The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Languages become endangered and die out for many reasons. Sadly, the physical annihilation of communities of native speakers of a language is all too often the cause of language extinction. In North America, European colonists brought death and destruction to many Native American communities. This was followed by US federal policies restricting the use of indigenous languages, including the removal of native children from their communities to federal boarding schools where native languages and cultural practices were prohibited. As many as 75 percent of the languages spoken in the territories that became the United States have gone extinct, with slightly better language survival rates in Central and South America . . .
Even without physical annihilation and prohibitions against language use, the language of the "dominant" cultures may drive other languages into extinction; young people see education, jobs, culture and technology associated with the dominant language and focus their attention on that language. The largest language "killers" are English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Hindi, and Chinese, all of which have privileged status as dominant languages threatening minority languages.
When we lose a language, we lose the worldview, culture and knowledge of the people who spoke it, constituting a loss to all humanity. People around the world live in direct contact with their native environment, their habitat. When the language they speak goes extinct, the rest of humanity loses their knowledge of that environment, their wisdom about the relationship between local plants and illness, their philosophical and religious beliefs as well as their native cultural expression (in music, visual art and poetry) that has enriched both the speakers of that language and others who would have encountered that culture. . . .
As educators deeply immersed in the liberal arts, we believe that educating students broadly in all facets of language and culture . . . yields immense rewards. Some individuals educated in the liberal arts tradition will pursue advanced study in linguistics and become actively engaged in language preservation, setting out for the Amazon, for example, with video recording equipment to interview the last surviving elders in a community to record and document a language spoken by no children.
Certainly, though, the vast majority of students will not pursue this kind of activity. For these students, a liberal arts education is absolutely critical from the twin perspectives of language extinction and global citizenship. When students study languages other than their own, they are sensitized to the existence of different cultural perspectives and practices. With such an education, students are more likely to be able to articulate insights into their own cultural biases, be more empathetic to individuals of other cultures, communicate successfully across linguistic and cultural differences, consider and resolve questions in a way that reflects multiple cultural perspectives, and, ultimately extend support to people, programs, practices, and policies that support the preservation of endangered languages.
There is ample evidence that such preservation can work in languages spiraling toward extinction. For example, Navajo, Cree and Inuit communities have established schools in which these languages are the language of instruction and the number of speakers of each has increased.
The Lamkangs of Manipur have only 3 remaining native speakers of the language. When they die, we will lose one more group from the government list of indigenous tribes.
The passage says that when a language dies, humanity loses “the worldview, culture and knowledge” of its speakers: knowledge of their environment, wisdom about plants and illness, beliefs and cultural expression.
The Inuit words for snow (knowledge of nature), the Andamanese word for a lost step-sister (a concept and its emotions) and the Nicobarese words for the moods of the ocean (knowledge of the environment) all describe this kind of loss.
Losing a group from a government list of indigenous tribes is an administrative change, not a loss of worldview, culture or knowledge. So that scenario is not an example of the loss the passage describes.
Hence, The Lamkangs of Manipur have only 3 remaining native speakers of the language. When they die, we will lose one more group from the government list of indigenous tribes.
establish schools to preserve languages spiralling towards extinction.
The author lists the ways a liberal arts education helps students who study other languages.
Such students “are sensitized to the existence of different cultural perspectives”, can “articulate insights into their own cultural biases”, “communicate successfully across linguistic and cultural differences” and support policies that preserve endangered languages. So learning languages, overcoming cultural barriers to communication and understanding their own culture are all covered.
Establishing schools is mentioned only as something the Navajo, Cree and Inuit communities have done; it is not presented as a way in which students are empowered.
Hence, establish schools to preserve languages spiralling towards extinction.
A liberal arts education requires that, in addition to being fluent in English, students gain fluency in two of the top five most spoken languages globally.
The central idea is that a liberal arts education, by exposing students to other languages and cultures, makes them more likely to support the preservation of endangered languages, which are being driven out by dominant languages.
If a liberal arts education required fluency in two of the most widely spoken languages, it would push students towards the very dominant languages the passage calls language “killers”. This would weaken the claim that such an education helps endangered languages.
Recording freezing a language, most students taking other careers and schools preserving a language only for a generation are side points; the passage already says most students will not do preservation work, and none of these strike at the role of a liberal arts education.
Hence, A liberal arts education requires that, in addition to being fluent in English, students gain fluency in two of the top five most spoken languages globally.
locals were provided job opportunities in the colonial administration.
The passage gives the reasons for language loss in North America: physical annihilation of native communities, policies restricting indigenous languages, and the removal of children to boarding schools; it also notes the pull of dominant languages.
Survival being “slightly better” in South America can therefore be explained by fewer native speakers being killed, by children being allowed to stay with their families, and by the colonial government failing to mainstream the locals into the dominant language.
Jobs in the colonial administration would draw people towards the dominant language, which the passage says drives other languages to extinction. So this cannot explain better language survival.
Hence, locals were provided job opportunities in the colonial administration.
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