Process
Before your research, you will need to:
1. Choose a language to research out of:
-English
-Spanish
-Chinese
-Japanese
2. Write down a prediction of how you think your language will survive in the future and think about the following questions:
- What does globalization mean to you?
- What do you think about the relationship between globalization and language?
- Which language do you think is the most dominant in the world right now?
- Why do you think some languages die out?
Begin you research by following these steps:
1. Investigate some background information on your chosen language.
-Look at how many people speak the language globally today and where this language is spoken?
-Look at the foundations and history of the language?
-How has the language adapted/evolved over time so that it still exists today?
2. Investigate the relationship between language, globalization and society.
- Has the language you selected being affected by the current globalized trend and how?
- What aspects of your language are of particular importance to society? For example, cultural, economical, scientific importance etc.
- What kind of things have been done by the government in order to promote this type of language?
- Look at some other people’s opinions on the effects globalization will have on languages?
- Do you support their views or think differently? Click here for examples
- What are the predictions for the future of your language? Look at some information on endangered languages.
3. Click on the following links to find more information about your chosen language:
Spanish . Chinese . English . Japanese
After your research, you will need to:
1. Think about how your original ideas about your chosen language have been challenged.
- Did your research support or oppose your previous opinion?
- Give an explanation as to why the research either supported or challenged your opinion.
2. Do a 5-6 minute oral presentation to share your findings with your classmates. You may use a poster, powerpoint slideshow, photostory or any other creative tools you can think of to present your findings. You will need to:
- Summarize your findings and make sure you have answered most of the required questions.
- Generate discussion with classmates and be prepared to answer their questions.
- Check the Evaluation page to make sure you're on the right track.
3. After your presentation, write a report in groups of 3 or 4 people* using Wikispaces.
- Summarize all your group members's findings in their research.
- Use the group page in Wikispaces to generate a discussion with your group members and create a collaborative report.
- Check the Collaborative report criteria sheet in the Evaluation page to make sure you're on the right track.
*you must have at least 3 different languages in each group.