Question 1

Chapter 10 pointed out that people who are working on a writing assignment are operating on a "full-time cognitive overload." This phrase suggests that

Accepted Answer

A) people need to write down phrases as soon as they are created,to reduce this overload problem. 
B) decision making is a central component of writing,so that writers can reject ideas that are not productive. 
C) it's important to transfer ideas from working memory to long-term memory,prior to writing them down. 
D) writers typically use all the components of working memory,as well as long-term memory.

Question 2

Suppose that a psychology professor begins a lecture by saying,"OK,do you all remember the concept of 'ecological validity'?" The students all nod their heads.During this interaction,the professor was primarily interested in

Accepted Answer

A) solving the linearization problem. 
B) avoiding a syntactic error. 
C) formulating an indirect request. 
D) establishing common ground.

Question 3

Which of the following students' statement is the best summary of the research on bilingualism?

Accepted Answer

A) Nils: "Bilinguals have an advantage over monolinguals in their syntax,but not in their basic understanding of language." 
B) Joe: "Bilinguals have advantages over monolinguals in many areas,such as metalinguistics and performance on cognitive tasks; they have slight disadvantages in a few areas." 
C) Jorge: "Bilinguals have an advantage over monolinguals in terms of social skills concerned with language; however,when we look at proficiency in their first language,monolinguals have a better command of syntax." 
D) Tanya: "So far,no major differences between monolinguals and bilinguals have been detected."

Question 4

Hsi-Yen came to the United States from China when she was 14.Compared to her brother,who was 5 when he arrived,Hsi-Yen is most likely to have difficulty with

Accepted Answer

A) phonology. 
B) constructing a simple sentence. 
C) mastery of pragmatics. 
D) vocabulary.

Question 5

Knowledge of the social rules of language is called

Accepted Answer

A) syntax. 
B) morphemes. 
C) pragmatics. 
D) semantics.

Question 6

According to your text,the U.S.educational system frequently

Accepted Answer

A) pressures immigrant children to develop their English skills,and it does not emphasize the value of children retaining their first language. 
B) values children who retain fluency in a first language such as Vietnamese,Portuguese,or Arabic. 
C) makes great efforts to encourage simultaneous bilingualism. 
D) believes that a student's attitude toward people who speak a foreign language is much more important than his or her skill in speaking that language.

Question 7

Joan is eating lunch,and she says to Brad,"Can you pass the salt?" Brad replies "Yes,I can"; however,he doesn't actually pass the salt.What kind of miscommunication does this brief conversation suggest?

Accepted Answer

A) A slip-of-the-tongue 
B) A syntactic error 
C) A pragmatic problem 
D) The linearization problem

Question 8

Which of the following topics examines the pragmatic aspects of language?

Accepted Answer

A) The problem of understanding ambiguous sentences 
B) Whether we talk differently to a child than to an adult 
C) Whether the verb agrees with the appropriate noun 
D) The problem of slips-of-the-tongue

Question 9

Your textbook discusses a recent study,with bilingual Arab Israeli students who were enrolled at a university in Israel.The fluently bilingual researcher spoke to students in either Arabic or Hebrew.The results of this study showed that these students:

Accepted Answer

A) understood the instructions better if they were tested in their first language (Arabic),even though they were supposed to be bilingual. 
B) understood the instructions better if they were tested in their second language (Hebrew),even though they were supposed to be bilingual. 
C) had more positive attitudes toward Jewish individuals when the researcher was speaking Hebrew. 
D) had more positive attitudes toward Jewish individuals when the researcher was speaking Arabic.

Question 10

Which of the following students provides the best information related to the concept called common ground?

Accepted Answer

A) Raoul: "Common ground occurs when you want to show that you know more about a topic than other people in your group." 
B) Cyd: "Common ground happens when one or more speakers make an ambiguous statement." 
C) Ruth: "For people to achieve common ground,the speakers need to clarify misunderstandings." 
D) Sam: "Common ground is relatively easy to establish,as long as people speak the same language."

