At the end of the semester we talked about language death, language endangerment and language revitalization. For the capstone essay you should consider the loss of linguistic diversity and the relevant sociolinguistic factors that surround the issue.
In preparing your essay, you should try to reflect on the following:
• What is the impact of language loss on a speech community? What is the impact of language loss on the rest of the world outside of that speech community?
• Think about your own position on the issue of language endangerment and language preservation. Would you say that you are a Conservationist, a Preservationist or a Darwinian? What is your view on the issue of loss of linguistic diversity? Is it a bad thing? Why or why not?
• Is it a violation of language rights or human rights to let languages go extinct? Why or why not? (In this part of your discussion, you should include some statement of what you understand the term “language rights” to mean, and you should also clearly state your own position with relation to that understanding.
• Think about specific practices you’ve read about or heard about. What are examples of good practices in multilingual societies in your opinion? What are bad practices? What makes those practices good or bad?
Sample Solution