Bilingualism

In his February 2013 Ted talk “Txtng is killing language. JK!!!,” the linguist John McWhorter argues against the notion that texting leads to the downfall of literacy among the younger generation. In fact, the speaker claims that texting causes the development of the “linguistic repertoire” and the formation of a new language. In order to do so, McWhorter acknowledges the status quo of the perception of texting among the older generation; texting is the “scourge” that leads to the “decline of the

Nowadays, most of the U.S. high schools required all students to take a foreign language class. Bilingual education is not a newfangled concept. In China, every student started to take the English class since they were in third grade. I took my first English class when I was in second grade. Schools are extremely encouraging students to learn other languages besides Chinese. It helped me feel a little bit of sense of safety when I first came to the United States. Because I was being able to understand

In understanding official multiculturalism in a broader context, it is necessary to first examine it basic values, and namely, what sort of society is multiculturalism attempting to promote? In this context, it’s useful to examine key clauses of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act; and in particular the official statement on multiculturalism policy found in section 3. First, the Act asserts that all Canadians are entitled to “preserve, enhance, and share their cultural heritage.” Central to this notion

2. I grew up in a small town with a small school. My town is very conservative and most of my classmates were of European descent. This doesn’t leave much space to be different. I enjoyed growing up in my town; it seems rural and idyllic, but looking back now I’m not entirely sure which “group” I really belonged in. There weren’t really any “preppy” groups at my school; if anyone could have fit into the “popular” category it would have been the academically successful jocks. Most people in

In the beginning, this country was a melting pot. Many different people, from many different countries, of many different ethnic groups, speaking in many different tongues came to America. English arose as the predominant language of the United States. Over time, people realized the importance of staying in touch with their cultural backgrounds, including the language of their native countries. The main problem presented now lies in communication and interaction with each other. It is obvious

The Incipient stage of multiculturalism was the foundation for building policy, post World-War 2 Canada received over 157,000 (http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1033499 ) refugees through Pier 21, most of then from the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and Baltic states. These refugees built upon the European immigrants who arrived via the mass migration in the early 1900’s led by Clifford Sifton, who was the Minister of Interior under the Laurier administration, as well as being the author of the

Tess McDonald Professor Chapman English 1301 11/30/17 Foreign Languages: Are They Worth it? Some students will take a second language course in their lifetime, but is it really worth the trouble? With so many different languages out there, there is such a wide variety to pick from. Some of the more common languages learned in the United States are Spanish and French, and it’s not uncommon to know a little bit of one or both of the languages from classes we took in high school. Yet, not all schools

al., 2010). While individuals with ADHD may be hindered in working memory, bilinguals are noted to have better executive skills and thus better working memory. According to the article, "Effects of classroom bilingualism on task-shifting, verbal memory, and word learning in children", bilingual individuals outperform monolingual individuals on tasks involving verbal working memory (Kaushanskaya et al., 2014). Moreover, it is shown that bilingual performance relative

America is the boiling pot of the world. It is where people from all over the globe come to either visit short term or decide to take residence long term because of the freedoms that America makes possible due to the Constitution. Because of the vast amounts of immigrants that take refuge here in the states, on would think that many different languages are spoken everywhere in the US on a day to day basis. This, however, is not the case. Though English is understandably the most spoken language in

is too much recognition, and as such by doing nothing we have done enough. Health holds that Trudeau attempted to undermine Quebec nationalism with Canadian nationalism. Canadian nationalism looked to be inclusive to Quebec, through policies of bilingualism. Hence, accommodations have been made by Canada. The problem though, is that even though Canada has accommodated Quebec, nothing has changed, and thus accommodating Quebec seems pointless. Finally, Pelletier holds that Canada has already recognized