Worksheet 4 - Language

Worksheet 4a True or False?

1. Language is the human ability to use certain forms for thinking, speaking, enjoyment and aesthetic pleasure.
2. Language is common to all living things.
3. A language is used by a particular community.
4. Language is acquired at birth.
5. The rules for one language always apply to another.
6. An infant will speak as a native tongue whatever language it is exposed to during the first few weeks of life.
7. The stages of acquisition of language in Spanish children and Chinese children are the same.
8. English is a prestigious language because it is inherently superior to other languages.
9. Language is centered in the brain.
10. Intelligence is measurable independent of language and culture.


Worksheet 4b.

a). What is language?

b). What are the main reasons for this complexity?

c). Would you agree that the Europeans all spoke the same dialects of their language?

d). What evidence does the passage provide to support your answer to (c) above?

e). From which continent do the majority of official languages of the Caribbean come?

f). What languages did the Europeans encounter when they came to the Caribbean region?

g) Why does the writer of the passage in ‘Language Variety’ refer to the Caribbean as a complex linguistic area?

h). Identify the official language in all territories of the Caribbean.

i). Identify the popular languages of St Lucia, Jamaica, Bonaire, Haiti and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

j). Give five examples of the linguistic features of Creole languages.


Reading
Sections 1 and 2 of Writing in English (Chapters 1 - 7)
Chapters 1 and 2 of West Indians and their Languages
CAPE Study Guides 8, 9 and 10