Question

1.	The ability of an English speaker to know the difference between "John hit the ball" and "the ball was hit by John" relies most heavily on the component of language called a. pragmatics. b. phonology. c. syntax. d. lexicon.
2.	An individual has developed a program to teach English to children entering school who only speak Spanish. She did this by learning about the culture of the children and determining what training approaches worked best in that culture. This is an example of a. cognitivism. b. applied research. c. basic research. d. cultural modeling.
3.	Which of the following is a major problem with using "wild children" such as the boy of Aveyron or even Genie to address the issue of the inherent nature of language? a. They may not need language to communicate effectively with other humans. b. These individuals lack the motivation found in non-wild children. c. Their brains change to become more like that of a primate or other non-human. d. They may not be normal or healthy individuals initially or when studied.
4.	Chomsky revolutionized the study of language and language development by changing the focus from a. formal study of language to the informal study of it. b. the direct environmental determinants to the indirect observational or modeled determinants. c. the phonology to the lexicon of language. d. the surface characteristics to the structural or grammatical characteristics of language.
5.	Which of the following goals would fit the focus of a domain-general cognitive approach to the study of language development? a. Describing the factors in the environment of the child that shape or mold language. b. Describing the role of imitation and short/long term memory in learning language. c. Describing the nature of the child's early social interactions with family and others. d. Describing the role of different brain structures in language development.
6.	How would a constructivist such as Piaget explain language development? a. Early social interactions involving language are critical to language development. b. A language rich environment is necessary for language development. c. Innate human mental abilities interact with the environment to yield language. d. Language unfolds as the child mature given minimal language exposure.
7.	Which of the following findings would lend support to a language specific module in humans? a. There is a somewhat universal sequence to the development of all languages. b. "Wild" or feral children have major difficulty in acquiring language. c. Children with responsive parents develop lexicon at a faster than normal rate. d. Children who are cognitively impaired are usually language impaired.
8.	Which of the following theories of language development would fit most best into the formalist view? a. Skinner's b. connectionist c. social-interactionists d. Chomsky's
9.	How do the connectionists explain how a child learns to use the rules of language without acquiring the rules either explicitly or implicitly? a. because our innate language knowledge follows these same rules. b. by rote memorization of all the rules of their native language c. by noticing the regularities occurring in the language input received d. by trial and error reinforcement of certain behavior patterns
10.	You believe that language is acquired from the feedback an infant receives for making different sounds. Specifically, if an English-speaking infant makes English speech sounds they will be rewarded and not when they make sounds from other languages. Your views fit best into the framework called a. social-interactionists. b. behaviorism. c. generativist. d. connectionist
11.	Which theoretical framework for language development would emphasize checking perceptual (e.g., hearing) and general cognitive (e.g., memory) abilities of a young child who manifests a problem with language? a. constructivist b. behaviorist c. social-interactionist d. generativist
12.	Which of the following methods of data collection would be the best approach if you wished to determine if children could learn the rules of language by attending to the speech inputted to them? a. correlational research b. computational modeling c. standardized tests d. speech sampling

Answer 1

1. c. Syntax

Syntax is the grammar, structure, or order of the elements in a language statement. It is also the "word order"

2. d. Cultural modeling

The language-culture link is significant in FL (Foreign Language) education because culture plays a role in helping FL learners to be proficient in the target language. Learning a foreign language becomes a kind of enculturation, where one acquires new cultural frames of reference and a new world view, reflecting those of the target language culture and its speakers.

3. a. They may not need language to communicate effectively with other humans.

The boy named Victor was found in the woods near Aveyron, France in 1799. He appeared to be about eleven or twelve years old, but he didn’t speak. He was taken to Paris, where he resembled a human only in appearance. Victor behaved like an animal, he ate rotten food with pleasure, he was incapable of distinguishing hot from cold, and he spent much of his time rocking back and forth like a caged animal. He was taken into the care of the brilliant scientist Dr Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, who dedicated himself to the education of the boy. Victor proved to be a very difficult subject. Over the years, he only learned two terms, “lait,” and “oh dieu.” His sense of touch seemed to be far more important than his sense of sight, and he did not demonstrate an ability to distinguish right from wrong. Like Peter before him, he was indifferent to sex, and he did learn some menial tasks, such as setting a table. Victor lived the rest of his life in the care of his housekeeper, and died in 1828 at the age of forty.

4. d. the surface characteristics to the structural or grammatical characteristics of language.

Chomsky posed that language is fundamentally similar across all of humanity. For instance, every language has something that is like a noun and a verb, and every language has the ability to make things positive or negative.