Мележик К. А.
Симферополь – 2013
KARINA MELEZHIK
© Мележик К. А. 2013
Аннотация
Учебное пособие адресовано будущим магистрам по специальности «английский
язык», которым предстоит трудиться в области прикладного языкознания, межкультурной
коммуникации, перевода и преподавания иностранных языков. Учебное пособие
представляет собой комплексный курс профессионально-ориентированного английского
языка (ПОАЯ), направленный на развитие умений и навыков межкультурной, лексико-
грамматической, стилистической, и переводческой составляющих профессиональной
лингвистической компетенции. Курс предназначен как для аудиторного усвоения под
руководством преподавателя, так и для самостоятельного анализа и обработки
специальной литературы.
Пособие содержит специальные тексты, сопутствующие им упражнения и задания по
структурно-логическому и лингво-культурному анализу, углубленному развитию навыков
интенсивного и экстенсивного чтения, устной и письменной речи.
Первая часть учебного комплекса – это курс подготовки магистрантов по
интенсивному чтению текстов английского языка для специальных целей, состоящий из
четырех модулей: 1/ английский как контактный язык международной коммуникации –
лингва франка; 2/ ПОАЯ в межкультурной коммуникации; 3/ ПОАЯ в транснациональном
образовании; 4/ ПОАЯ как язык повседневного межнационального взаимодействия.
Каждый модуль содержит по 6 уроков, разделенных на 2 секции. Секция 1 каждого из 24
уроков первой части представлена оригинальным текстом соответствующей тематики,
заданиями по его анализу и упражнениями для закрепления умений и навыков работы со
специальной литературой. Секция 2 включает грамматический материал,
предусматривающий прагматический обзор морфо-синтаксических трудностей, с
которыми сталкиваются специалисты в устной и письменной профессиональной
коммуникации.
Вторая часть, также состоящая из четырех модулей, направлена на закрепление
умений и навыков, необходимых для экстенсивного чтения профессионально-
ориентированных текстов. В учебнике содержатся рекомендации по работе с научной
литературой, написанию научной статьи и критического обзора литературы, поиску
научной информации, составлению аннотаций, и т.п. В каждом из этих уроков имеются
задания по закреплению материала и упражнения для развития коммуникативных умений
и навыков. Учебное пособие рассчитано на 96 аудиторных часов и 180-200 часов
самостоятельной работы.
Печатается по решению
Подписано к печати
Объем
Таврический национальный университет им. В. И. Вернадского
ПОЯСНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ЗАПИСКА
Цели и задачи совершенствования английского языка (АЯ) на заключительном,
магистерском, этапе университетского курса совпадают с целями и задачами
профессиональной подготовки и становления специалиста, т.е. АЯ постигается как форма,
в которую облекается специальное знание, в соответствии с условиями межнационального
общения.
Этот принцип положен в основу учебника, где демонстрируется переход от
стереотипов лингвостилистического анализа литературно-художественного текста к
контентно-языковому интегрированному изучению (Content and Language Integrated
Learning – CLIL) АЯ в профессионально-ориентированном коммуникативном контексте,
т.е. содержание учебника интегрируется в предметную сферу последующей
профессиональной деятельности.
Если для студентов любых других специальностей представление о
профессионально-ориентированном английском языке (ПОАЯ) заключается в том, что АЯ
интегрируется в предметную область определенной, достаточно четко очерченной
отрасли знания, то для студентов, специализирующихся в АЯ поле профессиональной
деятельности покрывает все возможные виды транснациональной коммуникации.
Предметной сферой для магистров, специализирующихся в английском языке,
является как общее, частное и прикладное языкознание, так и теория и практика
межкультурной коммуникации. Цель подготовки магистров данного направления –
осуществление профессиональной деятельности в области межкультурной
коммуникации и общественных связей – от преподавания АЯ и устного и письменного
перевода до международного туризма и обслуживания инфраструктуры бизнеса.
АЯ осуществляет функцию контактного языка, обеспечивающего потребности
межнациональной и межкультурной коммуникации, т.е. служит языком-посредником –
универсальным английским лингва франка (АЛФ) для людей, не имеющих общности
родного языка и национальной культуры. Именно АЛФ является тем профессионально-
ориентированным английским языком, посредством которого будущим магистрам
предстоит осуществлять свою профессиональную деятельность. С учетом многообразия
вариантов АЛФ, они должны не только владеть АЯ на самом высоком уровне – С1/С2
Международной классификации языковой компетенции, но и иметь представление о
диапазоне функционирования АЛФ, что обусловливает необходимость изучения
специфики коммуникативных контекстов, предусматривающих его постоянное
использование.
Предлагаемый учебный комплекс состоит из двух частей: Часть 1. The skills of
intensive reading и Часть 2. The skills of extensive reading. Весь курс разделен на четыре
модуля, в каждый из которых включены шесть уроков интенсивного чтения и шесть
уроков экстенсивного чтения.
Модуль 1 включает тексты, в которых обсуждаются общие предпосылки и
проблемы использования АЯ как контактного языка межнациональной коммуникации –
лингва франка. В Модуле 2 содержатся тексты по вопросам взаимосвязи культуры и
коммуникации; Модуль 3 основан на текстах, освещающих аспекты функционирования
АЯ в транснациональном образовании; в Модуле 4 приведены тексты, характеризующие
роль АЯ как языка повседневного межнационального взаимодействия.
Секция 1 уроков первой части представлена оригинальным текстом, отвечающим
направленности данного модуля, заданиями по анализу его содержания, упражнениями
для закрепления умений и навыков работы с профессионально-ориентированной
литературой. В первой секции совершенствуются навыки просмотрового,
ознакомительного и изучающего чтения, которые требуют различной полноты и
точности понимания текста.
Задания и упражнения, развивающие навыки интенсивного чтения, направлены на
ознакомление с тематикой, отраслевой отнесенностью и основными информационными
узлами текста и предполагают умение на основе извлеченной информации кратко
охарактеризовать текст с точки зрения поставленной проблемы. Ознакомительное чтение
характеризуется умением проследить развитие темы и общую линию аргументации
автора, понять, в целом, 4/5 специальной информации. Изучающее чтение предполагает
полное и точное понимание концептуального содержания текста, организационной
структуры, авторской позиции, и т.п..
В этом разделе учебника предусмотрено логически и методически обоснованное
введение специального материала, результатом которого должно стать свободное, зрелое
чтение и последующее использование информации в профессиональной практике. Это
обеспечивается последовательным формированием умений вычленять опорные
смысловые блоки текста, определять структурно-семантическое ядро, выделять основные
мысли и факты, находить логические связи, исключать избыточную информацию,
группировать и объединять выделенные положения по принципу общности, а также
формированием навыка языковой интуиции и прогнозирования поступающей
информации.
Полученные в этом разделе умения и навыки должны быть реализованы в процессе
самостоятельного экстенсивного чтения профильных текстов, которые магистрант может
найти во второй части.
Учебник содержит оригинальные тексты, отобранные из числа публикуемых в
свободном доступе Интернета англоязычных научных изданий, которые не налагают
ограничения авторского права. Тексты модифицированы и сокращены, но без какого-либо
упрощения АЯ. Именно поэтому во второй части курса предлагается самостоятельно
работать с текстами в области межкультурной и транснациональной коммуникации,
представляя индивидуальные отчеты преподавателю.
Кроме того, в первой секции каждого урока вводятся и закрепляются
коммуникативные стратегии, знание которых необходимо для устного и письменного
англоязычного профессионального общения, даются рекомендации по этапам обработки
специальной информации, составления аннотаций, и т.п. Рекомендации сопровождаются
инструкциями по изучению материала и заданиями для закрепления коммуникативных
умений и навыков
Секция 2 уроков 1-24 первой части содержит грамматический материал,
излагаемый не только в виде частных явлений, но и в системе, в форме обобщения и
обзора трудностей по морфологии и синтаксису английского языка, в соответствии с
принципами коммуникативной грамматики, принятыми в таких международных
стандартных тестах, как IELTS, TOEFL и др.
Наряду с самостоятельным изучением специальных текстов для экстенсивного
чтения, на протяжении второй половины курса магистранты получают коммуникативные
умения и навыки, необходимые для ведения научно-исследовательской работы и общения
с зарубежными коллегами. Обучение различным видам речевой компетенции на основе
интенсивного и экстенсивного чтения осуществляется в их совокупности и взаимосвязи, с
учетом содержательной специфики текста.
Учебное пособие рассчитано на 96 аудиторных часов и 180-200 часов
самостоятельной работы.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
This Manual is a guide to the graduate instruction in English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
Step-by-step procedures are outlined for assessing students‘ needs, setting achievable goals, and
selecting appropriate materials and activities for the classroom. Out of the four language skills
the Manual describes three – reading, writing, and speaking, and provides suggestions for
employing these skills as well as grammar and analysis skills.
The Manual does focus on the special case in teaching English as a tool of transnational
communication: teaching English for Specific Purposes, and the particular ways by which
professional objectives should be structured for the mastering of ESP.
Being a graduate student of English you have had a four-year long previous experience
learning English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL), and your
first question on receiving your current assignment to learn ESP may be: "How is ESP different
from ESL?"
C1 C2
Listening I can understand extended speech even when it I have no difficulty in understanding any kind of
is not clearly structured and when relationships spoken language, whether live or broadcast, even
are only implied and not signalled explicitly. I when delivered at fast native speed, provided. I
can understand television programmes and have some time to get familiar with the accent.
films without too much effort.
