The story of Josh and Miller is set in the late 19 th Century in Mexico City. The characters include Teacher Max, Cliff Johns, students,Albert and his wife Claire, and Josh and Miller, who are twins. It happens in a classroom setting where Teacher Max intends to teach his students about language acquisition in young children. He calls in an expert to take the students through the topic. From the guest expert, the students learn that Natural Selection has an impact on a child’s language acquisition process.
The story begins when Teacher Max introduces a lesson on the topic of language acquisition to his students. Despite the show of cold reception to the topic, the students get excited when they are informed that they would have a guest to guide them through that specific topic. Cliff Johns, the Head of the school’s History Department, enters the classroom shortly after this announcement. He informs the students that they should not be surprised to see him in an English language class because the topic of language acquisition has some relation to some historical theories. He goes ahead to tell them that language acquisition could be linked to the Natural Selection Theory proposed by Charles Darwin. Cliff Johns uses a story to validate this claim to the students.
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Albert and Claire are a married couple whose firstborn twins vary in their language acquisition rate because one of them is deaf. The twins are named Josh and Miller. Josh is deaf, although both Claire and Albert her husband can speak. At seven months, Miller, who is not deaf, begins to develop joint attention. Due to their commonness, Miller receives language data from their parents. Claire and Albert do not have any skills in which they can sign with Josh. Josh stares at one particular spot for a very long time unless when interrupted. The joint attention which Miller develops enables him to utter some incoherent words. At 12 months, Miller can respond when he name is called, by turning to the direction of the voice. For Josh, beckoning signs made to him seem not to make sense. The differences in speaking and hearing abilities of the boys cause the variations in their language acquisition rates.
The two boys show variation in the developments of mind skills. In their second year, Miller can recognize a person’s intentions as demonstrated in word usage. He can cry when told ‘bye,’ for example, or show excitement when undressed for a warm bath. Josh, on the other hand, can hardly perceive the intentions of their parents’ actions. Even though specific signs are repeatedly made to Josh, he does not respond accordingly to stimuli. Towards the end of their 2 nd year, Miller can conceptually understand a yearning and a belief. Josh however only indicates the understanding that people’s intentions are always the same as his. The slow mental reasoning of Josh results from the fact that he only interacts with people who can speak.
Josh has a poor memory compared to that of Miller. There is an instance in the story when the boys are four years old. Claire hides the boys’ toys when they are not playing with them. Later, Miller frantically searches for the toys, at the corner which they had left them. When he does not find, he goes ahead to ask their mother if she had seen them.
On the other hand, Josh does not seem disturbed. He only shows excitement when he sees the brother with the toys. Josh’s innate language acquisition device has not been triggered, due to lack of proper communication signs. This scenario exposes the differences in cognitive development between the two children.
Communication is a major challenge to Josh at the age of four years, while Miller can utilize coherent sentences. Miller meets the coherence threshold of the population he interacts with. He can use more specific linguistic references, with the help of particular verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Josh at this stage uses unsystematic expressions. The boys do not get along so well when they play together. Miller tends to engage in more sophisticated play while Josh can only manage simple baby games. Miller is enrolled to school at the age of four while Josh is admitted to a special school a year later. The special school makes a turning point for Josh as he learns how to communicate well.
Interaction with fellow deaf learners in the special school provides an opportunity for Josh to acquire communication skills. His teachers introduce him to more meaningful communication signs. Gradually, Josh gets to understand his surroundings. He plays with his classmates well and communicates with his teachers with little struggle. With time, he learns how to communicate with their mother through simple signs and later writes on paper. Their parents are impressed with Josh’s progress, especially the fact that they can communicate with him. At the end of the story, Josh and Miller develop signs through which they understand each other well.
A deaf child born to deaf parents would learn and interact faster compared to Josh’s case. The child would develop sign language from an early stage, since the parents, and maybe other family members, would provide the sign input from the first day. Miller easily adapted to their parents’ speech because they shared common traits. The process of Natural Selection indeed affects a child’s language acquisition process. Cliff Johns ends his presentation, and Teacher Max informs the students that all questions related to the presentation would be handled in the next class.
