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Graddol, meanwhile, predicts that English will play a crucial role in shaping the new linguistic order. But, he says, its major impact will be in creating new generations of bilingual and multilingual speakers around the world. "English is becoming a major mechanism for social and economic exclusion and creating new divides," he said. "In many parts of the world, English is now regarded as a basic skill, like computer skills, which children learn at an early age so they can study through English later."

Businesses whose employees are not multilingual will find themselves at a disadvantage, Graddol says. In fact, employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. In the next decade, the new must-learn language is likely to be Mandarin.

"Chinese is demographically huge, but when the Chinese economy has overtaken that of the United States, no one will be able to ignore its global power," Graddol said. "We know from the past that great languages of science can be overtaken. Latin was preeminent when modern science began in the 17th century."

In the future, the study predicts, most people will speak more than one language and will switch between languages for routine tasks. Monolingual English speakers may find it difficult to fully participate in a multilingual society.

"Native English speakers—particularly monolingual ones—have been too complacent about the status of their language and the lack of need to learn other languages," Graddol said.

3.2 Find factual information to prove/disprove the following:

· In future English dominance as a first language will continue to expand.

· The status of English as a global scientific language may peak soon.

· English is well established as the world largest language in terms of native speakers.

· There is a link between population social status of the language.

· In the next decade a new must-learn language is likely to be Spanish.

 

WRITING

Write an essay providing solutions to problems on the following issue “What can be done to solve the problem of multilingualism in Ukraine?”

NOTE!An essay in which we suggest solutions to a problem is a formal piece of writing. For each suggestion made, we should mention any expected results or consequences.

THE STRUCTURE OF providing solutions to problems essay

A good essay providing solutions to problems should consist of: a) anintroductory paragraph which states the problem (reasons why it has arisen can also be included); b) a main body in which we present our suggestions and results/consequences (remember to begin a new paragraph for each suggestion made); and c) a closing paragraph in which we summarise our opinion. Introduction Paragraph 1 State the problem Main body Paragraph 2 Suggestion 1 and result Paragraph 3 Suggestion 2 and result Conclusion Final Paragraph Summarise opinion * The main body can consist of mere than two paragraphs depending on the number of suggestions you want to make

Useful Language



To introduce suggestions: To begin/start with, One way to, Another solution would be ..., Another way to ... would be ...

To express cause: because of/owing to/due to the fact that, for this reason

To express effect: thus, therefore, as a result, consequently, so, as a consequence

To express reality: in fact, as a matter of fact, actually, in practice

To emphasise what you say: obviously, clearly, needless to say, in particular

To conclude: All in all, To sum up, All things considered

 

Subtopic 3: Varieties of the English Language

 

COMPREHENSION

1. Listen to the tape 14.2 D. You’ll hear 7 people talking about the places they were brought up. Make notes as you listen, focus on the differences of their accents and identify the most peculiar features of Canadian/American/British English accents. Trace also differences in British English accents (Midlands, Yorkshire, Southern).

2. Discuss these questions:

· Which accent you’ve heard is the most pleasant to the ear/easier to understand?

· Which variety of English have you chosen to learn: The British, the American or another?

· How is the English accent of a native speaker differ from the accent spoken by the person to whom English is a second language? In what way and to what extend does the first language usually influence English? Does the type of the mother tongue shape an English accent of a foreigner?

· Illustrate typical Russian/Ukrainian accent features traced in English accent.

3. Do you know how much English varieties differ in vocabulary, spelling and grammar? Listen to the tape 14.4 A “British and American English” and find out some peculiarities of these varieties.

4. Follow the activities of the book 14.4 B, 14.3 A – E.

 

READ AND DISCUSS

J 1. A Read the article “Different "Englishes” and answer the questions after the text.

Different "Englishes"

As so many people speak English in so many different countries, there are many different "Englishes" which are termed either dialects or varieties. The best form of English is called Standard English and it is the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and television. It may be defined as that form of English which is current and literery, substantially uniform. As it is spoken by a limit British population it has been termed as a social dialect, the one of Higher Class, that is of educated people. Local dialects are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalised literary form. Uneducated majority of British population speaks them, by elderly people. As a result British local dialects are considered to be regional as well as social dialects, the ones of lower classes.

