ENG512 Final Term Preparation 2020 by Paragon

ENG512 Final preparation

Q. How languages spread by the help of technologies (3) (Topic#07)

The forms of language undergo constant changes due to social changes, emergence of new technologies and contact with other languages. New forms apply to old functions, as when a new expression is used by teenagers; in the same way old forms apply to new functions, as for example; the English word save in using a computer; or new forms can be developed for new functions (e.g. new terminology).

Q: How does language attrition perpetuate in the society (5) (Topic#09)

“Language Valorization to major languages and ignorance to minor languages are the cause of language perpetuate”. As certain functions are valorized more than others, e.g. the cognitive function in school. If different varieties of language, e.g. accents, are present in the society, one variety may be valued to the detriment of others. A similar situation happens in the case of multilingual societies. One or more languages will be highly valued, while others will be devalorized. At the individual level a similar mechanism operates. To the extent that the adults around the child value the use of language for certain functions. The extreme importance of valorization is evidenced at all societal and individual levels. At the societal level, if a minority language is not valorized and used as a tool for education, language attrition and language shift are likely to occur. At individual level, the positive valorization of a language will trigger off a motivational process for learning and using those aspects of language.

Q. Name two kind of language system (Topic#85)

The fact that bilingual children mix elements from their two languages is often interpreted as evidence for a unitary underlying language system. Fred Genesee’s article examines the empirical basis for such a claim. He points out the serious methodological problems of some of the studies, and re-analyses selected case studies. He also offers new data from speech perception studies, arguing that young bilingual children are able to differentiate two languages from the earliest stages of bilingual development and that they can use their two languages in contextually sensitive ways. He points out that code-mixing itself is not good evidence for the unitary system argument. In fact, children’s mixing may be related to mixed input by parents. Genesee calls for more serious research on the possible role of parental input in the form of mixed utterances. Jürgen M. Meisel addresses the ‘one system or two’ question by focusing on the syntactic and morphological development of bilingual children however, instead of simply providing further evidence in support of the separate development argument, Meisel raises the theoretically more interesting question of whether the human language making capacity could allow the bilingual individual to separate the two simultaneously acquired grammatical systems from early on, without going through a phase of confusion. Through a longitudinal study of simultaneous French-German bilingual children, he argues that grammatical processing is in fact possible much earlier than is usually assumed on the basis of analyses of monolingual child language. He further speculates that this early development of grammatical processing ability could be explained by the fact that the task of acquiring two language systems simultaneously requires more attention to problems of form, rather than relying on semantic-pragmatic strategies alone.

Q: Needs of twenty-first century in bilingual (Topic#106)

In the twenty-first century, our complex multilingual and multimodal global communicative networks often reflect much more than two separate monolingual codes. Bilingual education that is adaptive, able to expand and contract, as the communicative situations shift and as the terrain changes, is precisely what all children in the twentyfirst century need. What is important for bilingual education, then, may not always be the full language parts in isolation, but the quality and the effectiveness of the integrated sum. One plus one does not always equal two. The language practices of bilinguals are interrelated and expand in different directions to include the different communicative contexts in which they exist. What is needed today are practices firmly rooted in the multilingual and multimodal language and literacy practices of children in schools of the twenty-first century, practices that would be informed by a vision starting from the sum: an integrated plural vision. Educating children bilingually enables language practices that, like the banyan trees, build on each other in multiple ways and directions – up, out, down, across – but yet rooted in the terrain and realities from which they emerge.

Q. Define language and three ways of language (3)

Language: (Topic#115)

Language as an essential component of inter-cultural education in order to encourage understanding between different population groups and ensure respect for fundamental rights. People use language for (Topic# 122) 1. Expression 2. Interaction 3. Reference People use language for many purposes. They use language for expression, for interaction, and to express reference (Ager, 2001) but language practices can also be turned into something about which people, communities, and states have opinions and feelings (Ager, 2001)that is, language practices or languaging also act as a symbol system (Fishman, 1996); they can become symbolic of the speech community itself or of sacredness. Thus, languaging practices are codified into languages. For example, Urdu has become an important identity marker for Pakistanis after independence. Some languages have acquired a sanctity dimension for example Arabic for Muslims.

