Language Science, Linguistics and TEFL Online

Minority Languages Endangerment!

2010-11-29T00:32:00.009+01:00

Language diversity and effectively cultural diversity,are part of world humanistic heritage. Contemporary concepts of globalisation and linguistic imperialism present a menace to many minority languages,and therefore human cultural diversity. What should be done to preserve such common heritage? and what people have to do to save many endangered languages throughout the world?

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. When it loses all its native speakers , the language then is dead or extinct.

David Crystal, in his book " Language Death " states that: " To say that a language is dead, is like saying that a person is dead, It will be no other way, for languages have no existence without people."

As an example of endangered languages that are in the way of extinction , we have the Latin language, which is nowadays used in very limited situations, though it was the predominant language over the world during the Roman Empire.

Among the languages that recently died, as Crystal suggests: Kasabe language. A language spoken by a speech community in Cameroon, which died after the death of its last native speaker in 1994. Also Ubykh, a language used by some groups in the Caucasian region, died in 1992 after the death of its last speaker.

Due to the overwhelming political, economic and cultural influence of the world superpowers, particularly the American hyper power, English is taking over the rest of world languages. Consequently, minority languages are the most likely to disappear in the recent future.

According to linguist M.Krauss, 90% of the world's about 7000 languages are endangered, and 50% of them will die by the end of this century.

To prevent such surprising previsions, people over the world need to work out of setting strategies and programs at the aim of saving minority languages.

The United Nations organisation, U.N.E.S.C.O, claims that, financial aids and material support are set up to help many endangered minority languages worldwide. A program that will save some of what remains of the minority languages if it is well executed.

Minority languages native speakers also have to take on the task of preserving their languages by promoting programs that help people to like, adopt and eventually enhance their language.

In a mostly globalised world, minority languages rescue is a human task. People over the world have to work out for reducing the impacts of contemporary globalisation on many endangered languages throughout the world, a world that tends to become a " Global Village ".

Algeria and Arabisation.

2010-10-24T03:32:00.013+01:00

The Algerian Constitution states that Arabic (Classical Arabic) is the sole official language of the nation, which is supposed to be used by all members of the Algerian community. Berber (Tamazight) is enshrined in the Constitution as a national language. French is considered as a foreign language and it is taught starting from the fourth year of primary school.

The diglossic situation in Algeria is characterised by the use of Arabic and French as high (H) languages, used in formal and public speech situations. However, Algerian colloquial Arabic and Berber, with its different varieties, are considered as low (L) languages, and are used in informal speech situations.

Generally, in public domains, Arabic is present and used everywhere, especially for writing, at different levels. In certain domains like education and environment (signing), Arabic is widely used. In other domains as economics, Arabic and French are used side by side.

This linguistic reality is the outcome of many years of work devoted to the launch of the intense Arabisation campaigns, and to the execution of important political and financial decisions taken just after independence in order to promote the status of Arabic and to restore the Arabo-muslim identity.

In fact, the Arabisation process has practically affected all the spheres of the public life that precedently was characterised by the use of French as the unique language.The impact of the Arabisation process was important in certain domains, like education and environment, and less important in other domains as in the university, particularly in medicine and science departments, where French is the most effective means of instruction and communication.

Arabisation policy has been largely criticised, and among these criticisms figures the insufficiency of human and financial means as well as the absence of a real strategy that takes into consideration the political and sociolinguistic realities of the Algerian community.

Is Language only Linguistic Norms?

2010-09-05T00:44:00.011+01:00

The need of people to communicate leads to the contact of their languages. Language contact situations lead to various linguistic and sociolinguistic variation.

Since language is not only linguistic rules, social rules have the great impact on language change. The American linguist Noam Chomsky argued that "to learn a language, is to know the rules perfectly well". Rules should include linguistic and social ones. Among social variables that influence language we cite: Ethnicity,religion, status, gender and level of education.

As an example of ethnic variation of language we have the African American Vernacular English (A.A.V.E.) which is spoken in the south of the U.S. by many blacks. It is characterized by the use of the infinity form of the verb "to be" in sentences such as "He is a teacher", they say "He be a teacher". This represents a linguistic change which is the result of a social one.

Also it is found in England that the working class used to use a simple English that fits their daily occupations. Whereas, the middle and upper classes usually tend to use the standard R.P. English. This is also a language change which is due to class divisions.

Gender also has its impact on language. Man language is different than woman language, and this is due to their role in society. The level of education has also its influence on language. the language of doctors and university teachers does not seem as the language of carpenters and masons.

Language is governed not only by linguistic rules, but also social rules; which are the result of social contact situations.

Is Grammar Essential for Language Learning and Teaching ?

2010-09-04T03:13:00.008+01:00

The importance of grammar teaching and learning has been a debated subject of applied linguistics for a long time. Some linguists supported and argued that learning a language can not be achieved without the learning of grammar rules of that language. However, other linguists suggested that grammar is just a part of language systems which is not so essential to language learning. So, is grammar the central part in language learning and teaching?

Among the first linguists who supported the importance of grammar in language learning, the Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Saussure. De Saussure argued that language is a set of rules that people should master and follow. He suggested also that, each language is unique in its rules of grammar which its speakers have to use.

De Saussure's view of grammar has given birth to the modern approach of TEFL, the Traditional Grammar Approach, which emphasizes on the teaching of grammar as the most important language system for learning a language.

On the other hand, many linguists regarded that grammar is not so important in language teaching and learning. The leader of this view is the American linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argued that, rules of grammar are flexible, and may generate an infinite number of sentences. He suggested that many language expressions and phrases which have been used and accepted by people, do not follow the grammatical rules. For instance the interrogative expression "where to?" is used by some English speakers instead of "where are you going to?",even though it contains no verb. Another example of grammatical rules destruction can be found in the English used by some Black Americans in the U.S. They usually omit the auxiliary in sentences such as "I am a doctor" and say "I a doctor" , and sometimes, they use the infinity form and say "I be a doctor". This destruction of grammar rules is used and accepted by speakers of such community. Therefore, this is an other form of language according to Chomsky.

Chomsky's view of generative grammar was the infrastructure to the modern TEFL approaches such as, the Communicative Language Approach which emphasizes on the involvement of the learners in the real or realistic communication, rather than teaching them the rules of grammar. The Audio-Lingual Approach also focuses on the learner's everyday conversations as a way of learning a language. The Lexical Approach focuses on the learning of the fixed and semi-fixed phrases and expressions used by the native speakers of the target language as a means of learning that language.

Although internalization of grammar rules is central to language learning and teaching, it is not the sole way of learning a language. We may find a fluent speaker of a foreign language who has never learned grammar. He has just lived and interacted with the native speakers of that language.