How and why we learn English.


    I interviewed a lot of people and almost  all  of  them  told  me  about
their problems with English. But none of them did know why…
    That is why I consider my topic “How and why we  learn  English”  to  be
actual, interesting and up-to-date. Let me then start…



                            How we learn English


Two English Languages.

    Everyone has had problems using English language as  effectively  as  it
should be used.

    Many, if not most, of our problems with English develop when  we  forget
that there are two  closely  related  but  essentially  different  kinds  of
English  -  spoken  English  and  written  English.  To  use  the   language
effectively, we have to be able to switch from  one  of  its  forms  to  the
other with ease. If these two forms of  English  were  identical,  we  could
simply apply one set of rules to  both,  and  many  of  our  problems  would
disappear. But, unfortunately, spoken English and  written  English  is  not
the same thing. And you simply can’t ignore their differences.

    When we speak, we don’t have to worry about  spelling,  punctuation  and
capitalization, or neatness and legibility. But when we write, these  things
become very important. When we speak, we can correct  ourselves  immediately
if our listener doesn’t understand. But when  we  write,  our  writing  must
stand alone and explain itself without us. When we speak, our  words  vanish
in the air. But when we write, they  remain   for  everyone  to  see.  Small
wonder that speaking seems so easy and natural; writing,  so  difficult  and
forced. Small wonder, too, that others are more  critical  of  the  way  you
write than of the way you speak.

    Because people  from  different  parts  of  the  country  and  different
backgrounds  speak  English  differently  it’s  very   difficult,   if   not
impossible, to establish hard-and-fast rules for a standard spoken  English.
But  while  people  may  expect  varieties  of  spoken  English  to  “sound”
different, they expect written English to  “look”  the  same.  This  is  why
fairly  rigid  and  universal  standards  for  written  English  have   been
established and why these standards are taught in schools. In fact the  sort
of “good” English an educated person is expected to use is  called  Standard
English – or, more accurately, Standard Written English.
    To be successful in school and in the  workaday  world,  we’ll  have  to
demonstrate our mastery of the basic  skills  necessary  for  using  English
effectively. These essential skills  include  being  able  to  write  clear,
complete, well-constructed sentences; being able to use the  right  word  at
the right time; being able to  punctuate  and  capitalize  correctly;  being
able to spell correctly; and being in command of a good-sized dictionary.

    Now I would like to offer to your attention useful advice for learning
English:

1. Learn six new words every day.
2. Make up vocabulary charts and memorize them.
3. Try to become aware of the grammar system and learn the rules of it.
4. Listen to the radio and watch TV, go to see films or plays in the new
   language.
5. Ignore difficult words and try to get the general meaning of  what  you
   are reading.
6. Repeat sounds several times to get them right.
7. Try to think in language you are learning.
8. Be willing to practice.
9. Find friends who speak  the same language.
10. Be willing to use the language in communication.
11. Get a pen pal to write to in the foreign language.
12. Find some sort of association for new words (visual, auditory).
13. Find the meaning of unknown words by breaking them to pieces (prefix,
   root and suffix).
14. Be critical about the way you use the language and correct yourself.
15. Compare your language (native language) with the new foreign language
   to see similarities and differences in structure.

       I do think that all of them are quite important and there is no use
   explaining the sense.


   British English and American English: One language or two?

       The English language is at present spoken as  a  native  language  by
   millions of people spread over four continents. Can it therefore  be  one
   language or must it have many varieties? You don’t have to be a  linguist
   to admit that it must vary. It is an obvious fact now that every language
   is always changing. New concepts and ideas are  created  with  the  rapid
   development  of  civilization.  American  English,  for   instance,   was
   influenced by native American languages and by  the  languages  of  other
   colonists, French, Spanish, Dutch and German.
       Different varieties of English are used  in  Great  Britain,  in  the
   United States of America, in Australia, in New Zealand, in  South  Africa
   and in Canada.
       If there are so many varieties of English, which one should we learn?
   Either American English or British English, as those are languages of the
   two countries that shape  the  life  of  our  planet.  What  is  American
   English, then?

