Language impacts the daily lives of members of any

race, creed, and region of the world. Language helps

express our feelings, desires, and queries to the world
around us. Words, gestures and tone are utilized in union
to portray a broad spectrum of emotion. The unique and
diverse methods human beings can use to communicate
through written and spoken language is a large part of
what allows to harness our innate ability to form lasting
bonds with one another; separating mankind from the rest
of the animal kingdom.
The importance of communication is often overlooked. Despite
our great prowess in communication, misunderstandings and
mistranslations are commonplace. It is arrogant to believe that
one can travel the world and expect all of mankind to
understand his or her native tongue. In order to travel the
world, whether for business or pleasure, a desire and
willingness to adapt to new cultures and methods is necessary.
Adaptability, of course, includes the ability to communicate
with new people in various dialects. Being unable to
communicate in a country is akin to living with a serious
impairment; it is very difficult and near impossible, to adapt
and get along with new people if there is no way to
communicate with one another.
Additionally, the ability to communicate in multiple languages
is becoming more and more important in the increasingly
integrated global business community. Communicating
directly with new clients and companies in their native
language is one of the first steps to founding a lasting, stable
international business relationship. Being able to do this
automatically puts any multilingual person miles ahead of his
or her peers in the competition for jobs and high-prestige
positions. Language is such a key aspect to setting up children
for success in their future professional endeavors that high
schools across the nation and in almost every Western
country require at least two years of a foreign language.
The impact of multilingualism can be traced to even more
fields. A doctor who can communicate with his or her patient
in their native tongue is much more likely to have success at
diagnosing them. A scientist or engineer capable of explaining
his findings and ideas to his peers will be able to expedite and
perfect their work, even if his peers could not understand him
in his first language. Any hiring manager in any company in the
world would tell you that the ability to speak a foreign
language is a prized commodity. Learning to communicate
fluently in multiple languages provides additional job security
and advancement opportunities in uncertain economic times.
• In order to prepare our nation’s children to be the next
generation of future entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, engineers,
or whatever influential job they choose, we must foster an
environment from a young age that promotes multilingual
learning. Through this we are setting up ourselves, our children,
and our children’s children, for growth, success, security, and
ultimately, prosperity.
• Therefore, it is up to you to create a warm and comfortable
environment in which your child can grow to learn the
complexities of language. The communication skills that your
child learns early in life will be the foundation for his or her
communication abilities for the future. Strong language skills are
an asset that will promote a lifetime of effective communication.
Twenty-five Reasons to Study Foreign Languages
• Foreign Language study creates more positive attitudes and less prejudice
toward people who are different.
• Analytical skills improve when students study a foreign language.
• Business skills plus foreign language skills make an employee more
valuable in the marketplace.
• Dealing with another culture enables people to gain a more profound
understanding of their own culture.
• Creativity is increased with the study of foreign languages.
• Graduates often cite foreign language courses as some of the most
valuable courses in college because of the communication skills developed
in the process.
• International travel is made easier and more pleasant through knowing a
foreign language.
• Skills like problem solving, dealing with abstract concepts, are increased
• Foreign language study enhances one’s opportunities in government,
business, medicine, law, technology, military, industry, marketing, etc.
• A second language improves your skills and grades in math and English and on
the SAT and GRE.
• Four out of five new jobs in the US are created as a result of foreign trade.
• Foreign languages provide a competitive edge in career choices: one is able to
communicate in a second language.
• Foreign language study enhances listening skills and memory.
• One participates more effectively and responsibly in a multi-cultural world if
one knows another language.
• Your marketable skills in the global economy are improved if you master
another language.
• Foreign language study offers a sense of the past: culturally and linguistically.
• The study of a foreign tongue improves the knowledge of one’s own language:
English vocabulary skills increase.
• The study of foreign languages teaches and encourages respect for other peoples:
it fosters an understanding of the interrelation of language and human nature.
• Foreign languages expand one’s view of the world, liberalize one’s experiences,
and make one more flexible and tolerant.
• Foreign languages expand one’s world view and limit the barriers between
people: barriers cause distrust and fear.
• Foreign language study leads to an appreciation of cultural diversity.
• As immigration increases we need to prepare for changes in the American society.
• One is at a distinct advantage in the global market if one is as bilingual as possible.
• Foreign languages open the door to art, music, dance, fashion, cuisine, film,
philosophy, science…
• Foreign language study is simply part of a very basic liberal education: to
“educate” is to lead out, to lead out of confinement and narrowness and
darkness.
 Speech community is a group of people who share a set of linguistic
norms and expectations regarding the use of language. It is a concept
mostly associated with sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics.
