EXP 4604 - Chapter 10 Review Questions

True or False. When viewing asked to describe a scene, people take approximately 900 ms after fixating an object to begin speaking the name for the object. This is taken as evidence that sentence planning takes 900 MS.

False

True or False. Bilingualism is more the norm than the exception when considering the world's population.

True

Which of the following was NOT mentioned in the NPR episode you listened to? a. Bilingual children have a more difficult time following complex instructions b. Bilingual children tend to be better at understanding other people's perspectives c. Even children who are merely exposed to another language might benefit d. Bilingual children gain more experience attending to who speaks which language to whom

a. Bilingual children have a more difficult following complex instructions

Suppose you hear a lecture about psychological disorders. The speaker says, "We have found that depressed individuals and nondepressed individuals differ in the prosody of their spoken language." Which of the following observations, if true, would be most consistent with that statement? a. Depressed people tend to have a monotone voice during speaking; non-depressed people have more variation in intonation. b. Depressed people have more difficulty overcoming the linearization problem, compared to nondepressed people. c. Depressed people have more difficulty producing a sentence with noun-verb agreement, compared to nondepressed people. d. Depressed people produce shorter, less complex sentences, compared to nondepressed people.

a. Depressed people tend to have a monotone voice during speaking; non-depressed people have more variation in intonation.

The in-depth section in Chapter 10 examines the relationship between age of acquisition and ability to learn a second language. Before we can draw conclusions about this topic, which of the following questions needs further attention? a. Do the same findings hold true when the second language is something other than English? b. Are children and adults equally skilled in learning vocabulary words in their new language? c. Do the results on grammar hold true when a younger group and an older group have similar formal training in the English language? d. Does the age of acquisition have a significant effect on phonology in a second language?

a. Do the same findings hold true when the second language is something other than English?

What general conclusion can we draw about the relationship between age of acquisition and mastery of a second language? a. In general, people master the phonology of a second language better if they learned it relatively early in life. b. In general, age of acquisition does not have an effect on mastering the phonology of a second language. c. In general, the age of acquisition has a strong effect on mastering the vocabulary of a second language. d. In general, age of acquisition has no effect on mastering the syntax of a second language.

a. In general, people master the phonology of a second language better if they learned it relatively early in life.

When we speak, we need to produce the words one at a time. This aspect of speech production is called a. linearization. b. parallel processing. c. the gist of a sentence. d. discourse.

a. Linearization

Which of the following people provides the most accurate information on the revision phase of writing? a. Satyajit: "Students usually spend very little time in revising a paper they have written." b. Yasujiro: "Students typically underestimate the amount of time they spend in revising their papers." c. Margarethe: "When students are asked to revise something written by another person, they typically focus on the organizational problems." d. Luís: "Students are remarkably accurate when identifying the specific grammatical error in an essay."

a. Satyajit: "Students usually spend very little time in revising a paper they have written."

Which of the following students provides the most accurate statement about the specific kind of discourse known as a narrative? a. Tonya: "In a narrative, a speaker talks for a while without interruption, in order to describe a series of events." b. William: "A narrative is the listener's ongoing interpretation of the speaker's utterances." c. Skip: "A narrative is a verbal response that the listener is silently constructing; this narrative will be presented as soon as the speaker's turn has been completed." d. Guillermo: "A narrative is a series of sentences that the speaker develops in order to present a specific logical argument."

a. Tonya: "In a narrative, a speaker talks for a while without interruption, in order to describe a series of events."

When people speak, they begin in: a. a bottom-up fashion b. a top-down fashion c. a prosodic fashion b. a bombastic fashion

a. a top-down fashion

The assumption that participants in a conversation have similar background knowledge is know as: a. common ground. b. pragmatics. c. directness. d. framing.

a. common ground

Imagine that you are about to utter a sentence. If you are currently struggling with the linearization problem, you will have difficulty a. deciding which words to put first and which to put last. b. assigning a linear order to the actor and the person who is acted upon. c. discovering the deep structure from the surface structure. d. deciding whether to use the active or the passive voice.

a. deciding which words to put first and which to put last

A sentence that asks someone to do something is called a: a.directive. b.heuristic. c.structural ambiguity. d.pragmatic.

a. directive

The critical period hypothesis asserts that a person's ability to acquire a second language is based on a biologically based "deadline." Recent research related to this hypothesis: a. does not support it. b. supports it in the case of language comprehension but not in the case of language production. c. supports it in the case of language production but not in the case of language comprehension. d. strongly supports it.

a. does not support it.