Reading I can understand long and complex factual and I can read with ease virtually all forms of the
literary texts, appreciating distinctions of style. written language, including abstract, structurally
I can understand specialised articles and longer or linguistically complex texts such as manuals,
technical instructions, even when they do not specialised articles and literary works.
relate to my field.
Speaking. I can express myself fluently and I can take part effortlessly in any conversation or
spontaneously without much obvious searching discussion and have a good familiarity with
Spoken for expressions. I can use language flexibly and idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms. I can
effectively for social and professional express myself fluently and convey finer shades
Interaction purposes. I can formulate ideas and opinions of meaning precisely. If I do have a problem I can
with precision and relate my contribution backtrack and restructure around the difficulty so
skilfully to those of other speakers. smoothly that other people are hardly aware of it.
Speaking. I can present clear, detailed descriptions of I can present a clear, smoothly-flowing
complex subjects integrating subthemes, description or argument in a style appropriate to
Spoken developing particular points and rounding off the context and with an effective logical structure
with an appropriate conclusion. which helps the recipient to notice and remember
Production significant points.
Writing I can express myself in clear, well-structured I can write clear, smoothly-flowing text in an
text, expressing points of view at some length. appropriate style. I can write complex letters,
I can write about complex subjects in a letter, reports or articles which present a case with an
an essay or a report, underlining what I effective logical structure which helps the
consider to be the salient issues. I can select a recipient to notice and remember significant
style appropriate to the reader in mind. points. I can write summaries and reviews of
professional or literary works.
Students should receive practice in reading for different purposes, such as finding main
ideas, finding specific information, or discovering the author's point of view. Students should
have a clear idea of the purpose of their reading before they begin. Background information is
very helpful in understanding texts. Students need advance guidelines for approaching each
assignment. Knowing the purpose of the assignment will help students get the most from their
reading effort. From the title, for instance, they can be asked to predict what the text is about. It
is also helpful to give students some questions to think about as they read. The way they
approach the reading task will depend on the purpose for which they are reading.
PART 1. THE SKILLS OF INTENSIVE READING
Reading is the primary channel through which students will progress in English after the
ESP course is over. A good reading program provides instruction in the skills required at various
levels of reading, along with plenty of practice in this skill, which can only be developed through
intensive and continual practice.
Two types of skills are needed in reading: simple identification skills, (decoding) and
higher level cognitive skills such as analyzing, synthesizing, and predicting. The reading
program should work on two levels to develop both types of skill.
In order to do this, two types of reading tasks are incorporated in the Manual: intensive
and extensive.
Part 1 of the Manual is designed for intensive reading (analyzing, synthesizing, and
predicting) in the classroom through close analysis of shorter passages, and can be used to
develop vocabulary, grammar skills, and comprehension.
Part 2 of the Manual is designed for extensive reading (simple identification skills
or decoding) by way of faster individual reading of longer passages to develop understanding of
writers' organizational strategies, to improve reading speed, and to focus on main ideas.
Fluent reading depends primarily on knowledge of vocabulary and subject matter, and
secondarily on knowledge of grammatical structure and familiarity with the ways that writers
organize texts in English. Vocabulary development, then, is a vital aspect of reading (and
listening) development. Students will need to develop a good vocabulary in order to be efficient
ESP readers. They already know quite a lot of special vocabulary in English in their fields
though most certainly they will have to expand it and develop the additional vocabulary they
need for further study. Vocabulary should be learned only in context, never in word lists to be
memorized with dictionary definitions.
Grammar is best learned in connection with writing, but exercises related to the reading
passages the students have worked with can also help them to increase their reading
comprehension. Higher level cognitive skills necessary for good reading depend on knowledge
of the subject matter of the texts and knowledge of the way that information is organized in
writing.
1. The growth of the use of English as the world‘s primary language for international
communication has obviously been continuing for several decades. But even as the number of
English speakers expands further there are signs that the global predominance of the language
may fade within the foreseeable future.
Complex international, economic, technological and cultural changes could start to
diminish the leading position of English as the language of the world market, and UK interests
which enjoy advantage from the breadth of English usage would consequently face new
pressures. Although the world‘s population is still increasing fast, different countries – and
languages – are affected in very different ways. Some languages are ‗demographically
challenged‘ whilst others are rapidly acquiring new native speakers.
Demographic change is one of the most important factors affecting languages – and to a
much greater extent than other key trends affecting English – they can be predicted.
Much of the rapid change which we have witnessed in recent years – in economic, political
and social spheres – is related to population trends. As the developing world becomes more
populous whilst developed countries meet the challenges of an ageing population, the world
language system has been transformed.
2. Demography – who lives where – has been, along with scientific and technological
progress, the main driver of change in the world since the 18th century. The world population
then started rising fast.
Cities in Europe expanded, sustained first by the agrarian revolution, which allowed greater
food production with fewer workers, by the industrial revolution, which created new
employment opportunities in towns, and by improvements in healthcare, which reduced
mortality rates. This trend towards population increase, industrialisation and urbanisation is still
not completed in much of the world. By the 1990s, population increase in many developed
economies had slowed, but in less developed parts of the world it was still rising fast. The
reasons for this imbalance lie in a complex mix of material circumstances, life chances and
financial needs. In rural areas, children are important to family economies and as a future support
for parents. In urban, middle class families children become more of a financial and lifestyle
liability. This is one reason why populations grow more slowly as a country becomes more
urbanised, middle class, and wealthy.
3. Demographic trends are among of the most important factors affecting language spread,
language shift, and language change. As populations in the less developed countries rise, the
demographic balance between languages is changing. Languages differ remarkably in the age
structure of the population speaking them, which will affect the future destiny of languages in the
world but also the nature of educational services.
Despite increasing immigration controls in some of the preferred destination countries,
global migration is higher than ever before. Analysis of international travel movements suggests
that three-quarters of all travel is between non-English speaking countries. This suggests a large
demand for either foreign language learning or the increasing use of English as a lingua franca.
4. By the 1990s public concern had arisen in developed countries about what was perceived
as unsustainable population growth in the developing countries. In the 21st century, the focus of
debate has shifted to the economic and social problems caused by ageing populations in
developed nations: lack of skilled workers, problems in providing public services for the elderly
– especially health – and the ‗pension crisis‘.
However, the world‘s population overall is still young and numbers are growing. Yet
demographic projections suggest that the rate of increase in developing countries is also now
slowing and that the world population will stabilise at between 9–10 billion, possibly later this
century.
5. If we chart these demographic changes we get an ‗S-shaped‘ graph. The curve starts
gradually, rapidly gains speed, then begins to slow and level out as time passes. Such an S-
shaped graph is familiar to anyone analysing social change or the spread of innovation – whether
it be new mobile phone users, the diffusion of a sound change through the lexicon in a rural
English dialect, or the spread of a contagious disease.
Instead of thinking about the ‗population explosion‘ as a process which is out of control, it
may be more helpful to think of the world system as switching from one state to another: from a
population of around 500 million to a population of 10 billion. We are now in the middle of this
switch and many of the – at times bewildering – changes taking place in the economic, social and
political world are ultimately attributable to this.
6. Conventional wisdom suggests that the further ahead we look, the less accurately we can
predict. But we live in a transitional age where change is rapid, making it more difficult in some
cases to forecast year-to-year change than the general shape of things to come.
The future of languages in the world depends on people. Who lives where? What are their
basic needs? What kind of work will they be doing?
In order to understand some of the remarkable events and trends now taking place, we must
look beyond the next few years and try to envision the world of the future.
This suggests where destiny lies – even if the way there is strewn with surprises.
Recent population growth has been mainly in the less developed countries. The more
developed countries are experiencing a shrinking, ageing population. This, in turn, is changing
the relative size of the world‘s languages.
One consequence of the rapid population growth in the developing world is that the age
structure of countries varies considerably. In 2005, the median age in Italy was over 40 years,
and getting higher year by year. Italy‘s problem is faced, albeit to a lesser extent, by many other
countries in western Europe. In Uganda, on the other hand, the median age was under 15 years.
In many developing countries, the number of children needing primary education is rising
faster than governments can build new schools and train teachers.
7. It is not unusual to see age peaks and troughs in the age profile of a population as a ‗baby
boom‘ gives rise to a ‗baby boomlet‘ a generation later. Such waves make capacity management
at different educational levels tricky. On the whole, it is easier to increase the participation rate
and introduce major curriculum innovations when a demographic cohort is declining in size.
In Poland, for example, a demographic wave worked its way through the educational
system in the last decade or so, but declining numbers of young people are entering school.
8. Countries like Italy, facing declining numbers of young people in comparison with the
numbers of elderly, are likely to receive large numbers of migrant workers to support the
economy. This will in turn change the ethnic and linguistic profile of the country. On the other
hand, countries which have rising numbers of people of working age, such as Poland, may
experience high levels of emigration. Such migrant workers may acquire language skills which
they bring back to the country at a future date.
Demographic patterns have a profound impact on societies – affecting social structures,
educational systems, and economic futures.
Instruction: After almost every text, the first question you should ask is an overview
question about the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the text. Main idea questions ask
you to identify the most important thought in the text, the main idea or topic of a passage.
There are two types of main idea questions: matching headings with paragraphs or
sections, and identifying which sections relate to certain topics. For both types of questions
you should use the skill of surveying the text, but because the strategies are slightly different
for each question type, we will look at them separately.
1. Matching headings with paragraphs
Step 1. Survey the whole text.
Step 2. Survey the paragraph to identify the topic. The topic sentence might be the
first one in a paragraph. Survey the rest of the paragraph to make sure.
