REM00Y1: Critical Issues in Language - Multilingualism - Digital Society and Language - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

INSTRUCTIONS: 
As a remedial therapist you should have a thorough understanding of issues around language and education. Often there are misconceptions and myths around language and language use is associated with societal cultures and norms. Prepare a paper around a contentious issue regarding language. You may use one of the topics presented here, or consult with the lecturer regarding another topic that really interests you. This topic should have relevance for education in the South African context. Give a critical discussion of the topic, stating any advantages and disadvantages for remedial education. 
In your paper discuss underlying theoretical concepts relating to this issue. Provide theoretical and empirical evidence for your topic. Clearly indicate the relevance and implications of your topic for remedial education. You may provide practical examples from your own experiences where appropriate to illustrate your topic. Also, give teachers practical examples where appropriate that will allow them to integrate these issues into their everyday teaching. Integrated various sources you have read. Include a bibliography in your assignment and reference correctly in the text. 

Topic 1: Multilingualism “A wide spectrum of opinions exists as to the locally viable approaches towards multilingual education, ranging from arguments in favour of the cognitive benefits and cost-effectiveness of teaching through one medium (home language) and learning additional language(s) as subjects, to those drawing on comparative international experience demonstrating that, under appropriate conditions, most learners benefit cognitively and emotionally from the type of structured bilingual education found in dual-medium (also known as two- way immersion) programmes. Whichever route is followed, the underlying principle is to maintain home language(s) while providing access to and the effective acquisition of additional language(s). Hence, the Department’s position that an additive approach to bilingualism is to be seen as the normal orientation of our language-in- education policy.” The South African ‘language in education policy’ 1997. 
“South Africa’s schools should be using the home language of their students as the medium of instruction. This multilingual approach to education was made law in 1997, and is intended, among other things, to modernise the African languages for routine use in high status functions.” (Alexander, 2001). 
Discuss the multilingual approach to education and the ‘language in education policy’ in relation to these quotations. Give the underlying assumptions of the policy; the implications for schools, learners, teachers and their communities. Give advantages and critiques of the policy and multilingualism. Refer to appropriate theorists to support your discussion. Look at the challenges and benefits of using the mother tongue or English as the medium of instruction for teachers and learners. Relate multilingualism to the realities found in many local classrooms. 

Topic 2: Digital society and language “The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language” (Marc Prensky, 2001:20). Visit: 
Discuss the issues and implications inherent in this statement. Look at for instance, digital literacy as a social practice; the influence of texting on writing; the idea of digital natives and digital immigrants; the mismatch between these generations and the influence on education.

Topic 3: Hemispheres, the mind and language The Nobel Prize laureate Roger Sperry has argued that split-brain patients have two minds: “Everything we have seen so far indicates that the surgery has left these people with two separate minds, that is, two separate spheres of consciousness. What is experienced in the right hemisphere seems to lie entirely outside the realm of experience of the left hemisphere.” Another Nobel Prize winner in physiology, Sir John Eccles, disagrees. He does not think the right hemisphere can think; he distinguishes between “mere consciousness,” which animals possess as well as humans, and language, thought, and other purely human cognitive abilities. According to him, human nature is all in the left hemisphere. 
Discuss these two opposing points of view, stating your opinion on how to define ‘the mind.’ What are the arguments and evidence that scientists use to support or refute the notion that there are two separate brains/minds? Discuss the relationship between mind and language. 

Topic 4: Gender and language “If you want something said, ask a man ... If you want something done, ask a woman.” Dame Margaret Thatcher, former United Kingdom prime minister. 
This quote suggests that perhaps men and women process information differently. Discuss the controversial question: Are there gender differences in the brain having to do with how men and women process and use language? Consider the incidences of diagnosed learning, reading, language and communication disorders amongst the genders. Also look at physiological and language development differences in boys and girls. 

Topic 5: Evolutionary development of language Evolutionary changes in the brain are related to language development. 
“It could be that when the brain reached a certain level of complexity it simply automatically had certain properties because that’s what happens when you pack 1010 neurons into something the size of a basketball.” The linguist, Noam Chomsky. 
Similarly, Stephen Jay Gould stated: “The Darwinist model would say that language, like other complex organic systems, evolved step by step, each step being an adaptive solution. Yet language is such an integrated “all or none” system, it is hard to imagine it evolving that way. Perhaps the brain grew in size and became capable of all kinds of things which were not part of the original properties.” 
Other linguists, however, support a more Darwinian natural selection development, sometimes called, “the language instinct”: “All the evidence suggests that it is the precise wiring of the brain’s micro-circuitry that makes language happen, not gross size, shape, or neuron packing.” (Pinker, S. 1995. The language instinct). 
Discuss the conflicting views of how language has developed and the relationship with brain development. 

Topic 6: The Critical Period “The critical-age hypothesis assumes that language is biologically based and that the ability to learn one’s mother tongue develops within a fixed period in a child’s life. During this critical period language acquisition proceeds easily, swiftly and without external intervention. After this critical period, language grammar is difficult and never fully achieved.” Fromkin, et al. 2011. An Introduction to Language. 
Discuss the evidence available for the critical-age hypothesis and the implications this has for mother tongue and second language acquisition. Consider the contextual realities of living in a multi-lingual or mono-lingual society. 

Topic 7: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis “Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society ... we see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.” (Sapir, E. 1929. Language.) 
Discuss the evidence for this notion, which has also been called ‘linguistic determinism,’ as the language we speak determines how we perceive and think about the world. Language filters our reality. Give examples from local and international languages to support or refute ‘linguistic determinism.’ 

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