Exam 1: Language and Human Communication an Overview

Children must learn the phonotactic rules for combining phonemes.

Lexicon, or vocabulary, is a synonym for the semantic component of language.

Which of the following is the best example of an extralinguistic element of communication?

The sentence, "The cat answers the phone.", is a violation of what aspect of language?

Unlike the other aspects of language, pragmatics are rule bound.

List three extralinguistic elements and give examples of each.

Present the class with a number of non-words. Ask students in groups to work out how to say the words and judge if they can occur in English. Permissible non-words might include: spode, bloot, endine, batorning, figsaly, droggle. Not permissible non-words might include: sroke, ngeeve, vladick, zhump, etsa, soosd. Ask students to give reasons for their judgments.

In what ways does human communication compare and contrast with animal communication?

Explain the morphological rule for plural used in the English language.

Which statement is true of language?

Ask students to find the free (root) and bound (affix) morphemes in the following words: Hippopotamus (1 free), redesign (1 bound, 1 free), blessed (1 free, 1 bound), dentistry (1 free, 2 bound), calculation (1 free, 1 bound), photographer (2 free, 1 bound). Common errors will be counting syllables instead of morphemes and breaking what appears to be a compound word into two.

A basic syntactic rule in English is the object + subject + verb sequence.

Why are metalinguistic skills important for successful language development?

Ask students individually to write down as many words as they can think of in one minute in the category "food." When they have completed this task, have students share their list with their neighbor, noting words in common and strategies they used to recall the words (categories, etc.). In small groups, have students look at the lists and sort the foods into superordinate categories (e.g. junk food, breakfast, fruits and vegetables). Ask students how they could re-categorize their lists (e.g., colors, fat content, where you buy it).

The symbols used in the English language are mutually agreed upon but arbitrary.

Provide the class with a printed text of a famous speech or document, and have them "translate" it into "motherese." Discuss how they decided which elements to maintain and which were omitted.

Divide students into groups of three. Assign each student one of the following roles without letting the other members know what the roles are: One person is assigned the role of explaining what they did on the weekend, another is assigned the role of interrupting the other by saying, "What? I don't understand." or "I'm sorry." The third group member is the observer and should be prepared to report back to the others (and the whole group if you prefer) on the success of the communication within the group. Allow students to role play for 2 minutes and then ask the groups to discuss the process. Reassign the roles within the group. One person has to describe the classroom without using any nouns. The second person is to participate as a listener and ask questions and respond naturally. The observer should be prepared to report on the interaction. Let the role play run for about two minutes and then ask the groups to discuss the process. Lead a class discussion about the exercise focusing on their feelings, frustrations, and the techniques they used to repair and indicate breakdown.

What evidence is available to support the importance of infant - adult interaction and its impact on language development and eventual academic performance? How might this interaction differ by culture and socio-economic status?

In what ways would a disorder in one aspect of language (i.e., semantics) impact the other aspects?

Present students with these phrases (or others you create) and ask them to make several novel sentences from each set. Discuss the variety of sentences created and then ask students to compare with their classmates. How many sentences a child of two and a half years with a 300 word vocabulary be able to create?(Note: There are commercially available sets of magnets with words and phrases that can be used for this activity.)