MODULE 8: Lesson 2 and 3
July 20
TODAY'S MESSAGE
TODAY'S ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Review Lesson 2 Notes on Language.
2. Complete the Lesson 2 Practice Activity.
3. Complete the Lesson 2 Assignment.
4. Review Lesson 3 Notes on the Theories of Intelligence.
5. Complete the Lesson 3 Practice Activity.
6.. Complete the Lesson 3 Assignment, Intelligence Forum.
TEACHER TALK 1
Today you learned about Language. This cognition truly makes us human. Whereas other species communicate with an innate ability to produce a limited number of meaningful vocalizations (e.g. bonobos), or even with partially learned systems (e.g. bird songs), there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas (sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words). What makes it even more remarkable is that researchers are finding evidence for mastery of this complex skill in increasingly younger children.
The man we focused on today is Noam Chomsky. He is probably the world's most famous linguist to date. In the spirit of cognitive revolution in the 1950's, Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone. Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.
Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammatical information needed to combine these categories, e.g. noun and verb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the words of her language. For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g. a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats). This approach to language acquisition has inspired hundreds of scholars to investigate the nature of these assumed grammatical categories and the research is still ongoing.
Module 8 Lesson 2 Take Two Activity. Quizlet. Tammy Marshall. https://quizlet.com/39683358/module-8-lesson-2-language-take-two-activity-flash-cards/
Use the information below to help you with Module 8 Lesson 2 Assignment: Girl Named Genie.
Adapted From Business Insider:
The Heartbreaking Story Of Genie, A Feral Child Who Will Never Learn To Communicate
Throughout history, several cases of "feral children," deprived of human interaction in their early lives, have crept into scientific consciousness. There was Victor, a boy found naked and filthy in France's wilderness in 1800. And Oxana Malaya, a Ukrainian girl raised by wild dogs, ate raw meat and ran on all fours. But the most famous case of all, happened in California — a girl nicknamed "Genie."
Beyond the horrors of growing up feral, worst of all, these kids may miss a critical period to learn language and never communicate like the rest of us. Eric Lenneberg, a linguist and neurologist, first popularized the critical period (CP) hypothesis in the late 1960s. His research suggests that a specific window exists for learning language, either spoken or tactile. Outside of it, grasping the basics of communication becomes extremely difficult. While debates still rage over how children acquire language, linguists agree that it's easiest during childhood, according to Wayne O'Neil. a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Children have usually honed in on their native language's phonology by the end of the first year of life. The window re-opens from four to seven, and learning continues," he said. "If a child is isolated, then you've affected so many other things. You don't know what the hell is going on."
Read the full story here:
As you learned in today's class, Genie Wiley was the shocking story in the 1970’s. A girl who spent her entire childhood locked in the bedroom. Raised in extreme isolation, Genie was a wild child: uncivilized, barely able to talk or walk, still wearing diapers, although being almost 14 years old. The indications showed she was being beaten from making the noise. Upon finding that Genie had not yet learned a language, psychologists and linguists devoted a great deal of attention on Genie’s case, seeing an opportunity to study the development of human language and behavior.
When a doctor informed Genie’s parents, Dorothy and Clark Wiley, their daughter might should be taken care of, Clark Wiley took the advice to the extreme. Genie, whose birth name was Susan, was kept isolated in a dark bedroom, locked in her bed surrounded by chicken-wire at night, strapped to a potty chair during the day. When Genie was discovered by the social workers, she couldn’t walk or talk, had abnormal reactions, such as the inability to chew food. Furthermore, she was still wearing diapers, had compulsive silence and inappropriate sexual behavior.
The investigators concluded the mastermind behind Genie’s abuse was the father, Clark Wiley. His wife Dorothy claimed she too was a victim of a violent psychopath. Shortly after the discovery, Clark Wiley shot and killed himself. It is very little known about Genie Wiley’s present condition. She is living in an adult-care home somewhere in California. The reports say she is happy and that she communicates with the sign language.
Where is Genie Today?
Today, Genie lives in an adult foster care home somewhere in southern California. Little is known about her present condition, although an anonymous individual hired a private investigator to track her down in 2000 and described her as happy. This contrasts with the account of psychiatrist Jay Shurley who visited her on her 27th and 29th birthdays and characterized her as largely silent, depressed, and chronically institutionalized.
"What do we take away from this really sad story?" asked Harlan Lee in the NOVA documentary The Secret of the Wild Child. "Look, there's an ethical dilemma in this kind of research. If you want to do rigorous science, then Genie's interests are going to come second some of the time. If you only care about helping Genie, then you wouldn't do a lot of the scientific research. So, what are you going to do? To make matters worse, the two roles, scientist and therapist, were combined in one person, in her case. So, I think future generations are going to study Genie's case … not only for what it can teach us about human development, but also for what it can teach us about the rewards and the risks of conducting 'the forbidden experiment.'"
Adapted From http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/genie.htm
TEACHER TALK 2
As you will read in your lesson 3 notes, it is hard to define intelligence. There is a long history of disagreement about what actually constitutes intelligence. And, like most concepts we have covered so far in psychology, intelligence theories abound. The simplest definition is “the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.” Intelligence includes the ability to benefit from past experience, act purposefully, solve problems, and adapt to new situations. Intelligence can also be defined as “the ability that intelligence tests measure.”
To help you with today’s forum post let’s take a closer look at four intelligence theories.
When you hear the word intelligence, the concept of IQ Testing may immediately come to mind. Intelligence is often defined as our intellectual potential; something we are born with, something that can be measured and a capacity that is difficult to change. In recent years, however, other views of intelligence have emerged. One such conception is what you learned in the lesson today: the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardener.
This theory suggests that traditional views of intelligence are too limited. Gardner suggested that all people have different kinds of "intelligences." Gardner proposed that there are eight intelligences, and has suggested the possible addition of a ninth known as "existentialist intelligence". In order to capture the full range of abilities and talents that people possess, Gardner suggests that people do not have just an intellectual capacity, but have many intelligences including musical, interpersonal, spatial-visual and linguistic intelligences. While a person might be particularly strong in a specific area, such as musical intelligence, they most likely possess a range of abilities. For example, an individual might be strong in verbal, musical and naturalistic intelligence.
Gardner’s theory has come under criticism from both psychologists and educators. These critics argue that Gardner’s definition of intelligence is too broad, and that his eight different "intelligences" simply represent talents, personality traits and abilities.
Many of your teachers may utilize multiple intelligences in their teaching philosophy and work to integrate Gardner’s theory into the classroom.
- Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
- Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
- Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
- Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
- Musical intelligence ("music smart")
- Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
- Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
- Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
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CITATIONS
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Teacher Talk (Red Silhouette - Teacher, Ben from Openclipart, Openclipart, Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license)
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Contact Me (Smart phone mobile phone, Pixabay, Pizabay, CCO Public Domain)