This article from the Harvard Business Review, discusses the viewpoint of social scientist Robert Cialdini in regards to his specialty: influence. Cialdini sat down with the editors of the magazine for an interview on what his studies have revealed about the power of persuasion. Primarily Cialdini reveals how persuasion can...
Imagine a country, or even a community, without a language policy. Imagine trying to learn, shop, or even pay bills in a community where there was no official language. It would be chaotic. Language underlies all the processes of a working system and community and without uniformity those break down....
The thesis that language plays a role in shaping and molding our thoughts, essentially meaning that in one fundamental sense language does in fact determine what we think, is a compelling claim, to the extent that it is also highly intuitive when one reflects on the issue. If we take...
Oppression is about taking power away from someone, but that restriction or taking of power can be unintended. It can also come from bad cultural habits that seem subtle such as the language we use. The way we talk about a person or population has an impact and it describes...
In the article, Addressing Cultural and Native Interference in Second Language Acquisition, Allard, Bourdeau & Mizoguchi, 2011, brings out the difficulties and challenges of second/foreign language acquisition and ways to deal with these problems. The article further evaluates matters of interference that can be traced to a student’s mother tongue...
Effective learning of any foreign language depends on numerous factors, but initially potential student has to properly understand whether there is a necessity in learning that foreign language. Languages can be roughly classified into TOP and other by the number of speakers around the globe. For example, the TOP 3...
Of all the difficulties that a foreigner is most likely to face when familiarizing himself/herself with English pronunciation, it is important to make mention of the one that refers to the multitude of accents. Obviously, English should be viewed as presenting the pronunciation that varies dramatically depending on where the...
Learning a new language can be difficult for anymore, but when it comes to English language learners (ELL), they may face many obstacles in school that can progressively get worse if not taught correctly. According to Karen Ford with Colorin Colorado, an educational service of WETA, “research has shown that,...
Nonverbal language is prevalent in all societies. The way people carry themselves, their body language, and the social cues they give are mere nuances and are not overt. This noverbal language, or paralanguage as it is also called, is different among cultures and especially so in the Japanese culture. What...
