Lesson 1

OVERVIEW OF
LANGUAGE
POLICY AND
PRACTICE IN THE
EDUCATION AND
IN THE WORLD
Objectives:
• Describe contrasting language policies and practices in education
and in the world
• Engage in discussion effectively about policy change and approaches
in the use of languages in the Philippines
• Promote language advocacy strategies for the further advancement
and development in education
Nanu ya mo keng Kapampangan…
lamu
biga
pinanari
ruweda
Pinoy Henyo
talibatab
sampelut
What is
language?
Language
What is
language?
What is Language?

Language is the most important

method of human communication. A
language consists of a set of words
and sounds used in a structured
way and is communicated between
people through speaking, writing,
and gestures.
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/languages.htm
Language is specifically the
human capacity for acquiring and
using complex systems of
acoustic signals to express
thoughts and feelings. Language
is also used for the exchange of
knowledge and experiences.

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/languages.htm
The problem on this planet is that language
systems vary greatly from region to region.
The diversity can be so great that a person
cannot understand the language of a
member from another region or country. To
overcome such obstacles, people developed
the lingua francas or trade languages, used
to exchange information between speakers
of different native languages.

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/languages.htm
Of all the languages in the world,
about one-third of those spoken
come from Africa and another third
from Asia.

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/languages.htm
What do you
think is the
fastest
language?
Japanese is the fastest language in the
world. Language speed is measured in
syllables spoken per second or minute. The
fastest language identified in a survey puts
Japanese in first place with their motor-
mouth speakers who pump out syllables at
a blistering rate of 7.84 per second. Try
saying “methyldihydromorphine” ten times
in ten seconds to imagine how fast that is!
On the other end of the scale, Mandarin
and German are two of the slowest spoken
languages, clocking in at a leisurely 5.18 and
5.97 syllables per second, respectively.

https://www.kiwi.com/stories/fun-facts-world-languages/
LANGUAGE
Possession of language distinguishes humans
from other animals.
Language is the source of human life and power
Only by the act of learning a language does the
child become human being
So we all become human if we know one
language
What does knowing a language mean?
This can be termed as linguistic knowledge.
We can speak and be understood by others
Capacity to produce sounds that signify certain
meanings
Profound knowledge of the language comes
instinctively
Simplest conversation requires knowledge about a
language that speakers are aware of
 What then Is Language?

A system which associates sounds (or gestures)

with meanings using words and sentences.
A set of grammatically correct utterances (ie .
Words, sentences, e.t.c)
Language uses a finite set of
elements(sounds,words) to create an infinite set
of possible sentences.
Language contd…
Language is rule governed ,or systematic, with
respect to the sound meaning correspondence at all
levels.
A system for representing things ,actions, ideas and
states.
A tool people use to communicate their concepts of
reality to others.
A set of utterances that is intelligible to a linguistic
community.
Features of language
Language is a learned human behavior
All human societies have language .
Languages share certain universal traits
Language use involves many psychological and
emotional factors.
Language ability is common to individuals with
vastly different levels of intelligence.
Language Universals/Universal Grammar
All languages have vowels,consonants and rules that govern
pronunciation.
All languages have stress and tone.
All languages have nouns and verbs and ways to express descriptors
such as size or colour.
All languages have notions : ways of talking about abstract things
and functions : ways to communicate in certain ways such as
apologizing, persuading ,
All languages have a way to pose questions ,give commands and
make statements.
Definitions of language
When we study human language,we are approaching what some
might call the “human essence” the distinctive qualities of mind that
are, so far as we know ,unique to man. Noam Chomsky ,Language
and Mind
A language is a “set (finite or infinite) of sentences ,each finite in
length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.” Noam
Chomsky
Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and
interact with each other by means of habitually used oral auditory
arbitrary symbols” R.A.Hall
What is Linguistics??
Linguistics is the scientific study of
language .
Linguistic knowledge