Q. what is dialect? Three types of Dialect? (Topic#124)

For linguists, the term “dialect” is a neutral term used for variants of a specific language. Romaine (1994) defines dialect as “a subordinate variety of a language,” and refers to regional dialects, associated with a place, social dialects, associated with social class, and historical dialects referring to ancestors of present language varieties. There are also ethnic dialects spoken by ethnolinguistic groups. However, people often reserve the term “dialect” for languages or ways of using language that are socially stigmatized. For example, many people think that what they speak to friends and families in informal settings is a dialect, and what they speak in school is a language. When states want to ensure that people who engage in certain languaging practices remain oppressed, these practices are often referred to as dialects; although when the speakers of these so called dialects achieve political power, they are then often designated as languages. Max Weinreich is often quoted as having said that “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy” (see Romaine, 1994: 12). This serves well to remind us that the difference between what people call a dialect and a language is most often not linguistic but social, and having to do with the power of its speakers.

Types of Dialect:

1. Social Dialect: The kind of language that upper class people speak. 2. Place Dialect: Dialect related to ethnicity. People belonging to a certain region and speaking the same language might speak different varieties or different dialects of the same language. 3. Historical Dialect: A dialect which has been used in a time which has passed away but over time this dialect is no more in use.

Q. Transnationalism (3) (T#121)

Sociopolitical and socioeconomic changes have also resulted in dramatic population shifts and this immigration is characterized by transnationalism; that is, the ability to go back and forth to the country of origin, aided by improved transportation and technology. All these population movements bring about changes in language use, and amplify the presence of bilingualism, as other languages are also becoming important.

Q. write an explanatory notes with examples on pidgin and creole (Topic#125)

Pidgins are defined by linguists as languages that come into being in contact situations, and are used by speakers with different language backgrounds to communicate, typically to trade or in plantation contexts. For us, they are just another manifestation of how people language. Structurally speaking, pidgins are simplified; that is, they have little morphology and limited syntax, and they are not mutually intelligible with the language from which they derive their lexicon. Pidgins are always learned as second languages. In contrast, when pidgins become nativized and standardized, and adopted as the language of the home by a majority of the population, they are known as creoles. Creoles are said to be lexically and structurally complex, and are learned as first languages. Michel De Graff (1999) has argued against what he calls “creole exceptionalism,” that is, the idea that because creoles had no time to incorporate the parentlanguages’ complex grammars, and because they are so new, creoles are similar to each other and different from other languages. In fact, if you compare the evolution and structures of English with that of Creoles, De Graff argues, there is no way to distinguish one from the other. In this reconstituted view, a creole may just be the partial settling of language practices under certain social circumstances.

Q. why do we want to teach a standardized language to our students in schools(3) (Topic#128)

Schools pay a lot of attention to the teaching of language itself. Language is central in school because it is also the means through which teaching and learning occurs. Often times, however, this use of language in school, as controlled by the teacher and limited to what is considered “the standard,” as such it has little to do with encouraging children’s intellectual inquiry and creativity or with children’s languaging. The ability to use the standard language is a developmental goal of education, but restricting the languaging of students may severely limit their communicative and intellectual potential, and their possibilities of becoming better educated.

Q. Linguicism. (Topic#133)

It is a term coined by Skutab-Kangas (2000) and it is similar to linguistic racism. The discrimination between language in term of power and the status that goes to its speakers is called linguicism. It is an arbitrary linguistic hierarchy (Imposed hierarchies)

• Language of the powerful
• Language of the majority or the language of the minority elite.

There are many examples worldwide of using language to limit educational and occupational opportunities to those who speak the privileged language. This actually accentuates social differences, since they can only be acquired through formal education and not everyone has access to school. Pennycook (2002) has also shown how language use in education may create “docile” people, able to cooperate in their own exploitation. Colonolization is the example of linguicism.