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Course & Section: Date& Time of submission:

Multilingualism and Multiculturalism

Lesson 1. What is language?

Language is considered one of the elements of culture. It is the system of words or

signs that a particular group of people uses to express thought and feelings with each
other; hence, if you do not belong to the same group or culture you do not speak the
same language. This is what we will be uncovering in this lesson: the interrelationship
of language and culture. As language learners, we need to know how language shapes
who we are, how we think, and how we process information and therefore be able to
guide our language learners in becoming proficient communicators using their mother
tongues and other desired languages.

In this lesson you will be able to create corpora that show the different western
cultural influences on the various Philippine languages. To realize this, you need
to be able to:
 define language;
 explain the relationship of language and identity; and,
 analyze the relevance of society and culture to language development and
communication.

Activity 1. Please watch this video:

https://youtu.be/RKK7wGAYP6k

Based on the video, please answer the following questions:

 
1. Why is language important?
_________________________________________________________________

2. How language shapes the way we think?

_________________________________________________________________

3. What are your thoughts about linguistic diversity?

_________________________________________________________________
Activity 2. ACTIVATE YOUR PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Read the following and write your answer in the comment section whether
you Strongly Agree, Agree or Disagree with the statements.

_____________________1. Language is an invention of people in particular culture in

order to effectively communicate with each other.
_____________________2. Language represents concepts that are not universal but
just unique to a particular culture.
_____________________3. Language determines how one thinks and processes
information.
_____________________4. Language represents a culture; therefore, to become a
better speaker of the language, one needs to be immersed or well-versed in the culture
where the language originates.
_____________________5. Most language environments have words that are
specialized and are used only in those environments.
_____________________6. Age does not really determine difference in language style.
_____________________7. The words you use are determined by all your past
experiences also known as your field of experience.
_____________________8. New meanings are continually created as people change
their ideas, feelings, and activities. As people think, read, travel, make friends, and
experience life, the associations and connections that words have for these people are
changed.
_____________________9. Language and religion offer an innovative theory of religion
as a class of cultural representations dependent on language to unify diverse capacities
of the human mind.
_____________________10. The structure of a language affects the ways in which its
respective speakers conceptualize their world or otherwise influences their cognitive
processes.

Note: Upon our discussions in the future, go back to this section and find out if you
change your stand based on what you learned.