Attitudes to Language Reading Answers: IELTS Reading Test
International English Language Testing System ( IELTS )
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Practising the IELTS reading passage "Attitudes to Language" is crucial for several reasons. It exposes you to diverse linguistic perspectives, helping you understand different opinions on language use and change. The passage also aids in improving critical reading skills by familiarizing you with various question types, such as sentence completion and yes/no/not given.
The passage below, "Attitudes to Language", is inspired by Cambridge 9, Test 3. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on the reading passage 1 below.
Attitudes to Language Reading Passage
It is not easy to be systematic and objective about language study. Popular linguistic debate regularly deteriorates into invective and polemic. Language belongs to everyone, so most people feel they have a right to hold an opinion about it. And when opinions differ, emotions can run high. Arguments can start as easily over minor points of usage as over major policies of linguistic education.
Language, moreover, is a very public behaviour, so it is easy for different usages to be noted and criticised. No part of society or social behaviour is exempt: linguistic factors influence how we judge personality, intelligence, social status, educational standards, job aptitude, and many other areas of identity and social survival. As a result, it is easy to hurt, and to be hurt, when language use is unfeelingly attacked.
In its most general sense, prescriptivism is the view that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others, and that this ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community. The view is propounded especially in relation to grammar and vocabulary, and frequently with reference to pronunciation. The variety which is favoured, in this account, is usually a version of the 'standard' written language, especially as encountered in literature, or in the formal spoken language which most closely reflects this style. Adherents to this variety are said to speak or write 'correctly'; deviations from it are said to be 'incorrect!
All the main languages have been studied prescriptively, especially in the 18th century approach to the writing of grammars and dictionaries. The aims of these early grammarians were threefold: (a) they wanted to codify the principles of their languages, to show that there was a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage, (b) they wanted a means of settling disputes over usage, and (c) they wanted to point out what they felt to be common errors, in order to 'improve' the language. The authoritarian nature of the approach is best characterised by its reliance on ‘rules' of grammar. Some usages are 'prescribed,' to be learnt and followed accurately; others are 'proscribed,' to be avoided. In this early period, there were no half-measures: usage was either right or wrong, and it was the task of the grammarian not simply to record alternatives but to pronounce judgement upon them.
These attitudes are still with us, and they motivate a widespread concern that linguistic standards should be maintained. Nevertheless, there is an alternative point of view that is concerned less with standards than with the facts of linguistic usage. This approach is summarised in the statement that it is the task of the grammarian to describe, not prescribe to record the facts of linguistic diversity, and not to attempt the impossible tasks of evaluating language variation. In the second half of the 18th century, we already find advocates of this view, such as Joseph Priestiey, whose Rudiments of English Grammar (1761) insists that 'the custom of speaking is the original and only just standard of any language! Linguistic issues, it is argued, cannot be solved by logic and legislation. And this view has become the tenet of the modern linguistic approach to grammatical analysis.
In our own time, the opposition between 'descriptivists' and 'prescriptivists' has often become extreme, with both sides painting unreal pictures of the other. Descriptive grammarians have been presented as people who do not care about standards because they see all forms of usage as equally valid. Prescriptive grammarians have been presented as blind adherents to a historical tradition. The opposition has even been presented in quasi-political terms—radical liberalism vs. elitist conservatism.
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Attitudes to Language Reading Passage - Questions 1-6
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
1. There are understandable reasons why _______ occur about language.
Answer: ARGUMENTS
Answer Location: Paragraph: 1, Line 2
Explanation: “ Language belongs to everyone, so most people feel they have a right to hold an opinion about it. And when opinions differ, emotions can run high. Arguments can start as easily over minor points of usage….” The passage explains that arguments about language arise because people feel strongly about it, as it's a public and personal matter.
2. People feel strongly about both small differences in language _______ and ________.
Answer: USAGE, EDUCATION
Answer Location: Paragraph 1, Line 3
Explanation: "Arguments can start as easily over minor points of usage as over major policies of linguistic education." This line highlights that debates can arise over both minor language usage issues and significant educational policies.
