Exam 4: Language

Linguistic anthropologists have discovered that more than 90 percent of ________ information is communicated through body movements and paralanguage.

What are some of the key differences between the ways that digital natives and digital immigrants interact with information and communication technology? Given that digital natives grow up using a range of social media, how has technology reshaped their experience in higher education? How does the experience of digital natives vary in different parts of the world?

According to the textbook, the development of social media technologies such as Facebook and YouTube and ubiquitous access to information networks through smartphones have transformed digital activism. Discuss how digital activism has taken place in recent years by comparing democratic protests that have taken place in China to the events of the Arab Spring or the Occupy movement in the United States. How have activists challenged authorities in government and corporations by using novel methods?

Archaeological evidence that offers clues to the origins of human language includes:

While anthropologists have gone to lengths to show that languages are linguistically equal, languages often exist in a hierarchical manner within a given place. Compare how language and power intersect by discussing how nonprestige languages may be marginalized, such as in the case of Spanish speakers in the United States. How are boundaries between language policed, and what happens when speakers "code switch" in different cultural contexts? What did Jane Hill discover when she investigated how white Americans speak words in Mock Spanish?