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Explore This Topic

Check Your Understanding

Compare your answers from the Study Guide to the responses in these sections. Did any new facts you learned through the lecture and the study guide surprise you? Did you think of any important aspects of language and the brain that weren’t mentioned?

The following questions accompany this lesson. The answers are given below each question. To reveal an answer, place the cursor over "REVEAL THE ANSWER".

1. What are some of the topics associated with the study of linguistics and language?
   

   What other ways did you come up with to study linguistics and language? Use your list from the Study Guide as a basis.

2. List and describe some of the unique characteristics of human language that distinguish it from animal communication.
   

   Can you think of other ways that human language and speech ability is unique? Write them down. Use your list from the Study Guide as a basis.

3. Explain how the language ability of starlings compares to the language ability of bonobos like Kanzi.
   

4. In 1861, Paul Broca dissected the brain of an aphasic patient, Leborgne. He determined that Leborgne had suffered extensive damage to a part of his brain (Broca’s area) and claimed that that part of the brain was responsible for language. Had Broca discovered the “language area” of the brain? What subsequent research has helped illuminate how the brain comprehends and produces language? Explain the implications of this research.
   

5. Explain why claims that the gene for language has been found are never accurate.
   

6. Many organisms communicate through the language of chemical signals. How does this “language” get transferred from one animal to another? Think of at least three species that use chemical communication in unique ways.
   

Exercise Your Brain

1. How bilingual or multilingual people’s brains control which language is in use is an interesting area of research. Conduct some interviews with people who speak more than one language. Ask them how they switch back and forth between languages, what language they dream in, in what situations they use each language, how they keep the vocabulary straight, etc. Share the results of your interview with classmates who have interviewed other bilingual people. What are the similarities and differences among bilingual people? Conduct research on the web to learn more about how a bilingual person’s brain works.

2. Choose one of the researchers mentioned in the lecture or the study guide. What is the focus of his or her research? How did the researcher design his/her studies, and what conclusions did he/she make? Write a short biography of the researcher, including what he/she studied in school and what other research he/she has been involved in. Below are some links to get you started.

   Pierre Paul Broca

   Jeffrey Elman

   Tim Gentner

   Marie-Claire King

   Harry McGurk

   Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

   Joan Stiles

3. Understanding animal language can help people understand evolution, gene function, and similarities and differences among animals. Choose one species of animal to focus on. Research how this species uses language. In what ways is their language similar to human language, and in what ways is it different? Be sure to include any research about the understanding of language and the brain of your species.