The English language spoken in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the United States, Canada Australia, New Zealand can be considered to be neither a dialect nor a separate language. Such varieties of English have received the name Scottish, Irish, American, Canadian, Australian English varieties respectively. For example, American English cannot be called a dialect, because it has a literary normalised form called Standard American, whereas a dialect has no literary form. Neither it is a separate language, because it has neither independent grammar nor vocabulary of its own.

The difference between the English and American literary norm is not systematic. The American variety differs from British English in pronunciation, some minor features of grammar, but chiefly in vocabulary. American English is based on the language imported to the new continent at the time of early settlements, that is the English of the 17th century. For more than three centuries the American vocabulary developed more or less independently of the English stock and was influenced by the new surroundings. The early Americans had to coin words for the unfamiliar flora and fauna, hence bull-frog "a large frog", moose "American elk" for animals and corn, hickory for plants. They also had to find names for the new conditions of economic life: back-country "districts not yet thickly populated”, backwoods "the forest beyond the cleared country". Many of the foreign elements borrowed into American Emerican from the Indian dialects or from Spanish penetrated very soon not only into British English but also into several other languages. Russian not excluded, and so became international. They are: canoe, moccasin, tomahawk, wigwam, etc. and translation loans: pipe of peace, pale-face and the like, taken from Indian languages and the Spanish borrowings: cafeteria, mustang, sombrero, etc. From the Dutch settlers the first colonists borrowed boss and cookie, and from French chowder and bureau. Another big group of peculiarities as compared with the English of Great Britain is caused by some specific features of pronunciation, stress or spelling standards, such as [æ] for [ a:] in ask, dance, path, or [e] for [ ei ] in made, day. The American spelling is in some respects simpler than its British counterpart. The suffix -our is spelled -or, so that armor and humor are the American variants of armour and humour. Altho stands for although and thru for through. Some more examples:

 

spelling: British American

cozy cosy

offence offense

practice practise

travelling traveling

encase incase

centre center

vocabulary: autumn fall

biscuit cookie

class grade

flat apartment

holiday vacation

bill check

chemist druggist

Practically the same patterns and means of word formation are used in coining the neologisms in both variants. Only the frequency in both case may be different. Some of the suffixes more frequently used in American English are: -ee (draftee "a young man about to be enlisted"), -ette (tambour-majorette "one of the girl drummers in front of a procession"), -dom and -ster. American slang uses alongside the traditional ones also few specific models, such as verb stem + -er+adverb stem+-er: e.g. opener-upper "the first item on the programme". The trend to shorten words and to use initial abbreviation is even more pronounced than in the British variant: e.g. G.F. "a girl friend". Particularly common in American English are verbs with the hanging postpositive. They say that in Hollywood you never meet a man: you meet up with him, you do not study a subject but study up on it.

Canadian English is influenced both by British and American English but it has some specific features of its own. Specifically Canadian words (called Canadisms) are not very frequent outside Canaa, except a shack "a hat" and to fathom out "to explain".

The vocabulary of all the variants is characterized by a high percentage of borrowings from the language of the people who inhabited the land before the English colonizers came. Many of them denote some specific realia of the new country: local animals, plants or weather conditions, new social relations, new trades and conditions of labour. From the native Indian languages came many words like caribou, totem, bungalow; from Eskimo Canadian English acquired anorak, igoo, kayak and others. In pioneer days Canadians borrowed many words from Canadian French, for example bateau and habitant.

Australian accents are different from various British ones: Australian "day" sounds like "die", "buy" like "boy", "daylight" ends up something like "die-loyt". Scientists distinguish three Australian accents: Cultivated, General and Broad. In the "broad" variant the vowel shifts particularly obvious. Australian English, especially its oral and not very educated variation is called Strine. There are many theories about the evolution of the Australian accent. There would appear to be influences from cockney pronunciation, and there are also Irish influences as well (a lot of early teachers were of Irish background). One will also find the remnants of Irish, Scottish and Welsh influences in the Australian pronunciation of some words. Then, there was a large nflux of German, Greek and Italian immigration. Later the language has been strongly influenced by TV media from the USA.

