Entrar

Visor

HOW LANGUAGE SHAPES THE WAY WE THINK

INTRODUCTION

There are thousands of languages spoken around the world — and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of languages that suggest the answer is a resounding yes.

VOCABULARY

Para poder ver todo el contenido necesita JavaScript habilitado.

Complete the sentences with the words in the box. There are more words than you need.

lifetime      diversity      speculating      reasoning      exhaling      ingenious 

biased      quirks      science      reflects      eyewitness      weight      crafts

  1. I'm making sounds with my mouth as I'm exhaling.
  2. People have been speculating about this question forever.
  3. To have a second language is to have a second soul" -- strong statement that language crafts reality
  4. Russians have this lifetime of experience of, in language, distinguishing these two colors.
  5. Languages have all kinds of structural quirks.
  6. The language guides our reasoning about events.
  7. I gave you an example of how language can shape things that have personal weight to us.
  8. The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is.
  9. So what we know about the human mind is actually incredibly narrow and biased, and our science has to do better.

VIDEO

Watch the video and answer the questions below.

  1. What is so amazing about humans?
  2. How many languages are there in the world?
  3. Explain the experiment with the Aboriginal group Kuuk Thaayorre in relation to direction?
  4. Why are English speakers not as sensitive to colour distinction as Russian speakers?
  5. Provide an example of how language structure can make people focus more on actions than on agents?
  6. What big effects can language have to the way we think?
  7. What does she say about gender?
  8. What aspects that have personal weight to us can language shape?
  9. Why is what we know of the human mind narrow?

DISCUSSION

  1. Did you enjoy the talk? Is there anything that particularly caught your attention?
  2. How important is learning foreign languages?
  3. Do you think that the way we think changes when we speak another language? Compare yourself with English and your native tongue.

Ficheros adicionales

// ]]>