Step 3. Choose the correct wording of the main idea from the text.
Your best chance for refreshing your grammar in a short time is to skip through potential
errors, and therefore pull up your total level. Although a wide range of grammar points are
potentially vulnerable in EFL communication, there are certain points that appear again and
again, and you can master these points with the information and practice this Manual provides.
Grammar Section may seem less stressful for you because it is easier to do all the items if you
have learned how to.
Grammar sentences are generally about academic subjects: linguistics or the social sciences.
Any cultural references in the sentences are to the culture of nransnational interaction. Some
sentences contain references to people, places, and institutions that you will not be familiar with.
It's not necessary to know these references; you should simply concentrate on the grammar
structure of the sentences. It's also not necessary to understand all the vocabulary in a sentence;
you can often determine a grammar structure or form correctly without a complete understanding
of that sentence.
There are two possible approaches to grammar problems: an analytical approach and an
intuitive approach. A non-native speaker who uses the analytical approach quickly analyzes the
grammar of a sentence to see what element is missing or which element is incorrect. Someone
who uses the second approach simply chooses the answer that "sounds right" or the one that
"sounds wrong". Although the first approach is recommended to graduate students, the second can
be useful too, especially for ESP learners. If you aren't sure which approach works best for you,
keep in mind that you can combine the two approaches: if you get "stuck" using one method, you
switch to another.
A Tip: An excellent way to refresh your grammar is to write your own grammar pattern
items. Write several items for each of the units in this part of the book. There's no better way to
start thinking like a proficient EFL speaker.
ESP students already bring their knowledge of the subject matter into the reading task,
and their backgrounds in their fields will help make the reading materials more comprehensible
to them. Students' higher level cognitive skills can be tapped by giving them advance
information about the texts they are asked to read, and by teaching them to preview texts before
beginning to read.
Previewing is a quick reading for general familiarity, in which students: a) read the
introductory paragraph; b) read the first sentence of each of the body paragraphs; and c) read the
entire concluding paragraph. This should take students only a few minutes, and will enhance
their reading comprehension.
The skills of skimming and scanning.
Skimming is quick reading to get the general drift of a passage. Students can be asked to
skim a text to discover the author's purpose. Scanning is a focused search for specific
information.
1. If asked why everyone seems interested in learning English, it is tempting to reply that
it‘s primarily because of the economy. This section describes the major trends in the global
economy now affecting the demand for English and other languages. Before the 19th century,
India and China were the world‘s economic superpowers. Thanks to their new economic rise,
they will soon regain their former status – and our perceptions of the relative importance of
world languages may also change.
Economic relationships between the developed countries and those of the ‗third world‘ are
changing. Indian and Chinese economies, especially, have been growing fast. According to the
OECD, China could overtake the USA and Germany to become the largest exporter in the world
in the next 5 years. In December 2005, China revised its estimations of economic growth,
showing that it had already overtaken Italy in GDP and was likely to become the world‘s fourth
largest, overtaking the UK, by the end of 2006. China‘s services sector was particularly
underestimated and probably already accounts for over 40% of its GDP.
Services are of linguistic interest since they often require much higher levels of
communication than manufacturing. Exported services – which include receiving international
students and tourists – often require international communication.
2. The world economy is experiencing the impact of two new economic superpowers
emerging simultaneously. But it is not just China and India whose economies are growing fast.
Together with Brazil and Russia they form a group referred to by economists as BRICs. An
analysis in 2003 by Goldman Sachs estimated what the combined impact would be on the world
economy of this emergent group:
If things go right, in less than 40 years, the BRICs economies together could be larger than
the G6 in US dollar terms. By 2025 they could account for over half the size of the G6. Currently
they are worth less than 15%. (Wilson & Purushothaman, 2003)
This prediction may even be conservative, given the recent revision upwards of China‘s
growth. In January 2006, The Economist reported:
Since their industrial revolutions in the 19th century, the rich countries of the „first world‟
have dominated the global economy. By one measure at least, that era may be over. According to
estimates by The Economist, in 2005 the combined output of emerging (or developing)
economies rose above half of the global total.
3. In January 2006, the Worldwatch Institute, a US think-tank, warned that India and China
are ‗planetary powers that are shaping the global biosphere‘ who, if they were to consume as
much per capita as Japan, would ‗require a full planet Earth to meet their needs‘ (State of the
World, 2006).
Many are fearful of the political consequences of such a global shift of economic power.
Others welcome the growth of both countries and the contribution to the global economy which
they will make. But whether the trend is welcome or not, a commentary in the Financial Times
by Martin Wolf captures the feeling of many economic analysts:
The economic rise of Asia‟s giants is . . . the most important story of our age. It heralds the
end, in the not too distant future, of as much as five centuries of domination by the Europeans
and their colonial offshoots.
China may play down any imperial ambitions, but it is a country with immense self-
confidence and sense of destiny and is able to play a long game. Chinese enterprises are quietly
acquiring a controlling interest in key global resources. Its concept of ‗peaceful rising‘ is the
answer to US ‗soft power‘ in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Central Asia, weaving
together economic, diplomatic, political and cultural strategies. China‘s huge investment in
English, together with its promotion of Mandarin as a foreign language, must be seen in this
global context.
4. Many services are now outsourced, in the same way as the manufacture of computers or
t-shirts. Such business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO)
are not a new phenomenon. Many operations such as company payroll or specialist computer
data processing, have been subcontracted by companies to specialised bureaux since the 1960s.
What has changed is the huge range of services which are now affected, and the fact that cheap
communications allow many of them to be carried out in distant locations. The trend is now
clear: if there is any fraction of a service which can be separated from a physical location and
done more cheaply somewhere else, it will be outsourced (see panel, right).
Call centres, in which service calls from members of the public are picked up in a distant
country such as India, have attracted much public attention – and even led some companies to
advertise the fact they are relocating call centres ‗back home‘. However, call centres account for
a small percentage of the BPO market. According to the OECD, close to 20% of total
employment in the 15 pre-expansion EU countries, America, Canada and Australia, could
‗potentially be affected‘ by the international sourcing of services activities (Economist, 30 June
2005).
5. One of the most notable features of globalisation has been the outsourcing of services to
countries with cheaper labour costs. Global English has helped accelerate this phenomenon and
give India a competitive edge.
English is so desirable in the outsourcing business because most of the offshore contracts
come from English-speaking corporations. When customers in some branches of McDonald‘s
restaurants in the USA place orders for fast food, they speak to a call centre hundreds of miles
away, who pass back the order, together with a digital photo of the customer, to the kitchen. This
approach is marginally cheaper for the restaurant per transaction but it apparently can make the
process 30 seconds faster, allowing more burgers to be sold per hour, with fewer mistakes. (The
World is Flat, Friedman, 2005)
Each day at 4.30 am 20 well-educated Indians start work in their call centre in Kerala,
India. They provide one-to-one tutorial help in subjects such as maths and science to Californian
schoolchildren. One recent estimate suggests that over 20,000 American schoolchildren now
receive e-tutoring support from India, usually through US service providers. (Christian Science
Monitor, 23 May 2005)
6. Competitive advantage in the fast-moving BPO market is soon lost, forcing service
providers up the ‗value chain‘ towards work that requires greater skills and knowledge. This has
led to an educational ‗arms race‘.
Each country maintains its competitive advantage as a destination for outsourcing only for
a relatively short time.
As investment pours into the country, and demand for labour rises, so inevitably do wage
and property costs. Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong all used to be favourite places
for the manufacture of computer parts but much of the business has now shifted to mainland
China.
In January 2006 India confirmed its own aspirations to become a ‗global knowledge hub‘.
India is rapidly moving beyond call centres and back offices to provide services that involve
specialised knowledge which require research skills and the exercise of professional judgement.
Some analysts have named this development as ‗KPO‘ (knowledge process outsourcing). Where
BPO requires graduates, KPO employs PhDs. The new areas of high-value work in India include
medical and legal research, nanotechnology and space research, patent applications,
pharmaceutical clinical trials, medical tourism, film post-production, and financial and market
analysis.
8. The economic dominance of western economies which has existed since the industrial
revolution is coming to an end.
The services sector, including BPO, will provide an increasing proportion of national
economies. English is of particular value, at present, in this sector, though the value of other
languages in outsourcing is growing.
As many countries enter an ‗educational arms race‘ in order to maintain international
competitiveness, high-value intellectual work – including basic science research – is beginning
to move to countries like India and China.
OVERVIEW QUESTIONS: MAIN IDEA, MAIN TOPIC, AND MAIN PURPOSE OF
THE TEXT
Instruction: The SQ3R technique is commonly used to help students get the most from
their reading. SQ3R means Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. Students are asked to
complete these five activities:
1) to survey; looking over headings, reading introductory and concluding paragraphs, and
identifying the core ideas of the passage.
2) to formulate questions from text headings.
3) to make a conscious effort to find the answers in the text as they read.
4) having read the first section, to look away from the book and try to recite the answers to their
questions, using their own words and trying to give an example.
5) to take notes, and, when they have finished reading, to review their notes.
Training in this procedure will help students to read more efficiently.
Fill in the blanks with the right form of an article (no article – NA, the indefinite
article – IA, the definite article – DA) and check your choice against Paragraphs 5 and 6 of
the text.
