SESSION 28: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 BRAINPOWER: What boosts it? To what extend is it effective? Why?
- studying languages
- crossword puzzles
- physical exercise
- reading
- maths
- work
- watching TV
- a more powerful brain
- a more beautiful smile
- a flatter stomach
- bigger muscles
- a better sense of humor
- more get up and go
- more tolerance
- better athletic ability
2.3 DISCUSSION: HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS WHICH YOU CAN THINK ABOUT AND TRY ASKING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COME TO OUR DISCUSSION ON WEDNESDAY:
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word 'bilingual'?
b) How bilingual are you?c) What are the advantages of being bilingual?
d) Are there any disadvantages to being bilingual?
e) Should bilingualism (or trilingualism / multilingualism) be part of a country's education system?
f) Which countries do you know are multilingual?
g) What effect do you think language learning has on your brain?
h) How are your attention span and memory?
i) Would your life be different if you could not understand or speak English?
j) Are monolinguals disadvantaged in life?
k) What do you think of your brainpower, do you think it´s strong enough?
l) Do you think schools nowadays encourage brainpower? How?
m) Why do you think learning another language is good for the brain?
n) Do you think crossword puzzles, sudokus, etc are good for you?
o) Is chess a good way to develop and sharpen your brain? Do you play it?
p) Do you think you are better at recognizing and encoding sounds because of your language studying?
q) Do you think you need to be a good listener to learn a language quickly?
r) What new language would you like to learn and why?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT IN THE ORAL SESSION.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 28, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Advantages and disadvantages of being Bilingual
- 'Modern Societies should tend to Multilingualism'. Express your opinion.
In this occasion, I cannot make a list of advantages against disadvantages because to be bilingual has not any of the latter. So you can live speaking just one language and being a very intelligent person but, of course, those who have the ability to speak more than one have probably developed some part of their brain which is useful not just for speaking but for being sharper in other areas.
ReplyDeleteTo be bilingual means to have bigger capacity for storing information in your brain, to be quick-thinking, maybe even to have the ability to talk more fluently and to have a better grammar level.
Apart from the beneficial effects in our brain, we must not forget that we are living in a global world where each day it is more necessary to know as many languages as you can in order to get a better job, to travel or just to use the internet.
But to be bilingual it is not easy, even if you have special capacity for it, I think it is very important to start to teach our children when they are very young and, in parallel, to improve the level of teaching in our schools.
How many parents would they like their children to be bilingual or multilingual? As a matter of fact the influence and importance of bilingualism today is undeniable due to the current job market requirements, but speaking more than one language is a great challenge, above all, if you do not have a bilingual parent around, but if so, it also can be a very hard task with its advantages and drawbacks.
ReplyDeleteMost of the world’s children who grow up speaking two or more languages fluently are said to have more advantages in a career and in college. Moreover, bilingual children are in general more open-minded so they may be able to think more flexibly and creatively since they often know two or more words to express one idea because they have deeply developed the memory area of the brain which make them able to interact with the increasingly diverse population around the world.
In addition, it is important to consider how different a child’s development of first language is from the second language acquisition at any age. The young child learns a great number of words, phrases and meanings. By the age of five children are estimated to memorize one word per hour, all day, and every day; so perhaps it is exaggerated to say that being bilingual is associated with having a powerful brain but clearly enrich our skills to communicate each other more easily thanks to the working memory.
However, many bilingual parents worry about the possible disadvantages of speaking their children in two languages so they often give up their attempt when they hear their young children mix the vocabulary of the two languages.
Indeed, one real danger of raising children with two languages is that they could become not bilingual but semi-lingual. They might never learn to speak any language perfectly; however this can happen when children do not hear or read one language enough, or if they do not have adequate speaking practice in one main language by parents.
After several weeks, I can write some words and some things about our weekly topic, so I feel happy for it. Well, about the topic:”Modern Societies tend to Multilingualism”, I would like to say some ideas, although I am not a scientist and I will not able to prove any of my views.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, a person who has become bilingual or multilingual has so many advantages over the rest of people because he can communicate faster, better and more effectively their messages to others, without intermediaries which can distort the information. Obviously, this needs to be accompanied by a great mental agility in order to switch from one to another language without problems.
Secondly, if a modern society encourages its members to be multilingual, it will create people with great potential for success and a high positive self-esteem. If a modern society encourages its members to be multilingual, this will create people with great potential for success, self-confident, with a high positive self-esteem and with a feeling of fulfilment.
Despite the great difficulties that this entails, everybody may not be able to express themselves in more than one language, synergy exercised all together, would enhance to each and every one of the members of this society, taking the best of each and getting that 2 + 2 = 5.
To sum up, I believe that bilingualism or multilingualism makes us better as people, so can you imagine the extraordinary thing that would also be if scientists in Australia, Great Britain or United States were right? Be at least bilingual my friend!