Exploratory Essay

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Recommended: The definition of language

The terms language and literate are uniquely related to human characteristics; they are commonly synonymous with a person or societies’ ability to speak, read and write. It is reasonable to assume most people, regardless of life experience or physical positioning in the world, will agree literature is the spoken word transformed to written format. This viewpoint supports the Macquarie Primary Dictionary (Moore, 2010) definitions where language is “the arrangement of words we speak and write” (pg. 351); being literate is the skill required “to read and write”; and literature is “what is written about a particular subject” (pg. 364). While these definitions are essentially correct, language and literacy can no longer be viewed as stagnant structures …show more content…

This is due to influences such as time and geography. Consider these scenarios:
• An American tourist in New Zealand instructed he can wear jandals to a casual dinner. Can this man be expected to know what ‘jandals’ are?
• A South African woman visiting Hawaii enters a shop and asks the shop assistant if they sell slops. Is the shop assistant going to know what ‘slops’ …show more content…

Whilst each person involved would likely be able to correctly spell the words jandals, slops, and thongs; write the words down; and use the proper pronunciation, it still doesn’t make the meaning clear. As informed by Crystal (2013), the reason for this is English is transformed by people to suit different cultures and societies. In our technologically advanced society, with the widespread use of social media, it takes very little time for language variations to occur; largely due to geography no longer being a barrier of the time it takes for a language to transfer from one region of the world to another. The examples provided show the necessity of context for understanding to occur (Campbell & Green, 2006, p. 2), and without being told, a person would not be able to understand that jandals, slops and thongs are all footwear, aptly named from different cultures. The use and existence of Englishes has implications for educational purposes in the 21st Century and is aptly addressed later, with the impact of culture and class on language explored

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