Lesson Series: All about animals 1

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 2

ALL ABOUT ANIMALS

The upcoming classes we will:

• Not do any coursebook work (yayyy), but there will be a lesson series about animals
• Make sure you take a fully charged laptop to each class

GOALS

1. You can understand an educational video clip about animal language.

2.  You can apply your knowledge to the exercises. 

    

How do animals communicate?

Let's predict: Do you think animals have a language to communicate?

1. Yes
2. No

Listening activity

We are going to listen to and watch the next part of the video.

Fill in the table (on paper) while you are watching. 

Tip: pay attention to what the four characteristics mean.

Compare your filled in table with your neighbour's

Compare your filled in table with your neighbour's. In case you have different answers, come to one answer as a pair.

Answers to the table

Discreteness = a set of individual units, such as sounds or words, that can be combined to communicate new ideas. 

Grammar = a system of rules that tells you how to combine those individual units.

Productivity = the ability to use language to create an infinite number of messages.

Displacement = the ability to talk about things that aren't right in front of you, such as past, future, or fictional events.

So, which characteristics do we need to have language?

1. Discreteness
2. Grammar
3. Productivity
4. Displacement

Listening activity

We are going to listen to and watch the next part of the video. 

You will hear for multiple animals what way of communication they have.

On your paper, fill in the language characteristics that each animal has. 

Answers to the exercise

A. Crabs & cuttlefish = 7

B. Bees = 4 & 6

C. Prairie dogs = 2

D. Great apes = 1 & 3

E. Dolphins = 5

After watching the video, let's answer the question again: Do animals have language?

1. Yes
2. No

But we saw that even without language, animals were able to communicate. 

Let's quickly revisit our goals

1. You can understand an educational video clip about animal language.

2.  You can apply your knowledge to the exercises.