I have managed to understand the main thesis of the movie lies in the interdependence between the social and mental development and the proper surrounding during the childhood. Children who are taken out of the social environment in their early years and deprived of social contacts are destined to be retarded in their development and have no social habits including language. Childhood is a very important period of the human development when we acquire primary social and language skills necessary for our life. If this period is skipped due to some circumstances it will probably be hard or even impossible to make up for it. Who is the primary audience for this film? Of course, the primary addressees of “Secret of the Wild Child” are the specialists in sociology and psychology as its topic is a matter of concern for these branches of science. But, naturally, this topic would be interesting for ordinary spectators and for parents who have children under 13. Was the format strictly documentary or were there some dramatic recreations? Why do you think they used recreations? The format of the reviewed movie is generally documentary with inclusions of feature movie scenes. It mainly consists of the interviews with the scientists and teachers who used to work with Genie and documentary shots of the girl in the process of her rehabilitation and adaptation. Except that, there are a few extracts from the movie based on the story of Victor, the wild boy from Aveyron. The story of Victor is a precedent of the phenomenon of wild children that took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Victor was a young savage, a boy of eleven or twelve years old who spent a considerable part of his life in the woods (Itard). The motion picture “The Wild Child” based on this story was released in the US just 2 months before Genie was found in California. What concerns the story of Genie, I think no recreations are needed as there are plenty of video material left after the research times which allows us now to see this girl and her typical behavior with our own eyes. Which specific social science concepts, are helpful for understanding the film? To understand this film in terms of social science one must be familiar with the basic concepts and peculiarities of social and mental development of a human being. Particularly, Genie’s case poses interest for psycholinguistics. As her developmental retardation affected both her psychological condition and her language skills it is reasonable to address psycholinguistics as a discipline that studies interrelations of language, thinking and conscience. Vital notion for understanding the documentary is language acquisition which is the process of a human’s learning to perceive, comprehend language and also to reproduce it using words and sentences. As we know from the film, Genie was completely unable to talk and at the beginning of the rehabilitation process had only 20 words in her vocabulary. Based on the social interactionist theory, one can state that the process of language development is lead by social interaction between children who are learning to use language and acquiring primary linguistic skills and adults who already possess them (Bruner). This theory explains the fact that Genie’s linguistic development left much to be desired. She was practically deprived of communication being locked in the bedroom for almost all her life. According to Friederici, language acquisition is one of the most significant traits of a human being (Friederici). Nonhumans are incapable of communicating with help of language (Kosslyn); that is why inability to talk brings a human closer to animals. Except that, as Genie had failed to acquire primary social and language skills it was nearly impossible for the researchers to find out if she was mentally retarded since birth or her condition was fully cause by abuse and almost full coercive social isolation, though while sleep studies her brain showed abnormal activity. Due to abovementioned facts, the possibility to restore all that development processes missed in Genie’s early years was low. While handled with intense care and taught regularly, she made considerable progress on mental and language development, learned words and gestures, adapted herself to life among people, but it was only till she was under care of Children’s hospital. Later, having no practice and no exercise she regressed (James). Which issues were the strongest in the film? The emphasis in this film is made on the process of rehabilitation for Genie and peculiarities of her language acquisition. Numerous details provided by her tutors and teachers, for example, Susan Curtiss. After less than a year of intensive rehabilitation Genie learned to make up two- and tree-word phrases. Within a seven-month period she learned to comprehend more than a hundred of new words (Choice). It is notable that the girl was very curious as – Susan told – she always wanted to know the words for various phenomena and objects. She intensively explored the new environment she was put into. Most specialist interviewed for the movie took this case as a phenomenon of great interest and had a million questions about how and why had the girl become wild and why she behaved in this or that way. Were there any important omissions that you feel would improve the film? To my mind, the issue of feral children found a descent reflection in this movie devoted to Genie as a vivid specimen of this phenomenon. The story is clearly told including the circumstances that preceded her special condition, description of her abilities at the beginning of rehabilitation, the rehab process itself, impressions of the scientists who worked with her during it. Nevertheless, it would be reasonable to add information on Genie’s family background because for those who didn’t have any additional information about this case such information would be useful. As Susan Curtiss told, to understand this case history one must understand the family background (Rymer). Besides, the specialist in related disciplines would appreciate adding some information and examples on how exactly the researchers at UCLA taught and rehabilitated Genie. How might this film impact others different from you (i.e. gender, ethnicity, culture)? I do not think that the difference in gender, ethnicity or culture could influence or change the perception of this movie. We must take into account that the issue lightened in this documentary has universal meaning as it is connected with general features of a human’s mental development. To me, psycholinguistics has nothing to do with gender and ethnicity in terms of development. Though it is proved that gender leaves its traces on the peculiarities of language and speech in men and women (for example, women are prone to use some peculiar words or a more verbose than men), I don’t think that it has something to do with development in our case. Moreover, as we see from the effect cause by isolation to Victor and Genie, consequences and basic features of conditions are generally the same. To my thinking, it is similar with ethnicity. What did you learn about the scientists that you did not learn from the chapter? Do you think the scientists were unethical? What about Mrs. Butler? What about the Riglers? The ethical side of this story