Language and communication - Week 6

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• Leerjaar 3

Language and communication

Week 5 : Language and identity

This week ..

You will learn about ..

.. the relationship between language and identity

Language and identity

You are going to watch a video. Write down 3 things that surprise you/ that you find interesting

Name one of the things

you wrote down

Newspeak

Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell. To meet the ideological requirements of English Socialism in Oceania, the ruling English Socialist Party (Ingsoc) created Newspeak, a controlled language of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual's ability to think and articulate "subversive" concepts such as personal identity, self-expression and free will.

Newspeak

You are going to watch a video. Answer the following questions:

• What is Newspeak? (explain in your own words)

• What is the relation between language and identity in this story?

• Give an example of a word that doesn’t exist in Newspeak

• Why do you think this word doesn’t exist in Newspeak?

What does this remind you of?

On a scale of 0 to 100: how powerful do you think language can be?

0100

Think of an example that shows how powerful or powerless language can be.

Choose one of the articles listed here. Read it and explain to the rest of the class why language is important in that article

1. The language of Russia's war on Ukraine

2. How swearing became a weapon of resistance for Ukrainians

3. Ukraine's language is a vital weapon in our fight against Russia

In what way do you think your native language is connected to your identity?