languageawarenessling3

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Individual research: America is ruining the English language

I came across this video while I was looking for a topic for my research. I watched it and thought that it was very interesting. Which is why I also decided to research this specific topic. In this clip we see Economist’s language expert Lane Greene who tells us all about American English in British society.

Americans have long been guilty of spelling abuse. Thanks to 19th-century reformer Noah Webster, we’ve dropped the original and proper “u” from words like “colour” and “favour.” And we’ve lost the “a” from words like “orthopaedics”.

Abbreviations have always been a part of how the English language evolves.  For example, consider words like “fab”,”babe” and “delish”. But the youth today has taken it to a new, and frankly ridiculous extreme level . Or perhaps that should be “ridic”. Words like “obvi” (obviously) and “spesh” (special) appear to be taking over English, part of a trend some linguists have dubbed “totesing”. 

This trend has spread to English-speaking millennials around the world, but at least one linguist who studies the phenomenon blames America for it. More specifically, California. Researcher Sravana Reddy told NRP that “It might have originated in that area and spread over because of Hollywood and TV.”

Vocabulary has long been one of the main ways Brits and Americans are “divided by a common language”. Just for fun, try asking an unsuspecting American, “Can I borrow a rubber? I promise to give it back when I’m done!”

Other, less embarrassing differences include American’s curious insistence on calling the “boot” of the car a “trunk” and referring to “trousers” as “pants”. Is this really ruining English? Some would say “yes”. Including the Prince of Wales, who complained in a 1995 British Council meeting that “people tend to invent all sorts of nouns and verbs and make words that shouldn’t be.”

Nor is this a new complaint. And all too often, these Americanisms become part of the dictionary in England, too. For example, in 1832, the poet Samuel Coleridge was appalled at a “vile and barbarous” new adjective that had recently been imported from America. The word in question? It’s hard to believe now, but it was “talented”. 

Another way Americans are often accused of ruining the English language is through “verbing”. “Verbing” involves taking perfectly good nouns like “impact” or “dialogue” and turning them into verbs. Of course, this isn’t a new practice. It’s not strictly an American practice, either. For example, Shakespeare converted nouns to verbs with abandon. Today, this tendency is especially notable in American business culture. As Christopher Steiner noted in Forbes, Business clich’s have long been allowed to proliferate, multiply and slink around like evil gremlins within the American business establishment.

And the American refusal to respect the proper parts of speech isn’t limited to nouns and verbs, either. For example, in a 2012 article, the Daily Mail weighed in against the American word “drive-thru”.

Drivethru might be the worst of all possible words. It takes a verb and a preposition, and screws them together (Americans love doing that: walkup, stopover, hangout). Then it mangles the spelling.

As Matthew Engels observed, thanks to the ubiquity of American pop culture, metaphors that make a lot more sense in America have migrated over to England. For example, people in the UK often find themselves using baseball metaphors like “out of left field” and “home run,” even though the sport itself is not nearly as popular there.

Is America Ruining English, Really?

In reality, every language with speakers in more than one country has variations like this. America isn’t even the only country to have its own mutant form of English. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have their own variations on the language (See The Different Types of English for more examples of how English varies from country to country.) And of course, there’s Spanish as it’s spoken in Spain versus Latin American Spanish. Or Portuguese versus Brazilian Portuguese.

Nobody’s ruining the English language. And for anyone to call it “our” language is repugnantly colonial. Language spreads and language changes. English is spoken across the globe by more people (as a first, second or foreign language) than any other, and has the third highest number of native speakers (only Mandarin and Spanish having more). The language has many different and distinct “standard” or “official” varieties (Standard British, Standard American, Standard Australian) and innumerable non-standard varieties and pidgins.

The notion of “ruining” implies changing in unacceptable ways. Languages do change - despite all attempts to the contrary, or to constrain their change. The further implication of “ruin” is that the change is necessarily negative. Presumably it threatens the capacity of the language to express something - be that complex thought, heightened emotion, refined argument. Or that it somehow threatens the integrity of the speech community, which as we have seen was never integrated in the first place.

