Leia o texto a seguir e responda às questões de 21 a 24 . Simpler spelling may be more relevant than ever The complexity of English ...
Leia o texto a seguir e responda às questões de 21 a 24.
The complexity of English spellings has been bothering people for nearly as long as English has been written down. They argue that inconsistent spellings make English unnecessarily hard to learn. The English Spelling Society, a UK organisation pushing for easier spellings, even argues that there’s a link between difficult spelling and higher crime, with illiteracy pushing people into a life of illegality. While that argument might be a stretch, it’s clear that non-traditional spelling does create a bad impression.
Compared to the UK variants, US spellings are easier for non-native speakers to learn, being shorter and slightly more phonetic. These US spellings are a legacy of dictionary pioneer Noah Webster’s movement for simplified spelling. This movement sought to cleanse English of double and silent letters, as well as other inefficiencies related to orthography (the system of writing and spelling words).
There was a practical as well as a political element to this. Not only would learners find it easier to master simplified spellings, Webster reasoned, but humbler spellings were actually more democratic, and would help differentiate the Americans from their recent colonial masters across the pond.
Webster’s ideas led to the proliferation in the US of “labor” over “labour” and “center” over “centre”, even if not all his ideas have become the “fashon”. For one thing, English is such an irregular language that it’s impossible to iron out all the kinks. No form of English is written out completely phonetically, as anybody with a tough cough (tuf cawf?) will know. Any new spelling rules would need plenty of exceptions. Overall, English’s erratic spellings bear witness to the many words it has absorbed from other languages. Like the wealth of accents among English speakers, this feature both enriches the language and poses a challenge to standardised simplified spellings.
English spellings and dyslexia
One group that might be helped by simpler spellings is people with dyslexia. In linguistic terms, English is opaque, meaning that there’s little correlation and consistency between its spoken and written forms. What you read and what you say can seem very different. Finnish and Spanish, in contrast, are more transparent.
So “kids learn to read English slower than kids who learned transparent languages like Spanish, Italian, Czech, German”, says Liory Fern-Pollak, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London.
As dyslexia has a neurological basis, an affected person would have dyslexia regardless of whether they were born in Finland or England. But Fern-Pollak explains that it would be easier to diagnose them in England, as they grapple with the idiosyncratic spellings of English.
English in the internet age
Webster’s ideas are perhaps newly relevant, as the language of IT and the internet increasingly influences how English is written. Globally, Google returns more results for US spellings. In computing, “program” is generally accepted over “programme”. Shorter words are more versatile in text messages and social media posts, and search engine optimisation often favours US spellings. The Googlelisation (or “Googlization”) of the internet is one reason that Thai learners, for instance, prefer American spellings.
But the internet is also exposing people to a large variety of spellings. So “people are representing their spoken dialects more through spelling in spaces like Twitter and Instagram”, says Lauren Squires, a linguist at Ohio State University. She believes that “people are becoming more comfortable with spelling variation”, even though there’s a strong and enduring idea that only one spelling can be correct.
QUESTÃO 22
(UEL 2020) De acordo com o texto, um dos argumentos da English Spelling Society para defender a simplificação da ortografia da língua inglesa é que
a) a ortografia complexa da língua inglesa dificulta muito o processo de aprendizagem.
b) há uma relação entre taxas maiores de criminalidade e a complexidade ortográfica.
c) é necessário amenizar a má impressão que outros países têm em relação ao inglês.
d) a Inglaterra se beneficiaria com a maior proximidade da ortografia usada pelos EUA.
e) possibilitaria uma redução no número de pessoas analfabetas nos países britânicos.
QUESTÃO ANTERIOR:
- (UEL 2020) Sobre o texto Simpler spelling may be more relevant than ever, considere as afirmativas a seguir.
Conteúdo programático:
Leitura geral e para buscar informações específicas (Skimming e Scanning)
RESOLUÇÃO:
a) Incorreta. Embora essa informação esteja no texto, esse não é o argumento utilizado pela English Spelling Society. Esse argumento é apresentado por pessoas em geral, que se sentem incomodadas com a inconsistência entre som e forma da língua (The complexity of English spellings has been bothering people for nearly as long as English has been written down. They argue that inconsistent spellings make English unnecessarily hard to learn).
b) Correta. Segundo o texto, a English Spelling Society acha que há uma relação entre ortografia difícil e mais crimes (even argues that there’s a link between difficult spelling and higher crime, with illiteracy pushing people into a life of illegality).
c) Incorreta. Não há nenhum argumento da English Spelling Society nesse sentido e o texto não afirma que outros países têm má impressão em relação ao inglês. A autora afirma que é claro que uma ortografia não tradicional causa má impressão (it’s clear that non-traditional spelling does create a bad impression).
d) Incorreta. O texto não faz nenhuma menção a esse argumento por parte da English Spelling Society.
e) Incorreta. Embora a palavra “illiteracy” (analfabetismo) tenha sido mencionada, ela não representa o argumento da English Spelling Society. O texto apenas complementa o argumento da Society de que há uma relação entre ortografia difícil e mais crimes, dizendo que analfabetismo tem relação com ilegalidade.
GABARITO:
b) há uma relação entre taxas maiores de criminalidade e a complexidade ortográfica.