Speech Community is debated in the literature. Definitions of
speech community tend to involve varying degrees of emphasis on the
following:
Shared community membership
Shared linguistic communication
A typical speech community can be a small town, but sociolinguists
such as William Labov claim that a large metropolitan area, for
example New York City, can also be considered one single speech
community.
 Early definitions have tended to see speech communities as bounded and
localized groups of people who live together and come to share the same
linguistic norms because they belong to the same local community. It has also
been assumed that within a community a homogeneous set of norms should
exist. These assumptions have been challenged by later scholarship that has
demonstrated that individuals generally participate in various speech
communities simultaneously and at different times in their lives. Each speech
community has different norms that they tend to share only partially.
Communities may be de-localized and unbounded rather than local, and they
often comprise different sub-communities with differing speech norms. With
the recognition of the fact that speakers actively use language to construct
and manipulate social identities by signalling membership in particular speech
communities, the idea of the bounded speech community with homogeneous
speech norms has become largely abandoned for a model based on the
speech community as a fluid community of practice.
A speech community comes to share a specific set of norms for
language use through living and interacting together, and speech
communities may therefore emerge among all groups that interact
frequently and share certain norms and ideologies. Such groups
can be villages, countries, political or professional communities,
communities with shared interests, hobbies, or lifestyles, or even
just groups of friends. Speech communities may share both
particular sets of vocabulary and grammatical conventions, as well
as speech styles and genres, and also norms for how and when to
speak in particular ways.
Lingua franca refers to any language used for communication
between people who do not share a native language.[5] It can
refer to mixed languages such as pidgins (dialect) and creoles
 used for communication between language groups. It can also
refer to languages which are native to one nation (often a
colonial power) but used as a second language for
communication between diverse language communities in a
colony or former colony.[6] Lingua franca is a functional term,
independent of any linguistic history or language structur
 Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they
can also be pidgin or creole languages developed for that specific region or context.
Pidgin languages are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or
more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that
have evolved into fully complex languages in the course of adaptation by
subsequent generations.
Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate
intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and
creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication
between colonists and indigenous peoples.
Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed
languages with many native speakers. Conversely, pidgin languages are very
simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical
rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. Creole languages are more
developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar,
and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers
 Whereas a vernacular language is the native language
of a specific geographical community, a lingua franca is
used beyond the boundaries of its original community,
for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons. For
example, English is a vernacular in the United Kingdom
but is used as a lingua franca in the Philippines,
alongside Filipino. Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, 
Spanish, Portuguese, Hindustani, and Russian serve a
similar purpose as industrial/educational lingua francas,
across regional and national boundaries.
 The term lingua franca derives from 
Mediterranean Lingua Franca, the pidgin language that people
around the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as
the main language of commerce and diplomacy from late 
medieval times, especially during the Renaissance era, to the
18th century.
At that time, Italian-speakers dominated seaborne
commerce in the port cities of the Ottoman Empire and a
simplified version of Italian, including many loan words from 
Greek, Old French, Portuguese, Occitan, and Spanish as well
as Arabic and Turkish came to be widely used as the "lingua
franca" (in the generic sense) of the region.
 In Lingua Franca (the specific
language), lingua means a language, as in Portuguese
and Italian, and franca is related to phrankoi in Greek
and faranji in Arabic as well as the equivalent Italian. In
all three cases, the literal sense is "Frankish", leading to
the direct translation: "language of the Franks".
The term dialect (from Latin dialectus, dialectos, from the Ancient Greek word 
διάλεκτος, diálektos, "discourse", from διά, diá, "through" and λέγω, légō, "I
speak") is used in two distinct ways to refer to two different types of linguistic
 phenomen
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular
group of the language's speakers.[1] Under this definition, the dialects or varieties
of a particular language are closely related and, despite their differences, are
most often largely mutually intelligible, especially if close to one another on the 
dialect continuum. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns,
but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class or ethnicity
.[2] A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a 
sociolect, a dialect that is associated with a particular ethnic group can be termed
an ethnolect, and a geographical/regional dialect may be termed a regiolect[3]
 (alternative terms include 'regionalect
• The language register determines the vocabulary,
structure, and some grammar in your writing.

