Language Varieties Reflection

Language itself is a very complex unit. It has a numerous amount of features, which express the different characteristics that make language a compulsory unit to study. When we have had the opportunity to establish a conversation with some native speakers of a language, in my case English, we notice that the way that person speaks is quite different from another speaker of the same language; maybe they are from different countries, or cities; or perhaps they come from the same place, but they are socially less educated form one another. This difference when speaking between this people can be fully understood with the summary uploaded in my website, a summary with this same name. For the concept maps and the analysis I provide about this topic, can help you to distinguish the different varieties and features that are presented within the study of a language. With features I men dialect, Creole, pidgin, the language planning process, the concept of Standard language and the concept of bilingualism are fully explained in the concept map summary. When I read the text about Language Varieties, one of the many things I realized is that I came to notice the differences between dialect and accent, which are not that hard to understand when you make a concept map, by making a sort of comparison between both features; and the difference between dialect and accent is absolutely relevant when we want to communicate with native speakers of a language, for we can fully or mostly understand what he or she wants to say, what the meaning of that specific communicative situation means so we do not get lost while we are having this conversation, because there might be some misunderstanding ( maybe you confuse a/some words and the other person can assume you are offending her or him, because in their dialect a specific word means something rude or maybe you say a word with an accent and the other person who speaks with another accent understands what you are saying with a very different meaning and significance). Another very relevant variety it is what is commonly known as Standard Language. In English, most of us refer to Standard Language as BBC English and in this language I am learning, I think is a very suitable name for Standard English, for BBC uses a clear intonation and pronunciation, which I think makes that language absolutely understandable for each one of the English speakers all over the world. This summary can really help you if you are in third year of English Pedagogy, mostly because it is one of the major basis of study of a language and when it comes to the Lexical Analysis course, the summary of the text is very useful to learn and achieve some of the specific objectives of this course (check objectives four and five uploaded at the end of this page), objectives which are related to registers, jargon and appropriate expressions to use when we communicate with someone else, whether in English, French or Chinese.