One of (NA, IA, DA) most notable features of (NA, IA, DA) globalisation has been (NA,
IA, DA) outsourcing of services to (NA, IA, DA) countries with (NA, IA, DA) cheaper labour
costs. (NA, IA, DA) Global English has helped accelerate this phenomenon and give India (NA,
IA, DA) competitive edge. English is so desirable in (NA, IA, DA) outsourcing business because
most of (NA, IA, DA) offshore contracts come from (NA, IA, DA) English-speaking
corporations. When (NA, IA, DA) customers in some branches of (NA, IA, DA) McDonald‘s
restaurants in the USA place (NA, IA, DA) orders for (NA, IA, DA) fast food, they speak to
(NA, IA, DA) call centre hundreds of miles away, who pass back (NA, IA, DA) order, together
with (NA, IA, DA) digital photo of (NA, IA, DA) customer, to (NA, IA, DA) kitchen. This
approach is marginally cheaper for (NA, IA, DA) restaurant per (NA, IA, DA) transaction but it
apparently can make (NA, IA, DA) process 30 seconds faster, allowing more burgers to be sold
per (NA, IA, DA) hour, with (NA, IA, DA) fewer mistakes. Each day at 4.30 am (NA, IA, DA)
20 well-educated Indians start (NA, IA, DA) work in their call centre in Kerala, India. They
provide (NA, IA, DA) one-to-one tutorial help in (NA, IA, DA) subjects such as (NA, IA, DA)
maths and (NA, IA, DA) science to (NA, IA, DA) Californian schoolchildren. One recent
estimate suggests that over 20,000 American schoolchildren now receive (NA, IA, DA) e-
tutoring support from India, usually through (NA, IA, DA) US service providers.
Unit 1-3. ENGLISH AS A UNIVERSAL LINGUAGE
3. English as a lingua franca (ELF) is the currently most wide-spread and most
frequently used manifestation of the lingua franca mode. It is defined as the use of an English-
based resource as a shared means of intercultural communication between speakers with
different primary lingua-cultural backgrounds.
In its contemporary definition, it has shifted from the original conceptualisation of lingua
francas which developed as mixed and therefore relatively neutral vehicular languages (cf.
Lingua franca). This shift is grounded in the fact that in more recent days national languages
have come to serve as the basis of lingua francas which, through their activation in intercultural
communication, become modified and detached from their primary origins.
ELF is to be viewed as a flexible mode of communication rather than as a fixed code. It is
not defined as a set of formal features but as a flexible, dynamic resource: linguistic form is
driven by functional purposes. With mutual intelligibility between the participants as the overall
aim, considerations of correctness are overruled by notions of effectiveness.
4. Successful ELF talk, thus, does away with the opaque forms and 'unilateral
idiomaticity', i.e. non-transparent language based on convention, rather than on straightforward
form-meaning correspondences, that typically occurs in native-speaker language. It is
situationally negotiated with regard to different contexts, resource constellations and purposes,
and appropriated as to suit these purposes.
ELF is, thus, individually shaped by its users and, by implication, not 'the English
language'. Rather, it is a variable intercultural adaptation based on English, which is determined
by accommodative strategies between the speakers and which is typically characterised by
plurilingual elements. ELF in this definition does not represent a restricted language resource. It
can potentially take any form – from simplified to complex – and can potentially fulfill any
function – from a basic interaction to the most elaborate argument.
It is 'non-territorial' in the sense that it could take place everywhere, in any constellation.
It potentially integrates all speakers, also native speakers, of English who use it in an
intercultural mode. As non-native speakers largely outnumber native speakers, however, ELF
interactions most frequently take place between the former.
5. ELF is essentially a ‗contact language‘ for people of different first languages for whom
English is the chosen means of communication, including native speakers of English when they
engage in intercultural communication. However, ELF is emphatically not the English as a
property of its native speakers, but is democratized and universalized in the ‗exolingual‘ process
of being appropriated for international use.
6. While all of us are, in a sense, life-long learners of any language, including our mother
tongue (for instance when we extend our language use into new domains), there is still a
(traditional) distinction made between the concepts of 'language learner' and 'language user'.
With reference to this distinction, ELF speakers are not considered merely learners striving to
conform to native-speaker norms but primarily users of the language, where the main
consideration is not formal correctness but functional effectiveness. Of course using and learning
are related (you can learn while using), but the point is that with ELF the emphasis is on use and
the learning is incidental. This user language may certainly exhibit the same forms as learner
English, but the significance of the forms is a different one.
7. As we conceive of it, ELF is not bad or deficient English – it is just different in form
from native speaker English and serves different functions. It does not in principle lack the
potential to be effective for all the communicative purposes it is appropriated for. It can occur in
any kind of intercultural communication ranging from the most rudimentary utterances to highly
elaborate arguments. Proficiency in ELF, i.e. the ability to achieve mutual intelligibility in
intercultural exchanges, seems to be determined by aspects such as cooperation, accommodation,
lingua-cultural awareness and open-mindedness towards innovative linguistic forms rather than
formal linguistic criteria.
8. ELF relates to other languages in the sense that it is evolving within a multilingual
context. Influences of other languages are a natural and crucial characteristic of ELF at all
linguistic levels (phonological, lexicogrammatical and pragmatic). As a means of
communication, ELF is only one of several components of the multilingual repertoire of speakers
and often combines with other languages as appropriate to the intercultural communicative
situation. ELF is essentially a ‗partner language‘.
9. In line with our definition, any speaker using English for the purpose of intercultural
communication (i.e. with a speaker of a different L1), in principle, speaks ELF – unless they
(inappropriately) insist on speaking 'endolingually'. ELF is thus defined functionally by its use in
intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native speaker norms. The
crucial point is that speakers of whatever L1 can appropriate ELF for their own purposes without
over-deference to native-speaker norms. This counteracts a deficit view of lingua franca English
in that it implies equal communicative rights for all its users.
c/ The purpose of the text is what the author wants the reader to believe in. Does
the writer want you to believe that:
1. ELF speakers are not merely learners striving to conform to native-speaker norms but
primarily users of the language?
2. Non-native speakers largely outnumber native speakers?
3. The Crusades used a mixed vehicular language?
4. Esperanto is an agglutinating language, largely based on Romanic, but also on Germanic
and some Slavic elements?
5. ELF is a ‗contact language‘ for people of different first languages for whom English is
the chosen means of communication?
Context clues
Students often believe they must understand every word in order to read English. In fact,
good reading means the ability to process chunks of language larger than single words, so
striving for word-for-word recognition will actually slow students down and interfere with their
overall comprehension. Rather than reaching for the dictionary every time they do not recognize
a word, they should use the context of the passage to understand it.
Context clues also include understanding the meaning of the other words in the sentence
and applying such understanding to infer the meaning of an unknown word or phrase. For
example, students can be taught to infer a negative meaning of the word " sloppy" in the sentence
"Codeswitching tends to be frowned upon as a sign of deterioration of the language, as a type of
sloppy speech."
2. In LaRa, one distinguishes between hearer's and speaker's competencies. The hearer's
component of LaRa consists of all processes that actualise and intensify the hearer's
competencies. These linguistic means comprise nonverbal signals that steer the speaker's
production, prosodic elements expressing the whole range from agreement to disagreement,
formulaic expressions (e.g. 'I don't understand', 'What do you mean?', 'What?'), echo questions,
and other linguistic elements).
On the other hand, the speaker's LaRa lists strategies such as reformulations, repairs,
recapitulations, rephrasings and other types of meta-discourse elements. Accommodation
processes, in particular, lead to lexical and morphological adaptations towards what speakers
imagine hearers would be able to better understand in their recipient language. In conclusion,
these creative verbal elements within LaRa are often the result of receptive multilingual
discourse, which is why their analysis will provide new insights into the emergence of contact
varieties, too.
3. All these elements mentioned above occur in communication under normal conditions
and can be observed on the surface of communication, both mono- and multilingual. LaRa seems
to be an effective mode in various multilingual constellations and thus has a potential for solving
communicative problems both by overcoming ideological asymmetries and establishing
discursive interculture(s). It also promotes the idea of cultural and linguistic diversity in
addressing two languages simultaneously: speakers of community languages (i.e. minority and
immigrant languages), for instance, maintain or even revitalise their first language and yet could
be integrated into 'dominant' society once LaRa become an accepted mode of communication.
Finally, LaRa has been compared to other multilingual modes, e.g., codeswitching, and it has
been concluded that this mode has a far-reaching potential for achieving congruent
understanding in various multilingual constellations, applied alone or in combination with other
modes.
4. Codeswitching is the use of two, sometimes more, languages in the same conversation.
This way of speaking is common in many bi- and multilingual communities the world over,
especially in informal settings. It comes in many different forms; the specific form it takes is
dependent on many factors, including how well the speaker knows the two languages, to what
degree the two languages involved resemble each other, how formal or informal the conversation
is, and what attitudes people in the community have about the two languages and about mixing
them.
5. The two main forms codeswitching takes are referred to as insertion and alternation
(see Muysken 2000). In insertion, the sentence is clearly in one of the two languages but one or
more of the words is from the other language. An English sentence with a French word in it is a
case of insertion. Most of the time, the inserted words will be a content word, i.e. a noun, verb or
adjective. This betrays one of the main reasons why people use this way of speaking: the words
from the other language name useful concepts that the base language has no word of its own for.
The grammar of the sentence, including the order of the words, and all the grammatical words
and parts of words, will be in the base language (see Myers-Scotton 2002).
Alternation, the other main form of codeswitching, takes place when parts of a
conversation are in one language and other parts in the other. Bilingual speech often shows a
pattern of regular alternation between the languages, often at the boundary between two
successive sentences. A French-English bilingual, say in Canada, may alternate between English
and French sentences, for example.
