Reference no: EM133260822

PART 1

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages to a country having a single national language? Think broadly both about economic advantages and about aspects of prestige for various groups. Do some investigation: does your country or state have an official language?

2. Give an example of a time when you adjusted your behavior toward another person (especially of another age, ethnic, class or other group). Include how you adjusted, various factors that may have influenced your adjustment, and outcomes-your feelings/ perceptions or relational outcomes. What are some advantages or disadvantages of adjusting your behavior toward someone? Are there times not to do so, or to adjust your communication away from someone?

PART 2 : COMMENT ON THE BASE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1. Think of the language or languages you learned how to speak natively. Reflect on how does it make you feel when you hear a foreigner speak your language with a different accent, and/or say a word you think is out of context? What components of human language may explain the different pronunciation and choice of word? Why this is so?

2. Reflect on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and write down 3 commonly used expressions in your language(s) that suggest a link between language and culture. Explain these links for each example given.

3. Reflect on the link between gender and communication. Think of 3 examples of gender-based language in your culture. How do you see the discourse theory mentioned in the reading being relevant in your examples?