We can start with looking at the question of whether American constitutes  a
separate language from English. Henry Louis  Mencken  wrote  an  interesting
book called “The American Language”,  first  published  in  1919.  The  book
contains the most complete  survey  of  what  is  called  American  English.
H.L.Mencken regarded British- and American English  as  separate  languages.
His book demonstrates the distinctness of  American  English,  and  stresses
American linguistic creativity and independence. In fact,  however,  he  was
leading an anti-colonialist  campaign  about  the  language  Americans  use.
Although political independence from Britain had been  gained  more  than  a
century before, the influence of accepted canons of usage was still felt  to
be imposed from London. Mencken told  that  Americans  had  no  need  to  be
modest about their own characteristic form of English. Once he  had  pointed
this out, it was obvious to everyone that an American English tradition  was
clear, and by accepting this fact it was no longer necessary  to  press  for
the idea of a separate American English. I should  add,   that  if  we  take
into consideration the mobility of tourists,  the  exchange  of  literature,
press, films, and TV  then  we  will  easily  understand  that  British  and
American English mutually influence each other.
     Is there such a  thing  as  Standard  British?  There  is!  It  is  the
language of the  educated  class  of  people  centered  in  London  and  its
vicinity, and spoken  by  BBC  radio  announcers.  The  differences  between
American English and British English are considerable. Different  words  are
used for the same common objects,  and  they  may  be  spelled  differently,
different phrases are used, and different sounds are heard in  speech.  I’ll
illustrate the main groups of  the differences:
                   The main groups of spelling differences
(1) The colo(u)r group. Most words of this type are from Latin or French:
arbo(u)r, armo(u)r, endeavo(u)r,  favo(u)r,  hono(u)r,  humo(u)r,  labo(u)r,
odo(u)r, neighbo(u)r, rigo(u)r, savo(u)r, tumo(u)r, valo(u)r, vigo(u)r.
The ending -our becomes -or in American.
(2) The centre/center group. In words of this type British English  has  -re
and American English  -er,  and  the  difference  is  exclusive.  The  chief
members are of non-Germanic origin and are:
fibre/fiber,   goitre/goiter,   litre/liter,   meagre/meager,   mitre/miter,
sabre/saber,     sombre/somber,      theatre/theater;      centred/centered;
centrefold/centerfold.
(1) The instil(l) group.  In  such  words,  British  English  has  a  single
written vowel plus -l, and American English has a single written vowel  plus
-ll, and all disyllabic verbs stressed on the second syllable:
distil(l), enrol(l), fulfil(l), instil(l), etc.
Exceptionally, extol prevails in American English over extoll.  In  American
English -l in a syllable that is not stressed is not doubled.
5)The -ize/-ise group. Some verbs can only have  -ize:  capsize,  seize.  In
some, only -ise is possible: advise, surprise. In many, both -ise, -ize  are
possible,  as  in  civilise/civilize,  organise/organize.  For  such   verbs
American English has systematic, exclusive -ize,  and  British  English  has
both -ize and -ise.
Conclusion. Where differences exist, American English spellings tend  to  be
shorter than British English spellings:
5.1 Pronunciation
According to Tom Mcarthur there is no analogous basis for comparing  British
English and American English pronunciation.
(1) A few words have their stress on a different syllable:
AmE -----> BrE
address -- address
cigarette -- cigarette
detail -- detail
garage -- garage
laboratory -- laboratory