3. Our assessment of a person’s intelligence is affected by the way he or she uses ___________.
Answer: LINGUISTIC FACTORS
Answer Location: Paragraph 2, Line 3
Explanation: "Linguistic factors influence how we judge personality, intelligence, social status, educational standards, job aptitude, and many other areas of identity and social survival." This line states that language use impacts our perceptions of a person's intelligence and other qualities.
4. Prescriptivism is the belief expressed frequently in terms of ________.
Answer: PRONUNCIATION
Answer Location: Paragraph 3, Line 2
Explanation: "Prescriptivism is the view that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others and that this ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community. The view is propounded especially in relation to grammar and vocabulary and frequently with reference to pronunciation." The given lines indicate that maintaining language standards continues to influence various factors, mostly pronunciation.
5. The notion of prescription persists now that language standards ought to be kept.
Answer: STANDARDS
Answer Location: Paragraph 5, Line 1
Explanation: "These attitudes are still with us, and they motivate a widespread concern that linguistic standards should be maintained." The line notes that the idea of maintaining language standards continues to influence attitudes.
6. The role of the _________ is to record the facts of linguistic diversity without seeking to influence variation.
Answer: GRAMMARIAN
Answer Location: Paragraph 5, Line 3
Explanation: "It is the task of the grammarian to describe, not prescribe, to record the facts of linguistic diversity, and not to attempt the impossible tasks of evaluating language variation or halting language change." This line outlines the descriptive approach, which focuses on recording language use without prescribing rules.
Attitudes to Language Reading Passage - Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer In Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
7. Prescriptives studied most of the languages with regard to the grammar methods of the eighteenth century.
Answer: FALSE
Answer Location: Paragraph 4, line 1
Explanation: "All the main languages have been studied prescriptively, especially in the 18th-century approach to the writing of grammars and dictionaries." The passage indicates that prescriptive study was particularly prominent in the 18th century for all the main languages, not only for most of them; hence, the statement is contradictory.
8. Early grammarians aimed to document linguistic diversity with no interest in codifying principles.
Answer: FALSE
Answer Location: Paragraph 4, Line 3
Explanation: "They wanted to codify the principles of their languages, to show that there was a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage." Early grammarians were interested in codifying language principles, not just documenting the diversity, thus, the contradictory information makes the answer FALSE.
9. Linguists placed great importance on grammatical rules and recognition.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Answer Location: Paragraph 4, Line 5
Explanation: “The authoritarian nature of the approach is best characterised by its reliance on ‘rules' of grammar.” Though emphasis on the rules of grammar is mentioned, recognition has not been specified.
10. There were no middle grounds of correction during the early era.
Answer: TRUE
Answer Location: Paragraph 4, last line
Explanation: "In this early period, there were no half-measures: usage was either right or wrong." The passage clearly states that there was a strict binary view on language usage.
11. It is not the place of grammarians to evaluate linguistic variation or stop language change.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Answer Location: Paragraph 5, Line 4
Explanation: "and not to attempt the impossible tasks of evaluating language variation." The passage states that grammarians are not responsible for evaluating changes, but it does not mention halting language change.
12. Joseph Priestley held the view that grammar should be based on popular speech.
Answer: TRUE
Answer Location: Para 5, last line
Explanation: “Joseph Priestley, whose Rudiments of English Grammar (1761) insists that 'the custom of speaking is the original and only just standard of any language.” Priestley argued that famous speech should be the standard for grammar.
custom of speaking = popular speech
13. According to both descriptivists and prescriptivists, there is only one correct form of language.
Answer: FALSE
Answer Location: Para 6, 1st line
Explanation: "In our own time, the opposition between 'descriptivists' and 'prescriptivists' has often become extreme, with both sides painting unreal pictures of the other." The passage suggests that there are different views on language, not just one correct form.
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