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GOING FURTHER
Reading
Pre-reading
 1 Look at the text in Reading and answer: 
What is it about?
 2 Observe the image on the right carefully 
and answer: Is it related to the text Are You 
a Victim of Language Discrimination? 
Justify your answer.
Personal answer.
It is about language discrimination.
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Are you a victim of language discrimination?
Delf’n Carbonell, Contributor
[…]
Historically, languages have been used as 
excuses to discriminate, and many tongues have 
been looked down upon, abused, proscribed and 
even banned. To this day we all know that there are 
prestige languages and others that are not, whose 
speakers become the target of discrimination. Those 
in command, not necessarily the majority, call the 
shots, if you allow the expression.
[…]
Our attitude towards people changes as soon as we hear them speak. If we detect some 
sort of an accent, be it French, Southern, Spanish, Bostonian, British, Arabic, Italian... we 
immediately form an opinion of the speaker even if he has only uttered a few sounds. 
We will be inclined to like them or dislike them, even though we know little about their 
personalities. This I call language discrimination: to judge others and often condemn them 
because of the way they handle the language. This is evident even on the phone.
Language discrimination is always active in society and appears in the labor market 
especially. We are judged by our grammar, our vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, slang 
and accent.
[…] People are people, regardless (or is it irregardless?) of the way they speak the 
language. The economic and cultural elite are the ones who make language rules and 
dictate what is right and what is wrong, and we must accept this fact... ¿no?
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/9491452/amp
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Proscribed: proibido
Utter: balbuciar
Handle: lidar com
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CARBONELL, Delfín. Are You a Victim of Language Discrimination? 
Huffpost. Available at: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/9491452/amp. 
Accessed on: Aug. 24, 2020.
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 3 In your notebook, write the option that summarizes the 
message of the text.
A Language discrimination only takes place in the 
workplace context.
B Generally people do not discriminate against speakers 
with foreign accents.
C The concept of language discrimination means judging 
someone by the way he/she speaks. X
 4 Read the following sentence that was taken from the text. In your notebook, transcribe the 
synonym that can replace the phrasal verb in bold.
We will be inclined to like them or dislike them, even though we know little about 
their personalities.
A get around to
B keep to
C point to
D predisposed to X
 5 According to the author of the text, the opinion about someone may change as that person 
speaks. Choose the right sentence extracted from the text that illustrates the author’s point 
of view. Use your notebook to register your answer.
A “Those in command, not necessarily the majority, call the shots […]”
B “The economic and cultural elite are the ones who make language rules and dictate what 
is right and what is wrong […]”
C “Historically, languages have been used as excuses to discriminate […]”
D “Our attitude towards people changes as soon as we hear them speak.” X
 6 The following terms were taken from the text and they are 
related to Linguistics. In your notebook, match them with 
their respective meanings.
I grammar
II vocabulary
III idiomatic expressions
IV slang
V accent
A uma expressão ou palavra usada por um grupo 
específi co em contexto informal. IV
B modo característico de pronunciar as palavras: indica a 
que região, país ou classe social o falante pertence. V
C expressões com signifi cado diferente do signifi cado das 
palavras que as compõem separadamente. III
D conjunto de regras que padronizam o uso de um idioma. I
E o conjunto de palavras que existem em um idioma. II
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