3. The two main forms codeswitching takes are referred to as insertion and alternation. In
insertion, the sentence is clearly in one of the two languages but one or more of the words is
from the other language. An English sentence with a French word in it is a case of insertion.
Most of the time, the inserted words will be a content word, i.e. a noun, verb or adjective. This
betrays one of the main reasons why people use this way of speaking: the words from the other
language name useful concepts that the base language has no word of its own for.
Find in the text at least one example per each pattern of text organization:
description, step-by-step explanation, directions, comparison and contrast, analysis,
analogy, and definition.
1.‗Superdiversity‘ is the term introduced by Vertovec (2007) to describe the new forms of
sociocultural diversity that has emerged after the end of the Cold War, and has altered the face of
large urban centers in the West and elsewhere. It is characterized by two parallel developments:
(1) a range of new forms of migration across the world, leading to ‗diversity within diversity‘ in
about every society, and, in particular, in large urban centers in the West and elsewhere; (2) the
escalation of online cultural and social phenomena since the advent of the internet, leading to
new forms of identity performance, new forms of global popular culture and new forms of
community formation. All these developments are shot through with new sociolinguistic
phenomena of tremendous complexity, defying current ways of understanding and description.
The struggle to come to terms with these developments has led to a flurry of terminological
innovation, including terms such as ‗languaging‘, ‗polylingual languaging‘, ‗metrolingualism‘,
‗transidiomaticity‘ and so forth. Superdiversity is a term for the vastly increased range of
resources, linguistic, religious, ethnic, cultural in the widest sense, that characterize late modern
societies. The term has been coined by Vertovec (2006) in a review of demographic and socio-
economic changes in post-Cold War Britain: "Super-diversity underscores the fact that the new
conjunctions and interactions of variables, that have arisen over the past decade, surpass the
ways – in public discourse, policy debates and academic literature – that we usually understand
diversity in Britain".
2. Superdiversity should be understood as diversification of diversity, as diversity that
cannot be understood in terms of multiculturalism (the presence of multiple cultures in one
society) alone. At the basis of this paradigm shift are two sets of developments that can be
observed in Europe and world-wide. One is the changing patterns and itineraries of migration
from the outside into Europe and continued migration by the same people inside Europe: "more
people are now moving from more places, through more places, to more places" (Vertovec
2010). In effect, people bring with them continuously more different resources and experiences
from a variety of places in their everyday interactions and encounters with others and
institutions.
A second factor is the technological developments which have made new social media of
communication accessible to the masses, with mobile phones and the Internet (e.g., social
network sites). These developments mean that the individual in superdiversity is likely to meet a
much wider range of resources than was characteristic of Europe just a few decades ago.
3. A consequence of this superdiversity is an increasingly important lack of predictability.
A few decades ago it would be possible to predict with some degree of certainty what a 14-year
old grade school student in, for instance, Berlin would be like – looks, mother tongue, religious
affiliation, cultural preferences, musical taste, and in other ways. The range of resources
available to and employed by 14-year old grade school students in Germany was limited
compared to what we observe today – none of this can today be predicted with any substantial
degreee of certainty. Blommaert (2010) oberves that "the presuppositions of common integration
policies – that we know who the immigrants are, and that they have a shared language and
culture – can no longer be upheld".
Fanshawe & Sriskandarajah (2010) take the observation a step further and criticize the
routine reference to "protected strands" (gender, race, disability, sexuality, faith and belief, age)
in efforts to eliminate discrimination and inequality – there is no longer any single dimension
along which to work with these concepts, or with "identities". Their argument is that in the
context of superdiversity, we need a new politics of identity: people can't be put in a box
anymore.
4. The superdiverse conditions call for a revisiting and reinventing of our theoretical
toolkit to analyse and understand phenomena of language and communication (see Blommaert
and Rampton 2011). For instance, it makes concepts such as "speech community", "ethnic
groups", "minority" very difficult to maintain in any sense. It requires us to study rather than
assume relations between ethnicity, citizenship, residence, origin, profession, legal status, class,
religion and language. A superdiversity perspective on society problematises the countability and
representability of cultures, languages and identities (see also our languaging lemma here),
which is why superdiversity can be understood as post-multiculturalism (Vertovec 2010).
The concept of superdiversity has been theorised primarily in relation to the UK and, by
extension, contemporary Europe. It is, however, evident that other societies have experienced
and still experience superdiversity, and that superdiversity may be a much older condition in
other places, India and Africa being obvious examples which include societies of long-standing
superdiversity, although not necessarily late modern.
5. Humankind is a languaging species. Human beings use language to achieve their goals,
and with a few exceptions by using language to other human beings. It is a widely held view that
language as a human phenomenon can be separated into different ―languages‖, such as
―Russian‖, ―Latin‖, and ―Greenlandic‖. This idea is based on the recently developed
sociolinguistic understanding that this view of language cannot be upheld on the basis of
linguistic criteria. ―Languages‖ are sociocultural, or ideological, abstractions which match real-
life use of language poorly. This means that sociolinguistics must apply another level of analysis
with observed language use. Languaging is the unique human capacity to change the world
through communication with others by means of language, i.e. systematically organized arbitrary
signs. This capacity enables people to acquire (or develop) a complex system of symbols, and to
use this system for creating and negotiating meanings and intentions and transferring them across
time and space.
All human beings language, and they do so to achieve their goals. Languaging is
individual and unique in the sense that every single person possesses her or his own combination
of competences and knowledge with respect to language. No two persons share exactly the same
vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. More importantly, however, language is social in the sense that
every aspect of language is shared among several individuals, and that it is exclusively acquired
and practiced in interaction with other individuals.
6. Traditionally the language sciences deal with 'languages'. Languages are thought of as
sets of features, i.e. conventions which are believed to somehow belong together. Over the past
decade sociolinguistics has come to the conclusion that languages are ideologically constructed
abstract concepts which do not represent real life language use: 'languages do not exist as real
entities in the world and neither do they emerge from or represent real environments; they are, by
contrast, the inventions of social, cultural and political movements' (Makoni and Pennycook,
2007). Languages in the plural exist only as sociocultural inventions: 'Languages are conceived
and languaging is practiced' (Mignolo, 1996).
The making of languages in Europe is intertwined with the nation-building projects that
emerged in the wake of the Renaissance and reached its high point in the nationalist and
romanticist nineteenth century. The compartmentalised vision of language as separate bounded
linguistic systems is a modernist, Renaissance vision on language. Italian is the product of the
creation of an Italian nation-state, while French is the product of the creation of a French nation-
state, thereby absorbing, erasing or marginalising the linguistic diversity in their territories.
Likewise, the boundary between Dutch and German is the same as the border between the
Netherlands and Germany and does not in any meaningful way precede the history of the
respective nation-states.
Problems involving subject-verb agreement. Underline the form that correctly completes
each sentence. Then circle the subject with which the underlined verb agrees. The first one is
done as an example.
The first bridge to be built with electric lights (was/were) the Brooklyn Bridge. .
Ethics (is/are) the study of moral duties, principles, and values
There (is/are) two types of calculus, differential and integral.
George Gershwin, together with his brother Ira, (was/were) the creator of the first musical
comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize.
In a chess game, the player with the white pieces always (moves/move) first.
The Earth and Pluto (is/are) the only two planets believed to have a single moon.
A number of special conditions (is/are) necessary for the formation of a geyser.
Each of the Ice Ages (was/were) more than a million years long.
The battery, along with the alternator and starter, (makes/make) up the electrical system of
a car.
Teeth (is/are) covered with a hard substance called enamel.
The more-or-less rhythmic succession of economic booms and busts (is/are) referred to as the
business cycle.
The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom (varies/vary) from element to element.
All trees, except for the tree fern, (is/are) seed-bearing plants.
Fifteen hundred dollars a year (was/were) the per capita income in the United States in
1950.
Everyone who (goes/go) into the woods should recognize common poisonous plants such as
poison ivy and poison oak.
Facts and details. ESP discourse often abounds in explicit facts and details given in the
passage. If you are not sure to have grasped all of them from your first reading, use scanning
techniques.
The author usually resorts to facts and details to enhance, support and facilitate her/his idea,
purpose or attitude. You have to locate and identify the factual information that requires you to
make inferences. It means that the answers to your questions are not directly provided in the
passage – you must "read between the lines." In other words, you must make conclusions based
indirectly on information in the passage. Many text-readers find it difficult to identify the clues
inferred by facts and details.
You should keep in mind that, in ESP texts, most reading passages have a neutral tone, but
sometimes an author may take a position for or against some point by providing negative or
positive details. Details and inferences are important for the analysis of the text given below
because R. Phillipson is an ardent proponent of the theory of English language imperialism.
1. Reference to English as a lingua franca generally seems to imply that the language is a
neutral instrument for ‗international‘ communication between speakers who do not share a
mother tongue. The fact that English is used for a wide range of purposes, nationally and
internationally, may mislead one into believing that lingua franca English is disconnected from
the many ‗special purposes‘ it serves in key societal domains. English might be more accurately
described as a lingua economica (in business and advertising, the language of corporate
neoliberalism), a lingua emotiva (the imaginary of Hollywood, popular music, consumerism and
hedonism), a lingua academica (in research publications, at international conferences, and as a
medium for content learning in higher education), or a lingua cultura (rooted in the literary texts
of English-speaking nations that school foreign language education traditionally aims at, and
integrates with language learning as one element of general education). English is definitely the
lingua bellica of wars between states (aggression by the US and its loyal acolytes in Afghanistan
and Iraq, building on the presence of US bases in hundreds of countries worldwide). The
worldwide presence of English as a lingua americana is due to the massive economic, cultural
and military impact of the USA. Labelling English as a lingua franca, if this is understood as a
culturally neutral medium that puts everyone on an equal footing, entails not merely ideological
dangers, it is simply false. The history, aetiology and misuse of the concept will be explored
below.
