AP Seminar Stimulus Packet for Mock Performance Task #2 - Vanishing Voices

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

AP Seminar Mock Performance Task #2 stimulus packet containing informational and literary readings focused on endangered languages and what is lost when communities stop speaking them. The selection features “Vanishing Voices” by Russ Rymer with photographs by Lynn Johnson, including perspectives on Chemehuevi and Tuvan, alongside discussion of language death, dominance of major world languages, and the cultural meaning embedded in speech and practice. It includes themes of connection, identity, and humaneness as language disappears.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages57

Reading Time2 h 24 min

AccessFree to download

AP Seminar Stimulus Packet for Mock Performance Task #2

Vanishing Voices

The Compassion of Khojözeeri

Language Loss and Global Dominance

# AP SeminarStimulus Packet for MockPerformance Task \#2 □ Carefully read all of the texts andannotate(e.g.,argument,evidence,reasoning, background,lens,summary)each of the texts in the packet. □ Analyze the texts to identify acommon theme addressed bytwo or more of the texts;write abrief(i.e.,one-page)MLA- formatted essay explaining howthe theme is addressed in each. Vanishing Voices By Russ Rymer Photographs by Lynn JohnsonFrom National Geographic,July 2012 One language dies every 14 days.By the next century nearly halfofthe roughly 7,000 languagesspoken on Earth will likely disappear,as communities abandon native tongues in favor ofEnglish,Mandarin,or Spanish.What is lost when a language goes silent? Johnny Hill,Jr,of Parker,Arizona,is one of the last speakers of Chemehuevi,an endangeredNative American language:“It'like a bird losing feathers.You see one float by,and there it goes—another word gone.” TUVAN THE COMPASSION OF KHOJÖZEERI When I ask university students in Kyzylwhat Tuvan words are untranslatableinto English or Russian,they suggestkhöomei,because the singing is soconnected with the Tuvan environmentthat onlya native can understand it,andalso khoj özeeri,the Tuvan method ofkilling a sheep.If slaughtering livestockcan be seen as part of humans'closenessto animals,khoj özeeri represents anunusually intimate version.Reachingthrough an incision in the sheeps hide,the slaughterer severs a vital arterywith his fingers,allowing the animalto quickly slip away without alarm,sopeacefully that one must check its eyesto see if it is dead.In the language ofthe Tuvan people,khoj özeeri meansnot only slaughter but also kindness,humaneness,a ceremony by which afamily can kill,skin,and butcher a sheep,salting its hide and preparing its meatand making sausage with the saved bloodand cleansed entrails so neatly that thewhole thing can be accomplished intwo hours(as the Mongushes did thismorning)in ones good clothes withoutspilling a drop of blood.Khoj özeeriimplies a relationship to animals that isalso a measure of apeople's character.Asone of the students explained,"Ifa Tuvankilled an animal the way they do in otherplaces"—by means of a gun or knife—“they'd be arrested for brutality.” ONE MORNING in early fall AndreiMongush and his parents beganpreparations for supper,selecting a black-faced,fat-tailed sheep from their flockand rolling it onto its backon a tarpoutside their livestock paddock.TheMongush family's home is on theSiberian taiga,at the edge of the endlesssteppes,just over the horizon from Kyzyl,the capital of the Republic of Tuva,in theRussian Federation.They live near thegeographic center of Asia,butlinguistically and personally,the familyinhabits a borderland,the frontierbetween progress and tradition.Tuvansare historically nomadic herders,movingtheir aal—an encampment ofyurts—andtheir sheep and cows and reindeer frompasture to pasture as the seasonsprogress.The elder Mongushes,who havereturned to their rural aal after workingin the city,speak both Tuvan andRussian.Andrei and his wife also speakEnglish,which they are teachingthemselves with pieces of paper labeledin English pasted onto seemingly everyobject in their modern kitchen in Kyzyl.They work as musicians in the TuvanNationalOrchestra,anensemble thatuses traditional Tuvan instruments andmelodies in symphonic arrangements.Andrei is a master of the mostcharacteristic Tuvan music form:throatsinging,or khöömei. Tuvan is one ofthe many smalllanguagesof the world.The Earth's populationof seven billion people speaks roughly 7,000 languages,a statistic that wouldseem to offer each living language ahealthy one million speakers,if thingswere equitable.In language,as in life,things aren’t.Seventy-eight percent of the world's population speaks the85 largest languages,while the 3,500smallest languages share a mere 8.25million speakers.Thus,while English has328 million first-language speakers,andMandarin 845million,Tuvan speakers inRussia numbe

FAQs

What is the central theme addressed in the packet’s readings?

The packet centers on endangered languages and what is lost when a language goes silent, including impacts on identity and cultural understanding.

How does the packet describe the disappearance of languages?

It explains that many of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken worldwide face rapid decline, driven by communities abandoning native tongues for dominant languages.

What examples are used to illustrate endangered-language speakers and cultural meaning?

The packet includes Chemehuevi speaker Johnny Hill Jr and Tuvan cultural context, describing how specific words and practices carry meanings that are difficult to translate.

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Mary Man

AP Seminar Stimulus Packet for Mock Performance Task #2 - Vanishing Voices_Page 1

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