BUSN410 Week 2 Assignment

BUSN410 Week 2 Assignment

Explain the impact of language on critical thinking and decision making. Make sure you include the challenges presented by language and how one can manage these challenges.

• Develop a 10 to 15 slide PowerPoint presentation

• Include detailed speaker notes to explain each slide content OR present your slides via Video and submit the link for the video with your slide deck.

• Support your presentation with at least 3 credible academic references beyond course materials

• Follow APA format where appropriate

The Impact of language on Critical Thinking and Decision Making

Introduction: What is Language?

u Language is the foremost means by which humans communicate with each other.

u It reflects the beliefs of the people (Cambridge University Press, n.d.).

u It shows the power that people of a particular group wield

u Language sheds some light on the personality of the individual.

u Language reveals the characteristics and the connections that people have.

Impact of language on critical evaluation

u Critical thinking skills and evaluations are an important aspect of learning and training.

u Complex language makes it hard to pass instructions from one group of people to another.

u Performance in productive activities varies with the proficiency of the students in the topic(Manalo & Sheppard, 2016).

u Language grasping affects the ability of supervisors to come up with more adequate and accurate feedback methodologies for the subordinates.

u Language use affects the complexity of the sentence structure and ability of students to express themselves.

Four main areas in which language has an effect on the critical thinking

u Broadly, language use affects the following:

u The number of words that one will use to express themselves.

u The choice of words

u The definitions that people will use to explain concepts.

u The vocabulary that someone will use.

u And, an analysis of whether someone will be ambiguous in communication or not.

Impact of language and language diversity on the Critical thinking

u Language is the medium of communication for most people.

u Most people would communicate through symbols, and visions.

u Language and language diversity shows how one community approaches critical thinking compared to another community's approach.

u What is deemed to be critical thinking in one community may not be so in another community(Manalo & Sheppard, 2016).

u When people cannot communicate through language because they do not have diversity, it can lead to misunderstandings.

u Misunderstandings have an effect on the ability of people to communicate more critically.

Impact of language on critical thinking skills

u Learning a language demands that people learn different sets of skills.

u When language is mastered, it gives the people the ability to muster a new enhanced skill.

u Language mastering helps someone learn a totally new way of thinking compared to the older way.

u It helps one to assess a situation critically in a different way than they are taught.

u This is powered by learning new grammar and syntax rules(Critical Thinking Secrets.com, 2021).

Relationship between language, writing performance and cognitive strategies

u For the learners, comprehension of language affects their abilities to write faster and efficiently.

u Language affects the social cognitive skills of the learners.

u It has an effect on the ability of the students to express their conscious needs during the learning process(Esmaeil Nejad et al., 2022).

u Learning affects the thoughts and the mental processes of the learners.

u Language also affects the memory-related strategies of the learners and the compensation that they seek once they have reached a certain achievement level.

Impact of language on cognitive strategies.

u Language influences the ability of the learners to apply concepts learned(Esmaeil Nejad et al., 2022).

u It affects the power to draw conclusions from a learning process.

u It influences the ability of the students to form vivid visual pictures regarding the concepts obtained using the learning process.

u It affects the interaction abilities(Esmaeil Nejad et al., 2022).

u Language also affects the power of the students to break down abstract concepts into concepts easily understood.

Impact of language on the decision making

u In decision making, there are a wide variety of decisions that are made by people on a daily basis:

u Some decisions can be passed on as moral decisions.

u Other decisions affect the psychological and physical well-being of the people(such as the decision to eat or to exercise).

u Some decisions are final, for instance, judgments.

u Many people make decisions when they are in a dilemma.

u Others are ethical human decisions.

Impact of language on the moral decision making process:

u When people make decisions regarding moral issues, there is a more emotional connection, a psychological response, and an effect when the decision is made in the local language.

u The opposite is true for the foreign language. Passing down moral judgments in foreign languages leads to a less radical emotional response process.

u Decision making in a foreign language can lead to detachment from the rest of the process(The Language You Speak Impacts Your Moral Decision Making, 2014).

Further effect of foreign language use on the cognitive thinking and processes.

u Foreign language usage reduces cognitive tension: ( Cognitive tension is the tendency to think and worry that your decisions will harm a given group of people).

u People will prefer options that reveal increased utilities.

u As opposed to decision options that prefer deontological ethical tendencies.

u There is also no increase in a biased outcome when someone is using a foreign language compared to using the traditional local language(Circi et al., 2021).

Challenges of language

u Sometimes the people under the instruction do not share a common language.

u Lack of understanding of language affects the instruction process.

u Challenges or feelings of the people are not properly understood or communicated.

u The organization may not have a good policy that supports language diversity in the organization.

u There is also a strong influence of the first language which can have an impact on the people to learn a different language.

Resolution of the challenges

u During language training if the people do not understand the speech, the focus should be on ensuring that one speaks with clarity and responds to feedback.

u Encouraging language-based interactions so that people can now learn from each other.

u Inviting experts to come to the firm and offer needed training to workers will equally be important.

u It is important for one to be patient while speaking to others.

u Idioms should be avoided.

References

u Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). Introduction: What is language? https://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/52579/excerpt/9780521852579_excerpt.pdf

u Circi, R., Gatti, D., Russo, V., & Vecchi, T. (2021). The foreign language effect on decision-making: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01871-z

u Critical Thinking Secrets.com. (2021, April 17). Critical thinking and language learning - Critical Thinking Secrets. https://criticalthinkingsecrets.com/critical-thinking-language-learning/

u Esmaeil Nejad, M., Izadpanah, S., Namaziandost, E., & Rahbar, B. (2022). The Mediating Role of Critical Thinking Abilities in the Relationship Between English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Writing Performance and Their Language Learning Strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.746445

u Manalo, E., & Sheppard, C. (2016). How might language affect critical thinking performance? Thinking Skills and Creativity, 21, 41–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2016.05.005

u The Language you speak impacts your Moral Decision Making. (2014, May 7). Kwintessential. https://www.kwintessential.co.uk/blog/news/language-speak-impacts-moral-decision-making