2. While English manifestly opens doors for many worldwide, it also closes them for
others, as recounted by an Indian with experience of the language being seen as a lingua divina
(Chamaar 2007), for which he had rather more empirical justification than the hopefully
apocryphal story of the American head teacher informing immigrants that if English was good
enough for Jesus, it was good enough for them.
It wasn‘t until he was 18 that Kanchedia Chamaar realized that God spoke and understood
English and nothing else. Because unfamiliarity with the lingua divina was a matter of intense
shame at Delhi School of Economics in the 1970s, he started learning English on the sly, and
continues to be consumed by the process to this day.
In India, as in many former colonies, English is the language of elite formation, social
inclusion and exclusion. Are there then grounds for referring to English as a lingua
frankensteinia? We need to recall that Frankenstein in Mary Shelley‘s novel refers to the person
who created the monster rather than to the monster itself. This is a useful reminder that any
language can serve good or evil purposes, whether humane or monstrous ones. English tends to
be marketed as though it serves exclusively laudable purposes (a language of international
understanding, human rights, development, progress etc, Phillipson 1992).
But the elimination of national languages from certain domains can threaten social
cohesion and the vitality of a language. The experience of ethnocide and linguicide is traumatic,
which people of First (Indian) Nations origins in North America are only too aware of.
Amos Key, of the Six (Indian) Nations of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada is committed
to the Indian languages being revived, even if few in the younger generation speak anything
other than English or French. Amos tells the story of encountering scepticism when expressing a
wish for the First Nations to recover their languages. What‘s the point? To which he replies,
well, when I die and go to heaven, I shall want to communicate with my ancestors, my
grandfathers and grandmothers. To which the sceptic replies, but what happens if you have been
evil and end up in the other place? No problem, because I know English. For Amos Key, English
has been a lingua diabolica rather than a lingua divina, even if, like Caliban in Shakespeare‘s
The Tempest, he has become proficient in the language. English, like other colonising languages,
has functioned as a lingua frankensteinia throughout the history of the occupation by Europeans
of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.
3. The elimination of linguistic diversity has been an explicit goal of states attempting to
impose monolingualism within their borders: linguicist policies favour the lingua frankensteinia
and lead to linguicide. This was the case in the internal colonisation of the British Isles, with the
attempted extermination of Welsh and Gaelic, and in North America and Hawaii at the expense
of First Nations languages. Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) avoids seemingly innocuous terms like
‗language death‘ and ‗language spread‘, concepts that obscure agency, by referring to killer
languages, language murder, and linguistic genocide, basing this term on definitions in
international human rights law and the historical evidence of government policies. Swales
(1996), after a lifetime of work on scientific English, is so concerned about other languages of
scholarship being on the way to extinction that he labels English a lingua tyrannosaura.
The widespread concern in political and academic circles in Scandinavian countries with
domain loss signifies a perception that segments of the national language are at risk from the
English monster, hence the national policy to ensure that Danish, Norwegian and Swedish
remain fully operational in all domains. This is a gradual, long-term process, and generally
unobtrusive, but sometimes the underlying agenda can be seen in operation. Thus the language
policies connected to the Bologna process, the creation of a single European higher education
and research ‗area‘, are largely covert, but policy statements imply that ‗internationalisation‘
means ‗English-medium higher education‘ (Phillipson 2006a). This is also the way government
ministers understand the process (e.g. in Norway, Ljosland 2005).
4. In other words, universities should no longer be seen as a public good but should be run
like businesses, should privatise, and let industry set the agenda. The new buzzwords are that
degrees must be ‗certified‘ in terms of the ‗employability‘ of graduates. ‗Accountability‘ no
longer refers to intellectual quality or truth-seeking but means acceptability to corporate-driven
neoliberalism. The recommendation that there should be more ‗student-centred learning‘
probably implies more e-learning rather than a more dialogic, open-ended syllabus. Before
European integration has taken on any viable forms, universities are being told to think and act
globally rather than remain narrowly European. This is insulting to higher education in general
and to all universities that have been internationally oriented for decades.
What therefore needs further analysis is whether English is a cuckoo in the European
higher education nest of languages, a lingua cucula. Cuckoos substitute their own eggs for those
in place, and induce other species to take on the feeding and learning processes. Higher
education authorities in the Nordic countries are increasingly addressing the question of
cohabitation between the local language and English. The current strategy is to aim at ‗parallel
competence‘ in the two languages. The Nordic Declaration of Language Policy, signed by
Ministers from five countries, endorses this goal. Quite what parallel competence means in
practice, for an individual or for institutions, remains obscure.
5. What is the relevance of this for Europe? Surely the languages that have been
consolidated in independent states over the past two centuries cannot be at risk? Isn‘t the
commitment of the EU to maintaining and respecting linguistic diversity a guarantee of equality
and fair treatment for European languages? In fact, the position is far from clear, not least
because language policy tends to be left to nationalist and market forces, and there is a fuzzy
dividing-line between language policy as the prerogative of each member state, and language as
an EU concern (Phillipson 2003).
One of the most visible causal factors is cultural globalisation in the media, which utilise
the original language in the north of Europe: 70-80% of all TV fiction shown on European TV is
American. […] American movies, American TV and the American lifestyle for the populations
of the world and Europe at large have become the lingua franca of globalization, the closest we
get to a visual world culture. (Bondebjerg 2003)
By contrast in the USA the market share of films of foreign origin is 1%. The cultural
insularity of the US and the UK is also clear from the figures for translation: 2% of books
published in the UK, and 3% in the USA are translations from other languages, whereas the
corresponding figures for Italy are 27%, for Denmark 41%, and Slovenia 70% (from a survey for
International PEN). There is therefore a massive asymmetry in how globalisation impacts on
national cultures. There is no doubt that this is a direct result of US policies, which have become
more visibly aggressive as the neoconservatives behind the Project for the New American
Century, the Cheney-Wolfowitz-Rumsfeld doctrine, have been in power under Bush II.
6. The plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but
it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming
military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It
calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more
powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.
The rhetoric of global ‗leadership‘ is warmly embraced by Tony Blair: Globalisation begets
interdependence, and interdependence begets the necessity of a common value system. History
the age-old battle between progress and reaction, between those who embrace the modern world
and those who reject its existence. Century upon century it has been the destiny of Britain to lead
other nations. That should not be a destiny that is part of our history. It should be part of our
future. We are a leader of nations or nothing.
Blair‘s belief system is based on a vision of progress that religious belief entitles him and
US neoconservatives to impose worldwide (Gray 2007). The project of establishing English as
the language of power, globally and locally, is central to this empire. It is in the economic and
political interest of the United States to ensure that if the world is moving toward a common
language, it be English; that if the world is moving toward common telecommunications, safety,
and quality standards, they be American; and that if common values are being developed, they be
values with which Americans are comfortable. These are not idle aspirations. English is linking
the world.
US colonisation policies externally were comparable to practices in European colonial
empires. The policies were not as actively linguicidal as in the home country, but rather installed
a hierarchy of languages, a diglossic division of linguistic labour. Language policy in former
colonies is well documented. What is not so well known is that the urge to establish English was
not limited to parts of the world that were under European or American control.
7. Science cannot be advanced without the English language and textbooks and students
will make better progress in the sciences by taking the English textbooks and learning the
English to boot than they will by giving exclusive attention to their own language and textbooks
in our field and the same is true of any field where the Gospel is preached to intelligent beings.
We need disciplined and educated men. (Greenwood 2003) This rationale was written in 1847 by
Cyrus Hamlyn, an American missionary who spent a lifetime in Istanbul and founded a school,
Robert College, named after an American ‗philanthropist‘.
In recent years the issue has been hotly debated at the annual conferences of TESOL
(Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), not least since much of this activity is
engaged in covertly by US citizens, while otherwise employed as teachers of English in the
Middle East, China and the former Soviet Union. A British website reports: ‗as missionaries are
still banned from China, it represents one of the most effective ways to support Christians in
China through the sending of teachers of English from overseas.‘
Isn‘t this precisely what globalisation expects of us in the privileged world? That we should
not be concerned about what happens in the Asian sweatshops that produce our cotton and
electronic goods, nor about unfair, unsustainable trade policies which mean that food subsidies to
producers in the rich world undermine the livelihood of growers in poor countries? Are these the
values that unite the Americans and the EU, the ‗deep ties of kinship‘ stressed by José Manuel
Barroso, President of the European Commission, when endorsing the ‗Transatlantic Economic
Integration Plan‘ agreed on at the 2007 EU-US summit?
In EU-US negotiations, English is the sole language involved. This is in conflict with the
declared policy that in the EU‘s international relations, the multilingualism that characterises its
internal affairs should also apply. This is a clear case of English as the lingua cucula. Externally
the EU has become monolingual.
Instruction: The order of facts or details in a passage almost always follows the order in
which ideas are presented by the author. In other words, the information you need to identify the
first detail will usually come near the beginning of the passage; the information for the second
will follow that, and so on. Knowing this should help you locate the information you need.
