Week 10 and 11

Language and knowledge
Some specific types of jargon that we studied in class were:

Scientific Language: It refers to all the words used in medicine,investigation, health care and science in general. It includes Technical words not commonly understandable by everyone.

Legal Language: It is the language used by lawyers and people related to legal processes. It must be precise and detailed, avoiding ambiguities and most of the time, when ambiguity is present, change what was meant to be said to accommodate the language in your favor.
Sports Language: It is composed by different words used in sports, commonly used to explain the training, plays, positions, etc.

This is a video in which you can learn how scientific language is used. Jargon and Slang make it more difficult to understand:
http://youtu.be/r0ov89KPtDQ

To practice this jargon, we had oral presentations. In my case, I was a waterpolo player alongside with Mr Macchiavello and Mr Reynolds interviewed us after loosing the national finals.

Language in cultural context

When analyzing a text you should take into consideration:

Theme:  An idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.

Topic

Main Idea

Author's purpose: Ex: Inform, persuade, entertain.

Genre: Fiction, Non Fiction

Source

Target Audience

Register

Vocabulary

Tone

To practise this we had reading comprehension activities in which we had to find the different aspects mentioned before and give an example from the text that supports our point of view.

Week 8 and 9
During these two weeks we studied about eBooks and we ha to debate: "The raise of eBook: are paper books getting obsolete?".
With my group (Mr. Reynolds and Mr: Kitzing) we had to defend the motion that paper books are not getting obsolete. To do this we focused on the price, the portability, the damage of the eyes a kindle or iPad can make and the sensation of a paper book, which is different and special compared to the one of an eBook. We didn't really debate on the motion because we focused on which is better, not if paper books are getting obsolete. I can now continue saying that paper books are not getting obsolete because we still use them, specially in school.

Then we studied jargon and slang, their differences and limitations. Jargon is used to communicate with job mates, it's very technical and very formal. It can be used world wide with people that work in the same area and they will understand it. On the other hand we have slang: a very informal way to speak that is only understood by people living in the same geographic space.

Finally we saw a video of Alex, a 21 years old man from London who's a polyglot. Polyglotism is the ability to speak, several languages with a high degree of proficiency. A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, whereas a trilingual three; above that the term multilingual or polylingual may be used.

From this video we had to answer some questions: 

1. How many languages does Alex speak?

Alex Speaks eleven languages and he'll probably continue learning more.

2. Does context help in the process of acquiring a new language?

Yes, if you are immersed in a society that speaks the language that you want to learn, it'll be much easier to learn it. Alex told his personal experience and said that learning a language in the country was much easier than learning it from a piece of paper.

3. Are there any languages that have similiar pronunciation?

Alex mentioned that Spanish and Greek were very similar, and also Dutch with Afrikaans. I was had the opportunity to speak with a Romanian and told me that Romanian language was very similar to Spanish, French and Italian because it was a mix of them plus some Latin and Slavic words.

4. Which of the languages spoken by Alex seem more colloquial?

For Alex, Afrikaans is very colloquial.

5. Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?

No, the class only changes the language to a more formal or informal tone and may include some slang, whereas geography changes the language completely.

4. Do you think, the ability of learning a language is innate or learned?

I think that the ability is learned, because not everyone speaks a lot of languages and some people have problems learning a second language. You must learn the language, practice it and repeat the process over and over again to learn more languages. To learn a language you must pay attention to the pronunciations and all. 

5. According to you, are some languages more or less difficult to learn than others? Talk about your own experience.

Of course some languages are more difficult, it just depends on the roots of your "mother language" and the experience you have with other languages. For example I know Spanish, English and some French and Portuguese, and English was easier to learn than French because of the structure, although, Spanish and French have the same Latin roots. Portuguese is much more easier.