It is indeed true that Noah Webster, American lexicographer, introduced several spelling reforms in the 1820s into American spelling. Among these are what are now considered “American spelling” such as honor, neighbor, center, and jail. Other of Webster’s reforms are accepted in British as well as American English, such as public and mask (in place of publick and masque). Some of Webster’s suggested reforms failed to take hold even in America, such as tung (tongue) and wimmen (women).

The curious thing is that it’s only the “or” and “er” words that seem to raise the ire of anti-Americans. Yet the very “or” and “er” words that draw such ire actually represent an older British spelling. The spelling “honour” is found 393 times in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (published in 1623), while the spelling “honor” occurs 530 times.

Webster chose the “or” and “er” spellings because they looked less French. Indeed the reason that, when British spelling was standardized in the 19th century, the “our” and “re” spellings were chosen was precisely because their French look lent them a certain dignity. In other words, the spellings were deliberately snobby.

Conclusion(s)

One of the conclusions that we can draw is that the English are ruining the language, for in each and every case the American situation represents an older form, and the Standard British is actually the innovative, the newer form.

The next possible conclusion is that the language started out ruined (most ruinous in the age of Shakespeare), and Americans inherited this ruin from the British, but that somehow Victorian English “saved” the English language from ruin. If this is true, it is still not true that the Americans “are ruining” or “have ruined” the language. It was still the English who ruined it. And if you believe this one, I think you’ve got far more serious problems than worrying about language. 

The final view is of course that language changes, and that claims of ruin or otherwise have nothing to do with language, and everything to do with feelings of cultural superiority and bias.

Source(s):

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-WJVDDZTFY

https://www.k-international.com/blog/americans-ruined-english/ Â

http://theconversation.com/the-americans-are-destroying-the-english-language-or-are-they-21461 

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Language Myths LM

Summary of myth 18

Summary of myth 18: Some languages are spoken more quickly than others

We all make judgements about how quickly someone is speaking, but it is not at all easy to work out what we base these judgements on. Speakers of some languages seem to rattle away at high speed like machine-guns, while other languages sound rather slow and plodding. Some languages sound faster than other languages. This is the same with accents. There are characteristic differences in speaking speed.

Investigators have chosen to measure the number of syllables spoken in an given amount of time. With these measurements people can find out which language is a little faster than the other, but this depends on if you pronounce everything in a good way. 

Our impression of a language being spoken faster or slower may depend on its characteristic rhythm. It is influenced by whether a language is perceived to be stress-timed or syllable timed.

Some people are naturally fast speaker, or when you are tired you speak slower. In every language there are personal and social factors with the sped language, it all depends on that.

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Language Myths LM

Summary of myth 13, 14 and 15

Summary of myth 13: Black children are verbally deprived

Some people claim that black people are genetically deprived when it comes to the English language. There are several theories what that could be, lip size for example. Some people claim that the reason black people sound different is because they have bigger lips. Social and cultural differences are still the public’s favorite excuse for the difference between black and white speech.

 Summary of myth 14: Double negatives are illogical

 Negative + negative = positive. This theory explains why some people say that double negatives cancel each other out. Words have a meaning and removing a word in a sentence with three negatives it would change the meaning of a sentence. You can find double negations in almost every language. Some find double negations illogical, others find them elegant and graceful. But double negatives are definitely not illogical.

 Summary of myth 15: TV makes people sound the same

 Why and how languages change isn’t really known, but if you were to ask someone on the street, there will be a 90% change he or she will say television. Sociolinguists see some evidence for the mass playing a role in the spread of vocabulary items. When they look deeper at the language change - sound and grammatical changes - the media have no significant effect at all. The media can make words more popular than others, but can’t change grammar or sound. It is more likely that we pick up things from travelers, salesmen, neighbors and colleagues from distant places. When they speak to you maybe you unconsciously borrow some features from their speech and they do it with yours.