There are text analysis items that require you to make inferences. The explanations to these
items are not directly provided in the passage – you must "read between the lines." In other
words, you must make conclusions based indirectly on information in the passage. You may ask
why the author of a passage mentions some piece of information, or includes a quote from a
person or a study, or uses some particular word or phrase.
Sample answers:
It can be inferred from the passage that . . .; The author implies that . . .; The author suggests that
. . .; It is probable that ... .
7. The tone of the passage could best be described as: (A) objective; (B) optimistic; (C)
angry; (D) humorous.
8. What is the author's attitude toward the English language in science and
education expressed in the following paragraph?
Science cannot be advanced without the English language and textbooks and students will
make better progress in the sciences by taking the English textbooks and learning the English
(stet.) to boot than they will by giving exclusive attention to their own language and textbooks in
our field and the same is true of any field where the Gospel is preached to intelligent beings.
Answer choices:
The author's opinion of the English language in science and education is best
described as (positive, favorable, optimistic, amused, pleased; negative, respectful; critical,
outraged, worried, unfavorable, angry, defiant; neutral, objective, impersonal, humorous.
The author's attitude toward the English language in science and education could
best be described as one of (a researcher interest, a p p r o v a l , i n d i f f e r e n c e ,
curiosity, etc.)
Teaching culture in the ESP reading classes should not be separated from teaching ESP
organisation and language content, and consequently, ESP text analysis should also include
understanding skills of the cross-cultural communication. Success in intercultural
communication depends greatly on operational expertise. This module emphasizes the
importance of learning target culture, as well as introduces the analysis of culture texts in
English. Understanding cultural differences will benefit and facilitate cross-cultural com-
munication under diverse circumstances. Thereby, this issue is relevant to ESP reading classes
focusing on the improvement of both students‘ language and cultural skills.
“We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat."
– Bernard Baruch, American financier and statesman.
It's no secret that today's workplace is rapidly becoming vast, as the business environment
expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures. What can be
difficult, however, is understanding how to communicate effectively with individuals who speak
another language, or who rely on different means to reach a common goal.
1. The Internet and modern technology have opened up new marketplaces that allow us to
promote our businesses to new geographic locations and cultures. And given that it can now be as easy
to work with people remotely as it is to work face-to-face, cross-cultural communication is increasingly
the new norm.
After all, if communication is electronic, it's as easy to work with someone in another
country as it is to work with someone in the next town.
And why limit yourself to working with people within convenient driving distance when,
just as conveniently, you can work with the most knowledgeable people in the entire world?
For those of us who are native English-speakers, it is fortunate that English seems to be the
language that people use if they want to reach the widest possible audience. However, even for
native English speakers, cross-cultural communication can be an issue: Just witness the mutual
incomprehension that can sometimes arise between people from different English-speaking
countries.
In this new world, good cross-cultural communication is a must.
2. Given different cultural contexts, this brings new communication challenges to the workplace.
Even when employees located in different locations or offices speak the same language (for instance,
correspondences between English-speakers in the U.S. and English-speakers in the UK), there are some
cultural differences that should be considered in an effort to optimize communications between the two
parties.
In such cases, an effective communication strategy begins with the understanding that the
sender of the message and the receiver of the message are from different cultures and
backgrounds. Of course, this introduces a certain amount of uncertainty, making communications
even more complex.
Without getting into cultures and sub-cultures, it is perhaps most important for people to
realize that a basic understanding of cultural diversity is the key to effective cross-cultural
communications. Without necessarily studying individual cultures and languages in detail, we
must all learn how to better communicate with individuals and groups whose first language, or
language of choice, does not match our own.
3. However, some learning the basics about culture and at least something about the language of
communication in different countries is important. This is necessary even for the basic level of
understanding required to engage in appropriate greetings and physical contact, which can be a tricky
area inter-culturally. For instance, kissing a business associate is not considered an appropriate business
practice in the U.S., but in Paris, one peck on each cheek is an acceptable greeting. And, the firm
handshake that is widely accepted in the U.S. is not recognized in all other cultures.
While many companies now offer training in the different cultures where the company
conducts business, it is important that employees communicating across cultures practice
patience and work to increase their knowledge and understanding of these cultures. This requires
the ability to see that a person's own behaviors and reactions are oftentimes culturally driven and
that while they may not match our own, they are culturally appropriate.
If a leader or manager of a team that is working across cultures or incorporates individuals
who speak different languages, practice different religions, or are members of a society that
requires a new understanding, he or she needs to work to convey this.
Consider any special needs the individuals on your team may have. For instance, they may
observe different holidays, or even have different hours of operation. Be mindful of time zone
differences and work to keep everyone involved aware and respectful of such differences.
Generally speaking, patience, courtesy and a bit of curiosity go a long way. And, if you are
unsure of any differences that may exist, simply ask team members. Again, this may best be
done in a one-on-one setting so that no one feels "put on the spot" or self-conscious, perhaps
even embarrassed, about discussing their own needs or differences or needs.
4. Next, cultivate and demand understanding and tolerance. In doing this, a little education will
usually do the trick. Explain to team members that the part of the team that works out of the Australia
office, for example, will be working in a different time zone, so electronic communications and/or
return phone calls will experience a delay. And, members of the India office will also observe different
holidays (such as Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday, observed on October 2).
Most people will appreciate the information and will work hard to understand different
needs and different means used to reach common goals. However, when this is not the case, lead
by example and make it clear that you expect to be followed down a path of open-mindedness,
acceptance and tolerance.
Tip: Tolerance is essential. However, you need to maintain standards of acceptable
behavior. The following "rules of thumb" seem universal:
Team members should contribute to and not hinder the team's mission or harm the
delivery to the team's customer.
Team members should not damage the cohesion of the team or prevent it from becoming
more effective.
Team members should not unnecessarily harm the interests of other team members.
Other factors (such as national law) are obviously important.
When dealing with people in a different culture, courtesy and goodwill can also go a long
way in ensuring successful communication. Again, this should be insisted on.
If your starting point in solving problems is to assume why communication has failed,
you'll find that many problems are quickly resolved.
5. When you communicate, keep in mind that even though English is considered the
international language of business, it is a mistake to assume that every businessperson speaks good
English. In fact, only about half of the 800 million people who speak English learned it as a first
language. And, those who speak it as a second language are often more limited than native speakers.
When you communicate cross-culturally, make particular efforts to keeping your
communication clear, simple and unambiguous.
And (sadly) avoid humor until you know that the person you're communicating with "gets
it" and isn't offended by it. Humor is notoriously culture-specific: Many things that pass for
humor in one culture can be seen as grossly offensive in another.
6. Finally, if language barriers present themselves, it may be in every one's best interest to
employ a reliable, experienced translator. Because English is not the first language of many
international business people, their use of the language may be peppered with culture-specific or non-
standard English phrases, which can hamper the communication process. Again, having a translator on
hand (even if just during the initial phases of work) may be the best solution here. The translator can
help everyone involved to recognize cultural and communication differences and ensure that all parties,
regardless of geographic location and background, come together and stay together through successful
project completion.
Instruction: While in class, you do not have time to read every word carefully. Remember that
your starting task is not to understand all of the text. It is often only necessary to read a small part
of the text carefully to find some specific information.
In most well-written English texts, every paragraph deals with a specific aspect of a topic.
The first sentence of a paragraph usually tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph is about so
when you are trying to identify the main idea of a paragraph, you should read the first sentence
carefully. Then, keeping the idea of the first sentence in mind, you should quickly check the rest of
the paragraph, picking up only some of the words.
This is skim reading or skimming. Using this technique you will have a general idea of what
the writer is saying about the topic. Surveying the text tells you about the topic or subject of the
text. It may also tell you something about how the text is organized (subheadings are
especially useful). Surveying may also tell you something about the writer's purpose—
whether the intention is to give instructions, to compare, to give information, and so on.
Of course, when you skim-read a text you cannot get as much information from the text as
when you read it all carefully, but by skimming you can quickly get enough information to help
you get context clues. Remember that efficient use of time is one of the most important skills.
You will have to adjust the speed of your skimming according to how easy the text is for you to
understand. If a paragraph does not have a first sentence which gives the topic of the paragraph
clearly, you have to skim more carefully. But don't forget that you should not read every word –
reading every word will waste too much time.
To remind: the best way to find details quickly is to use scanning. Scanning is searching for key
words or synonyms by looking quickly through the text. For example, you scan when you look for a
word in a dictionary. You do not read every word as you search for the word(s) you want.
Scanning paragraphs for key words
The best way to find key words is to use scanning by looking quickly through the text.
Your eyes move across and down through the text without reading it in your normal way.
Also, another source which tells you how to find key words is the subject or the
source of the text. Look at the text CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION – THE
NEW NORM. This title can help you understand that key words must concern any kinds of
norms or be connected with norms.
E.g.: in paragraph 1 it is possible to point out the following key words: cross-cultural
communication, norm, to work, distance.
Task: Find 4-5 key words in each paragraph
Follow the three-step strategy to make finding the answer easier.
Step 1 – Survey the text:
Look at any parts of the text that stand out:
the title, section headings or subheadings,
any words in special print (bold, italics, CAPITALS or underlined).
Step 2 – Make sure you know what you are looking for:
scan for key words or synonyms by looking over the text,
do not read every word.
Step 3 – Select 5-10 key words for the whole text:
Reference words
Reference words are nouns (called the referents), pronouns or some expressions referred
to. The correct reference is NOT always the noun that is closest to the pronoun in the passage.
The correct choices are usually other nouns that appear in the passage. If you are unable to
decide immediately which referent is correct, substitute the possible choices for the word that is
being asked about.
