57.  What can we do by means of dichotic listening tests?
    Dichotic listening research makes use of the generally established fact that anything experienced on the right-hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. A basic assumption, thus, would be that a signal coming in the right ear will go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right hemisphere. By means of dichotic listening tests, we can analyze the characteristics of incoming stimuli processed by the individual hemispheres.
  Dichotic listening test can show that the left hemisphere is not superior for process-ing all sounds, but only for those that are linguistic in nature, thus providing evidence in support of the view that the left side of the brain is specialized for language and that it is where language centers reside.
58.  What is the safe conclusion from Genie's case?
A safe conclusion from Genie' s case is that the lan-guage faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period and consequently, most linguistic skills cannot develop.
59.  How are language and thought related to each other?
    Language and thought may be viewed as two independent circles overlapping in some parts, where language and thought are consistent with each other and one never occurs without the other. When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other, we may regard thought as "subvocal speech”, and speech as "overt thought. In such a case, speaking and thinking take place simultaneously.

 
Chapter 10：Language Acquisition
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:  
1.  L1 development and L2 development seem to involve the same processes.
2.  The capacity to acquire one’s first language is a fundamental human trait that all human beings are equally well possessed with.
3.  All normal children have equal ability to acquire their first language.
4.  Children follow a similar acquisition schedule of predictable stages along the route of language development across cultures, though there is an idiosyncratic variation in the amount of time that takes individuals to master different aspects of the grammar.
5.  Humans can be said to be predisposed and biologically programmed to acquire at least one language.
6.  Some languages are inferior, or superior, to other languages.
7.  Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the vocabulary and the meaning of language.
8.  Human beings are genetically predetermined to acquire language, this genetic predisposition is a sufficient condition for language development.
9.  Children who grow up in culture where caretaker speech is absent acquire their native language more slowly than children who are exposed to caretaker speech.
10.    In mother tongue acquisition, normal children are not necessarily equally successful.
11.    For the vast majority of children, language development occurs spontaneously and require little conscious instruction on the part of adults.
12.    The available evidence to date indicates that an explicit teaching of correct forms to young children plays a minor role at best.
13.    Correction and reinforcement are not key factors in child language development as they were claimed to be.
14.    Imitation, plays at best a very minor role in the child’s mastery of language.
15.    Observations of children in different language areas of the world reveal that the developmental stages are similar, possibly universal, whatever the nature of the input.
16.    A child’s babbling seems to depend on the presence of acoustic, auditory input.
17.    In general, the two-word stage begins roughly in the second half of the child’s first year.
18.    Children’s two-word expressions are absent of syntactic or morphological markers.
19.    Children first acquire the sounds in all languages of the world, no matter what language they are exposed to, and in late stages acquire the more difficult sounds.
20.    Language acquisition begins at about the same time as lateralization does and is normally complete, as far as the essentials are concerned, by the time that the process of lateralization comes to an end.
II. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given:
21.    The first language a____________ refers to the development of a first or native language.
22.    According to a n__________ view of language acquisition, humans are quipped with the neural prerequisites for language and language use, just as birds are biologically prewired to learn the songs of their species.
23.    A caretaker speech, also called m______ or b______, is the type of modified speech typically addressed to young children.
24.    B_________ learning theory suggested that a child’s verbal behaviour was conditioned through association between a stimulus and the following response.
25.    Children’s one-word utterances are also called h__________ sentences, because they can be used to express a concept or predication that would be associated with an entire sentence in adult speech.
26.    The early multiword utterances of children lack inflectional morphemes and most minor lexical categories, they are often referred to as t__________ speech.
27.    A___________ refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.
28.    The C________ Analysis was founded on the belief that it was possible, by establishing the linguistic differences between the native and target language systems, to predict what problems learners of a particular second language would face and the types of errors they would make.
29.    The language that a learner constructs at a given stage of SLA is known as i_________.
30.    Learners subconsciously use their first language knowledge in learning a second language. This is known as language t___________.
31.    Motivation in language learning can be defined in terms of the learner’s overall goal or orientation. I_________ motivation occurs when the learner’s goal is functional and i________ motivation occurs when the learner’s goal is social.
III. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the one that can best complete the statement:
32.   In first language acquisition, imitation plays _________.
   A. a minor role                     B. a significant role
   C. a basic role                      D. no rule  
33. Linguists have found that for the vast majority of children, language development occurs _____________.
A.   with much imitation
B.   with little conscious instruction
C.  with much correction from their parents
D.  with little linguistic input  
34. The development of linguistic skills involves the acquisition of ____ rules rather than the mere memorization of words and sen-tences .
       A. cultural                       B. grammatical
       C. behaviour                 D. pragmatic
35. ____ has been found to occur usually in children' s pronunciation or reporting of the truthfulness of utterances, rather than in the grammaticality of sentences.
         A. Punishment                B. Instruction
         C. Reinforcement             D. Imitation
36. According to the _______, the acquisition of a second language involves, and is dependent on, the acquisition of the culture of the target language community.
    A. acculturation view             B. mentalist view
    C. behaviourist view              D. conceptualist view
37. In general, a good second learner is an adolescent ________.
A.  who has a strong and well-defined motivation to learn
B.   who seeks out all chances to interact with the input
C.  who is willing to identify himself with the culture of the target language community
D.  all the above
38. The optimum age for second language acquisition is ________________.
A.  early teenage
B.   after puberty
C.  at puberty
D.  after the brain lateralization