CLAD Structure and Linguistics 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which sociolinguistic concept explains why African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is considered a rule-governed dialect rather than an error-filled form of English?
- Language universals
- Linguistic relativity
- All natural language varieties have systematic grammatical rules (Correct answer)
- Prescriptive grammar
Correct answer: All natural language varieties have systematic grammatical rules
Linguists recognize that all natural language varieties, including AAVE, follow consistent internal grammatical rules, making them linguistically equal to standard dialects.
Question 2: The Silent Period in second language acquisition refers to:
- A phase when teachers avoid correcting student errors
- A period when learners absorb language input before producing output (Correct answer)
- Total silence imposed as a classroom strategy
- The time required to achieve academic proficiency
Correct answer: A period when learners absorb language input before producing output
During the Silent Period, learners build comprehension and internal language representations before they feel ready to produce spoken output.
Question 3: What does the term 'lexical density' measure in a text?
- Number of syllables per word
- Ratio of content words to total words (Correct answer)
- Frequency of grammatical errors
- Number of unique vocabulary items
Correct answer: Ratio of content words to total words
Lexical density measures the proportion of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) relative to total words, with higher density indicating more academic or complex text.
Question 4: In which way does Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) apply to language instruction?
- Students should work independently to build autonomous language skills
- Teachers should focus exclusively on language forms not yet acquired
- Language tasks should be slightly beyond current ability with scaffolded support (Correct answer)
- Students learn best from peer correction without teacher involvement
Correct answer: Language tasks should be slightly beyond current ability with scaffolded support
The ZPD represents what learners can achieve with appropriate support, so instruction should target language slightly beyond independent ability with scaffolding.
Question 5: Which phonological process causes the /n/ in 'input' to be pronounced as /m/ by many English speakers?
- Deletion
- Epenthesis
- Assimilation (Correct answer)
- Metathesis
Correct answer: Assimilation
Assimilation is the process by which a sound takes on features of an adjacent sound; /n/ becomes /m/ before the bilabial /p/ to match its place of articulation.
Question 6: A teacher uses graphic organizers, sentence frames, and visual supports when teaching academic vocabulary. These are examples of:
- Sheltered instruction scaffolding techniques (Correct answer)
- Immersion without support
- Summative assessment strategies
- Phonics-based instruction
Correct answer: Sheltered instruction scaffolding techniques
Sheltered instruction uses visual, contextual, and linguistic scaffolds to make academic content comprehensible for English language learners.
Question 7: Which term refers to the process of forming a new word by combining two existing free morphemes, as in 'sunflower' or 'blackboard'?
- Derivation
- Compounding (Correct answer)
- Conversion
- Clipping
Correct answer: Compounding
Compounding joins two or more free morphemes to create a new word with its own meaning distinct from its parts.
CLAD Structure and Linguistics 5
Which sociolinguistic concept explains why African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is considered a rule-governed dialect rather than an error-filled form of English?