Chapter 9: Introduction to Language and Language Comprehension

Question 1

What is a phoneme?

Answer 1

the basic unit of spoken language (e.g. the sounds a, k, and th)

Question 2

What is a morpheme?

Answer 2

the basic unit of meaning. For example the word reactivated contains four morphemes that each have their own meaning: re-, active, -ate, and -ed.

Question 3

What is syntax?

Answer 3

the grammatical rules that govern how we organize words into sentences

Question 4

What is semantics?

Answer 4

the area of psycholinguistics that examines the meaning of words and sentences

Question 5

What is pragmatics?

Answer 5

our knowledge of the social rules that underlie language use and take into account the listener’s perspective

Question 6

What is surface structure?

Answer 6

the words that are actually spoken or written in a sentence

Question 7

What is deep structure?

Answer 7

the underlying, more abstract meaning of a sentence

Question 8

What are transformation rules?

Answer 8

what people use to convert deep structure into a surface structure that can be spoken or written

Question 9

Explain the cognitive-functional approach to language.

Answer 9

The cognitive-functional approach to language argues that communicating meaning to other individuals is the function of human language in everyday life. It also emphasizes the interconnection between cognitive processes, language comprehension, and language production. The cognitive-functional approach posits that language can be used creatively to communicate “subtle shades of meaning”.

Question 10

Explain Chomsky’s approach to language.

Answer 10

Knowledge of grammar can exist independently of semantic language.
Grammatical rules can be applied to a sentence that a person has never seen before and learned.
Humans have an inborn understanding of the abstract principles that govern linguistic structure; therefore, children do not need to learn the basic, generalizable concepts that are universal to all languages. They do, however, need to learn the superficial characteristics of the language spoken in their community.

Question 11

What factors affect language comprehension?

Answer 11

1. negatives
2. passive voice
3. complex syntax
4. lexical ambiguity
5. syntactic ambiguity

Question 12

What is the good-enough approach to language comprehension?

Answer 12

It says that we frequently process only part of a sentence. It is an example of a heuristic. People tend use top-down processing and their knowledge of language to grasp the general meaning of a sentence rather than bottom-up processing where they make a detailed interpretation of every sentence based on the true meaning of every word. The good-enough approach typically leads to an accurate interpretation but can also result in errors sometimes.

Question 13

Define neurolinguistics.

Answer 13

the discipline that examines the underlying neurological structures and systems that support language and language-related processes

Question 14

Define aphasia.

Answer 14

is when a person has difficulty communicating, typically as a result of brain damage caused by a stroke or tumor

Question 15

What language deficits occur when there is damage to Broca’s area?

Answer 15

When there is damage to Broca’s area in the brain it causes hesitant speech that primarily uses isolated words and short phrases. People who have Broca’s aphasia have trouble producing speech and may also have some trouble with language comprehension.

Question 16

What language deficits occur when there is damage to Wernicke’s area?

Answer 16

When there is damage to Wernicke’s area in the brain it causes serious difficulties understanding language. People who have Wernicke’s aphasia have severe problems with language comprehension and may also have problems producing language.

Question 17

What is lateralization?

Answer 17

Lateralization means the two hemispheres of the brain have somewhat different functions.

Question 18

What is the role of the left hemisphere in language processing?

Answer 18

1. speech perception
2. reading
3. meaning comprehension
4. high-imagery sentences.

Question 19

What is the role of the right hemisphere in language processing?

Answer 19

abstract language tasks (e.g., paying attention to the emotional tone of a message, appreciating humor)

Question 20

What is the mirror system?

Answer 20

The mirror system is a network of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex that are activated when a person watches someone else perform an action as well as when they perform that action themself. Mirror neurons play a role in language comprehension. They are especially active when we are in a noisy setting and trying to listen to someone talking. We use the speaker’s actions (i.e., gestures, body language) to help comprehend the message.

Question 21

How does written language differ from spoken language?

