Comprehension:
It’s easy to forget that most of the world’s languages are still transmitted orally with no widely established written form. While speech communities are increasingly involved in projects to protect their languages – in print, on air and online – orality is fragile and contributes to linguistic vulnerability. But indigenous languages are about much more than unusual words and intriguing grammar: They function as vehicles for the transmission of cultural traditions, environmental understandings and knowledge about medicinal plants, all at risk when elders die and livelihoods are disrupted.
Both push and pull factors lead to the decline of languages. Through war, famine and natural disasters, whole communities can be destroyed, taking their language with them to the grave, such as the indigenous populations of Tasmania who were wiped out by colonists. More commonly, speakers live on but abandon their language in favor of another vernacular, a widespread process that linguists refer to as “language shift” from which few languages are immune. Such trading up and out of a speech form occurs for complex political, cultural and economic reasons – sometimes voluntary for economic and educational reasons, although often amplified by state coercion or neglect. Welsh, long stigmatized and disparaged by the British state, has rebounded with vigor.
Many speakers of endangered, poorly documented languages have embraced new digital media with excitement. Speakers of previously exclusively oral tongues are turning to the web as a virtual space for languages to live on. Internet technology offers powerful ways for oral traditions and cultural practices to survive, even thrive, among increasingly mobile communities. I have watched as videos of traditional wedding ceremonies and songs are recorded on smartphones in London by Nepali migrants, then uploaded to YouTube and watched an hour later by relatives in remote Himalayan villages . . .Globalization is regularly, and often uncritically, pilloried as a major threat to linguistic diversity. But in fact, globalization is as much process as it is ideology, certainly when it comes to language. The real forces behind cultural homogenization are unbending beliefs, exchanged through a globalized delivery system, reinforced by the historical monolingualism prevalent in much of
the West.
Monolingualism – the condition of being able to speak only one language – is regularly accompanied by a deep-seated conviction in the value of that language over all others. Across the largest economies that make up the G8, being monolingual is still often the norm, with multilingualism appearing unusual and even somewhat exotic. The monolingual mindset stands in sharp contrast to the lived reality of most the world, which throughout its history has been more multilingual than unilingual. Monolingualism, then, not globalization, should be our primary concern.
Multilingualism can help us live in a more connected and more interdependent world. By widening access to technology, globalization can support indigenous and scholarly communities engaged in documenting and protecting our shared linguistic heritage. For the last 5,000 years, the rise and fall of languages was intimately tied to the plow, sword and book. In our digital age, the keyboard, screen and web will play a decisive role in shaping the future linguistic diversity of our species.
Question 1: From the passage, we can infer that the author is in favour of:
[1] “language shifts” across languages.
[2] cultural homogenisation.
[3] greater multilingualism.
[4] an expanded state role in the preservation of languages Question 2: The author mentions the Welsh language to show that:
[1] efforts to integrate Welsh speakers in the English-speaking fold have been fruitless.
[2] languages can revive even after their speakers have gone through a “language shift”.
[3] vulnerable languages can rebound with state effort.
[4] while often pilloried, globalisation can, in fact, support linguistic revival. Question 3: The author lists all of the following as reasons for the decline or disappearance of a language EXCEPT:
[1] governments promoting certain languages over others.
[2] a catastrophic event that entirely eliminates a people and their culture.
[3] people shifting away from their own language to study or work in another language.
[4] the focus on only a few languages as a result of widespread internet use.
Question 4: We can infer all of the following about indigenous languages from the passage EXCEPT that:
[1] they are repositories of traditional knowledge about the environment and culture.
[2] people are increasingly working on documenting these languages.
[3] they are in danger of being wiped out as most can only be transmitted orally.
[4] their vocabulary and grammatical constructs have been challenging to document. |