Question: 1. (True/false) A group of people who are set apart from others socially will probably be set apart linguistically as well.
2. (Multiple answer) In considering the size and location of speech community "speech community," the following three aspects of the term are crucial:
a. How large or small can a speech community be
b. Whether its members co-exist peacefully
c. Can the concept be used to describe social entities that are not defined by a shared physical location?
d. Should speech communities be thought of as overlapping one another with individuals belonging to multiple speech communities
3. (Multiple answer) In considering what is shared by the members of a speech community one has to address the following five issues:
a. Whether everyone must speak the same language or dialect with the same degree of fluency?
b. How often do the members of speech community interact with each other?
c. Do people who use ASL or one of the many other sign languages in the world , constitute one or more "speech" communities?
d. How important are shared attitudes toward language and evaluation of linguistic practices for determining speech community membership?
e. Must members of a speech community be aware that they are members of such a community?
f. Do the members of a speech community share the same ethnicity?
4. (Multiple answers) In considering the type of interactions that speech community members have, one has to pay attention to the following three questions:
a. Must members of a speech community have face-to-face interactions. If So, how frequently?
b. Might people involved in online or other electronically mediated interactions constitute a virtual or literacy-based speech community?
c. Might there be different kinds of membership in a speech community - central vs. peripheral, for example?
d. Must members of a speech community interact in a friendly manner and be accepting of each other?
5. (True or false) De Saussure and, later, Chomsky focused their work mainly on linguistic structures.
6. (True/false) Sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologhists such as Hymes, Gumperz, and Labov focused mainly on linguistic practices and social groups.
7. (Multiple answers) Recently, many researchers have attempted to substitute alternative terms for "speech community," because of difficulties that characterize that concept. These alternative formulations include the following three concepts:
a. Speech areas
b. Speech networks
c. Communities of practice
d. Speech impediments
8. (True/false) The concept of "community of practice" was recently proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger and became very influential in linguistic anthropology, education, business and government. The concept of "community of practice" emphasizes the socially embedded nature of learning.