A Critique on Mockingbird Don’t Sing

黃雪珍

【Abstract】This movie is based on actual events. Firstly， this paper gives a brief introduction of movie， and then uses the method of comparison and takes examples to analyze the linguistic and behavioral development of Katie. Finally， we can make a conclusion that Katie can acquire language if Sandra et al keep helping her.

【Key words】abuse； Katie； Sandra； linguistic development； behavior

1. Plot

In Los Angeles， 1970， Katie， a girl who has been imprisoned in her room by her parents with virtually no human contact for more than 10 years. She is now fourteen years old， but is still barely able to walk and unable to speak. One day， her mother Louise gets her son to help her and escape home. And then Katie is taken to Children's Hospital. Wes finds himself being arrested for “child abuse.” So， he kills himself. A group of experts decide to help Katie learn to speak. Judy， a special education teacher， regards Katie as a tool that can make her famous. UCLA graduate student Sandra appears to help Katie at heart. Katie shows great progress （such as learning vocabulary words， preparing hygiene and showing off anger）.

The funding for Katies help is cut off and she is adopted by another foster home. One day， Katie is physically punished for vomiting and then she becomes never eat or speak because she is afraid be punished again.

Finally Louise tells the whole story why Katie was imprisoned. At this point， Sandra looks at tape recordings of Katie on her TV. Shes hoping to see Katie again. The screen fades while she sings the “Hush， little baby”.

2. Linguistic Development of Katie

The first stage is one-word period. The first time that Katie spoke was in the Judys class. Judy asked a boy： “how many balloons do you have， three or just actually two？” At this time， Katie gave one balloon to the boy silently. Judy excited and said： “very good”， and then Katie imitated her ‘good. Next day in the store， Katie said another words， such as grin （green）， pea （peas）， con （coner） and bother （brother）. The doctor and Sandra were very surprised and amazed for changes happened to Katie even though these words have some grammatical mistakes. These words tend to be ones closely connected with Katies everyday world and easily handled.

From this time on， the numbers of words Katie understood and produced grew rapidly. By the stage of two-words， Katie can say relatively correct words in different situations. One night， Katie said to Sandra： “pail， red pail”， and then Sandra corrected her immediately. “Yes， you like pails”， Sandra said. “Like bucket”. It was amazing that Katie already could make some simple dialogues with Sandra.

After a period of time， Katie began to combine words into simple sentences even though these sentences are ill-formed or have many grammatical errors such as ‘Katie mad， I am fery fery angry （very， very angry）， ‘car has mirr（the car has a mirror）， and so on. Katie said that ‘happy， Katie happy mama see when she met her mother. Louise was amazed by the progress of Katie made.

3. Behavioral Development of Katie

In the first weeks of Katies stay it was especially severe. Her manner of walking was still very unusual. She ate food in a disgusting way， but she changed a lot after a period of time. At the beginning of movie， for example， the waitress said： “she didnt tell me the words， but she just told me the things.” Katie could achieve her goal through her behaviors.

And in the beginning， she would act out her anger on herself when she encountered dogs. But after a period of time， she expressed her anger by jumping， hitting objects， stamping her feet and so on.

Although Katie never developed fully normal social behaviors， she made great progress. Although she never completely stopped acting out some of her urges， she made substantial progress with controlling herself both in pubic and at home. But unfortunately， all of above mentioned behavioral developments slowly faded away because of the abuse of her foster home.

4. Conclusion

Sandra always believes that Katie can speak correct sentences one day even though she is already fourteen. So she devoted herself to taking care of her， teaching and pushing her to speak and behave as a normal people and building up good relationship with her. Even if Katie did not possess the grammar to express something， she could often understand it. To the scientists， this indicated that Katie had potential and cognitive abilities of acquiring language. Sandra thinks that all kinds of words， phrases and sentences that Katie made have proved CPH is wrong and everyone has just witnessed.

References：

[1]Patsy M.Lightbown and Nina Spada.How Languages are Learned語言學習機制[M].上海：上海外語教育出版社，2002：2-19.

[2]Tom Scovel.Learning New Language：A Guide to Second Language Acquisition 學習新語言：第二語言學習得論[M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2004（3）：113-116.