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Language Myths LM

Summary of myth 8, 10 and 11

Summary of myth 8: Children can’t speak or write properly any more

For centuries there have been complaints about the state of the English language. These complaints always seem to assume that the language is in decline and the decline has to be associated with moral decline. Especially the younger generation would be the problem. Their ability to speak the language is just as good as well as their ability to read and write almost certainly, better on average as the older generation. The children have to speak and write in “standard English”. This is normally used in the upper an upper-middle classes and this is a small group. But language as a whole has been changing throughout the years which causes the youth nowadays to use different words then they did back then. This al has to do with social discrimination, saying that regional speech isn’t good and this will continue. 

 Summary of myth 10: Some languages have no grammar

 Grammar for linguists is a set of rules which speakers of the language follow when they speak. All known human languages have verbs and nouns, which means that they have grammar. Some people say a language doesn’t have grammar simply because there is no grammar book. The existence of a grammar book is irrelevant to the question whether the language has grammar. A grammar book can be written for any language, because every language has grammar.

Summary of myth 11: Italian is beautiful, German is ugly

Some languages are more pleasing to listen to than others. French is romantic, Italian is elegant and German is ugly. We all have our own favorite-sounding language. The views about the beauty and ugliness of languages are built on cultural norms, pressures and social meaning. Because we associate Germany with Hitler and war, a lot of people don’t like the language. The same is for the beauty of a language. With French we think of romance, so a lot of people see this as a beautiful language. This chapter shows us how much our opinion on a language is based on what we know about the country it’s spoken in.

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Teaching language 5.1

How I would teach a language is simple. I would start with the total physical response. This because I believe that students will learn the language and the grammar better when they have something active (like an energizer or another activity) linked to their studies. Naturally I will not do this every lesson. Students also need to learn how to sit down and study. I will help them with this if necessary.

 For the higher classes I would like to start with the direct approach. that way I won’t be translating everything that I tell them and will they learn how to ‘think’ for themselves. They will also acquire a better understanding for the language (because the language is being spoken to them on a regular basis). I wish that my teachers would have done that at the time. I feel like that would have made a world of difference, not just regarding English but also languages as French and German. Because if a language is spoken regularly, the students will learn it quicker. Another activity that I plan to organize of participate in are language villages. These are fun to do and I also believe that it will help the students improve enormously. It may be an idea to do a language village in every year.

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Personal experience 4.2

When I was in high school/secondary school I remembered that most of our teachers tried the direct approach. This however only worked sometimes. Most of the times the students were a bit shy to talk English out loud. As the years followed this feeling of shyness became less and less and in our final year we were able to start, maintain and end a conversation in English.

Another activity that I remember very well are the language villages. I really looked forward to that one at the time, because not only did we have to speak English, we also had to show our teachers that we were able to ‘handle’ ourselves.

 However the one thing that I believe really ‘thought’ me English is playing video games and watching English movies and series. There was a time when I really enjoyed to game a lot, naturally these games always came in a lot of languages, except Dutch so the next best language was English. I think I’ve spend hour playing games like Mario and Pokémon on my Nintendo DS. Some people may say that that’s not how you ‘learn’ English, but I believe that it is, or that it at least is one of the main things that can teach your student English. And it is most of the times something that they enjoy as well.

 Conclusion:

I really enjoyed going to my English classes, but that’s not the same for everybody. If you don’t like the subject, the teacher has to do a very good job to keep everything interesting. Not every teacher did this, especially not during my first two years in high school. the teacher that we had at the time was only nice to her favorite students and paid less attention to the rest of the class. The teacher that I had in my final year really was an inspiration. She was nice to all the student, strict at times but the one thing that she did best was keeping the lessons interesting. This is something, I believe every teacher should do. Using language while doing something that you like to do, is the best way to improve your English skills. This will give you a head start, but doesn’t change the fact that you still need to study. What I plan to do as a teacher is to keep my lessons interesting an fun and then, along the way, my students will also learn a thing or two.

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Language in theory 4.1

Total Physical Response

Asher, J.C.  (1979). Learning Another Language Through Actions. San Jose, California: AccuPrint.