Suppose that an elementary teacher has two classes, one monolingual and the other bilingual—though their other characteristics are similar. The bilingual class is more likely to a. have a better understanding of the structure of their first language. b. believe that a moon must be called "moon"; it could not have another name. c. have difficulty with the pragmatic aspects of language. d. perform poorly on tests of nonverbal intelligence.

a. have a better understanding of the structure of their first language.

sequential bilingual are bilinguals that: a. learned on language before initiating the acquisition of a second language. b. are not really bilingual. c. learn two languages at the same time. d. only applies to bilinguals that learned two languages that are very different from one another.

a. learned on language before initiating the acquisition of a second language.

According to the discussion about the social aspects of speech, a. lexical entrainment is typically less likely if people are under time pressure. b. lexical entrainment is typically less likely if people have established common ground. c. lexical entrainment is typically more likely in telephone conversations than in face-to-face conversations. d. it is especially important to establish common ground at the end of a conversation.

a. lexical entrainment is typically less likely if people are under time pressure.

According to the introductory discussion of bilingualism, a. more than half of the people in the world are at least partially bilingual. b. technically, a multilingual is someone who speaks two different languages that have different historical origins. c. a speaker's first language is the language that she or he currently speaks most fluently. d. the majority of the world's bilinguals learned their second language during high school.

a. more than half of the people in the world are at least partially bilingual

The in-depth section in Chapter 10 examined a study by Flege and his colleagues (1999), concerning the pronunciation skills of people who had emigrated from Korea to the United States. According to this research, a. people who had come to the United States during childhood were least likely to speak English with an accent. b. people who had come to the United States during adolescence were least likely to speak English with an accent. c. people who had come to the United States during adulthood were least likely to speak English with an accent. d. age of arrival had no effect on pronunciation skills, though it had a significant effect on the mastery of grammar.

a. people who had come to the United States during childhood were least likely to speak English with an accent.

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: a.phonology. b.constructing a simple sentence. c.mastery of pragmatics. d.vocabulary.

a. phonology

A large-scale view of writing focuses on three phases: a. planning (prewriting), sentence generating, and revising. b. generating phonemes, generating morphemes, and generating words. c. attending, thinking, and writing. d. simplifying, complexifying and unifying.

a. planning (prewriting), sentence generating, and revising.

According to your text, the North American educational system 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.

a. pressures immigrant children to develop their English skills, and it does not emphasize the value of children retaining their first language.

Simultaneous interpreters (often misnamed "simultaneous translators"): a. seem to have superb working-memory skills. b. have difficulty dividing their attention between tasks. c. find it difficult to recall words, both in terms of their reading span and their speaking span... d. All of the above are correct.

a. seem to have superb working-memory skills.

Anne has spoken English all her life, but 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. Anne's situation is an example of a. sequential bilingualism. b. simultaneous bilingualism. c. metalinguistics. d. multilingualism.

a. sequential bilingualism

According to Dell's theory of speech errors, a. slips of the tongue occur because each sound can be activated by several different words. b. slips of the tongue tend to involve words from different syntactic categories. c. slips of the tongue occur because people focus too closely on the pragmatics of language. d. slips of the tongue occur because we pay too much attention to word choice.

a. slips of the tongue occur because each sound can be activated by several different words.

Suppose that you want to say, "red bugs," and instead you say "beg rugs." This kind of slip-of-the-tongue error is called a a. sound error. b. morpheme error. c. word error. d. pragmatic error.

a. sound error

The Tower of Hanoi experiment by Cook and Tanenhaus is important because it demonstrates that: a. speakers can use gestures to transmit information that they did not knowingly intend to convey b. listeners are not sensitive to information contained in a speaker's gestures. c. only speakers benefit from gestures during communication. d. all of the above

a. speakers can use gestures to transmit information that they did not knowingly intend to convey

A 17-year-old camp counselor is trying to teach a new game to 5- and 6-year-olds. He begins by asking, "O.K., do any of you know some games where you look for things that are hidden?" His strategy would be called a. trying to establish common ground. b. emphasizing prosody. c. trying to solve the linearization problem. d. lexical entrainment.

a. trying to establish common ground.

