UNIT 7. CHAT
Foreign languages at school.
Imagine that you work for the Education Ministry in your country. You need to decide what extra foreign language children will study at school.
Choose one language from the list below (or another language you think would be useful) and say why you think that language should be included as a school subject. You could also say why the other languages should not be included.
If I worked in the Educaction Ministry in my country, Spain, I should propose English as a school subject, because this language is very important to get a good job. It’s also the language that people use to speak with foreign people. I think that English is an “universal language”.
2. Disappearing languages.
Imagine that you live in a country called Lep. Eighty per cent of the population of Lep speak Lepese, but 20% of the population speak a minority language called Toggle which is very different to Lepese. The number of Toggle speakers is decreasing steadily, and in a generation the language could disappear.
What could the government of Lep do to support Toggle and to stop its disappearance? Or should Toggle be allowed to die?
I think that the government of Lep should take measures to stop the decrease of Toggle speakers because I think that it ´s very enriching for a country to have two languages. The first thing they should do is to include this languages as a school subject. They could also offer Toggle courses to the immigrants I should ask at the people who works in a public establishment to speak and to understand the language.
3. In your country.
What languages are spoken in your country? Are there any minority languages? What, if anything, is done to protect the minority languages? What are your opinions on this?
In my country there are foro languages: Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Gallician. In Catalunya the first 2 languages are official, but Spanish is more often used than Catalan. The gouvernment is taking a lot of measures to protect the Catalan: In school the courses are teached in Catalan. For the inmigrants in Catalunya, the gouvernment offers free courses. They have created a law to make sure that Catalan is used in public places.
The government also develops projects to promote the language. One of these projects is Voluntaris per la llengua. It consists in a person who speaks Catalan has freequent and informal conversations with a person who wants to learn Catalan.