10 February 2012 / by Radmila Gurkova

Language - the endangered species

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McF3CoVHbYM

There are 6,500 languages in the world and 3,500 are “endangered”!
How many languages can you think of?

Every two weeks a unique language dies when the last speakers pass away. Mark Turin is an anthropologist working on language death as an academic linguist and has been living within a remote mountain village in Nepal for ten years with a community where they only speak Thanghmi, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by less than 20,000 people. The children in the schools are only taught Nepali, which makes the village language a threat for extinction.

There are many languages that have expired and have limited use today – The Laghu which was spoken in the Solomon Islands until it disappeared in 1984 or the Old Kent Sign Language which was a precursor for the modern day version and Gamilaraay which is still used by the tribe of New South Wales.

So make sure you keep your language alive and others too by learning more than your own!

DEBATE



  • How many languages do you want to speak?

  • Would you like to learn Sign Language?

  • How long would it take you to learn 6,500 languages?


KEYWORDS






























































Word Image Definition Example Listen
Endangered Threatened with danger The bald Eagle may be endangered Listen
Unique Existing as the only one or as a sole example This is a unique product Listen
Threat   An indication or warning of trouble Al-Qaeda is a threat to our safety Listen
Extinction   The act or process of dying out The extinction of a species Listen
Linguist A person who is skilled in many languages He could speak to 20 nations Listen
Speak To communicate vocally To speak to a person of various matters. Listen
Taught The past for teach They taught themselves to play music. Listen


GRAMMAR STRUCTURES:

Click here to learn about the word 'eventually' 

Click here to see the post on the 'past perfect tense'

06

March 2015
Tiers for fears & choosing words to teach
by Vincent Chieppa
Any conscientious teacher knows that choosing words to teach is not as easy as it seems.  Sure you can deal out words left, right & center.  However, would your students understand, grow & be empowered?  Fortunately, there is a nifty little 3 tier model that helps teachers enable their students to broaden their language capacity. &...

03

March 2015
Dealing with disruptive or difficult students
by Elena Riches
Whatever kind of teacher you are, be it a maths teacher, an art teacher or a teacher of karate, there will come a time when you will have problems managing your class/group of students and if you cannot find a way to do it effectively your students can become uninterested, unmotivated or quiet, and will seldom reach your desired goal...

27

February 2015
How to... use emails for ESL teaching
by Vincent Chieppa
In this day & age paperless teaching is the future.   Seeing that this is the case it should be no surprise that the next step should be using emails for ESL teaching.  How emails are incorporated in the out-of-class learning experience depends of course on the nature...

24

February 2015
Teacher student interaction: teachers are learners too!
by Elena Riches
So, you've completed your TEFL course, gained your certificate and procured a job. The next part is, how do you do it vs how do you do it well. I personally don't think there is a wrong and right way of teaching as everyone has their own way and each way works for them; providing the students are learning what they've set out to learn then...

20

February 2015
Teaching new vocabulary: 7 fail-safe strategies
by Vincent Chieppa
If teaching grammar forms the frame for language acquisition, teaching new vocabulary provides students with the building blocks. It is therefore the teacher's responsibility to bring home the value of these building blocks by presenting them in perspective - that is, in a way that is relevant and useful for the students. In order to do th...

18

February 2015
The trials and tribulations of being a TEFL teacher
by Elena Riches
If you're thinking of becoming a TEFL teacher you might want some information of what you get out of it from someone who has firsthand experience of being one. ...

13

February 2015
ESL error correction techniques for the classroom
by Vincent Chieppa
As any experienced ESL teacher knows, the type of language errors students make are as diverse as the students themselves & their attitude toward learning.  This in turn will dictate which of th...

10

February 2015
TEFL teacher: What does it take to become one?
by Elena Riches
For those already familiar with the term 'TEFL' (an explanation of the various terms can be found here) you will know that it means teaching English as a foreign language but, what do...

10

February 2015
ESL teaching through the eyes of Cynthia Amuneke from Nigeria
by Radmila Gurkova
My name is ...

06

February 2015
Setting effective boundaries in the classroom
by Vincent Chieppa
ESL teachers could face disruptive behaviour from their students on a daily basis and this can lead to distress, tension and/or anxiety.  For this reason it is important for teachers to take charge to ensure that they are setting effective boundaries because by sim...