Resources

Recommended Videos

On this page you'll find some suggestions for Recommended Videos for use in class or seminar sessions or for students to view independently.

Genie - Secret of the Wild Child (BBC Horizon 1994)
This programme documents the story of 'Genie' who was discovered by the authorities at the age of 13, having been kept in virtual isolation for most of her life. When she was found, she walked awkwardly, had no language, and made very little sound, having been beaten for making a noise. With intensive rehabilitation she acquired a vocabulary, and an ability to communicate with spoken language, but she never acquired syntax. Susan Curtiss, one of the linguists at UCLA who worked on Genie's rehabilitation is interviewed. The complete transcript of this video is available at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html

Silent Children New Language (BBC Horizon, 1997)
When linguist Judy Shepard-Kegl first went to Nicaragua's Pacific coast in 1986 at the invitation of the Ministry of Education, she discovered a new sign language emerging among the children at a residential school for the deaf. It was, she realized, "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to document a language as it came into being." The documentary also explores the implications of Shepard-Kegl's work for innatist theories of language acquisition. For more background to her work in Nicaragua see the reprint of the New York Times article, 'A Linguistic Big Bang', October 24, 1999 at:
http://www.indiana.edu/~langacq/E105/Nicaragua.html

Born Talking, a personal inquiry into language Part 1 - Doing what comes naturally (BBC, 2001)
Jonathan Miller explores whether the ability to use language is inborn, or learned. Noam Chomsky is interviewed.

Baby It's You (Channel 4 (UK), 1997)
Annette Karmiloff-Smith's delightful documentary series about the development of language and thinking in the under-fives. There is a book based on the series:
Baby It's You Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Ebury Press, 1995)

Also highly recommended is:
Pathways to Language: From Fetus to Adolescent Kyra Karmiloff and Annette Karmiloff-Smith (Harvard University Press, 2002)

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