PRÓXIMA QUESTÃO:
- (UEL 2020) De acordo com o texto, pessoas com dislexia poderiam ser beneficiadas com a simplificação da ortografia da língua inglesa porque
QUESTÃO DISPONÍVEL EM:
- Prova UEL 2020 (1ª e 2ª Fases) com Gabarito e Resolução
Simpler spelling may be more relevant than ever
The complexity of English spellings has been bothering people for nearly as long as English has been written down. They argue that inconsistent spellings make English unnecessarily hard to learn. The English Spelling Society, a UK organisation pushing for easier spellings, even argues that there’s a link between difficult spelling and higher crime, with illiteracy pushing people into a life of illegality. While that argument might be a stretch, it’s clear that non-traditional spelling does create a bad impression.
Compared to the UK variants, US spellings are easier for non-native speakers to learn, being shorter and slightly more phonetic. These US spellings are a legacy of dictionary pioneer Noah Webster’s movement for simplified spelling. This movement sought to cleanse English of double and silent letters, as well as other inefficiencies related to orthography (the system of writing and spelling words).
There was a practical as well as a political element to this. Not only would learners find it easier to master simplified spellings, Webster reasoned, but humbler spellings were actually more democratic, and would help differentiate the Americans from their recent colonial masters across the pond.
Webster’s ideas led to the proliferation in the US of “labor” over “labour” and “center” over “centre”, even if not all his ideas have become the “fashon”. For one thing, English is such an irregular language that it’s impossible to iron out all the kinks. No form of English is written out completely phonetically, as anybody with a tough cough (tuf cawf?) will know. Any new spelling rules would need plenty of exceptions. Overall, English’s erratic spellings bear witness to the many words it has absorbed from other languages. Like the wealth of accents among English speakers, this feature both enriches the language and poses a challenge to standardised simplified spellings.
English spellings and dyslexia
One group that might be helped by simpler spellings is people with dyslexia. In linguistic terms, English is opaque, meaning that there’s little correlation and consistency between its spoken and written forms. What you read and what you say can seem very different. Finnish and Spanish, in contrast, are more transparent.
So “kids learn to read English slower than kids who learned transparent languages like Spanish, Italian, Czech, German”, says Liory Fern-Pollak, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London.
As dyslexia has a neurological basis, an affected person would have dyslexia regardless of whether they were born in Finland or England. But Fern-Pollak explains that it would be easier to diagnose them in England, as they grapple with the idiosyncratic spellings of English.
English in the internet age
Webster’s ideas are perhaps newly relevant, as the language of IT and the internet increasingly influences how English is written. Globally, Google returns more results for US spellings. In computing, “program” is generally accepted over “programme”. Shorter words are more versatile in text messages and social media posts, and search engine optimisation often favours US spellings. The Googlelisation (or “Googlization”) of the internet is one reason that Thai learners, for instance, prefer American spellings.
But the internet is also exposing people to a large variety of spellings. So “people are representing their spoken dialects more through spelling in spaces like Twitter and Instagram”, says Lauren Squires, a linguist at Ohio State University. She believes that “people are becoming more comfortable with spelling variation”, even though there’s a strong and enduring idea that only one spelling can be correct.
RO, Christine. Simpler spelling may be more
relevant than ever. BBC Worklife. 13th June 2019.
QUESTÃO 22
(UEL 2020) De acordo com o texto, um dos argumentos da English Spelling Society para defender a simplificação da ortografia da língua inglesa é que
a) a ortografia complexa da língua inglesa dificulta muito o processo de aprendizagem.
b) há uma relação entre taxas maiores de criminalidade e a complexidade ortográfica.
c) é necessário amenizar a má impressão que outros países têm em relação ao inglês.
d) a Inglaterra se beneficiaria com a maior proximidade da ortografia usada pelos EUA.
e) possibilitaria uma redução no número de pessoas analfabetas nos países britânicos.
QUESTÃO ANTERIOR:
- (UEL 2020) Sobre o texto Simpler spelling may be more relevant than ever, considere as afirmativas a seguir.
Conteúdo programático:
Leitura geral e para buscar informações específicas (Skimming e Scanning)
RESOLUÇÃO:
a) Incorreta. Embora essa informação esteja no texto, esse não é o argumento utilizado pela English Spelling Society. Esse argumento é apresentado por pessoas em geral, que se sentem incomodadas com a inconsistência entre som e forma da língua (The complexity of English spellings has been bothering people for nearly as long as English has been written down. They argue that inconsistent spellings make English unnecessarily hard to learn).
b) Correta. Segundo o texto, a English Spelling Society acha que há uma relação entre ortografia difícil e mais crimes (even argues that there’s a link between difficult spelling and higher crime, with illiteracy pushing people into a life of illegality).
c) Incorreta. Não há nenhum argumento da English Spelling Society nesse sentido e o texto não afirma que outros países têm má impressão em relação ao inglês. A autora afirma que é claro que uma ortografia não tradicional causa má impressão (it’s clear that non-traditional spelling does create a bad impression).
d) Incorreta. O texto não faz nenhuma menção a esse argumento por parte da English Spelling Society.
e) Incorreta. Embora a palavra “illiteracy” (analfabetismo) tenha sido mencionada, ela não representa o argumento da English Spelling Society. O texto apenas complementa o argumento da Society de que há uma relação entre ortografia difícil e mais crimes, dizendo que analfabetismo tem relação com ilegalidade.
GABARITO:
b) há uma relação entre taxas maiores de criminalidade e a complexidade ortográfica.
PRÓXIMA QUESTÃO:
- (UEL 2020) De acordo com o texto, pessoas com dislexia poderiam ser beneficiadas com a simplificação da ortografia da língua inglesa porque
QUESTÃO DISPONÍVEL EM:
- Prova UEL 2020 (1ª e 2ª Fases) com Gabarito e Resolução
COMENTÁRIOS