Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Division of English Language and Literature

English for International Communication

Spring 2007

Week 3 - The Rise and Fall of Powerful Languages

Guidelines for Presentations and Reports

In this the third week of class students, in groups, will write up reports and give presentations on the rise and fall of some of the world`s powerful languages. The purpose of these reports/presentations is to give students an idea of what it takes for a language to become powerful so that we an better understand the role that English as a global language plays in the world today.

For this week I would suggest that the students first write up their report and develop the presentation from the contents of the report. Following this I will, there fore first explain a bit about the report. The report should cover three basic aspects of the language the students are to present. The first of these should be the historical background of the language including a description of its expansion and contraction (if appropriate). The second aspect that needs to be covered pertains to the social aspects of the language in tis zenith including its use in the society in which it was used and how it might have been used by others. For example. The use of Latin in Rome and Italy was quite different than its use in surrounding provinces like Gaul or Spain as well as the outer provinces like Britain or Palestine. I would like some description and commentary on how the language was used in different areas of its realm during the height of its power. The last thing I would like students to focus on is the legacy fo the language. This entails explaining what happened to the language after the society that supported it waned. For example, in the case of Arabic even though the Arab Empire dwindled Arabic remained the majority language or official language in many of the places conquered (The Middle East and North Africa) while expanding its influence due to influence into many areas due to expansion of Islam (Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia). Thus, reports should focus on three major periods in the life of each of the powerful languages to be studied.

Information for these reports is best gathered from web resources and history books, Make sure that all sources are cited in the body of the paper and listed fully in the reference section of the report.

As for the presentations, they should be fifteen minutes in length and should include visual and or text accompaniment (typically in the form of Powerpoint). Presentations should summarize the content of the reports and should not present any different information.