The three most common language registers in writing

are:
• Formal
• Informal
• Neutral
Formal writing is probably the most difficult type of writing. It is impersonal, meaning
it is not written for a specific person and is written without emotion.

Some kinds of writing are always written in formal English.

Formal writing includes:

Business Letters
• Letters of complaint
• Some essays
• Reports
• Official speeches
• Announcements
• Professional emails
There are many rules for writing in formal writing. We will discuss some of the most
common rules here. When in doubt, check the rules in an APA style guide.
• Rules of the formal language register:

• 1. Do not use contractions

• Contractions are not usually used in formal writing, even though they are
very common in spoken English.

In formal writing, you should spell out contractions.

Examples:

In formal writing, you should use:cannot instead of can’t

• have not instead of haven’t

• will not instead of won’t
• could not instead of couldn’t
• is not instead of isn’t
These are just a few examples of contractions. See more
contractions by following the contraction link above.

Contractions CAN be used if you are quoting someone’s exact

words in your writing. 

Example:

“Two-thirds of my eighth grade students can’t read at grade

level,” the professor stated.
• Apostrophes are also added to nouns to show ownership. These are used in all language
registers, including formal.

Examples:
children’s classroom
• professor’s report
• elephant’s trunk

• 2. Spell out numbers less than one hundred

• Examples:
nineteen
• twenty-two
• seventy-eight
• six

• 3. Write in third person point of view

• In formal writing, we usually do not use first person or second person unless it is a quote.
Avoid using:
I
You
We
Us
Examples:
You can purchase a car for under $10,000.

One can purchase a car for under $10,000.

OR
A car can be purchased for under $10,000.

You will probably see an elephant on an African safari.

One may see elephants on an African safari.

OR
Elephants are a common sight on African safaris.

We decided to invest in the company.

The group decided to invest in the company.

 Avoid using too much passive voice
In formal writing it is better to use an active voice.
Passive sentences:
The bone was eaten by the dog.
• The research was completed by the students in 2009.
• Active sentences:
The dog ate the bone.

• The students completed the research in 2009. 

In 2009, the students completed the research.

•
For example, in a rule above I wrote, “Apostrophes are also added to nouns to show ownership.”

I wrote this sentence in a passive voice. 

To make it active, I could write:

“Additionally, add an apostrophe to a noun to show ownership.”

OR

“Use apostrophes with nouns to show ownership.”

•Avoid abbreviations and acronyms
•If you use an acronym or abbreviation, write it out the first time

When using acronyms, write the entire name out the first time it appears, followed by the
acronym. From then on, you can use the acronym by itself.
Examples:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
•Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT)
•
For abbreviations, write the complete word the first time, then use the
abbreviation.
•Examples:
influenza => flu
•United States of America => U.S.A or USA
•tablespoon => tbsp.
•Kansas => KS
• Do not use slang abbreviations or symbols that you would use in
friendly emails and texts.

