Final summative assessment task

Plan
Texts:
● Ted Talk by Mark Pagel on how language transformed humanity
● Malala Yousafzai's speech on female education

Thesis: In fact, language can affect people’s perception of the world.

Argument:
- How they understand it
- How they question it
- How they change it

Introduction:
● Quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne “Words, so innocent and powerless as they are, as
standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one
who knows how to combine them”.
● Is this quote relevant?
● Language is powerful to communicate, spread the message.
● It can do more
● Thesis
● Arguments.

Body:
● Language helps with how we understand our world.
● Implant thought from our mind to another without surgery (Mark)
● Understand the mindset of those who believe children don’t deserve school (Malala)

● Language makes us question our world

● The tower of babel story in the bible (Mark)
● 57 millions children out of school - making people ask how is that ok? (Malala)

● Language help us change the world

● Things we say can get us killed or jailed (Mark)
● Her speech made people donate - donating up to 1 million $ for her foundation. (Malala)

Conclusion:
● Thesis
● Opening
 The Power of Language
The American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, “Words, so innocent and
powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in
the hands of one who knows how to combine them”. This quote holds a lot of meaning in the
power of language, but in reality, how relevant is it? Yes, it is true that language is a truly
powerful form of communication and it spreads the focal message clearly but language is far
more powerful than just that. It’s more than just a form of communication in light of the fact that
what we can do with it is what makes it so powerful. In fact, language can affect people’s
perception of the world by how they understand it, how they question it and how they change it.

To begin, language can affect people’s perception of the world by how they understand it.
In order to fully understand the world we live in, we need to listen to the society that lives in it
and hear what they have to say to know their thoughts. Mark Pagel, a biologist, once said while
hosting a Ted Talk in July 2011; “Language allows you to implant a thought from your mind
directly into someone else’s mind, and they can attempt to do the same to you and without either
of you having to perform surgery”. Mark Pagel explained how with language, humans can
communicate and understand what the other person needs or what they want. He said that with
sounds, cries, screams, and other random noises, a baby with the inability to speak can get things
to move. They can get their parents to give them what it is they want through their method of
communication. The power language has to make us understand one another is incredible. It is
truly amazing just how much you can accomplish through the power of speech. We can use it to
understand how people think as well. During a speech in 2015, Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old
girl who believed all females and children should go to school, explained why there are so many
kids without a proper, quality education. In that speech she said, “Unfortunately, there are many
people who do not give this opportunity to children. Either because they think children are
supposed to work for them or that children don’t deserve it. Either it’s against our social taboos,
or it is a waste of money. And we have to fight against these mindsets.” Now, focusing on that
last sentence, “And we have to fight against these mindsets”, Malala was implying that the
people who carry those types of thoughts are the ones who strip the children from a quality
education. She uses her speech power and ability to help other people understand that these
people with this mindset are clearly and obviously are in the wrong. She brought that truth into
the light for millions of people around the world to see and hear. With the help of language,
people’s perception of the world by how they understand it can be affected.

To continue, language can affect people’s perception of the world by how they question
it. Our world is really complicated and it is normal that we feel the need to question it. Once we
understand it, figuring out where we need to question it can all be done with the power of
language and speech. In the Ted Talk with Mark Pagel that was mentioned before, he talked
about the story of The Tower of Babel, one of the stories that is featured in the Bible. He told the
story and said that by using language, the people in the town communicated and was able to
build a tower all the way up to heaven. And then there was God, who was felt angered by the
tower, he destroyed it and gave everyone a different language so that they couldn’t understand
each other. The irony in this is that our languages exist to prevent us from communicating. This
analogy of the story in the Bible had a lot of people thinking and questioning the existence of our
many languages as there are around 6,500 different languages. In other words, it made people
question if our many languages in the world were created and meant to keep us from
communicating with each other. In the event that we did not learn the languages, there wouldn’t
be a form of oral communication today in our society. From Malala’s inspirational speech, she
said that 57 millions of children are out of school, without a quality education. This fact had
troubled a lot of people in light of the fact that it is a very sad truth that exists in our world. It
made many of her supporters question the people with the mindsets whom I’ve mentioned
before. They questioned if the things the people with those mentalities said were actually right
and if it was okay that children were without a proper education. Depending on the conclusion
the people came to, Malala started getting a lot of her supporters on her side. Through the power
of speech, she made people question some of the mentalities in this world and decide what was
right and wrong. That is how language can affect people’s perception of the world by how they
question it.

In the final analysis, language can affect people’s perception of the world by how they
change it. Since language is such a powerful thing, we can use it to change the world as well.
Going back to Mark Pagel’s Ted Talk, he said that with our language, we can say things that can
get us jailed or even killed. Things like hate speech, or just anything that would go against what
most of the world’s population believed in. He explained how with language comes a lot of
power over people. Depending on how you use your language, you can affect others in whatever
way possible and can make a lot of drastic changes. Like Adolf Hitler, the German leader in
World War II, who had many supporters that agreed with him to do many horrible things all
through his power of speech. He was so good at speaking to the public that he was able to form
an army of men, who were called the Natzis, to go and kill innocent jews and build concentration
camps. He had to be extremely manipulative to be able to cause the holocaust. His ways with
speech and language had changed so much for our world history. Malala has also changed a lot
in our world. With her inspirational speeches, she managed to warm the hearts of many and has
gotten them to donate over a million dollars to her foundation. They gave her the money for her
to fight and give that proper education to all those girls and children who rightfully deserve it.
She ran her campaign with the quote, “The right to learning should be given to any child”. That
quote, that message, created by language, persuaded people to help her make a difference for the
better in our world’s education system. That is how language can affect people’s perception of
the world by how they change it.

In conclusion, language can affect people’s perception of the world by how they
understand it, how they question it and how they change it. Without language, we would not be
able to do anything in our world. Everyone in our world would just be lost and confused in the
event that we didn’t know how to achieve anything. Like most things, you can’t do everything by
yourself in light of the fact that you need the help and support of others to achieve your goals in
life. The only way to get help or even to just have a connection with someone else is to talk to
them, create a relationship with them. With the power of words and speech we can achieve so
much and create an environment that can better our world and help us build a beautiful and safe
society.
 Works Cited
● https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/power-of-language.html
● https://www.scribd.com/document/319694130/How-can-language-empower-us-to-unders
tand-question-and-change-our-world
● https://www.huffpost.com/entry/malala-yousafzai-millionaire_n_5776773fe4b04164640f
8647
● https://youtu.be/qu3aQMxkrc4
● https://youtu.be/ImQrUjlyHUg