Sponsored by Chowdhury and Hossain, Advanced PublicationsListen
Unit 21 Lesson 6
Globalisation and English
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• talked about different ways of speaking English
• read a passage about global English
• discussed questions on the passage
• analysed stylistic features of the passage
• described Bangladeshi English
A English is an international language. People of different countries speak English for many different purposes. But their way of speaking is different from that of native speakers. Discuss with your partner the reasons for this difference.
B Read the following passage about the standard of global English.
The process of globalisation obviously requires a common language for international communication. For many different reasons, English has achieved the prestige of being that language. As a result, it has crossed national borders to reach people who speak other languages. It is no longer the unique possession of British or American or other native-speaker people, but a language that belongs to the world's people. In fact, bilingual and multilingual users of English far outnumber its monolingual native speakers.
This phenomenon has led to a bewildering variety of English around the world. As more and more people speak English, more and more varieties have emerged which are strongly influenced by the pronunciation, grammar and idioms of the respective mother tongues. World English has now moved away from the control of its native speakers. There is a joke that global English is neither British nor American, rather it is bad English. However, the question of good or bad English is irrelevant now. Today's slogan is mutual intelligibility among users of the language.
Now discuss the following questions in groups.
1 Can you guess any reason why English has become an international language'7
2 What has happened to English as a result of .its being an international language?
3 What is your idea of good English and bad English?
4 Can you use English well? What are your problems in particular?
5 What do you understand by mutual intelligibility? Why is it important? Can you give an example where mutual intelligibility may fail?
C Look at the above passage again to answer the following questions.
1 How many sentences are there? Which of them arc simple, complex or compound?
2 How many unfamiliar words do you find?
3 Do you find the passage difficult or easy to understand? Why do you think it is so?
4 If the passage is difficult, how could it be simplified? Write a brief simplified summary.
D What do you understand by Bangladeshi English? Discuss in small groups. Then write a brief description of Bangladeshi English.
Focus:
Skills.
Discussion, reading,
writing.
Functions.
Giving opinions, analysing stylistic
features, making comments.
Grammar/Structure.
use of 'neither . . . nor" & 'more and more'
Vocabulary.
monolingual,
bilingual, multilingual.
phenomenon,
bewildering, emerge,
respective, destandardisation,
intelligibility.
This text will be replaced
Unit 21 Lesson 6
Globalisation and English
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• talked about different ways of speaking English
• read a passage about global English
• discussed questions on the passage
• analysed stylistic features of the passage
• described Bangladeshi English
A English is an international language. People of different countries speak English for many different purposes. But their way of speaking is different from that of native speakers. Discuss with your partner the reasons for this difference.
B Read the following passage about the standard of global English.
The process of globalisation obviously requires a common language for international communication. For many different reasons, English has achieved the prestige of being that language. As a result, it has crossed national borders to reach people who speak other languages. It is no longer the unique possession of British or American or other native-speaker people, but a language that belongs to the world's people. In fact, bilingual and multilingual users of English far outnumber its monolingual native speakers.
This phenomenon has led to a bewildering variety of English around the world. As more and more people speak English, more and more varieties have emerged which are strongly influenced by the pronunciation, grammar and idioms of the respective mother tongues. World English has now moved away from the control of its native speakers. There is a joke that global English is neither British nor American, rather it is bad English. However, the question of good or bad English is irrelevant now. Today's slogan is mutual intelligibility among users of the language.
Now discuss the following questions in groups.
1 Can you guess any reason why English has become an international language'7
2 What has happened to English as a result of .its being an international language?
3 What is your idea of good English and bad English?
4 Can you use English well? What are your problems in particular?
5 What do you understand by mutual intelligibility? Why is it important? Can you give an example where mutual intelligibility may fail?
C Look at the above passage again to answer the following questions.
1 How many sentences are there? Which of them arc simple, complex or compound?
2 How many unfamiliar words do you find?
3 Do you find the passage difficult or easy to understand? Why do you think it is so?
4 If the passage is difficult, how could it be simplified? Write a brief simplified summary.
D What do you understand by Bangladeshi English? Discuss in small groups. Then write a brief description of Bangladeshi English.
Focus:
Skills.
Discussion, reading,
writing.
Functions.
Giving opinions, analysing stylistic
features, making comments.
Grammar/Structure.
use of 'neither . . . nor" & 'more and more'
Vocabulary.
monolingual,
bilingual, multilingual.
phenomenon,
bewildering, emerge,
respective, destandardisation,
intelligibility.