Which of the following statements about language production is correct? a. Roughly the same amount of research has been conducted on language comprehension and language production. b. It is easier to conduct research on language comprehension than on language production. c. During the past decade, psychologists have grown even less interested in language production than in previous years. d. There is much more research on written language production than on spoken language production.

b. It is easier to conduct research on language comprehension than on language production.

Which of the following students' statements is the best summary of the research on bilingualism? 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 beendetected."

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."

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

b. Nayan: "Researchers find it easier to conduct research on language comprehension because they can easily vary the material that participants hear or see."

Chapter 10 discussed a study by Clark and Wilkes-Gibbs in which two people try to communicate about the order in which various geometric figures are to be arranged. The research showed that a. people could not accomplish this task unless they were close friends. b. people soon developed a shorthand communication system. c. people typically increased their hand gestures at the same time that they decreased their verbal output. d. people seem to remain fairly stable across trials in terms of the number of turns required to agree upon a figure.

b. People soon developed a shorthand communication system.

Which of the following students provides the most accurate summary of Pennebaker's research on writing about emotional problems? a. Francisco: "People who write about their problems are likely to obsess afterward about the problem." b. Xiomara: "People who write about their problems are likely to experience improvements in their physical health." c. Scott: "People who write about the emotional aspects of their problems are likely to experience the greatest improvements in their physical health." d. Sylvia: "Although the early research showed that writing led to health benefits, the more recent research showed that these benefits can be traced to experimenter expectancy."

b. Xiomara: "People who write about their problems are likely to experience improvements in their physical health."

When revising their papers, first-year college students are more likely than expert writers to a. spend a large percentage of the time revising their writing. b. approach the revision phase one sentence at a time. c. provide a specific diagnosis for a defective sentence. d. figure out whether their writing shows good transitions between ideas.

b. approach the revision phase one sentence at a time.

In discussing the social aspects of language, psycholinguistics researchers sometimes use a metaphor of two people dancing. Why is this metaphor appropriate? a. because one person must lead and the other must follow b. because two people must coordinate their efforts c. because one person is usually a novice and the other is an expert d. because both people are constructing reality as they proceed through their interactions

b. because two people must coordinate their efforts

Recent research on bilingualism reveals that: a. bilingualism produces cognitive deficits because the brain must store two linguistic systems. b. bilinguals often display better cognitive skills. c. bilinguals children show a deficit on selective-attention tasks when they must inhibit an obvious response. d. as people develop bilingual ability, they lose some of their expertise in their first language.

b. bilinguals often display better cognitive skills.

Suppose that you decide to adopt the advice suggested in the discussion of writing in Chapter 10. You would write a better paper if you a. generate sentences prior to the prewriting phase. b. construct a written outline before beginning. c. make certain that the stages in writing do not overlap with each other. d. try to avoid using the active voice.

b. construct a written outline before beginning

According to the research on sentence generation during writing, a. the linearization problem is seldom an issue for written language. b. hesitant phases tend to alternate with fluent phases. c. sentence generation is typically an orderly, systematic process. d. sentence generation during writing has almost nothing in common with sentence generation during speaking.

b. hesitant phases tend to alternate with fluent phases.

The pre-writing stage of the writing process: a. is the easiest stage of writing. b. involves a long planning process. c. is skipped by expert writers. d. none of the above.

b. involves a long planning process

One reason why there are more psychological studies on language comprehensions than on language production is that: a. language production is not as action oriented or behavioristic. b. it is difficult to manipulate the ideas that a person whishes to say or write c. there is much more language produced than there is language comprehended d. it is difficult to record and analyze language that is comprehended

b. it is difficult to manipulate the ideas that a person whishes to say or write

Sondra and Keisha are close friends. In fact, they are such close friends that they have created their own private vocabulary that others do not understand. This pattern of speaking is known as: a. discourse. b. lexical entrainment. c. failure to establish common ground. d. a directive.

b. lexical

Four students has been working for several weeks on a project that involves videotaping children who are performing a series of tasks related to math. By now, they have developed a shortened name for each of the tasks. According to the discussion of language production, these students have demonstrated a. prosody. b.lexical entrainment. c.metalinguistics. d.self-efficacy.

b. lexical entrainment

A third-grader calls out an answer in class, without raising his hand. The teacher says, "Is your arm is broken, Johnny?" The teacher's remark can be called a(n): a. lexical entrainment. b. indirect request. c. failure to establish common ground. d. pragmatic violation.

b. lexical entrainment.