Answer 21

(1) Reading is visual and spread out across space, whereas speech is auditory and is spread out across time.
(2) Readers can control the rate of input, whereas listeners usually cannot.
(3) Readers can rescan the written input, whereas listeners must rely much more heavily on their working memory.
(4) Readers usually encounter standardized, error-free input, whereas listeners often need to cope with variability, grammatical errors, sloppy pronunciation, and interfering stimuli.
(5) Readers can see discrete boundaries between words, whereas listeners often encounter unclear boundaries in spoken language.
(6) Readers encounter only the stimuli on a page, whereas listeners encounter both nonverbal cues and auditory cues, such as emphasized words and variations in pace.
(7) Children require elaborate teaching to master some written languages but they learn spoken languages much more easily.
(8) Adult readers typically learn new words more quickly when they appear in written form, rather than a spoken form.

Question 22

Describe the dual-route approach to reading.

Answer 22

The dual-route approach to reading says that people who are skilled at reading use both a direct-access route and an indirect-access route to read words.

Question 23

Explain the direct-access route.

Answer 23

In the direct-access route, words are recognized directly through vision, without sounding them out. When a word has an irregular spelling and cannot be “sounded out” it is most likely the direct-access route will be used to read the word.

Question 24

Explain the indirect-access route.

Answer 24

In the indirect-access route, words are seen and then converted to a phonological (sound) stimulus before the word is recognized. When a word has a regular spelling and can be “sounded out” it is most likely the indirect-access route will be used to read the word.

Question 25

Describe the whole-world approach to teaching reading.

Answer 25

The whole-world approach to teaching reading argues that readers can connect the written word - as an entire unit - with the meaning that this word represents. Since the correspondence between written and spoken codes in English is complex, it is argued that the way a word sounds should not be emphasized. Instead, when children are learning to read they should focus on identifying a word in terms of its context within a sentence. The whole-world approach aligns with the direct-access route to word recognition.

Question 26

Describe the phonics approach to teaching reading.

Answer 26

The phonics approach to teaching reading argues that readers recognize words by trying to pronounce the individual letters in the word (i.e. sounding it out). Proponents of this approach argue that speech sound is a necessary intermediate step in reading. The phonics approach aligns with the indirect-access route to word recognition.

Question 27

What is discourse?

Answer 27

Discourse is the interrelated units of language that are longer than a sentence.

Question 28

What is inference?

Answer 28

Inference refers to the use of world knowledge in order to create information that is not explicitly stated in a written passage. Inferences are conclusions that go beyond the isolated phrase or sentence.

Question 29

Explain theory of mind as it related to reading.

Answer 29

Theory of mind refers to your idea about how your own mind works as well as how other people’s minds work. On a daily basis we use it to figure out the mental state of other people in our lives. When reading, we use it to figure out the mental states of the people in a story or book.

Question 30

Why is it important to form an integrated mental representation of the text when reading?

Answer 30

It is important to form an integrated mental representation of the text when reading so that the information is cohesive and memorable. When readers organize and integrate information into a cohesive story, they often also construct a mental model of the material and internal representations (e.g. descriptions of characters). Readers need to maintain these internal representations in long-term memory for the duration of the story. Readers also need to remember this information in order to make inferences that go beyond the information supplied by the writer as they progress through the story.

Question 31

Describe the constructionist view of inferences.

Answer 31

The constructionist view of inferences says that readers draw inferences about the causes of events and the relationships between events. Readers integrate the current information they are reading with all the relevant information they have already read and their background knowledge to actively construct cohesive explanations. They do this even when parts of the text are widely separated.

Question 32

When are readers more likely to draw inferences?

Answer 32

Readers are more likely to draw inferences if they have:

1. a large working-memory
2. excellent metacomprehension skills and are aware they need to search for connections between two seemingly unrelated sentences
3. expertise in the area

Question 33

What are higher level inferences?

Answer 33

Higher-level inferences are inferences beyond the level of the paragraph. As an example, some genres of books are likely to activate different expectations such as suspension of everyday schemas in fantasy books. These inferences are common in novels and rare in scientific texts. Another type of higher-level inference is developing a strong mental preference for what you want to happen. These inferences can interfere with text comprehension when something happens in the story that contradicts our inference.

Question 34

What is metacomprehension?

Answer 34

Metacomprehension refers to your thoughts about comprehension and it is part of metacognition (your knowledge about your cognitive processes). Metacomprehension is important because it allows readers to think about their reading and listening strategies and use this information to take steps to improve their reading skills.