1. Unit 4/ #1 KQ: On what basis do we define a language?
RLS: Greece’s Disappearing whistled language
WOK: Language
AOK: Indigenous Knowledge Systems
KQ: On what basis do we define a language?

2. WOK: Language/AOK: Indigenous Knowledge Systems

3. Don’t Think Close your eyes and try a silent thought experiment.
Do not think of an elephant for a timed 30 seconds
who succeeded in not thinking about an elephant? 
recall what  kind of  elephant "appeared in your mind’s eye” Turn and Talk

4. Directly experience language development
Objective
Directly experience language development

5. Class Demo #1
Think of something that you accept as “true”, e.g., “Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America.”
Convey your idea to your partner (take turns), but DO NOT USE…
A natural language of any kind (English, sign language,etc)
An artificial language of any kind (emojis, etc)
Hand gestures, facial gestures, bodily movements
Pictures, sounds, smells

6. Debrief
How successful were you in your attempt to convey your idea to your partner?
How would you explain your inability to communicate your idea to your partner?
What conclusion could you draw from this experience?
Is your conclusion “valid”? How do you know?

7. Think Pair and Share
Think of something that you accept as “true”, e.g., “The Cowboys have the best running back in the NFL”
In “thinking” about your idea DO NOT USE…
A natural language of any kind,
An artificial language of any kind,
Hand gestures, facial gestures, bodily movements,
Pictures, sounds

8. Debrief How successful were you in your attempt to think of your idea?
How would you explain you inability to think of your idea?
What conclusion could you draw from this experience?
Is your conclusion “valid”? How do you know?
What conclusions do these activities lead you to consider?

9. Debrief Which ideas could be communicated with gestures.
Which ideas couldn’t be communicated?
What is the difference between communication and language?

10. All languages contain….
Morphemes
Phonemes
The smallest units of sound in a language.
English has about 44 phonemes.
How many phonemes does PLATYPUS have?
There are 8 phonemes, or sounds/blends in the word platypus:
p - l - a - t - y - p - u - s
The smallest unit of meaningful sound.
Can be words like a or but.
Can also be parts of words like prefixes or suffixes…”ed” at the end of a word means past tense.

11. Language Must Have Rules
Syntax: the order of words in a language.
Grammar: the Rules of language
Whistling language of Greece
Could yawning be a language?

12. Induction The power and the pitfalls of inductive thinking.
Induction is the kind of reasoning we use to make generalizations based on particular instances. If we see enough individual elephants, naturally we build up a generic picture (a mental map) of what elephants are.
How generic was your elephant ?

14. Social Learning Theory
B.F. Skinner from the Behaviorist School
Baby may imitate a parent.
If they are reinforced they keep saying the word.
If they are punished, they stop saying the word.

15. Chomsky’s Theory (nativist theory)
We learn language too quickly for it to be through reinforcement and punishment.
Inborn universal language acquisition device (LAD)

16. Sapir-Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity
The idea that language determines the way we think.
Himba tribe- no word for blue
The Hopi tribe has no past tense in their language, so Whorf says they rarely think of the past.

17. KQ Exit Ticket
Do we need language to think?