Several researchers have examined whether people's physical health can be influenced by writing about their emotional experiences. According to this research, a. people's health often deteriorates if people write about upsetting experiences. b. people's health is more likely to improve if their writing focuses on understanding a traumatic event, rather than focusing on emotions. c. a recent study with HIV-positive women found no relationship between their writing and their health-related behavior. d. in general, the differences between groups could be traced to flaws in the design of the studies.

b. people's health is more likely to improve if their writing focuses on understanding a traumatic event, rather than focusing on emotions.

For which characteristic of language does age of acquisition of a second language matter most? a. vocabulary. b. phonology. c. grammar d. both vocabulary and phonology

b. phonology

Sara has spoken English all her life. In high school and college, she takes French and eventually becomes fluent in that language. This is an example of a. simultaneous bilingualism. b. sequential bilingualism. c. lexical entrainment. d. multilingualism.

b. sequential bilingualism.

Suppose you are testing children who are monolingual English speakers and children who are fluent in both English and Spanish. Assuming that their other characteristics are similar, you are likely to find that: a.the monolinguals are more polite than the bilinguals. b.the bilinguals are more aware of situations in which a listener might require additional information. c.the monolinguals are better at following your instructions. d.the two groups are similar in their pragmatic and syntactic skills, but not in their metalinguistic skills.

b. the bilinguals are more aware of situations in which a listener might require additional information.

According to the cognitive model of writing, a. writing is produced by directly tapping into semantic memory. b. the components of working memory are all active during writing. c. writing requires the extensive use of default assumptions and graceful degradation during parallel distributed processing. d. writing is essentially the same as speaking, except for the motor movements required to produce language.

b. the components of working memory are all active during writing.

Chapter 10 described a study in which participants listened to definitions of concrete nouns, and they were asked to produce the correct noun. The participants were more likely to say the correct noun if a. their hand movements were restricted. b. their hand movements were unrestricted. c. they were told to pronounce the noun as quickly as possible. d. they were told to pronounce the noun as slowly as possible.

b. their hand movement were unrestricted

Compared to speaking, writing is more likely a. to be carefully studied by researchers. b. to be performed in isolation. c. to be an automatic process. d. to establish common ground.

b. to be performed in isolation.

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

b. whether we talk differently to a child than to an adult

One reason that psychologists conduct relatively little research on language production is that a. it is difficult to conduct research that is ethically appropriate. b. the research overemphasizes the introspection technique. c. it is difficult to manipulate the relevant independent variables. d. people make numerous mistakes in producing language.

c. It is difficult to manipulate the relevant independent variables.

What can we conclude about the relationship between attitudes and proficiency in a second language? a.After becoming proficient in French, English Canadians are no more positive about French Canadians. b.A student's attitude toward a group that speaks another language is not related to his or her ability to learn that language. c.People who are positive toward speakers of another language are likely to learn that language more quickly than those who are neutral or negative about that group. d.Because attitudes are a topic from social psychology, and second-language proficiency is a topic from cognitive psychology, this kind of interdisciplinary research has not yet been conducted.

c. People who are positive toward speakers of another language are likely to learn that language more quickly than those who are neutral or negative about that group.

Which of the following students provides the best information related to the concept called common ground? a. Raoul: "Common ground occurs when you want to show that you know more about a topic than anyone else in your group." b. Cyd: "Common ground happens when one or more speakers makes 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."

c. Ruth: "For people to achieve common ground, the speakers need to clarify misunderstandings."

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

c. The organization of this kind of discourse generally has fairly clear structure

Bortfeld and Brennan conducted research in which one conversational partner spoke English as a first language and the other conversational partner's first language was either English or an Asian language. Which of the following students provides the best summary of this study's results? a. Shermelle: "Unfortunately, lexical entrainment did not occur when the other person spoke an Asian language." b. Alicia: "Surprisingly, lexical entrainment was more likely when the other person spoke an Asian language." c. Treena: "Lexical entrainment was equally likely in both conditions." d. Zack: "Both groups were more likely to show lexical entrainment when they were working under time pressure."

c. Treena: "Lexical entrainment was equally likely in both conditions."

