Psycholinguistics
1. Define psycholinguistics. [NU 2012, 2016]
Ans: Psycholinguistics is the study of the psychological and neuro-biological factors that facilitate humans to acquire, use, understand and produce language.
2. What does psycholinguistics deal with?
Ans: Psycholinguistics deals with the psychological and neuro-biological factors that facilitate humans to acquire, use, understand and produce language.
3. What is first language?
Ans: First language means the natural language that is one’s mother tongue.
4. What is the first stage of language development called?
Ans: The first stage of language development is called Pre-linguistic Stage.
5. What is vocal play?
Ans: Vocal play is a part of Pre-linguistic Stage during which a baby begins to string together longer vowel or consonant sounds.
6. What is the Babbling Stage?
Ans: The Babbling Stage is the last part of a baby’s pre-linguistic language development during which an infant appears to be experimenting with uttering articulate sounds, but does not yet produce any recognizable words.
7. When do babies start babbling?
Ans: Babies generally start babbling when they are 6 to 9 month old.
8. What is the Telegraphic Stage?
Ans: The age duration from 24 months to 30 months is called the Telegraphic Stage. In this stage, children start producing utterances with more than two elements.
9. Name three factors that influence language learning process.
Ans: Three factors that influence language learning process are the age of the learner, his personality and the influence of his native language.
10. What is SLA? [NU 2013, 2015]
Ans: SLA stands for Second Language Acquisition.
11. What is the Behaviourist view of language acquisition?
Ans: The Behaviourist view of language acquisition states that language is a behavior that can be learned like any other behavior via positive and negative reinforcement.
12. What does CPH mean?
Ans: CPH stands for Critical Period Hyphothesis which says that it is more difficult for children to acquire languages after a certain period.
13. What is LAD? [NU 2012, 2015, 2017]
Ans: LAD stands for Language Acquisition Device which is a hypothetical tool hardwired into the brain that helps children rapidly learn and understand language.
14. What is schema? [NU 2014, 2016]
Ans: A schema is a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information.
15. What are Schemata?
Ans: Schemata are the plural form of schema. It is a mental structure of preconceived ideas. Piaget says that Schemata come from the children’s integration with the environment.
16. Who proposed the mentalist theory?
Ans: Noam Chomsky proposed the mentalist theory.
17. What is Monitor Model Hypotheses?
Ans: Monitor Model Hypotheses are a group of five hypotheses regarding second-language acquisition developed by Stephen Krashen in the 1970s and 1980s.
18. What is language acquisition?
Ans: Language acquisition is the process by which human beings acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
19. What is learning?
Ans: Learning is a conscious process of getting knowledge of a language through study, experience and instruction.
20. What are the implications of the Affective Filter Hypothesis?
Ans: The Affective Filter hypothesis implies that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in second language acquisition.
21. What does the Input Hypothesis explain?
Ans: The Input Hypothesis by Krashen explains how second language acquisition takes place. According to this hypothesis, a learner improves when he/she receives an 'input' which is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
22. What is acculturation?
Ans: “Acculturation” is the process of becoming adapted to a new culture. According to Schumann (1978), the degree to which a learner acculturates to the target language community determines the degree to which he acquires the second language.
23. What is accommodation? [NU 2017]
Ans: In linguistics, accommodation is the process by which participants in a conversation adjust their accent, diction, or other aspects of language according to the speech style of the other participant.
24. What is interlanguage?
Ans: Interlanguage is the type of language produced by a second language or a foreign language learner who is in the process of learning the target language.
25. What is aphasia?
Ans: Aphasia is a language disorder caused by brain damage in the left hemisphere. It is characterized by diminished abilities to produce and understand both spoken and written language.
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