Who counts as a speaker of a language?
Construction of the Babel Tower
People wanted to be as powerful as God
God destroyed the tower and gave the people different languages so they won't be able to communicate
People who know a second language, don't consider themselves as speakers of the language
Ohio University students that have studied Spanish for 4/5 years
All the class time they speak, write and listen in Spanish
They don't consider themselves as speakers of the language
Social category of the language
Research studies
Bolivia: Quechua indigenous group
American college students
Pair words were taken from Quechua spanish speakers and "normal" Spanish speakers
The pair words had a similar sound in the same way that Quechua speakers often sound similar when they speak Spanish
The sounds were played to a group of listeners
Half of the group were told they were going to listen a normal Spanish speaker
Half of the group were told that they were going to listen a Quechua speaker
Both groups heard the same recording
They found differences between the word pairs
They didn't find differences between the word pairs
The social category given to the listeners changed the way they perceived the language
Listened a university lecture
Half of the students were shown an Asian face as the lecturer
Half of the students were shown a caucasian face as the lecturer
Both groups listened exactly the same audio
The people who were shown the Asian face said it was more difficult to understand
Anna's children
They speak Spanish at home and English outside home
When they started school they had to take an exam because they were considered as non-native American people as they are latin people
Even if they used English to communicate outside their home, their score in the exam was not the expected one
They scored as non-native speakers
They had a good score on comprehension of the language, but their mistakes were in the production and grammar part
People are pattern seekers looking for ways to connect dots between different types of information
It might be a problem if our inderlying biases are projected onto language
Language judgements have long-reaching effects on people's lifes
Gabriela Triviño