Many terms, such as kangaroo, dingo, wombat, boomerang, dingo came from Aborigional language and many others from the cockney dialect spoken by the first settlers, the Londoners. These words denote the new phenomena found by English immigrants on the new continent. An intense development of cattle breeding in new conditions necessitated the creation of an adequate terminology. English nouns like stock, bullock, land find a new life on Australian soil: stockman "herdsman", to bullock "to work hard", to overland "to drive cattle over long distances". A high percentage of words borrowed from the native inhabitants of Australia will be noticed in the sonorous Australian place names (Wooloomooloo, Bulkomatta).

Some differences in vocabulary:

British English Australian English

afternoon arvo

Australian Asee

bread damper

postman postieut

hello g'd day

Englishman Pom(mie)

trousers daks

Australians are fond of inventing and using colloquialisms for every aspect of life - a habit that now is carrying over to the printed world. Sayings, which have a regional origin, are used widely. For example, "Albany doctor" means "an abrupt wind"; "Buckley's chance" means "no chance"; "not to know whether it's Pitt Street or Christmas" means "to be confused".

New Zealand English is different from Australian English; it's pure and clear and is easily understood everywhere in the world. At the same time although New Zealand lies over 1,600 km away, the English spoken there is somewhat similar to that of Australia. The term Austral English is sometimes used to cover the language of the whole Australasia (Australia, New Zealand and adjoining islands). Borrowings from Maori include: aroha "love, sympathy", whare "house", hongi "the ritual of pressing noses". New Zealand English has many borrowings from polynesian languages: kiwi, moa, tui (birds), kauri, rata, maire (trees).

To crown it all we must state that at present there is no single uniform English and in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand there have developed nationalised forms of the English language with their own norm.

b Answer the questions

1) What are the peculiarities of Standard English?

2) Why is it called the best form of English?

3) Why can American English be called neither a dialect nor a separate language?

4) Are the differences between the American and British literary norm systematic?

5) What are the main linguistic differences between the two variations?

6) How did American English developed on the new continent?

7) What are the main foreign elements borrowed into American English?

8) What are the examples of the spelling and pronunciation alternations in American English?

9) Are there any differences in morphology of the American variety?

10) What language influenced Canadian English?

11) What are the reasons of the evolution of the Australian accent?

12) What phenomenon in the Australian way of life necessitated the creation of an adequate terminology?

13) What was the influence of the Aboriginals on the Australian English?

14) Australians are fond of inventing and using colloquialisms for every aspect of life, aren't they?

15) What are the differences between New Zealand and Australian English?

16) What is the essence of the term Austral English?

17) What languages influenced the development of New Zealand English?

18) Can we say that at present there is single uniform English?

 

C State main differences of the “Englishes”, using the tasks below as a plan, look back at the text if you need to.

a) Give the American English equivalents to English words: chemist, holiday, biscuit, autumn, class, flat, film, grilled, lift, lorry, pavement, petrol, sweets, toilet, underground.

b) Give the examples of the Spanish borrowings to the American English.

c) How would the Americans write the following English words: centre, metre, theatre, colour, neighbour, travelling, cosy, offence, encase, practice.

d) Give the examples of the borrowings from Aboriginal language to the Ausnralian English.

e) Support with the examples the fact that the Australians are fond of inventing colloquialisms.

f) Give the English equivalents to the Australian English borrowed words: aroha, whare, hongi.

g) How to translate into the British English the following words: daks, ollies, stockman, lunch, postiet, milko, g'd day, tucker, Pom (mie), chook, damper, be apples, Ausie, arvo.

 

Part II

Legends, traditions and superstitions of different cultures

(Cambridge Advanced English by Leo Jones, units 15-17)

 

Pre-task: Highlight the words and phrases of the topic in appendix, check their meanings in a dictionary and complete thematic glossary.

 


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1055


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