According to the research on speech production, a. the stages of speech production occur separately, with no overlap in time. b. we typically plan ahead for several sentences at a time. c. we often pause as we plan our intended message. d. in general, we choose the words we want to say before we work out the gist of a sentence.

c. We often pause as we plan our intended message

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? a. a slip-of-the-tongue b. a syntactic error c. a pragmatic problem d. lexical entrainment

c. a pragmatic problem

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

c. c. the simultaneous interpreters had the best working-memory scores.

According to the discussion of word production in Chapter10, a. the most challenging aspect of language production is the motor movements required to produce the various phonemes. b. researchers agree that, during language production, we simultaneously retrieve information about three components of language—grammar, meaning, and sound. c. if you try to produce a particular noun, you will often retrieve it more effectively if you make a hand gesture. d. most college-educated North Americans have a speaking vocabulary of about 25,000words.

c. if you try to produce a particular noun, you will often retrieve it more effectively if you make a hand gesture.

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

c. integrates information from different components of working memory.

According to Dell's explanation, a slip-of-the-tongue occurs because of a. unconscious anxiety about the content of speech production. b. classical conditioning. c. interference from inappropriate sounds that are overly active. d. a variant of the Stroop effect.

c. interference from inappropriate sounds that are overly active.

An English professor has just asked the students in his class to revise their term papers. He is likely to find that: a. the students will carefully evaluate whether their paper accomplishes their goals for the assignment. b. students will actually spend about 30% of their total writing time on revising. c. most students will examine only one sentence at a time, checking spelling and grammar. d. most students will be very aware of the reasons for their modifications.

c. most students will examine only one sentence at a time, checking spelling and grammar.

According to the research on the use of directives in language production, a. the most polite form of a directive is typically very direct because it contains the smallest number of words. b. people often produce an indirect request; that is, they ask one individual to ask a second individual for a favor. c. people often produce a directive that is framed in terms of a potential reason that the listener may not be able to comply with the directive. d. people typically establish common ground by initially exchanging a series of directives.

c. people often produce a directive that is framed in terms of a potential reason that the listener may not be able to comply with the directive.

According to the discussion of the cognitive model of writing, a. most people feel that a writing assignment requires a relatively small portion of their cognitive capacity. b. the phonological loop is seldom active when people are working on a writing assignment. c. people often use the visuospatial sketchpad when they try to determine the order of topics in a paper they are writing. d. the central executive is relatively inactive when people are writing a paper.

c. people often use the visuospatial sketchpad when they try to determine the order of topics in a paper they are writing.

Knowledge of the social rules of language is called a. syntax. b. morpheme relations. c. pragmatics. d. semantics.

c. pragmatics

Issues such as common ground and directives relate to an aspect of language called: a. reinforcement. b. inquiry c. pragmatics. d. creativity.

c. pragmatics.

You are trying to say the phrase "big blue bird," and it comes out "big blue blird." You have made a? a. linearization error. b. pragmatic error. c. slip-of-the-tongue. d. prosody error.

c. prosody error

According to the discussion of writing, a. the stages of writing do not overlap with one another, unlike the situation in spoken language. b. the components of writing are relatively simple; they seldom strain the limits of attention. c. students write better papers if they prepare a written outline beforehand. d. the prewriting phase is a relatively automatic component of language.

c. students write better paper if they prepare a written outline beforehand.

Cognitive psychological research on writing: a. reveals that a person can proofread his or her own writing better than someone else's writing. b. is more extensive than cognitive psychological research on reading. c. supports the value of outlining a paper before beginning to write. d. suggests that spending a lot of time on revisions is not helpful.

c. supports the value of outlining a paper before beginning to write.

Suppose that you have a summer job in which you work with both monolingual and bilingual children, although the two groups are otherwise similar. You would expect to find that: a. the monolingual children would typically be better at following directions. b. the bilingual children would learn the pragmatics of only one language, so if English is their second language, they would be likely to make pragmatic errors. c. the bilingual children would usually perform better on tasks that require flexible thinking or reorganization of information. d. the bilingual children would generally perform better at all language tasks except for tasks requiring metalinguistic expertise.

c. the bilingual children would usually perform better on tasks that require flexible thinking or reorganization of information.