Examples:
LOL (laugh out loud)
• ttyl (talk to you later)
•
•&
• b/c (because)
• w/o (without)
• w/ (with)
Avoid Using slang, idioms, exagerations (hyperboles) cliche
•  is common in informal writing and spoken English. Slang is particular to a certain
region or area. 

Examples of slang:
awesome/cool
• okay/ok
• check it out
• in a nutshell
• A cliché is a phrase that is overused (said too often).

Common clichés: 
too much of a good thing
• moment of truth
• Time is money.
• Don’t push your luck.
• Beauty is only skin deep.
Do not start sentences with words, like, and so but also
• Here are some good transition words and phrases to use
in formal writing:
Nevertheless
• Additionally
• However
• In addition
• As a result of
• Although
• 8. Always write in complete sentences.
Informal Language Register

Informal writing is written in the way we talk to our friends and family.
We use informal writing when we are writing to someone we know very
well.

Some kinds of writing can be written in an informal style

• Informal writing includes:

Personal e-mails
• Phone texts
• Short notes
• Friendly letters
• Most blogs
• Diaries and journals
here are no major rules to informal writing.
With informal writing, you can include things such as:

• Slang and clichés

• Figurative language

• Symbols and abbreviations

• Acronyms

• Incomplete sentences

• Short sentence
• First person, second person, and third person

• Paragraphs or no paragraphs

• Jokes

• Personal opinions

• Extra punctuation (Hi Bob!!!!!!!)

• Passive and active voice

Neutral language registers
We use the neutral language register with non-emotional topics and information.

Neutral writing is not necessarily formal or informal. It is not usually positive or

negative. A neutral register is used to deliver facts. 

