Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: bpc@netcom.com (Benjamin P. Carter)
Subject: Re: Proper English?
Message-ID: <bpcCxBv02.FBw@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <scol2007.15.00089C02@mercury.gc.peachnet.edu> <1994Oct5.173536.15021@grace.rt.cs.boeing.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 00:07:14 GMT
Lines: 16

rwojcik@atc.boeing.com (Richard Wojcik) writes:

>I disagree with your assumption that schools can do much to hasten the
>demise of a dialect (or language).  The fact is that schools all over the world
>have done this sort of thing for quite a long time.  It is nothing new.  Yet we
>still have quite a bit of linguistic and cultural diversity.  I think that the
>rapid rise of global community has done much more to stamp out diversity
>than anything else. 

I suspect that the mass media--radio, movies, and especially TV--are
the most effective agents in stamping out linguistic diversity these
days.  Children in the USA spend more time in front of the tube than
they do in school, and the linguistic stimuli on the tube are more
homogeneous than those at the various schools.  
-- 
    Ben Carter                  internet address: bpc@netcom.com
