Episode 57: Slanguage - Study Guide for Middle School

NPR

Published March 27, 2017 at 11:57 AM EDT

Young people have always used language in different ways - and it has always driven older generations crazy

Check out a printable PDF of this study guide!

Do your teachers or parents often correct how you talk? Do you correct how other people talk? John McWhorter is a linguist (a person who studies languages) and he says there is no "right" or "wrong" way to talk. According to Dr. McWhorter, "It's the nature of human language to change."

Dr. McWhorter says that there is no "wrong" way to use language. Languages change all the time, and words usually start off as mistakes before becoming regular language. Languages are mostly spoken, not written down. This means that languages have always changed as people create new words, use old words differently, or change how people say the same words.

Study Guide Questions

1. What are some examples of new words?

2. Do you use any of these words?

3. How many languages does Dr. McWhorter say are actually written down?

4. How many languages does he say are spoken?

5. Does this surprise you?

6. What does the word "literally" mean?

What's its earliest meaning?

What does it mean now?

How do you use it?

7. What does "lol" mean?

What does it stand for?

Do you ever use it? How?

8. What's an example of a word you think might be different in 50 or 100 years? Why?

Resources

Download a printable PDF of this study guide

Check out the webpage for this episode!

A transcript of this episode

Shankar Vedantam ran another story about linguistics on NPR's Morning Edition

John McWhorter was on NPR's Morning Edition

John McWhorter's TED Talk on NPR's TED Radio Hour

John McWhorter on NPR's Talk of the Nation