✓Knowledge of the sound system

✓Knowledge of words
✓Knowledge of sentences and non sentences
Linguistic knowledge and performance
A speaker’s linguistic knowledge permits them to
form longer sentences by joining sentences.
There is a difference between having the knowledge
to produce sentences and applying this knowledge.
What we know is our linguistic competence
And
How we use this knowledge is our linguistic
performance.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LANGUAGE
1.Wherever humans exist ,language exists.
2.There are no primitive languages..all languages are
equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea
in the universe .The vocabulary of any language can be
expanded to include new words for new concepts.
3.All languages change through time .
4.The relationships between the sounds and meanings of
spoken languages and between the gestures and meanings
of sign languages are for the most part arbitrary.
5.All human languages use a finite set of discrete sounds or gestures
that are combined to form meaningful elements of words, which
themselves may be combined to form an infinite set of possible
sentences.
6.All grammars contain rules of a similar kind for the formation of
words and sentences.
7.Every spoken language includes discrete sound segments like
p,n,or a,that can all be defined by a finite set of sound properties or
features. Every spoken language has a class of vowels and a class of
consonants.
8.Similar grammatical categories (for example,noun,verb)are found
in all languages.
9.There are universal semantic properties like male or female,
animate or human ,found in every language in the world.
10.Every language has a way of negating, forming questions, issuing
commands, referring to past or future time and so on.
11. Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and
comprehending an infinite set of sentence
12.Any normal child born anywhere in the world, of any racial
,geographical, social or economic heritage, is capable of learning
any language to which he or she is exposed.
What do you
think is most
common letter
in English?
What is the
least used
letter in
English?
E is the most common letter in English
Z is the least used letter in English — Shutterstock

At 13 percent based on an analysis of texts, the letter E is the

most used letter in the English language. Actually, it is one of the
most commonly used letters in a number of languages, including
many European ones. The letter T is second with 9.1 percent,
and A is third with 8.2 percent.

Looking at the letters in dictionaries, E would be the most

common first letter as well, with a frequency of 11 percent. It’s
followed by S, I, and A with 8.7 percent, 8.6 percent, and 7.8
percent, respectively.

On the other hand, the letters J, Q, X, and Z are at the very

bottom of the frequency spectrum, with Z being used only 0.074
percent of the time.

When it comes to the first letters in texts, T begins most words,

followed by O and I. If we analyze the letter frequency of words
listed in dictionaries, S would be the most common starting
letter, followed by P, C, and A.
https://www.kiwi.com/stories/fun-facts-world-languages/
Where did
language
come from?
Water and air
Did you know that
in Indonesian,
“air” means
“water”?
https://speakt.com/language-facts/
Water and
air
Did you
know that
in
Indonesian,
“air”
means
“water”?
https://speakt.com/language-facts/
Language
Planning and
Policy
 In 1959, Tagalog, which was renamed Wikang
Pambansa (National Language) by President Manuel L.
Quezon in 1939, was renamed by the Secretary of
Education, Jose Romero, as Pilipino to give it a national
rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing
of the name did not, however, result in better
acceptance at the conscious level among non-Tagalogs,
especially Cebuano Bisayans who had not accepted the
selection of Tagalog by the National Language Institute
in 1937 as the basis of the national language.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.21832/9781853599224-005/pdf
 Corpus Planning

 Corpus planning refers to norm selection and codification

(characteristics or criteria of a ‘good’ language are established) and is
usually undertaken by language experts, resulting in dictionaries,
grammars, literacy manuals, and pronunciation and writing style
guides.
 In other words, it is concerned with developing the ‘nuts and bolts’ of
language itself (its vocabulary, forms of pronunciation and syntax), so
that a language could indeed serve its designated function.
 Status Planning

