World Languages

Project #2: Language and Culture

For Project #2, you get to pick your topic—well, out of a list of possible topics.  One of the goals of this course is to understand the relation of language to culture and of language to the individual, and one of the major concerns here is the right to speak the language of your choice.  It seems simple enough, but, of course, it is not.  Our identities are wrapped up in our ethnicity, our country of origin and/or where we reside, and the language we speak.  Another goal of this course is to perform research as part of the General Education program. Therefore, Project #2 is designed to help you reach both of these goals.  Your task is to choose one of the following topics below and write a 3-4 page report using at least two scholarly sources.  Due Wednesday, April 21.

I.                    Report on a political issue somewhere in the world that primarily concerns language.  For example:

·        Legal repression of, or arguments about the legal status of, minority languages:

1.      Basque or Catalan in Spain

2.      Basque or Breton in France

3.      Hungarian in Romania

4.      Russian in Latvia

5.      Welsh or Scots or Gaelic in the United Kingdom

6.      Kurdish in Turkey

7.      French in Canada

8.      Newari in Nepal

9.      Languages in Kosovo

10.  Numerous languages in India , etc. (check The Ethnolgue at http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=India

·        Arguments about the distinctiveness of

1.      Serbian/Croatian

2.      Hindi/Urdu

3.      Dutch/Flemish

4.      Norwegian/Swedish

·        The political issue between Greece and Macedonia concerning the name of the Macedonian language.

·        Whether or not some country should adopt, or keep, English as the official language.

·        Issues concerning choice of official language(s) in a multilingual nation ( Singapore , India , Paraguay , many African nations such as Nigeria , Kenya , Ghana , South Africa , etc.)

·        Issues concerning language(s) and education at the primary, secondary, and university levels in some nation (e.g., Tanzania , Kenya , Peru , Indonesia , Canada ).

II.                 Report on a recently deceased or nearly deceased language.  You can find such languages by browsing through your text or The Ethnologue.  Consider:  What factors have caused this language to become extinct?  Could it have been prevented?  How?  Should it have been prevented?  Why or why not?  Discuss how this affects the community (if there still is one), why this loss is important to note, what this means for the world, etc.

Your Grade

This project is worth 100 points.  The essay should be written in either APA or MLA style—your choice, but do not mix the two.  Linguists generally use APA.  Do not make a title page—stick to the format.  You will be graded on your ability to do research, choose appropriate sources, and document those sources both in the text and in a Works Cited page.  You will also be graded on your ability to write an essay that shows you understand the material you have read and how it relates to anything we have discussed in class, to present your findings in a focused (that means you will have a full thesis statement), developed and organized essay.  You will also be graded on your ability to adapt your writing to your audience.   Any paper turned in without appropriate citations or a Works Cited page will be considered plagiarized and will fail.