Here are the materials for a 55-minute philosophical inquiry lesson on the subject ‘What is language?’

Teacher/facilitator’s runsheet: What is Language? (55 minutes)

Printable card set (please print & cut multiple copies, e.g. six copies for a class of 24 students so you can give one complete card set to each small group of four students).

Video clip: Whistling Languages in Kuskoy, Turkey. (The runsheet above suggests which part of this video to play.) Note that there is another famous whistle language, El Silbo Gomero, used by people in the Canary Islands.

Slideshow: Keynote (for Mac) or Powerpoint

Optional extra activity: Creative Response stimuli (Please print and cut multiple copies and distribute to students.) These are curious tid-bits to get students thinking about the nature of language. You could invite students to respond to any one of them by writing or drawing their ideas.