Some writings are written in a neutral register. This means they are not
specifically formal or informal
• Writing in the natural language register includes:
Reviews
• Articles
• Some letters
• Some essays
• Technical writing
Chomsky's Theory on Children's Language Development
• Biological Inheritance of Syntax
• Linguist Noam Chomsky challenged old ideas about language acquisition in his first
book, "Syntactic Structures," published in 1957. He rejects the notion that all
language must be learned afresh by each child. Instead, Chomsky says, normal
children everywhere are born with a kind of hard-wired syntax that enables them to
grasp the basic workings of language. The child then chooses the particular
grammar and language of the environment from the available options in the brain.
• Thus, the capacity for language is a biological inheritance and specific languages are
then activated largely through the child's interaction with the native environment.
It's as if the child's brain is a CD player already set to "play" language; when the CD
for a certain language is inserted, that is the language the child learns.
• Government-Binding" Theory
Chomsky advanced his "government-binding"
theory in a 1981 book, in which he says a child's
native knowledge of syntax consists of a group of
linguistic principles that define the form of any
language. These principles are connected with
parameters, or "switches," triggered by the child's
language environment.
 Language shift, also known as language transfer or
language replacement or language assimilation, is the
process whereby a community of speakers of a language
shifts to speaking a different language, usually over an
extended period of time. Often, languages that are
perceived to be higher status stabilise or spread at the
expense of other languages that are perceived by their
own speakers to be lower-status. An example is the shift
from Gaulish to Latin that occurred in what is now France
during the time of the Roman Empir
• In the Philippines, Spanish-speaking families have gradually switched over to English
since the end of World War II until Spanish ceased to be a practical everyday language in
the country.
• Another example would be the gradual death of the Kinaray-a language of Panay as
many native speakers especially in the province of Iloilo are switching to Hiligaynon or
mixing the two languages together. Kinaray-a was once spoken in the towns outside the
vicinity of Iloílo City, while Hiligaynon was limited to only the eastern coasts and the city
proper. However, due to media and other factors such as urbanization, many younger
speakers have switched from Kinaray-a to Hiligaynon, especially in the towns of
Cabatuan, Santa Barbara, Calinog, Miagao, Passi City, Guimbal, Tigbauan, Tubungan, etc.
Many towns, especially Janiuay, Lambunao, and San Joaquin still have a sizeable Kinaray
-a-speaking population, with the standard accent being similar to that spoken in the
predominantly Karay-a province of Antique. Even in the province of Antique,
"Hiligaynization" is an issue to be confronted as the province, especially the capital town
of San José de Buenavista, undergoes urbanisation. Many investors from Iloílo City bring
with them Hiligaynon-speaking workers who are reluctant to learn the local language.
• Monolingual versus multilingual education
Supporters of monolingual education policies are
convinced that it is best to submerse non-native children in
the majority language as soon and as often as possible.
Within this perspective the home language of these
children has no place in the classroom or elsewhere in
school, and is not included in the curriculum. They are
convinced that the use in school of the home languages of
children from underprivileged immigrant backgrounds will
obstruct the development of proficiency in the majority
language.
On the other side of the argument, the ‘supporters’ of
bilingual (or multilingual) education policies are
convinced that children benefit from an education in
their own language – in addition to or in combination
with education in the majority language of schooling.
They argue that education in the mother tongue
provides a more effective basis for learning the
language of schooling and on children’s well-being and
self-confidence than total submersion.
In other words, it is the valorization of the first
language as a tool for learning which contributes to
improving the school performance of immigrant
children from socio-economically disadvantaged
backgrounds. However, nowhere in Western Europe
bilingual education in migrant languages has been able
to establish itself as a fully valued teaching model
within educational practice.
An important development of relatively recent date is the
implementation of two-way immersion (TWI) models offering
migrant languages in partnership with the dominant national
language. In TWI learners have two different backgrounds
(native speakers of the majority language and speakers of a
minority language) and children are taught in relatively
balanced groups.
• Responding to language diversity at school: Going beyond binary
thinking
• Since the turn of the century, a return to cultural assimilation in
Western Europe has marked a renewed emphasis on policies
focusing only or mainly on learning the majority languages through
hard-core submersion programmes. Under the pressures of a
politically unfavourable climate and budgetary restrictions,
education in migrant languages has increasingly come under attack.
• However, backpacked with – among other valuable competencies -
their multilingual repertoire, children enter the school. So, it is
better to unpack and exploit it than to leave it in their rucksack and
ignore or ban it.
This puts a language submersion policy and a multilingual
education policy in a binary position. However, given the fact
that both the language submersion models as the
compartmentalised bilingual education models cannot present a
cum laude school report; given the increased language diversity
in schools and classrooms; given the fact that translanguaging or
code-switching can be considered as the discursive norm in
multilingual spaces and given the current highly polarised and
rather unproductive debate about dealing with linguistic
diversity in education, one can argue to go beyond the binary
discussion for a new approach to multilingual learning at school.
• An approach which integrates exploiting children’s linguistic
repertoires and learning the ‘language of schooling’, in which
‘translanguaging’ – as in other spaces – is used as the discursive
norm at school and in the classroom. Or rephrased, ‘a multilingual
social interaction model for learning’ as an alternative for a
‘language learning model’.
• Among many other things, this implies a policy and interactive
classroom practice that make children receptive to linguistic
diversity and to create a positive attitude towards all languages and
language varieties. This is called language awareness. It stands for
making children (and teachers) sensitive to the existence of a
multiplicity of languages, and the underlying cultures and frames of
reference, in our world, and, closer, in the school environment
Functional multilingual learning is a step further in the positive
dealing with children’s linguistic repertoires at school and in the
classroom. It implies that a mainstream school adopts a policy
and a teacher the practice of exploiting children’s full linguistic
repertoire to enhance the opportunities for learning, as well as to
reinforce their well-being, self-confidence, motivation and school
and classroom involvement. The linguistic repertoire of children
can be seen as didactic capital that explicitly can be drawn on to
strengthen their (educational) development. Their linguistic
repertoire can be a scaffold for learning the language of schooling
and more general, for acquiring and unraveling new knowledge.