Review sheet for Linguistics 201 Test IV

1) Study your two-sheet summary of writing systems, as about 40% of the test questions will come directly from it.  This is the single most important thing for Test 4. You won't have to recognize the shapes of any particular writing system, but you will have to know the names of inventors, the way each major writing system works:  which are syllabaries, consonantal alphabets, full alphabets, etc., which are written right-to-left, etc.  

2) Also study class notes and the book readings for all other material covered since Test 3. 

3) In particular, study the artificial languages handout. Know in particular: the difference between a priori and a posteriori artificial languages; know that Esperanto, the most successful artificial language, was invented by the Polish doctor Zamenhof.

4) Make sure you know the four stages of child language acquisition (pre-speech, babbling, one-word, and combining), as well as the meaning of the acronyms LAD (language acquisition device) and SLI (specific language impairment); know where Broca's and Wernicke's areas are in the perisylvian area of the left hemispheric cortex of the brain.  Know the basic information from the last class lecture on aphasia.

5) You will have 15 multiple choice problems on phonetic transcription, just like on test II.  Nothing else from the first three tests will be on the final.

6) In addition to the 15 phonetic transcription multiple choice, and about 80 points of multiple choice,  fill-in-the blank and true/false.  Finally,  you will have to answer a short discussion question:

Discussion (4 pts.) Compare and contrast child language acquisition and adult language learning and explain your own views on the best way for adults to be taught a foreign language.

NOTE: Don't forget to study your class notes for all the lectures. This short review sheet does NOT specifically list every piece of information that will be on the test.