 Status planning is concerned with official decisions about the

appropriate use of a language.
 The results of status planning are laws, clauses in constitutions
prescribing the official standing of languages, and regulations for their
use in public administration.
 In a review of status planning in the context of teaching and learning
second languages van Els (2005) examines such high-level planning
questions as
 “Which second languages should be known, learned
and taught?”, “What aspects of the language(s)
chosen should be known, learned and taught, i.e.,
which variety and to what level?”, “Who should learn
them and to whom should they be taught?”, and
“When should learning begin and under what
circumstances?”
Includes marketing strategy, production of
books, pamphlets, newspapers, and textbooks
using the new codified standard.
It is an ever-evolving process
 Eleven Language Planning Goals have been recognized (Nahir 2003):

 Language Purification – prescription of usage in order to preserve the

“linguistic purity” of language, protect language from foreign
influences, and guard against language deviation from within
 Language Revival – the attempt to turn a language with few or no
surviving native speakers back into a normal means of communication
 Language Reform – deliberate change in specific aspects of language,
like orthography, spelling, or grammar, in order to facilitate use
 Language Standardization – the attempt to
garner prestige for a regional language or dialect,
transforming it into one that is accepted as the major
language, or standard language, of aregion
 Language Spread – the attempt to increase the
number of speakers of one language at the expense
of another
 Lexical Modernization – word creation or adaptation
 Terminology Unification – development of
unified terminologies, primarily in technical
domains
 Stylistic Simplification – simplification of language usage in lexicon,
grammar, and style
 Interlingual Communication – facilitation of linguistic communication
between members of distinct speech communities
 Language Maintenance – preservation of the use of a group’s native
language as a first or second language where pressures threaten or
cause a decline in the status of the language
 Auxiliary-Code Standardization – standardization of marginal, auxiliary
aspects of language such as signs for the deaf, place names, or rules
of transliteration and transcription
What is the
shortest
grammatically
correct sentence
that you know?
The shortest grammatically
correct sentence is “GO!”
The English language is the proud
winner of the award for the
shortest grammatically correct
sentence. The command “GO!”
instructs a person to take action –
here the subject isn’t written or
spoken, yet it is immediately
understood.
https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/more-language-facts/
How many
languages are
there in the
world?
https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages
There’s a difference between a
language and an official
language. Official languages
aren’t just used by people to
speak to one another; they’re
used for official purposes in a
country’s government, schools,
courts, national media, and so
forth.
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-
country-of-the-world
Some places, like Japan,
recognize only one official
language (Japanese). Others,
like India, have languages that
are official in certain regions of
the country (India has 23 of
these).

https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-
country-of-the-world
But some countries may have
hundreds of languages in use.
The island nation of Papua
New Guinea holds the record,
with 840 spoken languages

https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-
country-of-the-world
How Many Languages Does the Average Person Speak by
Country?

Some countries have a lot of different languages! In these

countries, people often speak the national language plus a
local language.

First, about 43 percent of the world’s population is

bilingual, that is, they speak two languages fluently. That’s
about 3.3 billion people around the world. A lot of those
people live in Indonesia, where most people learn
Indonesian, Javanese, and English. It’s estimated that 200
million Indonesians alone are bilingual.

But when it comes to polyglots—people who speak three

or more languages—only three percent of the world can
claim that title.
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-country-of-the-world
Is Kapampangan
a dialect or a
language?
City of San Fernando, Pampanga | Facebook
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-country-of-the-world
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-country-of-the-world
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-country-of-the-world
https://www.infoplease.com/countries/languages-spoken-in-each-country-of-the-world
Say the
longest word
that you
know.
‘Pneumonoultramicrosco
picsilicovolcanoconiosis’
is one of the world’s longest words. There
doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus
on the official longest word in the world
(and as we know, language is ever-
changing) but this 45-letter word is
certainly up there. This word refers to a
specific lung disease that comes from
inhaling very fine silica dust, primarily
from a volcano. It is, however, equated
to the word ‘silicosis’ which seems like
a far easier and more efficient option.
https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/more-language-facts/