Applied Linguistics Activities for the portfolio

Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. Chapter 1: the origins of Language Answer: 1. What special features of human teeth and lips make them useful in the production of speech sounds? The teeth allow the production of labiodentals sounds, such as f and v, and the lips perform the production of explosive sounds, such as p and b. 2. The limitations of a purely gestural theory of language origin may be related to differences in the range of message types. Consider these two messages: The dog is eating a chicken and My bother believes hes a chicken Which message would be easier to convey via gesture (plus primitive grunting, if required) and why? The first message because you can produce it by doing gestures and imitating the sounds of a dog and a chicken, while the second message would be more difficult because the action believes is an abstract word. Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. Chapter 3: The properties of Language Answer: 1. Is it true that humans can inherit their parents language? No, because we can only acquire our first language in a determined culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. 2. Can "body language" or other aspects of non-verbal signalling, be considered "communicative" or "informative", or both? I think it can be considered communicative language, because despite the lack of spoken language, a person can employ gestures and signal to express something s/he intentionally wants another person to know. 3. True or false?: humans are the only creatures capable of communicating. No, because animals can communicate with other members of their own species and even with us in an unintentional way. Also, despite the unique properties of human language, there are several similarities among human and animal language, such as the use of the vocal-auditory channel, the reciprocity and the nondirectionality. Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. Chapter 19: Language varieties In the opinion of some, some regional dialect speakers suffer from a form of Linguistic deficit. In its stronger form, this view states that something is actually missing from the linguistics repertoire of some children (Speaking the non-standard dialect) who enter the school system. It is then argued that is the duty of the school system to discourage the use of non-standards dialects and to provide these children with what they have been missing in their language. Do you agree or disagree with this

point of view? How does this argument relate to those children whose first language is Spanish, Hindi, Urdu or a creole when they enter the English-speaking school system? I disagree because the school system should not force children to speak the standard language and avoid using their regional dialect at all. Instead, they should teach the standard language only for educational purposes and foster the conservation of their dialects because it is part of their culture. In the case of those children whose language is different from the one the school system implements (English), they should be encouraged to learn the language without being restricted to use their first language. Yule, G. (1985). The Study of Language. Chapter 20: Language society and culture 1. How would you describe the constructions used in these two examples from one English dialect: a. We aint got home b. He going now The first expression has an informal way of the contraction isnt and its style is informal. The second expression lacks the copula (verb to be). Despite it is grammatically wrong, I can understand the content of both messages. 2. What is meant by the term Idiolect? It means the form of a language that a particular person speaks. It depends on his/her style, education, sex, social class and culture. 3. What is diglossia? It is a situation in which two languages, a high language and a low language are used in different social situations. Cook, G. (2003). Applied Linguistics. Chapter 3: Language in the contemporary world In recent years the growth of English has been further accelerated by a startling expansion in the quantity and speed of international communication. Films, songs, television programmes, and advertisements in English are heard and seen in many countries where it is not the first nor even a second language. The dominant language of the Internet is English, and, with the frequent absence of available software for writing systems other than the Roman alphabet, electronic mail is often conducted in English, even among people who share another language. What do you think will be the consequences of this situation for the rest of the worlds population? As we have already noticed, many endangered languages will disappear if the government of the countries where there is a great variety of languages do not take the proper policies to stop the immersion of the English language. Another consequence would be the expansion of English not only for communicative purposes, but for mandatory reasons, because people would not have access to any information if they are not English speakers. In other words, knowledge would be limited for those people who do not speak English.