(IME - 2007/2008 - 2ª FASE)
LEIA O TEXTO A SEGUIR E RESPONDA ÀS QUESTÕES 1, 2 e 3.
Babies can spot languages on facial clues alone (Adapted from NewScientist.com, May 2007)
1 Young babies can discriminate between different languages just by looking at an adult's face, even if they do not hear a single spoken word. And babies who grow up bilingual can do this for longer than monolingual infants. The work suggests that visual information helps to tell languages apart.
2 "This supports the idea that infants come prepared to learn multiple languages and to discriminate them both auditorily and visually," says Whitney Weikum from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who discovered babies' keen eye for speech. "Looking at a face may help identify speakers of your native language."
3 Weikum and her colleagues, showed babies videos of adults speaking various sentences, but with the sound turned off. The infants soon got bored, but as soon as speakers switched from English to French, they noticed the change and watched with renewed interest.
4 Laura-Ann Petitto, who researches language and child development at Dartmouth College in Hanover, US, previously studied visual language perception in deaf babies who were learning sign language. She is excited by Weikum's results: "Never did we dream that young hearing babies also use visual cues in this stunning way."
Bilingual asset
5 A good eye for different languages appears to be especially important if you need to tell them apart regularly. At eight months old, bilingual babies could still see the switch happen, but their monolingual peers stopped noticing it after the age of six months.
6 "This shows us how a baby's language development is closely related to their learning environment," says Weikum. "Only if they are exposed to more than one language, do they remain able to discriminate the languages visually."
7 However, Weikum does not think that parents who are keen to help their babies learn to speak need to introduce a second language before the visual discrimination ability disappears, or start using visually exaggerated speech. "Our study does not show visual speech cues help infants learn languages, only to tell them apart. Parents should just continue talking to their babies in fun, engaging conversations."
8 The researchers now want to discover more about how bilingual babies maintain and take advantage of visual discrimination, and find out what the precise visual cues are in a speaker's face that help a baby to identify different languages.
Complete as frases a seguir com ‘and’, ‘because’, ‘but’, ‘or’ e ‘so’ para que elas façam sentido de acordo com o texto “Babies can spot languages on facial clues alone”. Os conectivos não devem ser repetidos.
3.1. Differently from monolingual babies, bilingual ones can discriminate between different languages after six months old _____ that doesn’t mean this ability makes them better languages learners.
3.2. Whitney Weikum discovered babies’ keen eye for speech _____ Laura-Ann Pelitto, who also studies visual language perception in babies, got very excited with the results.
3.3. A good eye for different languages appears especially important to bilingual babies _____ they need to tell them apart regularly.
3.4. The sound of the videos shown to the babies had to be turned off _____ the results couldn’t have concluded that visual information helps to tell languages apart.
3.5. The researches want to discover more about how bilingual babies maintain and take advantage of visual discrimination _____ the studies should be carried on.
Gabarito:
Resolução:
3.1. Differently from monolingual babies, bilingual ones can discriminate between different languages after six months old but that doesn’t mean this ability makes them better languages learners.
Nesse caso deverá ser utilizado o "but" pelo fato de que a sentença que vem após a lacuna é oposta ao que está sentido dito do que vem antes da lacuna. Como é oposição, utiliza-se "but".
3.2. Whitney Weikum discovered babies’ keen eye for speech and Laura-Ann Pelitto, who also studies visual language perception in babies, got very excited with the results.
Nesse caso, deve-se utilizar o "and" pelo fato de que estão sendo adicionadas duas informações, a de que Whitney Weikum descobriu o olho aguçado dos bebês para a fala e que Laura-Ann ficou muito animada com os resultados.
3.3. A good eye for different languages appears especially important to bilingual babies because they need to tell them apart regularly.
Nesse caso, a oração que vem após a lacuna está explicando o acontecimento que está na primeira oração, ou seja, um bom para olho línguas diferentes parece especialmente importante para os bebês pela razão de que eles precisam diferenciá-los regularmente.
3.4. The sound of the videos shown to the babies had to be turned off or the results couldn’t have concluded that visual information helps to tell languages apart.
Nesse caso, utiliza-se o "or" pelo fato de que a sentença que vem após a lacuna apresenta uma oposição de com uma outra alternativa do que pode acontecer se a primeira sentença (antes da lacuna) não acontecer.
3.5. The researches want to discover more about how bilingual babies maintain and take advantage of visual discrimination. So the studies should be carried on.
Nesse caso, deve-se utiizar o "so" porque a sentença que vem logo após a lacuna é uma conclusão da oração que vem antes. Sabemos disso porque a primeira exprime um desejo, enquanto a segunda exprime o que deve ser feito para que esse desejo seja alcançado.