Language in Cultural Context

       

• Language and culture ARE interconnected
• Language is a social act that has the power to SHAPE culture.
• homo sapiens and homo loquens"

You will work towards the following understandings in relation to language:

• Language changes in relationship to time and place
• Language, culture and context determine the ways in which meaning is constructed in texts
• Meaning comes from complex interactions between text (or speech, or image), audience, and purpose

Language and knowledge 

"Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary-markers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground" Walt Whitman

"When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the "human essence," the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man." Noam Chomsky

What's that you're saying?

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• Up to 7,000 different languages are estimated to be spoken around the world
• Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French are world's most widely spoken languages, according to UNESCO
• Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestry
• English is related to German and Dutch, and all are part of Indo-European family of languages
• Also includes French, Spanish and Italian, which come from Latin
• 2,200 of the world's languages can be found in Asia, while Europe has 260

Source: BBC Languages

Vídeo de YouTube

1. How many languages does Alex speak?

2. Does context help in the process of acquiring a new language?

3. Are there any languages that have similiar pronunciation?

4. Which of the languages spoken by Alex seem more colloquial?

5. Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?

4. Do you think, the ability of learning a language is innate or learned?

5. According to you, are some languages more or less difficult  to learn than others? Talk about your own experience.

• Polyglots "have different brains" 

Neuroscientists at University College London say they have more "white brain matter" in a part of the brain which processes sound.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4883418.stm