James J. Asher defines the Total Physical Response (TPR) method as one that combines information and skills through the use of the kinesthetic sensory system. This combination of skills allows the student to assimilate information and skills at a rapid rate. As a result, this success leads to a high degree of motivation. The basic tenets are:

Understanding the spoken language before developing the skills of speaking. Imperatives are the main structures to transfer or communicate information. The student is not forced to speak, but is allowed an individual readiness period and allowed to spontaneously begin to speak when the student feels comfortable and confident in understanding and producing the utterances.

TECHNIQUE

Step I The teacher says the commands as he himself performs the action.

Step 2 The teacher says the command as both the teacher and the students then perform the action.

Step 3 The teacher says the command but only students perform the action

Step 4 The teacher tells one student at a time to do commands

Step 5 The roles of teacher and student are reversed. Students give commands to teacher and to other students.

Step 6 The teacher and student allow for command expansion or produces new sentences.

Functional-Notional Approach

Finocchiaro, M. & Brumfit, C. (1983). The Functional-Notional Approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

This method of language teaching is categorized along with others under the rubric of a communicative approach. The method stresses a means of organizing a language syllabus. The emphasis is on breaking down the global concept of language into units of analysis in terms of communicative situations in which they are used.

Notions are meaning elements that may be expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives or adverbs. The use of particular notions depends on three major factors: a. the functions b. the elements in the situation, and c. the topic being discussed.

A situation may affect variations of language such as the use of dialects, the formality or informality of the language and the mode of expression. Situation includes the following elements:

A. The persons taking part in the speech act

B. The place where the conversation occurs

C. The time the speech act is taking place

D. The topic or activity that is being discussed

Exponents are the language utterances or statements that stem from the function, the situation and the topic.

Code is the shared language of a community of speakers.

Code-switching is a change or switch in code during the speech act, which many theorists believe is purposeful behavior to convey bonding, language prestige or other elements of interpersonal relations between the speakers.

The Silent Way

Gattegno, C. (1972).Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way. New York City: Educational Solutions.

Procedures

This method created by Caleb Gattegno begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in order to achieve the following:

To avoid the use of the vernacular. To create simple linguistic situations that remain under the complete control of the teacher To pass on to the learners the responsibility for the utterances of the descriptions of the objects shown or the actions performed. To let the teacher concentrate on what the students say and how they are saying it, drawing their attention to the differences in pronunciation and the flow of words. To generate a serious game-like situation in which the rules are implicitly agreed upon by giving meaning to the gestures of the teacher and his mime. To permit almost from the start a switch from the lone voice of the teacher using the foreign language to a number of voices using it. This introduces components of pitch, timbre and intensity that will constantly reduce the impact of one voice and hence reduce imitation and encourage personal production of one's own brand of the sounds.

To provide the support of perception and action to the intellectual guess of what the noises mean, thus bring in the arsenal of the usual criteria of experience already developed and automatic in one's use of the mother tongue. To provide a duration of spontaneous speech upon which the teacher and the students can work to obtain a similarity of melody to the one heard, thus providing melodic integrative schemata from the start.

Materials

The complete set of materials utilized as the language learning progresses include:

A set of colored wooden rods A set of wall charts containing words of a "functional" vocabulary and some additional ones; a pointer for use with the charts in Visual Dictation A color coded phonic chart(s) Tapes or discs, as required; films Drawings and pictures, and a set of accompanying worksheets Transparencies, three texts, a Book of Stories, worksheets.

The Reading Approach

This approach is selected for practical and academic reasons. For specific uses of the language in graduate or scientific studies. The approach is for people who do not travel abroad for whom reading is the one usable skill in a foreign language. 

