Tasks on NDLA

Pre-reading at the NDLA:

• Typically Irish

• Green, pixie, colver.

• Typically Scottish

• Bagpipe, traditional highland dress,  musk.

• Typically English

• Red bus, Big Ben, red phone box.

• Typically Welsh

• Traditional Welsh Cakes, fortress, dragon.

 

1. Many decisions formerly taken in London are now taken in the parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. The United Kingdom is less united than ever, but that may also prove to be its strength.

• I think the last sentence means that it`s a strength to let other communities in a country decide as well.

2. Devolution may weaken England`s position in the UK, cause of they had all the power before, but now it`s  distributed all over the UK. That makes England on line with the other communities.
3. I think the Scots and the Welsh will settle for home rules, because first of all they have been within the UK for a long time, and for the second of all they get to decide on the same line as other countries.

Tasks from NDLA

1. I think the British has had an effect on the islanders and their values, because they are all within the UK. Maybe their ancestors brought some of the culture from the inland when they settled. I also think they still get effected every day when they surf and connect through the internet. Maybe isles are far away from each other, but the connection isn`t.

 

2. I would prefer to live in London, because the city never dies. There are people in London all the time, probably because of the many tourist attractions. I want to feel that the day never can be greater than you make it yourself.

 

Today I have learned where the different British isles are located, what their capital cities are named and a little about the ocean and lakes nearby. I have also learned that the British has had an effect on the islanders, and that`s where they got their cultures and values from. The British has as well effected the islanders to be the people they are today. This is because of ancestors and the internet.

English as a world language

English became a world language after the British travelled around the world establishing colonies on every continent of the world. The British forced the inhabitants to drop their religion and language and follow them instead. The British ruled the English -speaking colonies, until the first half of the twentieth, when they suffered great loses from the two world wars. The British lost their status as the world`s leading power. This is when the USA took over and became the world`s next superpower, and this kept the importance of English.

 

Checkpoints, p 44

1. A lingua franca is when a language is used by two people who don`t have English as their mother tongue.
2. English is the most important lingua franca because 1.2-1.5 billion people in the world speak English. And therefore using English as a common language when they travel around the world.
3. Queen Elisabeth started to build the British Empire, by establish colonies in every corner of the world.
4. The British Empire went down in the first half of the twentieth century, when Britain suffered great loses in the two world wars.
5. Today you can find the English language everywhere, especially in the west part of the world. The lingua franca is in constant change and it`s a central part of trading, politics and culture.

 

Viewpoints, p 44

1. I believe English threatens languages in small countries, such as Norway. First of all small countries contains a short amount of people and second of all people now days use the internet daily and are surrounded by English on every website.
2. Mandarin and Chinese may be threatened the English language, cause they have more followers/natives.

 

The history of English

1. 1500 years have passed since the Roman left Britain. The British absorbed, involved, invaded, this have developed the English language.
2. The English language manage to conquer the world by sea and later by the internet.
3. English has adopted words from over 350 other languages.
4. A quarter of 1.1 million people speak English as their mother tongue.
5. A quarter speak English as their second language.
6.  The English language may be hard for learners because both the spelling and the alphabet is quite hard to understand.
7. Singlish is Singaporean English, Hinglish which is Hindi English and Chinglish which is Chinese English. It`s necessary to give these accents individual names because it`s different forms of the English language.
8. If English were going to get a new word, "It should be Chinese" , because so many people speak Chinese today.

 

Why is there so much variety in English? (NDLA)

 

1. When the Vikings invaded the north part of England they brought their own version of Germanic tongue, what made differences between the English spoken in the north and the south part of England.
2. Substrate language is when a language is changing. Examples of substrate language is when the Vikings occupied the north part of England. Another example is how the English language is in constantly change today.
3. The local accent is important for the inhabitants because it makes them feel a connection to their living area and the accent is a part of making the inhabitants feel they belong.
4. The peoples that contributed the language in the British Isles was first the Anglo-Saxon - Frenchmen - The British (Queen Elisabeth I).
5. The difference between the accents in New England, Southern USA and General American, are that in Southern USA they don`t pronounce the "r" at the end of a word, example car. In New England they have pretty much the same. In General American they use post-vocalic "r". The pronunciation is different cause of the different occupants.

British vs. American English

Checkpoints, page 38-41.

 

1.

Words	GA (American English)	RP (British English)
	Pronounced with flatter vowels	Pronounced with rounder vowels
Awful
Dance
Rather
Laugh
	With a pronounced "r"	Pronounced without a "r"
Car
Star
Pillar

 

2.

The five main spelling differences between AE and BE is:

1. The first differences is what the ear can hear.
2. Spelling and pronunciation.
3. In Be they use `inverted commas`, but in AE they use "quotation marks".
4. Some words that end in -ter in AE end in -tre in BE.
5. Words can mean different things and the same thing can have different words.

 

Language work

-I`m knackered and I really have to use the bathroom.

-Are there any bathrooms near?

-Do I have to line up behind that block?

-Do you know if there is any chemist close to here?

-I`m hungry.

-At the point zebra was crossing, the lollipop lady directed us to take a new direction, but my truck was out of gas and it was impossible.

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-This is ace - This is awesome.

-I feel barmy today - I feel crazy today.

-Bugger of - Please go away.