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Guardian Unlimited, September 15, 1999

The "Swiss malaise[8]" - pessimism about the survival of Swiss culture and identity - has intensified recently with the debate about whether to surrender to or fight off the encroachment[9] of English as the federation's unofficial fifth language.

 

Switzerland has four constitutionally recognised national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh, but educationalists and politicians now acknowledge that English has become the lingua franca of choice between these groups. These days, when young Swiss people from different language areas of Switzerland encounter each other they prefer to communicate in English. Not only are they likely to speak English better than another national language, but it also neutral, allowing them to avoid the thorny issue of whose language to use.

 

Some commentators are in favour of this trend. A social linguist at the University of Bern argues that Switzerland is becoming more, not less linguistically diverse. He predicts that membership of other linguistic groups, notably speakers of local Swiss-German dialects, will soon surpass[10] that of the Romansh community.

 

"If one takes Romansh as a yardstick[11] for distinct linguistic communities, then Switzerland has 10 languages, not four," he says. "So a common language is essential to ensure communication among these diverse groups."

 

But for the guardians of Switzerland's existing national languages the prospect of English becoming a lingua franca is viewed as a threat to the very fibre of the federation. If the Swiss lose their familiarity[12] with other national languages, so the argument goes, it will not be long before they lose interest in their neighbours' cultures and communities, and the patchwork[13] quilt of Swiss identity will fall apart.

 

The battle over what to do to protect national languages is being fought in schools, where the demand for English language teaching and the pressure to introduce it as early as possible is mounting, especially in German-speaking Switzerland. In Zurich a new language curriculum called "Schools Project 21" has overturned one of the foundations of Swiss language education, namely that all children must learn a national language as their first foreign language.

Under the new scheme English will be taught in Zurich's primary schools from year one, with French classes starting five years later.

 

The rise of English has exposed a failure to teach national languages effectively in schools. This is the finding of the recently published report, which was commissioned to evaluate and coordinate the teaching of foreign languages in Switzerland. The report concludes that the best way to teach languages is to expose children to them early, not as the subject of lessons but as languages of instruction - geography taught in French or history in English.

 

But there is a limit to the number of languages that can be introduced in this way, and that is why the Italian-speaking Ticino canton is most vocal[14] in its objection to change. Ticino's schools fear that Italian will be reduced to the status of a minority language in German and French cantons, which will choose to teach each other's languages over Italian.



 

"The report severely underplays[15] the importance of Italian instruction by degrading it almost to the level of an immigrant language. There is still a big difference between Albanian, Serbo-Croat and Portuguese, and the constitutionally defined national language of Italian," says a school administrator.

 

The debate in Switzerland over language has revealed that antipathy, not solidarity, between communities is the reality, and the much vaunted[16] multi-lingual society has never existed. As one observer comments: "The Swiss get on so well with each other because they don't understand one another."

 

7. Translate the sentences below incorporating the vocabulary from the previous exercise.

1. James mulled over the idea and finally decided that it made sense. 2. The proposal to start that community project held no challenge and left everybody apathetic. 3. The country was in dire need of financial aid. 4. Dad is under a lot of pressure, so we have to make allowances for him. 5. It was a popular style in Britain but it never really caught on in America. 6. The draft law was seen as encroachment on the rights of individuals. 7. The outline of the ship blurred in the thick fog. 8. A lot of letters was sent directly to the incumbent President. 9. After a week's practice Melissa became adept with her racquet. 10. Old-fashioned learning of grammar by rote has long been forgone. 11. The deplorable salaries and wages pushed the staff on strike. 12. Applicants are expected to demonstrate high level of proficiency in their area. 13. It's often difficult to broach the subjects that are usually shied away. 14. English serves as a lingua franca in many countries. 15. The officials fudged the issue of illegal arms sale. 16. The Speaker's latest pronouncement on collaboration with the opposition was met with optimism. 17. It needed five fire engines to tackle the blaze. 18. Numerous non-Anglophone countries are now embracing English to keep pace with the technological progress.

8. Match the following parts of word combinations from the text. When in place, render the context where they are used in the text.

mull over the condition   call for greater emphasis
fall father behind   the idea is catching on
made national headlines   representative assemblies
acquire a working knowledge   adept at English
calls for reorganising   global lingua franca
scores near the bottom   threat of encroachment
pulled ahead of   With an interpreter in tow
anything but apathetic   talk in terms of black and white
rank on a par with   non-committal bureaucratic language
broke through the 500-point barrier   too wishy-washy to translate
dire situation   fudge on the issues
broaches a subject   overemphasise the importance
make allowances   pace of change
dawning of the Internet age   teaching by rote
left out of the loop   tackle the challenge
essential tool   incumbent Parliament members
take root      

 

9. The names below have become common nouns in English. Match the names with the implications they convey.

a Don Quixote a) a person who has old-fashioned ideas about honour or unpractical plans to perform noble deeds, help other people, etc.;
Darby and Joan b) (often humorous) a typical old married couple, esp. when very happily married;
a Don Juan c) a man who is well known for his love affairs with many women, esp. when he deceives them
a Florence Nightingale d) a person who looks after someone who is ill; a nurse;
a Jekyll and Hyde e) a person who shows two opposing or completely different natures or tendencies in his character or actions;
a Jeremiah f) a person who says that future will bring misfortune, destruction and evil
Joe Bloggs g) (humorous, coll.) the ordinary or average person;
a Jonah h) a person who brings bad luck to the person he is with;
a Judas i) a person who is disloyal to another person by revealing him or his secrets to an enemy;
Mr Big j) the leader of or the most important person in a group, often the person who is in control but remains unknown;
Mr Clean k) a person who is highly trusted or regarded, esp. in comparison with others who have been shown to be dishonest;
Mr Right l) the imagined man who will fulfil all a woman's desires and needs as a husband;
a nosy Parker m) a person who habitually attempts to find out about other people's private life;
a Philistine n) a person whose interests are limited to material or very ordinary matters, and who lacks the ability to enjoy or understand fully music, literature and similar arts;
a Romeo o) a young man who is very attractive to women and is noted for his expressions of love;
a Scrooge p) a person who spend as little money as possible and who does not take part in activities that other people enjoy;
a doubting Thomas q) a person who needs to see actual proof of something before he will believe it; a person who does not easily trust anything;
every Tom, Dick and Harry r) everyone and anyone, esp. ordinary people without any special advantages or powers;
a peeping Tom s) a man who gets sexual enjoyment from secretly watching women undressing;
a Walter Mitty t) a person who, in the course of his very ordinary daily life, has dreams of exciting adventures in which he performs courageous deeds.

 

The problem for a writer is getting Joe Bloggs to buy his books. The police had caught many of the unimportant criminals, but they were still looking for Mr Big. The most unrealistic thing about romantic fiction is that the heroine always marries Mr Right. As soon as the policeman had left our house that old nosey Parker from across the street came round to ask what he wanted. Several of the country's most respected doctors have stated that smoking cigarettes harms one's health, but there are still many doubting Thomases who are not yet persuaded. As for qualified guides here, there is no legislation for giving them a license, so that any Tom, Dick or Harry can work as a guide. At school she lived in a Walter Mitty world of adventure.

 

Part 3 Lingua Franca Unit 1. English in the World Key

 

Listening


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