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The English language: Warm up

Before reading the chapter, ask the students to work in pairs or small groups and give them the following questions to encourage them to explore the subject of the English language. At this point students should be tapping in to their knowledge of the subject and not doing any research.

• What is meant by the expression ‘a global language’?

• Why do you think English has evolved as a global language?

• Make some estimates about:

o the numbers of countries where English is the first language and is used in everyday life, commerce, and entertainment

o the approximate number of words in the English language

o the estimated number of English speakers in the world

(These numbers can be checked after the initial warm-up.)

• When did the USA become independent from the UK?

• Which form of English do you think is more dominant – British or American English?

• Do you think English might someday lose its position as number one in the global language list? What might replace it?

• Why do the students in the class want to speak English?

After reading the first section, students can reflect and think if any of these questions were answered.

8.1 English as a global language

A word wall: As students proceed through the chapter on the English language, they can collect vocabulary which is specifically connected to the theme. They could also collect ideas that they might want to explore further. This could include ‘questions I would like to know the answer to’. These could be posted and if answers are identified during activities, they could be added to the word wall. Word walls need to be a focus in every lesson – for revision, to add to, and to use. When a new chapter is addressed, then the word wall should change. By then students will have noted vocabulary themselves.

In this section there is an interactive oral activity asking students to consider economic power as an influence on the English language. In preparation for this activity, students should engage in some research. For example, they could search the Harvard Business Review website for articles on English as the language of business. Students can use information they gather here to help them prepare for the oral activity.

8.2 The history of English

Before reading Text 8.2.1, ask students to speculate on the content of the text and which places could be mentioned.

While reading the text in pairs, students should make notes of the main ideas presented there and any questions they may have.

Students should discuss their personal experiences of learning and speaking English and share both their positive and negative experiences. What do they use English for and what other languages do they use? This oral activity will prepare students for the written work: writing an email to a friend.

TEACHER’S GUIDE

The English language08

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08 The English language

Writing an email to a friend: This will be in informal English. Students need to remember that this is, however, a language exercise and they need to look out for opportunities to use newly acquired language and complex sentences – for example by using conditionals, or transition words to combine sentences.

8.3 The mother tongue

If there is a range of mother tongues represented in the class, students could engage in a ‘teaching session’. Put students in groups of mixed mother tongues and get each student to teach the others some phrases and sentences, saying where they are from, counting, ordering a drink, etc. This activity raises awareness of the familiarities and complexities of other languages and is always a popular activity.

The text is written as a blog. Students should look at the structure; it has a clear line of development. What is the point that the author is making about the attitude towards his mother tongue that he met in the USA? Does it represent students’ own experience?

Students are asked to reply to the blog. They should choose the same register as the author; he writes formally.

Preparing for the oral activity – interviewing students and teachers at school: Prepare for this by getting the students to work on their questionnaires in groups and write down the questions. Check the language before the students choose students and teachers to answer the questions.

8.4 Lost in translation

English is sometimes a challenge. Section 8.4 challenges the students to identify the errors in the language which sometimes occur in the wording of signs posted in public places. Ask them to consider the correct wording – or how the wording could be changed to make it acceptable.

Students could explore www.engrish.com and find more examples of English which is amusing because of the errors contained in the sentences.

Exam practice

Students are asked to read the article and consider the possibility of Esperanto as an alternative to English. A brief pre-reading activity could be a discussion on the advantages of having a completely new language rather than an existing one as a global language.

Work through the text and stop at the end of each paragraph. Ask students to summarize what they have read in that paragraph – this can be done orally. Written summaries can be done by students at home. Students should answer the comprehension questions together and mark the parts of the text where they find the answers.

The Esperanto website and the Ultralingua blog are two websites that teachers might want to use for their own information or to ask students to read if they want them to do some background reading.

Suggestions for further readingPygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Educating Rita by Willy Russell (a modern version of Pygmalion)

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08The English language

Answers

Text 8.1.1

General comprehension

1 The English language is 1,500 years old.

2 No, English has only functioned as a global language since the 20th century.

3 Since 1945, the USA’s increasing economic power and influence over popular culture has resulted in the change from British English to American English.

4 Suggested answers: music/sport/fashion/food.

5 The publication of Webster’s dictionary first established American English as a different form of English.

6 Its increasing commercial and economic power.

Text handling

1 answers will vary

2 Match the words:

I D

II A

III F

IV B

V G

VI J

VII H

VIII E

IX I

X C

3 True or false:

a True – ‘it has been played with, altered and transported around the world’

b False – ‘[it has] become a worldwide means of communication’

c True – ‘an essential part of the curriculum in… Japan and South Korea’

d False – ‘who “owned” and set the “correct rules” for the English Language became increasingly blurred’

e True – ‘will one day begin to have an impact beyond its own borders’

4 Pronouns:

a the English language

b English in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa

c English teaching in China

d the UK

Grammar in context

1 any, some

2 some

3 any

4 any

5 some

6 any

7 any

8 anyone/anybody

9 something

10 some

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08 The English language

Text 8.2.1

General comprehension

1 The public were requested to make proposals for locations.

2 About a decade ago.

3 A toponym is a name derived from a place name.

4 The spelling is different to today’s spelling.

Text handling

1 D

2 F

3 G

4 A

Text 8.3.1

General comprehension

1 The school thought his language was inferior.

2 Mass media, the education system, and employment requirements.

3 As a means to control the people.

4 It makes it harder to connect with your own people.

5 He gained insights into the Indian view of time as being cyclical.

Text handling

1 answers will vary

2 Verbs and nouns:

a assimilation

b condescension

c conversation

d loss

e belief

f isolation

g connection

h rememberance

i decision

j speech

3 True or false:

a True – ‘As I spent more time in that environment, I slowly began to lose fluency in my own ancestral language.’

b False – ‘mass media, the education system and employment requirements’ and ‘centuries of colonialism’

c False – ‘they were not allowed to speak their own language’

d True – ‘Speaking our language… gives us pride in ourselves’

e True – ‘a classroom atmosphere of condescension’

f True – ‘has been empowering for me’

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08The English language

Text 8.4.1

Text handling

1 c

2 c

3 b

4 a

5 b

6 c

7 c

8 c

Exam practice

Exercises

1 To lessen the ethnic divisions in Poland.

2 A language not associated with any one particular political group.

3 Indefinite articles removed and only one ending to a verb. This made learning easier.

4 There is no culture to interact with and no fund of literary texts to study.

5 A number of countries objected to the proposal.

6 ‘divisive’

7 ‘curriculum’

8 ‘endeavoured’