The Assignment For Over The Holiday - Sheikha

In what ways do the articles above celebrate language diversity?

Are the articles critical of language diversity? Language blending? Language change?

What are the possible reasons for people who “code switch” to feel self-conscious about using language combinations in public?

Why would linguists be interested in studying language change?

What are the possible reasons for wanting to slow or stop the change of language use in a particular country?

How should public education, in a given country, handle the instruction of the dominant native language? How should educators approach language variation?

The two articles celebrate language diversity as a spectacular thing. They define the English language, as a ‘sponge’, which one could say, is the perfect analogy. English to this day, in correlation to the given country’s native language has taken in words and are used in dialect but haven’t been used in formal written assignments, just yet.

Both articles were very critical of language diversity and language blending, giving the readers specific anecdotes of young people living in foreign countries, speaking their form of “modern English”. i.e. Chinglish, Arabizi, Spanglish.

Those people, often referred to as “code switchers”, tend to feel self-conscious about using their form of combined/modern English in public. Reasons being could be that people unconsciously are judgmental and think that those “code switchers” are limited in terms of the language and may not be educated enough. Little do they know that it is only a form of expressing thoughts in a better form, a form they are more comfortable with. In addition, they are afraid to seem different within their community. These reasons have a propensity to being why “code switchers” feel self-conscious speaking their “modern version of English” in public.

Linguists should be interested in studying language change. The following statement could be seen as controversial and may bring up many arguments but, maybe one day the language we call “combined”, “incorrect” or “slang” could be used in formal dialect and writing. Words such as “buzzkill” and “bromance” are proof of the fact that it is possible for new words to be entering the English language and the dictionary itself. Who would have known 50 years ago that these words even existed?

In complete contrast to the former argument, some would say that there may be a need to slow down the change of language used in particular countries in order to be able to keep a stable “base” of English that has certain common grounds all across the world. Public education in every given country should have their own “combined English” that is to be shared across their country in order to keep it constant in all regions of the country. Educators should be keen of language variation since the world is a diverse place and no one should be in the way of diversity as diversity is a beautiful thing.