The priority in studying the target language is first, reading ability and second, current and/or historical knowledge of the country where the target language is spoken.Only the grammar necessary for reading comprehension and fluency is taught. Minimal attention is paid to pronunciation or gaining conversational skills in the target language. From the beginning, a great amount of reading is done in L2, both in and out of class. The vocabulary of the early reading passages and texts is strictly controlled for difficulty. Vocabulary is expanded as quickly as possible, since the acquisition of vocabulary is considered more important that grammatical skill.Translation reappears in this approach as a respectable classroom procedure related to comprehension of the written text.

The Direct Approach

This approach was developed initially as a reaction to the grammar-translation approach in an attempt to integrate more use of the target language in instruction.

Lessons begin with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in the target language. Material is first presented orally with actions or pictures. The mother tongue is NEVER, NEVER used. There is no translation. The preferred type of exercise is a series of questions in the target language based on the dialogue or an anecdotal narrative. Questions are answered in the target language. Grammar is taught inductively–rules are generalized from the practice and experience with the target language. Verbs are used first and systematically conjugated only much later after some oral mastery of the target language. Advanced students read literature for comprehension and pleasure. Literary texts are not analyzed grammatically. The culture associated with the target language is also taught inductively. Culture is considered an important aspect of learning the language.

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Language Myths LM

Summary of myth 3 and 5

Summary of myth 3: The media are ruining English

A lot of people are concerned for the health of English and that is not new. Parents, teachers and the press have all been blamed for the problem. In recent years the media - television, newspapers, radio - have been widely criticized as linguistic criminals. There are two statements mentioned in the myth that suggest that journalism is the main cause of the English being ruined.

 “Dirty fingernails fallacy: journalists use language sloppily”

”Garbage heap fallacy: journalism is junk writing”

Both of these statements have proven to be untrue. Journalists use new words and slowly the whole world uses them. The media are linguistic mirrors. They use the current language usage and extend it, they don’t invent these forms, only use them.

Summary of myth 5: English spelling is kattastroffik

You would think that if you know how to pronounce a word you’d also know how to spell it. But with a lot of words this is not the case. The spelling differs from the pronunciation. The myth that there are 5 vowels in English refers to the vowel letters <a, e, I, o,u> of the Roman alphabet. Depending on your accent, you will find about twenty vowel in English. Where it is true that the English alphabet has 5 vowels, there are actually 24 vowel sounds. A combination of those vowels can still sound different and even consonants can have different pronunciations. Words that are spelt the same but sound different are called homographs. Words that are pronounced the same but spelt differently are called homophones. Words that are spelt the same, pronounced the same but don’t have the same meaning are called homonyms. In this chapter they discuss how many different sounds there are in English and that that is why it becomes so hard to write down what you hear.

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What is Language Awareness? 3.2

Language is a concept that increases every day. Without language, humans can’t understand each other properly. Language is a necessary mean of communication. But just as people evolve so does language.

Every language can evolve as the time goes on. New words get added to a language, old words are being forgotten or replaced. For us a teachers, it is of great importance that we are aware of what we teach. We need to fully understand the subject or language that we teach in order for our students to follow. This is also why I believe that if you are a teacher of a modern language, doesn’t matter which one, it is of importance that you have visited a country where the language that you teach is spoken.

 The job that we have as teachers is very important. We will be generating the future generation with knowledge that they will need in the years to come. If we want to teach our students a language, in this case English, they need to be made aware of the importance of that language and all the other aspects that come with it. For that reason it is essential that we as teachers, make our students aware of everything that comes with a language, in other words: make them Aware of the language.

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Dream language 3.1

I think that there is a truth in both, the way I see it and the way Mark Blechner sees it.

I believe that we don’t purposely use language in our dreams. Mark Blechner states that as well, although he believes that our regular language isn’t used. I however am not sure of that. I do believe that when we dream, everything happens like in a movie and the ‘characters’ do speak. In which language will always be the question. I think this is different for each individual.

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Language Myths LM

Summary of myth 1 and 2

Summary of myth 1: The meaning of words should not be allowed to vary or change

Languages change and evolve all the time. In time, the pronunciations will change.

The same goes for the grammar. However there are people who try to resist the change in language, but as the book mentions, they can simply not prevent it. Languages are self-regulating systems which can take care of themselves.

