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Read the following newspaper
article and answer the questions below.
The newspaper article can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20010516wednesday.html
Answer the following
questions:
a. What language is spoken in
Brazil
?
b. According to the article, what are Aldo Rebelo's goals for
preserving this language? What are his motivations for these goals?
c. Under what circumstances are English words most often used in
Brazil
?
d. What steps have been taken by the Brazilian Congress to change
the use of English words?
e. Who opposes such changes, according to the article?
f. Which languages have been the primary influences on Portuguese
historically?
g. What are some specific examples from this article of English
language use in
Brazil
?
h. Why is it difficult for some native English speakers to
understand English word usage in
Brazil
? What are some examples of this?
i. Why would language legislation pose a problem for
Brazil
's national sport?
j. How does the
Brazilian
Academy
of Letters respond to Rebelo's proposal?
k. What is "verbal nationalism," and why might it be
particularly successful in
Brazil
as opposed to in other Latin American countries?
l. In what other countries are similar debates about language
preservation taking place?
m. Where does Portuguese rank globally in terms of the number of
people in the world who speak it?
n. In which other countries around the world is Portuguese spoken?
o. What did one American linguist predict might happen to Brazilian
Portuguese within the next three hundred years?
p. Aside from Portuguese, which language study is mandatory in
Brazilian schools, and why?
q. How is the Brazilian government attempting to make their
linguistic cause known at an international level?
r. Where was the Portuguese language outlawed for twenty-five years,
and why?
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