Restoration of Speech from the Dead - Essay Example

Lingua Globa: How English Became Globish Summary of the article The article expounds on how a mongrel tongue became English, a dominant language today. According to the article, the interaction between people through inversions such as Anglo-Saxons invading England and French Normans interacting with English people provided the building block for English. In relation to the origin of English, the article asserts that traces of English language can be found in surprising places but not as violent as that of other languages such as French, German and Russian. The democratization of English was, however, the main reason for its global domination. In relation to globalization, the article claims that English is every person’s second language in the world. According to the article, the sea played a part in making English a global language by enhancing the interaction of different cultures. How the article relates to class In the article, the author expounds on how one restoration of speech from the dead could result to hearing a language to oneself. This assertion correlates with what we learned in chapter 3 about “articulatory phonetics”. Articulatory phonetics involves studying the production of speech sounds through vocal organs (40). In connection with this, the article explains how alteration of vocal organs through cruel death affected speech. In chapter 3 we also learned that successions of phones make a stretch of speech. It is in relation to this fact that the author of the article claimed that restoration of the dead people’s speech could assist in determining the language they used in communication. Critique of the article The author of the article clearly states his research topic, How English Became ‘Globish’ in writing the article. Apart from using simple language, the author provides detailed information on the origin and expansion of English in order to enable the reader to understand easily the article. Despite this, the article had some few weaknesses. For example, the use of articulatory phonetics in recognizing speech was not presented clearly in the article. Additionally, the article did not provide enough reasons as to why English is a global language. My assessment of the article The information provided by the article will be very useful to a person researching on the origin of English language. It has presented the information about the origin of English language in a chronological manner. Although I knew that English is a global language, it is evident that article informed about its origin. The linking of globalization of English language with invasions makes one understand the importance of cultural integration as much as language use is concerned. Can foreign speakers help the Irish language survive? Summary of the article The article asserts that the Irish language is under threat of extinction. According to it, the distance between students from Ireland contributes to the low use of Irish language in communication. In relation to this, the article claims that Irish tries to survive instead of thriving because of only 20% of the people using it in communication. The article asserts that the government and the Irish population support the thriving of Irish language but rarely speak it. In support of this claim, the article argues that the majority of the students who learn Irish at school lose their language skills when out of school because of avoiding using it in communicating. Despite these challenges, the article claims that some people have started developing interest in the Irish language. Apart from learning Irish in the educational system, some use it online on social media sites such as Facebook. How the article relates to class In relation to what we learned in chapter 3 about reasons for systematic and specialized approaches to learning a foreign language (31), the article expounds on how people are learning Irish in the education system. Learning Irish in the educational system will enable a person communicate as well as learn in Irish. Additionally, the article expounded on how the behavior patterns of the people affected Irish language. This assertion is in tandem with what we learned in chapter 3 on how the structure of the cultural system enables one understand how a given communication system operates. Critique of the article The topic of the article did not explain well about the content of the article. The article mainly speaks about the low use of Irish language whereas the title of the article referred to the contributions of foreign speakers in enhancing the survival of the Irish language. However, the article is written in a simple language that enables one to understand its main points. Although the article was successful in explaining the reasons for low use of Irish language, it is evident that it did not explain clearly on what foreigners need to do in order to uplift the use of Irish language. Despite its weakness in elaborating the contributions of foreigners to the Irish language, it successfully explained the main reasons as to why the use of Irish language in communication is very low. My assessment of the article The article well presents the factors that contribute to the extinction of some languages. As a result of this, it will be very useful in carrying out my research in future on the reasons as to why some languages have become dead today. For instance, the article associated the stopping of using Irish language out of school with its struggle for survival. The information presented in this article added to what I knew about the main causes of the death of many languages. However, the article would have been more interesting if the author incorporated more information about the contributions of foreigners to the survival of the Irish language. Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl! Summary of the article The article speaks about Chaser, a dog with the largest vocabulary. According to the article, Chaser knows 1,022 nouns that may help in explaining how children acquire language. Chaser has the ability to fetch 200 items. The article claims that Chaser learned her vocabularies from the training that took four to five hours a day. In relation to Chaser’s learning ability, the article asserts that children have the ability to pick up 10 new words a day. The article further asserts that children leave high school knowing 60,000 words. The learning of many words by children compared to Chaser is as a result of children learning words in a context. The article also claims that Chaser understood not only nouns, but also verbs. She could do what she was told about an object. According to the article, the majority of the words learned by Chaser were proper nouns. However, she had the ability to learn common nouns. The article claims that children acquire language via the same neural mechanism used by Chaser in learning her vocabularies. How the article relates to class In relation to “the Sounds of Language” we learned in class, it is evident that Dr. Pilley used different sounds to train Chaser different vocabularies. In relation to this claim, Chaser’s acquaintance of phonemes enabled her distinguish the words that were said to her by Dr. Pilley. Additionally, the success of Chaser in learning English vocabularies correlates with understanding the parts of the system function of the dog. This assertion is in relation to what we learned in chapter three about the importance of understanding the structure of a system in learning a foreign language. Critique of the article The title of the article clearly summarizes the content of the article. From it, one can deduce that the article is all about training. The information presented in the article is in a simple that can be understood by any person without linguistic knowledge. The article had many strengths; it explained on how Chaser learned her vocabularies in addition to explaining how children learn new words at school. The learning procedure of Chaser as presented by the article also enables one to understand how children learn nouns and verbs in their acquisition of language. My assessment of the article As a linguistic student, the information provided by this article will enable me expound my understanding of children’s language acquisition in future. For instance, the teaching of the dog on the meaning of specific verbs will enable me understand how children learn how to do some things in life. Although I knew that dogs learned, it is apparent that I never knew that a dog can learn many vocabularies in their life. In relation to this, I can confirm that the information that was presented in the article could be assistive in teaching children new words. Works Cited Dailey, Kate. Can foreign speakers help the Irish language survive? BBC News. 16 March 2012. Web. 5 May. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17373880 McCrum, Robert. Lingua Globa: How English Became Globish, 27 May 2010. Web. 5 May. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127221336&sc=fb&cc=fp Wade, Nicholas. Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl! The New York Times, 17 Jan. 2011. Web. 5 May. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/science/18dog.html?_r=2&WT.mc_id=SC-SM-E- FB-SM-LIN-DMP-011811-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click Read More