 Summary of myth 2: Some languages are just not good enough

If we look at all the languages spoken in the world today, we notice very wide differences in the use to which they are put. Most languages are the first language of a community and serve the everyday functions of that community. A few languages have a more restricted range of usage where other languages have a wider function, used as an official language in the administration of whole states and nations. And finally, we have languages that have an international role such as English and Spanish.

 Why are some languages just not good enough? One reason for this is that a language can be found “ugly” or “barbaric”. Another reason is that in some instances the features of the structure of a language which are picked out as reason why another language to be preferred for a particular function. The final reason of why some languages are just not good enough is because you can’t discuss nuclear physics in it. Essentially, languages may differ as to the way various aspects of structure are handled, but they are all capable of expressing the same range of structural meanings. The only way for a language to develop is to “borrow” vocabulary.

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Dreams 2.3

Ever wondered about the link between dreaming and language learning?

You’ve probably heard people talk about the moment when they started to dream in a foreign language. It’s often considered a sign of fluency. In the 1980s, Canadian psychologist Joseph De Koninck observed that students of French who spoke French in their dreams earlier made progress faster than other students.

But were they quicker because they dreamed, or did they dream because they were quicker?

Psychologists and neuroscientists have tried to investigate the link between dreaming and language learning, but it’s difficult to pin down what happens in dreams. Some people report speaking fluently in a dream in a language they can barely speak when awake. Dreamers are unreliable witnesses.

The subconscious mind is capable of amazing things, like with the coma patient who forgot her native language and woke up speaking German. Maybe while you’re learning a new language your brain is busily storing away all the information that your conscious mind cannot absorb and it all spills out when you’re asleep?

Or maybe not.

The point is, it’s tough to prove either way. Whether dreams have any real psychological or physiological purpose is still hotly debated. Common hypotheses for why we dream include as a way of solving problems, processing information, or getting rid of stuff the brain doesn’t need.

~We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. - William Shakespeare, The Tempest~

 Partly because science struggles to explain dreams, they remain a glimpse into the numinous. They perform important culturally-specific functions: think of shamans using dreams to heal people or predict the future, and the continuing pull of New-Age mysticism.

Maybe dreaming in another language is an expression of our desire for linguistic and cultural “insiderness”, tapping into the sense of belonging that a new language can bring. Whether you consider it a linguistic milestone or not, it definitely indicates a strong awareness of and engagement with new language.

 Source: https://blog.babbel.com/link-dreaming-and-language-learning/

 With this information, I do believe that people dream in language. Which language is the question. I believe that it is different for each individual. Furthermore, I also believe that both, blind- and deaf people dream in language as well simply because that’s just the way that their mind works. 

For more information about the language that we dream in, I would totally recommend clicking on the link below. I thought the article given there was very interesting.

Source: https://blog.babbel.com/link-dreaming-and-language-learning/

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Thoughts on language 2.2

Do you think language?

I believe that we do not actually think in words. If we did, we would not search for the right word to express a thought and we would not have integrated thought if we were bilingual.

We do not think in actual words but perhaps in something like concepts. Those concepts could be represented by words or pictures or even sounds. Some people say that we think in symbols. Perhaps we have symbols standing for concepts and we manipulate these with some sort of rule system.

However I do believe that we think in a specific language, mostly your mother tongue. I think that if you want to change the language that you think in, you’d have to spent a lot of time in a country where that given language is spoken or even move there.

What goes faster: thinking or speaking?

Personally I believe that thinking goes faster than speaking. this because you have to “think before you speak”. In other words: you first have to come up with what you want to say in the first place, which means that you think first, and speak after.

When I`m sending a text to someone, I tend to think faster than the speed that I`m typing with. This sometimes leads to situations where I get a text back from someone that says “what do you mean?”. Then when I read what I just send them, I first recall what it was that I wanted to say, then I read what I actually said which is not something completely different, but a few letters are missing or I forgot to add a word in a sentence which makes it unreadable.

