Today the LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog is bringing you another video from the TED series. TED (Technology, Education, Design) is an international and interdisciplinary conference series based around the concept “ideas worth spreading”.
In this talk, Biologist Mark Pagel shares an interesting theory about why humans evolved a complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of „social technology“ that allowed early human tribes to access a powerful new tool: cooperation.
This video is suitable for a variety of levels. Higher-level English learners should just watch it as it is. Intermediate students – you can turn on the English subtitles on the menu at the bottom-right of the video. Lower-level learners can go to the video on the TED website (here) and turn on the German (or the language of your choice) subtitles, as well as look at a full transcript of the talk. Enjoy!