When a Language Dies, Who Decides?
Grammar: Embedded Questions
A Level 5 English lesson exploring education.
What's in this lesson
A Level 5 (advanced) ESL lesson on education, practising embedded questions. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: When a Language Dies, Who Decides?
Somewhere in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia, an elder sits with a linguist, a microphone between them, and speaks. She speaks in Yawuru — a language with perhaps three hundred fluent speakers remaining — and every sentence she produces is, in a quiet but measurable sense, an act of resistance against a particular kind of silence. The linguist types furiously. The recording light blinks red. Outside, the afternoon heat presses down on red earth, and the session continues, because there may not be many more like it.
Vocabulary
- catalogue
- enforce
- narrow
- sustain
Grammar: Embedded Questions
- Embedded question
- I wonder what the linguist was recording. — statement word-order after the main clause
- Mixed tenses: why it
- She has always spoken Yawuru, but her children are growing up in English. — tense choice signals permanence vs change
Discussion questions
- Would you rather speak one language perfectly or three languages imperfectly?
- Is it better to save a dying language or let it go naturally?
- Which matters more to cultural identity: food, music, or language?
When a Language Dies, Who Decides?
Grammar: Embedded Questions
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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