Lesson Plan 1 Course title: English as an International Language (Culture)

Language Styles

Another interesting fact is that young children learn language development in two ______ styles: referential style and expressive style. In referential style language learning, vocabularies consist mainly of words that name objects. Expressive style language learning produces many more social formalities and pronouns.

Which style a child uses to learn language is _______ upon their beliefs about the purpose of language. Referential style children understand the purpose of language to be naming things. Expressive style children understand the purpose of language to be talking about people's ______ and needs.

These ideas are largely determined by cultural teachings. For example, object words are particularly common in the language of toddlers who speak English, but _______ who speak Chinese or Japanese have more words for actions and social routines in their vocabulary. Let's use Katie and Kim again to illustrate the different language learning styles.

Katie is a referential style______ . Her environment is full of stimuli that she wants to label. The people she interacts with in her environment actively participate in showing her new objects and encouraging her in attempts at learning the name of these objects. Katie's vocabulary is growing quickly!

Kim is an expressive style learner. His environment is full of social interaction, and importance is placed on activities associated with social routines. Even though his vocabulary is________, Kim excels at proper social protocol. Phrases such as 'thank you' and 'excuse me' were learned very quickly by Kim.

1. 
   dependent b. Distinct c. toddler d. feeling e. smaller f. learner
   

Lesson 10
Topic: The influence of Internet on language change (culture)

The internet as a threat to language

It’s interesting to consider the future of English now that the majority of English speakers are not native speakers of the language but are instead using it as a second, third or even fourth language. It’s thought this could be the death knell for trickier and non-essential parts of English, such as the use of ‘whom’ (which even native speakers rarely master).
Shortcuts used by American English speakers, such as ‘Ima’ in place of ‘I am going to’ are also becoming more prolific as users catch onto the economy of the term. Part of the reason for the spread of slang words is that, for the first time, slang terms that used to evolve and spread only within small closely-knit communities such as fans of a style of music in a particular geography are now played out in a more visible environment like the YouTube comments area for a particular music video.