Compared to writing, speaking is more likely to a. involve delayed feedback from other people. b. require many revisions. c. use relatively simple syntax. d. require more time to be produced.

c. use relatively simple syntax.

What can we conclude about the comparison between experts and non-experts, with respect to writing? a.An expert writer is more likely to approach a revision one sentence at a time. b.An expert writer is more likely to have a global sense—rather than a specific sense—that something is wrong with a sentence. c.An expert writer spends longer looking for spelling errors. d.An expert writer pays more attention to transitions between ideas.

d. An expert writer pays more attention to the transition between ideas.

In the NPR episode you listened to, what was the outcome of the "car" experiment a. Children who were bilingual had a more difficult time distinguishing the different cars b. children who bilingual were able to identify the kinds of cars more quickly c. Children who were bilingual had a harder time paying attention to the task d. Children who were bilingual were better at taking the adult's perspective

d. Children who were bilingual were better at taking the adult's perspective

Suppose that a researcher supports the critical period hypothesis, as it relates to the acquisition of a second language. Suppose also that a study is conducted with bilinguals who originally spoke French and learned English as adults. Which of the following hypothetical research results would the researcher be most pleased to find? a. English monolinguals and French/English bilinguals both have the same vocabulary size in English. b. French/English bilinguals initially had difficulty with pronunciation, but these bilinguals and English monolinguals now have similar pronunciation accuracy. c. In comparison with English monolinguals, the French/English bilinguals have superior performance on pronunciation, but weaker performance on metalinguistic tasks. d. English monolinguals have a much better understanding of English syntax than do French/English bilinguals.

d. English monolinguals have a much better understanding of English syntax than do French/English bilinguals.

What can we conclude about the accuracy of speech production? a. People frequently make errors that include phoneme combinations rarely found in English. b. For most speakers, their language production is only about 45% accurate. c. Speech production is far more accurate than language comprehension. d. Even high-status speakers may produce a large number of speech errors.

d. Even high-status speakers may produce a large number of speech errors.

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

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.

What can we conclude about the age of acquisition and mastery of a second language? a. We cannot draw even tentative conclusions until we have researched using the experimental method. b. For speakers of first languages similar to English, it's better to learn English early; for speakers of first languages that are different from English, it's better to learn English late. c. The research shows quite clearly that children acquire a second language more rapidly than adults do. d. The research is not clear-cut; instead, the findings seem to depend upon factors such as the similarity between the first language and English.

d. The research is not clear-cut; instead, the findings seem to depend upon factors such as the similarity between the first language and English.

What can we conclude about the relationship between a person's age of acquisition of a second language and his or her mastery of grammar? a. So far, no research has demonstrated a relationship between these two variables. b. Linguistically skilled individuals tend to master grammar better if they learn a second language during childhood; individuals with below-average skills tend to master grammar better if they learn a second language during adulthood. c. The results clearly support the critical period hypothesis, because people have greater mastery of grammar if they learn a second language during childhood. d. The results are complicated because the answer depends on the match between the first and second language, as well as the amount of education in the second language.

d. The results are complicated because the answer depends on the match between the first and second language, as well as the amount of education in the second language.

What is the most controversial issue concerning bilingualism and age of acquisition? a. Can adult bilinguals acquire pragmatic competence in their second language? b. Are adults and children equally talented in acquiring new vocabulary words in a second language? c. With respect to the mastery of phonology, do people who acquired a second language as adults differ from people who acquired a second language as children? d. With respect to the mastery of grammar, do people who acquired a second language as adults differ from people who acquired a second language as children?

d. With respect to the mastery of grammar, do people who acquired a second language as adults differ from people who acquired a second language as children?

A professor looks out at her class and notices that Jackie is falling asleep. She says loudly, "Wouldn't you be more comfortable in your own bed, Jackie?" The professor is using a kind of directive known as: a. lexical entrainment. b. establishing common ground. c. the communication of gist. d. an indirect speech act.

d. an indirect speech act.

