The article takes on a non-biased perspective on all languages that are being used in the world. The article does not believe one language should be taken away or become dominate over the rest. However, it does acknowledge English's power in the future and in the present time we live in now.
The article had tons of interesting arguments made but the most interesting was the one raised by the mention f "China's growing economic might." The shows that economic power is the one link or the one force that makes or creates the power behind any one language. With the USA holding the most power economically, this proves this statement to be true on all parts. English is a global language and the article states "even in powerhouse China, more people are currently studying English than in any other country." This show that English is an official language in over a quarter of the worlds counties.
On the other hand, it is very interesting that the article believes that Mandarin will not replace the English language regardless of "China’s growing economic might." The reason why I say this is because English will not be "“a marker of the elite” but rather a "a basic skill" used by foreign or native speakers. However, the article brings to light some of the dangers of over glorifying the English language. The article brings these danger to light in a humorous way rather then any other debate would. The article states these dangers by making the humorous example of french emails and by stating " if we spoke each others languages we would better understand each other." This view is not hostile or angry towards any other language or to non English speakers. This article has an opposite view then any other debate about which language is better.
The article made an important point by calling attention to the statement " English speakers like me, who have struggled to master a foreign language." This statement and the statistics that follow it that state "only 10% of native-born Americans can speak a second language," bright to light the complacency of many first language English speakers worldwide who do not see the need to learn a completely different language. Many people who do not believe they need to learn a new language say that everything they need can be bought, watched in and talked about in their native language, English.
The small discussion in the article about international companies, organizations, and bodies using or speaking English is another interesting topic out of the rest of the topics. At most, a small percentage of international companies such as, SAP and Nokia that were mentioned in the article, speak other languages besides English. The article stated "both use English as their official language." Both companies or organizations speak fluent English but they also speak other languages. The reason why companies speak English and other languages is so the can use those languages to sell their products . If those companies only spoke one language rather then a diverse amount of languages then they would not be able to sell their products to those countries because they would not know the language they spoke.
Conclusively, this article highlights their debate points over the English language becoming a global language and also bringing the point that the English language will survive as the top global language of choice. However, this article believes that the English language is not an elite language but rather a basic skill. So this article believes the English language is not more favorable then any other spoken language but rather it is just more spoken then the rest. This article is not hostile or angry towards any other language besides English ;it does not believe that the English language is more elite but it rather believes that all languages are equal but the English language is just spoken more often.
The article had tons of interesting arguments made but the most interesting was the one raised by the mention f "China's growing economic might." The shows that economic power is the one link or the one force that makes or creates the power behind any one language. With the USA holding the most power economically, this proves this statement to be true on all parts. English is a global language and the article states "even in powerhouse China, more people are currently studying English than in any other country." This show that English is an official language in over a quarter of the worlds counties.
On the other hand, it is very interesting that the article believes that Mandarin will not replace the English language regardless of "China’s growing economic might." The reason why I say this is because English will not be "“a marker of the elite” but rather a "a basic skill" used by foreign or native speakers. However, the article brings to light some of the dangers of over glorifying the English language. The article brings these danger to light in a humorous way rather then any other debate would. The article states these dangers by making the humorous example of french emails and by stating " if we spoke each others languages we would better understand each other." This view is not hostile or angry towards any other language or to non English speakers. This article has an opposite view then any other debate about which language is better.
The article made an important point by calling attention to the statement " English speakers like me, who have struggled to master a foreign language." This statement and the statistics that follow it that state "only 10% of native-born Americans can speak a second language," bright to light the complacency of many first language English speakers worldwide who do not see the need to learn a completely different language. Many people who do not believe they need to learn a new language say that everything they need can be bought, watched in and talked about in their native language, English.
The small discussion in the article about international companies, organizations, and bodies using or speaking English is another interesting topic out of the rest of the topics. At most, a small percentage of international companies such as, SAP and Nokia that were mentioned in the article, speak other languages besides English. The article stated "both use English as their official language." Both companies or organizations speak fluent English but they also speak other languages. The reason why companies speak English and other languages is so the can use those languages to sell their products . If those companies only spoke one language rather then a diverse amount of languages then they would not be able to sell their products to those countries because they would not know the language they spoke.
Conclusively, this article highlights their debate points over the English language becoming a global language and also bringing the point that the English language will survive as the top global language of choice. However, this article believes that the English language is not an elite language but rather a basic skill. So this article believes the English language is not more favorable then any other spoken language but rather it is just more spoken then the rest. This article is not hostile or angry towards any other language besides English ;it does not believe that the English language is more elite but it rather believes that all languages are equal but the English language is just spoken more often.
Amelia,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job and I could clearly understand what you were saying. The language you used was very easy to understand and follow along with your structure. One thing I would say is that you need more development. Your paragraphs were very short and to the point. You did a great job of introducing the topics and using textual evidence, I just wish there was a little more explanation. Another thing you could have mentioned was some outside knowledge. You overall just need to dive a little bit deeper. Band 3!
Amelia,
ReplyDeleteYour points for the most part were effective, but every and the, you had spelling errors that made me have to reread the sentence multiple times. Not to mention the use of the wrong "then/than." I think the potential for an incredibly effective blog was here, but I got very distracted by the odd sentence structure and errors. Read the last sentence of your second to last paragraph, out loud. Please proof read or just review grammar boot-camp.
Just as the last, you need to include theorist and ideas from our studies. I doubt you need that spiel again.
It also felt like you did not have much to discuss. You repeated the idea of the author being unbiased to any language a couple times too many. You did not have the need to, you could have easily gotten another 100 words just by elaborating. Such as when talking about the US's linguistic/economic power vs China's in the first body paragraph. There is so much to discuss about the relation of those two factors, perhaps even bringing a theorist in for extra marks.
Overall, good, but substantial room for improvement. Once again, fix these things and your band number will shoot right up. This blog would most likely get a high band 4 of 13 points.