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The Origin of language 2.1

Where does language come from?

The origin of spoken language has stumped linguistics dating as far back as the Twenty-sixth dynasty in Egypt and the first recorded language experiment conducted by a Pharaoh named Psammetichus I. While it is widely understood that our ability to communicate through speech sets us apart from other animals, language experts, historians and scientists can only hypothesize how, where and when it all began. Some new findings may provide some real insight into this conundrum.

A recent study conducted by Quentin D. Atkinson, a biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, suggests two very important findings: language originated only once, and the specific place of origin may be southwestern Africa.

While most studies focus on words in order to trace the birth of modern language, Atkinson zeroed in on phonemes (the basic distinctive units of sound by which words are represented) of over 500 languages around the world. By applying mathematical methods to linguistics, Atkinson discovered that the further humans traveled from Africa, the fewer number of phonemes survived. 

To put this into perspective: Many African click languages or “click consonants”, found in all three Khoisan language families, have more than 100 phonemes while the languages of Oceania, the spoken language of the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand - the latter being the furthest migration route out of Africa, have only 13. The Modern English language has approximately 45 phonemes.

Atkinson`s findings challenge a long-held belief by linguistics that the origin of spoken language only dates back some 10,000 years. Atkinson hints that if African populations began their dispersal from Africa to Asia and Europe 60,000 years ago, perhaps the spoken language had to exist around that time and, as Atkinson hints at, may have been the catalyst for their dispersion and subsequent migration.

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/e/origin/ 

What are the consequences for me as a teacher?

To me, language is not something you can get a clear gasp on. Just as we humans, language will keep evolving. One can simply not say what our language will look like in say, the next ten years. For that same reason, I find it very difficult to answer the question from a teacher`s point of view.

I believe that the best possible answer that you can give regarding this question is: language keeps evolving and the best way to deal with that as a teacher is to be flexible and go with the language flow. (this answer implies to both, L1 and L2)

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Creativity 1.3

In my opinion it is not possible to learn how to be creative. Being creative is a skill that most people already poses, even in small proportions.

When you are aware of this fact, I do believe that you can expand this skill and get more creative. If you, for some reason do not poses the desire to, for example, turn something ordinary in something extraordinary, then I don’t believe that you are creative. Some individuals simple don’t feel the need to change things. To some people some things are great, just the way they are.

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Learning a language 1.2

I personally believe that you can never speak a language by just studying it, no matter how much you study.

You have to realize that studying a language has a very specific purpose and if you are not aware of this then you may end up stuck in the vicious circle of never speaking: Studying will never help you speak a language, but (as long as you do it right) studying will help you speak a language better.

If you already speak, but your conjugations aren't great or you need to quickly increase your store of vocabulary about a specific topic, then by all means study. When the goal is to pass a test or improve your grasp on something specific, then study is the way to go.

But if you don't speak the language confidently right now, studying is not the way to get this confidence.

When you study, you acquire vocabulary, you improve your grammar and you do exercises. Logically enough, your level improves. With time, your potential increases, you can understand more and you can theoretically join in on a wider scope of conversations. “One day”, when you're ready, you can finally start speaking confidently.

To get back to the original question: Can you learn a language? No, you can not learn a language. However, you can acquire a language, understand a language more and learn how to speak a language.

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What is language? 1.1

The most simple definition of language is the following:

Language in general is more or less a complex form of communication in the form of signs, which together form a system. In other words, the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.

But what is language? and why is it there? here are some thoughts on that:

“English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway.”  ~Author Unknown

“Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons.”  ~Aldous Huxley

″Swearing was invented as a compromise between running away and fighting.”  ~Peter Finley Dunne, Mr. Dooley's Opinions, 1900

Personally I believe that each of these quotes contain a small piece of the truth. Independently they might not make any sense, but when you put them together you can see the link that they share and hopefully understand what they mean.

These quotes were copied from: http://www.quotegarden.com/language.htmlÂ

For more quotes on Language, feel free to go to:

http://thinkexist.com/quotations/language