Wild Child

     This movie was very interesting in many different aspects. One of the most interesting things was the way the villagers treated Victor. He was the object of teasing and sometimes physical abuse. At the institution for the deaf and mute it was as though they were running a circus. People paid to see him. He was obviously a very rare case, but people thought that he was "an idiot" and that he must have been even before he was abandoned.
      The doctor saw potential though. Victor was completely void of any concept of society. After the doctor took him and started teaching him though, he was nurtured in his education, but also by the house maid. Victor's absence of a childhood and communication with humans deprived him of learning a language in his early years of life, but also deprived him of socialization and nurture. These are all things that humans respond to and need in their first years. Victor definitely disproved the Critical Theory Hypothesis. He did learn his first language, most likely his first contact with it, at the age of 10-12 years old. Although he never produced it, it was obvious he understood and in a very short time span at that.
    One of my favorite things about the movie was when he punished him for the right answer. It was so cruel but it showed that Victor could discern between right and wrong. It showed that all humans have the innate capacity to have emotions, and to know justice. It is a whole new way to look at language, the ties between morals, society, and language acquisition. It is not just about learning a language, but a culture, norms, morals etc. Victor had a great task presented to him to assimilate into a society whom's structure he had never been exposed to before. He was taught a lot, but through the research the doctor also learned a lot about language acquisition and what works and what doesn't. Victor responded very well to visuals. He was also organizationally oriented. The doctor used these strengths to help him improve, and Victor did find ways to communicate. This shows that communication is a part of every humans innate capacity, even if it is not oral. Victor knew how to ask for something, and used his own sign language most of the time. Overall, this movie brought up many important factors of language acquisition, and shows that acquisition is personal to each different situation the learner is in and comes from.