Are animals capable of understanding language, or are they responding to the emotion in their owners' voice and movements? An informative video explores how the dog-human language connection works, including how much language dogs can really understand—and how much dog language people can really understand.

Concepts

dogs, listening comprehension, communication

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Have class members watch the video on their own before writing a short narrative about an experience they've had with animal comprehension
• Encourage learners to take short videos of their own dogs or other pets at home, trying the various tricks from the resource

Classroom Considerations

• Requires Internet access for both the video and assessment activity

Pros

• Engaging for dog lovers and linguistics enthusiasts alike
• Explore different aspects of the language connection, leaving the possibility of further research open

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.9-10.2 SL.11-12.2