Question 11

Anne is 20 years old,and she has spoken English all her life.She has taken Spanish courses in both high school and college.She enrolls in a study-abroad program in Buenos Aires and becomes fluent in Spanish,before returning to the United States.Annes situation is an example of

Accepted Answer

A) sequential bilingualism. 
B) simultaneous bilingualism. 
C) metalinguistics. 
D) multilingualism.

Question 12

Chapter 10 discussed research in which two people need to work together to place some abstract shapes in a specified order.This research showed that:

Accepted Answer

A) people had great difficulty agreeing about the descriptions for abstract shapes,so this task was extremely challenging. 
B) people typically reached agreement after only one trial. 
C) people quickly learned to create brief names for each abstract shape. 
D) people cannot establish "common ground" with strangers.

Question 13

Chapter 10 discussed a study that compared the working-memory skills of three groups of Dutch-English bilinguals.This study concluded that

Accepted Answer

A) the students had the best working-memory scores. 
B) the teachers had the best working-memory scores. 
C) the simultaneous interpreters had the best working-memory scores. 
D) the three groups did not differ significantly in their working-memory scores.

Question 14

The cognitive model of writing proposes that the central executive plays an important role when we write.Specifically,the central executive

Accepted Answer

A) establishes that the text has been transferred to sensory memory. 
B) stores the actual words that we intend to write. 
C) integrates information from different components of working memory. 
D) establishes the connection weights that are responsible for parallel distributed processing.

Question 15

Psychologists have conducted more research on language comprehension than on language production.Which of the following students provides the best explanation for this discrepancy?

Accepted Answer

A) Tina: "Psychologists find language comprehension to be more interesting from the perspective of social interactions." 
B) Nayan: "Researchers find it easier to conduct research on language comprehension,because they can easily vary the material that participants hear or see." 
C) Garth: "Researchers in the discipline of speech therapy have already conducted the relevant research on language production." 
D) Louise: "Language production was the major topic of research just after the cognitive approach became popular; in the last decade,language comprehension has become the major topic of research."

Question 16

Compared to writing,speaking is more likely to

Accepted Answer

A) involve delayed feedback from other people. 
B) require many revisions. 
C) use relatively simple syntax. 
D) require more time to be produced.

Question 17

Which of the following students provides the best information about the term "embodied cognition"?

Accepted Answer

A) Elizaveta: "Embodied cognition proposes that your motor system sometimes reveals your knowledge." 
B) Artur: "Embodied cognition means that there is no connection between your mind and your motor system." 
C) Rachel: "Embodied cognition is an outdated theory; it proposed that information flows from the sensory receptors to the motor system,and then flows to the cerebral cortex." 
D) Erik: "Embodied cognition emphasizes that you can use your body movements to help you learn a new language that you are trying to master."

Question 18

According to Dell's explanation,a slip-of-the-tongue occurs because of

Accepted Answer

A) unconscious anxiety about the content of speech production. 
B) classical conditioning. 
C) interference from inappropriate sounds that are highly active. 
D) a variant of the Stroop effect.

Question 19

Why is research on language comprehension easier to conduct than research on language production?

Accepted Answer

A) Language comprehension occurs more frequently than language production. 
B) Language comprehension can be studied with participants of all ages,whereas language production can only be studied in older children and adults. 
C) Language comprehension is more overt,whereas language production is more covert. 
D) It is easier to manipulate a variable that can influence language comprehension than it is to manipulate a variable that can influence language production.

Question 20

Suppose that you are telling a story.According to the research on narratives,

Accepted Answer

A) you are likely to interrupt your story several times to ask your listeners whether they have had similar experiences. 
B) you are not likely to preplan the organization of the narrative before you speak. 
C) the organization of this kind of discourse generally has a fairly clear structure. 
D) people typically begin a narrative by emphasizing the point of the narrative.

Exam 10: Language II: Language Production and Bilingualism