A LESSON PLAN IN INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

I. TOPIC: Language and the Brain

II. REFERENCE: Fromkin, V. et. Al (2003). An Introduction to Language. Heinle, A Part of Thompson
Corporation. United States.
III. MATERIALS: DLP and Laptop
IV. OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson students should be able to:

1. identify the different parts of the brain and describe its functions
2. differentiate how the two hemispheres of the brain operate
3. discuss the relationship between the brain and language.

V. PROCEDURE:
A. Review
B. Motivation
• Have you ever
– Observed children learning learn their first language?
– Studied American Sign Language?
– Known anyone who has suffered a stroke?
C. Presentation of the Lesson
-Today we are going to explore the relationship between the human brain and language.
D. Lecture
 Interesting brain facts!
• About 1.4 kg (2% of body weight) mass of fat & protein with 75% water content
• Left hemisphere is larger than the right
• 40% grey matter (outer covering: cerebral cortex)
60% white matter (myelinated fiber tracts traveling to & from the cerebral cortex)
• Uses 10 – 23 watt of energy, consuming 20% oxygen from the body. Goes unconscious in 8 – 10 sec.
w/o oxygen
• 100 billion neurons (166 times human population & would take 171 years to count! (Tony Buzan)
• 2,50,000 neurons/ minute in early development & stops growing at 18

 The brain has 4 areas called lobes

• Frontal
• Parietal
• Temporal
• Occipital
 Lateralization of the Brain
 LH more specialized for the analysis of sequences of stimuli that occur quickly but sequentially
(comprehension and production).
 RH more specialized for the analysis of space and geometrical shapes and forms that occur
simultaneously.
• Involved in organizing a narrative (selecting and assembling the elements of what we want to say)
• understanding prosody (rhythm and stress)
• recognizing emotion in the tone of voice
• Understanding jokes
 Aphasia is defined as an acquired impairment in the use of language due to damage to certain parts of
the brain
• This damage could be caused by injury, stroke, or seizures
• The language deficits include difficulties in language comprehension and execution
 All aphasias can be classified into two groups
• Fluent aphasias
The inability to understand the language of others and the production of less meaningful speech
then normal
• Non-fluent aphasias
Difficulty producing fluent, articulated, or self-initiated speech
 Three major types of Aphasia
• Broca’s aphasia
Slow, laborious, nonfluent speech
• Wernicke’s aphasia
Fluent speech but unintelligible
• Global aphasia
Total loss of language
 Broca’s Aphasia
Brodmann 44, 45
• Lesions in the left inferior frontal region (Broca’s area), head of caudate nucleus, thalamus, etc.
• Nonfluent, labored, and hesitant speech (articulation)
• Most also lose the ability to name persons or subjects (anomia)
• Can utter automatic or overlearned speech (“hello”; songs)
• Have difficulty with function (the, in, about) vs content words (verbs, nouns, adjectives)
(agrammatism)
• Comprehension relatively intact when other cues available (The man swat the mosquito vs the
horse kicks the cow)
• Most also have partial paralysis of one side of the body (hemiplegia)
• If extensive, not much recovery over time
• Broca’s Aphasia
• Broca’s area contains “memories of the sequences of muscular movements (tongue, lips, jaw, etc)
that are needed to articulate words” Wernicke (1874)
 Wernicke’s Aphasia
Brodmann 22, 30
• Lesions in posterior part of the left superior temporal gyrus, extending to adjacent parietal cortex
• Unable to understand what they read or hear (poor comprehension)
• Unaware of their deficit
• Fluent but meaningless speech
• Can use function but not content words
• Contains many paraphasias
o “girl”-“curl”, “bread”-“cake”
• Syntactical but empty sentences
• Cannot repeat words or sentences
• Usually no partial paralysis
 Global aphasia (non-fluent)
• As the name suggests, this type of aphasia is characterized by a severe depression of all language
functioning
• The people with this affliction have poor language comprehension and speak in slow, labored jargon
• This aphasia is caused by damage around and to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain

VI. Evaluation:
The students will be asked to form a group of 5. They will be given questions to answer. They must
brainstorm and discuss in answering the questions. Students will choose a reporter for their group and
present to the class the product of their discussions.
1. Some Aphasic patients, when asked to read a list of words, substitute othr words for those printed.
In many cases there are similarities between the printed words and the substituted words .The
following data are from actual aphasic patients. In each case state what the two words have in
common and how they differ:
Printed word Word Spoken
Liberty freedom
Canary parrot
Abroad overseas
Large long
Portray portrait
2. The following sentences are spoken by aphasics, were collected and analyzed by Dr. Harry Whitaker.
In each case, state how the sentences deviate from the normal language.
a. There is a horse a new sidesaddle.
b. In girls we see many happy days.
c. Went came in better than it did before.
3. The investigation of individuals with brain damage has been a major source of information regarding
the neural basis of language and other cognitive systems. Discuss how a damage system can or cannot
provide information about a normal system.
4. What are the argument that have been put forth to support the notion that there are two separate
parts of the brain?
5. Discuss how language is being processed in the brain.