may become a controversial issue. In fact, it already has become an issue of controversy as this experiment is in some way playing God with a human’s life. In the movie, in reference to Victor’s story it was called “a forbidden experiment” enabling study of a bare personality deprived of culture and interaction with the society. This language deprivation experiment was called forbidden because it presupposed exceptional deprivation of normal human social contacts (Shattuck). When Genie appeared the researchers gathered for the conference, and the specialists in different fields were very excited by the opportunity to do some experiments of this girl as it became a matter of debate: everyone was curious if it was possible to teach a teenage girl to talk from scratch. David Rigler headed the research group from the very beginning. Susan Curtiss was a graduate talented linguist invited to spend most of the time with Genie stirring her linguistic development. At same time the psychologist James Kent who observed the girl’s mental development. And I cannot say that she was unethical in her treatment to Genie as she appeared to me to be a very sincere and interested person due to her interview abstracts in the film. In general, the issue of moral validity of such experiments stays relevant. Many people would argue and criticize such experiments as it seems to be abuse of a human being, limiting her freedom and playing God; od course, there were people who – I think – intended to make a fortune or to become famous, like Jane Butler. Is stated that this woman – a tutor of the Children’s hospital - decided to be a volunteer to give home to Genie. But, in fact, she only sought to glut her ambitions. Concerning the other specialists, I would adopt the opinion that they tried to give at least partially normal life to a girl who had been deprived of it for so long. In 1971 Genie moved to the Riglers on California (there were 2 more children and pets except that) (Piner). Marylin, Riglers wife, undertook a burden of teaching Genie. She taught her to recognize letters, write her name and control her temper. I think that working itself with Genie was not amoral at all. Moreover, to my thinking, this was even somewhat noble as this allowed the girl to diffuse in the real world a little bit. If we call this amoral we will also call children’s upbringing amoral. As a mother gives birth to a child and grows it, it perceives the environment and learns a certain language not due to its preferences but due to what the mother decided. But at the same time imposing her will on the child the mother lead her child into the society and helped to acquire basic social habits. What happened when the National Institutes of Health grant was no longer funded? The teachers from UCLA were very friendly and benevolent to Genie, and a considerable progress was achieved when she took lessons. As the university found it senseless to fund the project due to scarce result reports and the girl went to the first place, she began to regress. It is obvious that the positive sides of the research have more weight in this case. Write 1/3 page about how the scientists acted in the treatment of Genie. Compare it to the treatment of the Wild Boy of Avyron (do some research). Both Genie and Victor were taught to comprehend and distinguish words and also reproduce them. The scientists successed in teaching Genie some primary rules of behavior along with basic skills of communication. Itard also tried to “correct” Victor’s personality through teaching him manners. Where is Genie today? Nowadays Genie is 57 years old, the age quite considerable for feral children. After the National Institute of Mental Health seized to give money for the project the Riglers also gave up guardianship because of that. Genie lived in six foster families experiencing inevitable regression. Susan Curtiss later taught her on the voluntary basis till the court forbade her to do so. Now she is in a private establishment in South California where she is cared well of. Nevertheless, she is silent again. How does it happen that we have feral children? Feral children are the product of full social isolation, no matter what caused it. Once the child is deprived of the opportunity to communicate to the surrounding individuals, once she/he is taken out of natural environment, the usual processes of social and sociolinguistic development are omitted and are almost impossible to resume in the future. History has various cases of feral children but all of those children were abandoned by parents in some way. Genie’s parents did not pay attention to her at all though she lived with them. Victor lived in the wood without parents at all. Write a paragraph on two of them you found in your research and describe their outcomes. Here are two more cases of feral children. It should be mentioned that many of the well-known cases of feral children discovery take place in Russian Federation. In 1998, the boy was discovered in Russia. Andrei Tolstyk had been raised by a dog since he was three months, he looked much like Mowgli. Having adopted dog traits he moved on four limbs, bit people and smelled food before eating (Osborn). Abandoned by his problem parents he was forgotten and spent almost all his entire life with dogs. After his discovery he was taken to the orphanage and examined. Natasha, a girl found in 2009, spent her life (5 years) locked with cats and dogs in the room. The room had no sewage, no water and no heating. When she was discovered, she had clear features of an animal (Reuters). She was taken to the orphanage and examined, too. Reference list: Bruner, J. Childs Talk: Learning to Use Language. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. Choice E. T. Article Synopsis and Reaction for Feral Children: Genie, A Modern-Day Wild Child. Friederici, A.D. The brain basis of language processing: from structure to function, 2009. Itard, Jean M. G. An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man: Or, the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of the Young Savage Caught in the Woods Near Aveyron in the Year 1798. - R. Phillips, 1802. Retrieved May 29 from: http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=E63cRcnV2hIC&hl=ru&source=gbs_navlinks_s James, S. D. Wild Child Speechless After Tortured Life. Retrieved May 29 from: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4804490&page=1 Kosslyn, Stephen M.; Osherson, Daniel N. (1995). An invitation to cognitive science. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Osborn A. Siberian boy, 7, raised by dogs after parents abandoned him. Retrieved May 29 from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/siberian-boy-7-raised-by-dogs-after-parents-abandoned-him-6164250.html Pines M. The Civilizing of Genie // Teaching English through the Disciplines: Psychology / L. F. Kasper, Ed., Whittier. — 1997. Russian Police Find Feral Girl in Siberia. Reuters/ Retrieved May 29 from: http://planetark.org/wen/53118 Rymer R. Silent Childhood // The New Yorker. — April 13, 1992. — P. 41—81. Retrieved May 29 from: http://www.psych.utah.edu/classes/2007_fall/3220_001/readings/Rymer,%20R.%20%281992%29%20Part%20I.pdf Shattuck, R. The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron. Kodansha International, 1994. Read More