5.0.1 In American English 'r' occurs before vowels  and  before  consonants,
and also word-finally:
air, are, arm, bear, beer, more, care, deer, fear,  hair,  or,  peer,  pure,
wear, work, etc.
5.0.1 In American English when 't' occurs between two  vowel  sounds  it  is
pronounced as 'd':
bitter, catty, latter, utter, shutter, water, waiting, writer, etc.
5.1 Grammar
The most common differences can be grouped under three headings:
differences to do with the verb
differences to do with the noun and pronoun
differences to do with the preposition
5.2 Vocabulary and idioms
It is possible to distinguish three types of vocabulary:
5.0.1 The common word-stock
The greater proportion of English words are common to  both  main  forms  of
English. Words such as man, woman, fish, sky, tree, week, math, green,  hot,
smell, and thousands of others  are  exactly  the  same  in  both  kinds  of
English.
5.0.2 Common ideas, different words
The second category is a large number of items where  an  object  exists  in
both British and American culture, but where different words  are  used  for
them in the two forms of English.
'e.g.' Differences in the organization of Education in Britain  and  America
lead to different terms:
AmE -----> BrE
public school -- maintained school
private school -- public school
grade school -- elementary school
high school -- secondary school
grade -- mark
student -- pupil
semester (quarter) -- term
required (subject) -- compulsory
graduate -- post-graduate
electives -- subsidiary subject
dissertation -- thesis
Associate Professor -- Reader
Assistant Professor -- Senior Lecturer
Instructor -- Lecturer
Other examples:
anyplace -- anywhere
someplace -- somewhere
noplace -- nowhere
attorney -- barrister, solicitor
hood -- bonnet (of a car)
trunk -- boot (of a car)
fender -- bumper (of a car)
suspenders -- braces
automobile -- car
parking lot -- car park
cab -- taxi
candy -- sweets
French fries -- chips
checkers -- draughts
elevator -- lift
fall -- autumn
fine -- good
outlet -- power point
windshield -- windscreen
American English and  British  English  sometimes  have  slightly  different
idioms, such as:
AmE -----> BrE
a home away from home -- a home from home
leave well enough alone -- leave well alone
a tempest in a teacup/teapot -- a storm in a teacup
blow one's own horn -- blow one's own trumpet
sweep under the rug -- sweep under the carpet
5.0.1 Words with no counterparts
The third category covers words for ideas and objects  in  American  English
which have no counterparts in British English.
   1. GEOGRAPHY: gulf, prairie, canyon; state, downstate, upstate; downtown,
      uptown, ranch, etc..
   2.   GOVERNMENT:   Congress,   Senate,   veep,   honeymoon,   House    of
      representatives, President-elect, State Department, Attorney  General,
      etc..
   3. Others: drive-in-cinema, hot dogs,  hamburgers,  potluck,  yard  sale,
      popcorns, Manhattan, Times Square, toothpick, die-in
Conclusion
    From what has been said above, it is clear that American  English  is  a
variety of English Language with its own identical aspects, different  kinds
of dialects which are conventionally treated under four  broad  geographical
headings: North, Coastal South, Midland, and West.
    From my point of view American  English  is  a  beautiful  and  original
language. If I had to choose  between  the  languages  I  would  choose  the
American spelling (it is shorter), but English pronunciation (in my  opinion
it is more melodious and romantic)!
    Additionally I am to say that the whole body  of  the  language  is  the
same. Its similarities still predominate so it won’t be  the  case  that  if
you learn British English you will have to use a dictionary when you  go  to
the United States, or Canada, or Australia.