The early research and theory on bilingualism a. were remarkably sophisticated in terms of manipulating the appropriate variables. b. could not be trusted, because the bilinguals had actually received a greater amount of formal language training. c. actually measured short-term memory in monolinguals and working memory in bilinguals. d. argued that bilingualism produced a cognitive deficit.

d. argued that bilingualism produced a cognitive deficit

Suppose that you are listening to a lecture by a speaker who supports the critical period hypothesis for a particular motor skill in children. The speaker is likely to say that: a. the ability to acquire this skill increases gradually over time. b. the ability to acquire this skill shows an abrupt increase during development. c. children will show a gradual decline in acquiring the skill competently, as the age of acquisition increases. d. children will show an abrupt drop in acquiring the skill competently, as the age of acquisition increases.

d. children will show an abrupt drop in acquiring the skill competently, as the age of acquisition increases.

If you give a friend a fairly lengthy description about how you studied for your last exam, you are producing a. prosody. b. a directive. c. pragmatics. d. discourse.

d. discourse

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 a. solving the linearization problem. b. avoiding a syntactic error. c. formulating an indirect request. d. establishing common ground.

d. establishing common ground.

A psychological understanding of slip-of-the-tongue errors: a. has advanced much beyond the initial ideas of Sigmund Freud on what are now called Freudian slips. b. advanced considerably when behavioral psychologists studied speech production in terms of imitation. c. reveals that such errors are attempts by the right cerebral hemisphere to control the left cerebral hemisphere. d. has been advanced with a connectionist theory that includes spreading activation

d. has been advanced with a connectionist theory that includes spreading activation.

Suppose you have a 22-year-old friend who came to North America from Korea when he was 14 and then began to learn English. If he is like the participants in Flege's study (from the in-depth section of Chapter 10), he will find that a. he will develop trouble in Korean with verb tenses and the gender of nouns, but will maintain his Korean vocabulary. b. he will lose a substantial percentage of his Korean vocabulary. c. he will have difficulty mastering English vocabulary. d. he will eventually master English grammar as well as a Korean speaker who learned English as a 10-year-old child as long as they both have the same amount of U.S. education.

d. he will eventually master English grammar as well as a Korean speaker who learned English as a 10-year-old child as long as they both have the same amount of U.S. education.

The term discourse refers to: a. a sentence in which the speaker has made a speech error and the listener fails to detect this error. b. an interchange between two or more people, in which one person tries to convince the listener or listeners. c. a series of sentences that describes a sequence of events, organized in terms of the date of occurrence. d. language units that are more than a sentence in length.

d. language units that are more than a sentence in length

Imagine that a young girl is describing how people must add a term such as -ed if they want to form a past tense. Her description shows that she has competence in: a.semantics. b.pragmatics. c.meta-analysis. d.metalinguistics.

d. metalinguistics.

Knowledge of the social rules that underlie language use (speech communication) is called: a. syntactic. b. morphemics. c. semantics. d. pragmatics.

d. pragmatic

On which of the following tasks is a bilingual child likely to have some difficulty, compared with a monolingual child? a. understanding the structure of his or her native language b. awareness that names are arbitrarily assigned to concepts c. sensitivity to the pragmatics of language conversation d. processing language quickly.

d. processing language quickly.

When people speak to a young baby, their voices show great variation in both pitch and stress. This aspect of speech production is called a. linearization. b. lexical entrainment. c. syntax. d. prosody.

d. prosody

Jason is an infant whose parents speak English in the home; when his parents are at work, Jason stays in a family daycare home where all the employees speak only Spanish. Jason is experiencing a. multilingualism. b. lexical entrainment. c. sequential bilingualism. d. simultaneous bilingualism.

d. simultaneous bilingualism.

The age of acquisition of a second language affects: a. nothing that relates to the production of speech. b. the extent of the vocabulary in the second language that is possible. c. the use of nouns much more than the use pronouns. d. the speaker's accent in the second language

d. the speaker's accent in the second language

The concept of common ground was discussed in connection with the social context of speech. Common ground means that a. a speaker must coordinate gestures with spoken language. b. the linearization problem should not dominate the social components of speech. c. two speakers must agree to reveal similar amounts of personal information about themselves. d. the speakers share the same information and experiences.

d. the speakers share the same information and experiences