                            Why we learn English


             The most important reason for learning English is:

                  “English – Best Hope for a WorldLanguage”


    What hope is for a common  language  and  how  can  this  goal  be  best
reached? There are, of course, supporters of  new  international  languages.
Esperanto has made some progress although it  is  improbable  that  it  will
ever provide the answer. Of the existing languages, English has by  far  the
best start. The total number of languages in the  world  is  large:  between
4,000 and 4,500. There are only five languages that can claim a  very  large
number of  speakers,  namely,  Chinese,  English,  Spanish,  Hindi-Urdu  and
Russian (in that order). Of these languages, only English can claim to be  a
more or less universal language

    Now I would like to present the table I’ve made. As  we  could  see  the
most spread language is Chinese. It is spoken by about 1 billion people.  It
is easy to explain. China is the most populated country in the  world.  That
is why every sixth man speaks Chinese.
    Chinese is followed by English. Gone are the days  when  United  Kingdom
was a great Empire. Now there is  the  Commonwealth.  The  Commonwealth  was
created by the Statute of Westminster, passed by the British  Parliament  on
the 31-st of December 1931, as  a  successor  to  the  British  Empire.  All
states in the Commonwealth are given equal status,  and  all  recognize  the
British monarch as the official head of the organization.  The  Commonwealth
is  a  voluntary  organization  whose  primary  function  is  to   encourage
cooperation between  member  states.  Membership  has  changed  considerably
since  its  inception.  Original  members  of  the   Commonwealth   included
Australia,Canada, the Irish  Free  State,  Newfoundland,  New  Zealand,  the
Union of South Africa, and  theUnited  Kingdom.  Ireland  and  South  Africa
withdrew from the organization in 1949 and  1961  respectively,  with  South
Africa later rejoining in 1995. Pakistan withdrew in 1972  but  rejoined  in
1989. That is why English covers such a great territory and we are  to  call
it worldwide spread.
At this map you  are  able  to  see  English-speaking  countries,  they  are
painted in red.
 More than 600 million people speak it as their  first  or  second  language
and can therefore be “reached” through English.
    What is more important, this number includes most of the world  leaders.
English is  by  far  the  most  useful  language  from  the  stand-point  of
business, politics and science. In every field of knowledge more is  written
in English than in any other language.  More  television  programs  use  it.
There  are  English-language  newspapers  in  many  important   non-English-
speaking cities. If we are going to have a world  language  it  will  almost
certainly be English.
    It is obvious that those who learn  English  develop  closer  ties  with
English-speaking countries. They read books from these countries  and  learn
about their history and their  customs.  The  young  study  at  schools  and
universities in English-speaking countries, the middle-aged  travel  and  do
business there.
 So, I guess, future of the world language is defined. Some  people  try  to
refute it offering Esperanto for this purpose. But as for Esperanto,  it  is
not able to become a world language, because it is a synthetic language  and
lots of people just refuse  to learn it.
   There are some people who say that we don’t need  international  language
at all. Machine translation has made a lot  of  progress  in  the  last  few
years. Perhaps the day when computers will take over the whole  business  of
translation isn’t too far away. But from my point of view computers will  be
able to help us in reading or writing, but as speaking and communication  in
English  are  concerned,  computers  will  never  be  as   intelligent   and
interesting speakers as people usually are.

    At the end of my report I want you to see that  table,  which  shows  us
the results of Questionnaire I made among our students of Lyceum  grades.  I
interrogated them for one question: “Why do you learn English?”.

The results are:
A) For future profession - 67%
B) For fun and pleasure - 30%
C) For commucation and corresponding  with friends abroad -30%
D) For listening to popular music groups - 25%
E) For watching satellite programs. - 23%
F) For exploring Internet. - 19%
G) For reading foreign writers and poets in original - 13%
H) Because teachers force me - 19%
I) I am at a loss to answer - 6%

    Such results show us that the most  part  of  students  understand  that
English will help them with profession. Students like  English  and  use  it
for communication. English helps them  with  listening  to  music,  reading,
watching TV, exploring Internet. But there  are  people  who  learn  English
just because teachers force them. And the smallest number is at  a  loss  to
answer.

    Finally I’ve come to a definite conclusion (suppose  you  join  me  too)
that English influences on our life to a great extent.  English  is  famous,
popular and necessary. English opens us new horizons and  opportunities.  At
last English  - best hope for world language!



The list of the literature:



 . Werner Beile, Alice Beile-Bowes. Learning English: Modern course
 . Maria Correlak. Step by step.
 . McArthur, Tom (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language, New
   York: Oxford University Press
 . Goodey, Noel (1984) The Magic English Grammar, Paris: Esselte Studium AB



 Created by Gangelord. All rights reserved. 2/26/99 12:15
 E-mail: gangelord@hotmail.com
1 2