E.g.: Structurally, the word combination the cohesion of the team should be the referent for
the pronoun it in the following sentence: Team members should not damage the cohesion of the
team or prevent it from becoming more effective. However the author makes a logical mistake
because of the two nouns the cohesion can be damaged but the team can be prevented from
becoming more effective.
Task: What is the referent for the following italicized phrase?
In the sentence: However, some learning the basics about culture and at least something
about the language of communication in different countries is important.
What is important? learning (the basics and something) is important or something (about
the language) is important?
Linking Words
Knowing the meaning and the purpose of linking words in sentences can be very
useful for academic reading. For example, in the following passage there are two linking
words:
Because English is not the first language of many international business people, their use
of the language may be peppered with culture-specific or non-standard English phrases, which
can hamper the communication process. Both Because and which give: consequence – which,
between clauses, and reason – Because, between sentences.
The more common linking words can be divided into six main groups according to
their purpose.
1. Showing sequence, e.g., finally, firstly, secondly, then, next, after this.
Finally, if language barriers present themselves, it may be in every one's best interest to
employ a reliable, experienced translator.
2. Giving additional information, e.g., as well, even, in addition, also, besides this, as well as, and.
Be mindful of time zone differences and work to keep everyone involved aware and
respectful of such differences.
3. Giving examples, e.g., for example, such as, for instance, be illustrated by.
For instance, they may observe different holidays, or even have different hours of
operation.
4. Giving reasons or causes, e.g., the cause, be the result of, because of this, due to this, be
caused by this, because, result from.
Because English is not the first language of many international business people ...
5. Showing contrast, e.g., but, however, though, although, while, despite, even though, whereas,
on the other hand.
… We didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat.
Note: Even though the above linking words may be in one group, in sentences, they are
often used in different ways.
Errors with on
The pitch of a tuning fork depends of the size and shape of its arms.
The correct preposition after the verb depend is on, not of.
Incorrect inclusion or omission of prepositions
A preposition is often used when one is not needed, or not used when one is needed.
According many critics, Mark Twain's novel Huckleberry Finn is his greatest work and is
one of the greatest American novels ever written.
The preposition to has been omitted from the phrase according to.
Some of the most of spectacular caves are found in the Crimean mountains.
The preposition of should not be used in this phrase. (When most means "majority," it can be
used in the phrase most of the. "Most of the people agree...," for example. However, in this sentence,
most is part of the superlative form of the adjective spectacular, and so cannot be used with of.
Identify correct and incorrect preposition choice. Underline the prepositions that
correctly complete the sentences below.
Wage rates depend (in/on) part (from/on) the general prosperity (of/for) the economy.
(For/To) an injection to be effective (on/against) tetanus, it must be administered (by/within)
72 hours (of/for) the injury.
The invention (of/for) the hand-cranked freezer opened the door (for/to) commercial ice-
cream production, and (for/since) then, the ice-cream industry has grown (in/into) a four-billion-
dollar-a-year industry.
(At/On) the time (of/in) the Revolutionary War, the North American colonies were merely a
long string (with/of) settlements (along/among) the Atlantic Coast (between/from) Maine and
Georgia.
The probability (of/for) two people (in/on) a group (of/for) ten people having birthdays
(in/on) the same day is about one (in/of) twenty.
Showboats were floating theaters that tied up (at/to) towns (in/on) the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers to bring entertainment and culture (to/at) the people (on/in) the frontier.
.Scrimshaw, the practice (of/for) carving ornate designs (in/on) ivory, was first practiced
(by/of) sailors working (by/with) sail needles while (in/on) long sea voyages.
Bird Island, (off/of) the coast (off/of) the Crimea, is famous (for/to) its flocks (of/with) wild
geese.
(In/On) order (for/to) an object to be visible, light must travel (from/for) that object (at/to) a
person's eves.
Identify and correct errors involving prepositions
Chemical pollutants produced by human activity are destroying the protective layer of
ozone between Earth's surface to upper atmosphere.
Ozone concentrations above the United States decreased by 5 to 6 per cent from 1990 and
2000.
Ultraviolet radiation causes a range of health problems – between skin cancer with
blindness.
United Nations scientists reported ozone losses since 1991 to 2001 above temperate areas
of Earth between the tropics to the poles.
NASA scientists announce that levels of chlorine monoxide resulting from the breakdown
of CFC's have been at record levels since 10 years.
24 nations, including the United States, signed an agreement since September 1987
planning to limit the production of CFC's.
They promised to limit the production of CFC's since at least 20 years.
This agreement has been validated in 1991.
Depending of their measurements a 40 per cent reduction in ozone concentrations over
Antarctica took place between the mid-1970's to 1984.
On March 1974, scientists first proposed about the idea that manufactured chemicals could
threaten to the ozone layer.
Unit 1-8. CULTURE‟S COMPONENTS
ESP students already bring their knowledge of the subject matter into the reading task, and
their backgrounds in their fields will help make the reading materials more comprehensible to
them. Students' higher level cognitive skills can be tapped by giving them advance information
about the texts they are asked to read, and by teaching them to preview texts before beginning to
read.
Previewing is a quick reading for general familiarity, in which students: a) read the
introductory paragraph; b) read the first sentence of each of the body paragraphs; and c) read the
entire concluding paragraph. This should take students only a few minutes, and will enhance
their reading comprehension.
Skimming and scanning.
To remind: Skimming is quick reading to get the general drift of a passage. Students can be
asked to skim a text to discover the author's purpose. Scanning is a focused search for specific
information.
Text organisation. Headings and subheadings clearly delineate the logistics of the
text. Sections A, B, C, and D identify 4 main constructs of culture.
Answer the following questions:
What are the four major characteristics of culture?
What are the four major constructs of culture?
What is meant by the cognitive patterns of culture?
What is meant by the contextual rules of culture?
You should skim a paragraph or section before choosing the correct answer from the
text. Remember that it is more efficient to skim the long piece of text first and get the idea of
the whole text. Then you can look through the alternative headings very quickly.
Step 1. Survey the text. The headings will give you some clues to help you quickly
understand what each part of the text is about.
Step 2. Skim-read each paragraph. Every paragraph deals with a specific aspect of a topic.
The first sentence of a paragraph may tell you what the rest of the paragraph is about. Therefore
while trying to identify the main idea of a paragraph, you should read the first sentence and skim the
rest of the paragraph.
Scan the text for key words.
This title Culture‟s components can help you understand that key words must concern
any kinds of constructs, or be connected with effects, of culture.
Follow the three-step strategy to make finding key words easier.
Step 1. Make sure you know what you are looking for.
Step 2. Scan each paragraph for 4-5 key words. Do not read every word.
Step 3. Select 5-10 key words for the whole text.
Write a 10-line abstract of the text basing on the key words. Make sure to mention all
characteristics, constructs, cognitive patterns and contextual rules of culture.
Collect specific information by pointing out groups of synonyms, semantic and thematic
groups. Keep it in mind that vocabulary in context includes both single words (usually
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). and two- or three-word phrases.
Preposition use
It is important that you be familiar with the correct usage of prepositions and practice these
prepositions in sentences:
Adjectives/Participles + Prepositions (1)
acceptable to, accustomed to, adequate for, afraid of, aware of, based on, capable of,
characteristic of, close to, composed of, contrary to, dependent on, different from, disappointed
in/with, eligible for equipped with equal to essential to/for familiar with famous for.
Adjectives/Participles + Prepositions (2)
free of next to related to
independent of opposed to relevant to
inferior to opposite of satisfied with
married to perfect for suitable for
native to possible for surprised at/by
necessary for/to preferable to typical of
Opposite of is used for words or concepts that are completely different, such as "large" and
"small." When opposite means "across from," it is not used with of. "The bank is opposite the
post office on Cedar Street."
Nouns + Prepositions
approach to exception to origin of
attention to experience with price of
because of expert on probability of
contribution to form of quality of
component of group of reason for
cure for improvement in reliance on
increase in increase in result of
demand for influence on solution to
effect of/on* interest in supply of
example of native of
*effect + of + cause
effect + on + thing or person affected (The effect o/heat on rocks...)
Verbs + Prepositions
account for compete with insist on
adjust to concentrate on interfere with
agree with/on* consist of plan on
attach to contribute to participate in
attribute to cooperate with refer to
begin with deal with rely on
believe in depend on result in
belong to devote to search for
combine with engage in
*agree with is used with people
agree on is used with an issue, plan, etc. (I agreed with Mary on that issue.)
Phrasal Prepositions
according to due to on account of
ahead of except for prior to
along with in favor of regardless of
because of in spite of thanks to
bу means of instead of together with
In, On, and At (1)
Expressions of time
+ century (in the eighteenth century) + decade (in the 1990s)
+ year (in 1975) in
+ season (in the summer)
+ month (in July)
+ parts of the day (in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon)
+ days of the week (on Wednesday) + dates (on October 7)
+ time of day (at 6pm; at noon)
+ night
Expressions of place
+ continent (in Africa)
+ country (in Mexico)
+ state (in Pennsylvania)
+ city (in Los Angeles)
+ building (in the bank)
+ room (in the auditorium)
+ in the world
+ street (on Maxwell Street)
on + floor of a building (on the fourth floor)
+ on Earth
at + address (at 123 Commonwealth Avenue)
In, On, and At, (2)
The prepositions in, on, and at are also used in a number of set expressions:
in a book/magazine/newspaper on a bus/train/etc. at best/worst
in charge (o0 on fire at first/last
in common (with) on the other hand at once
in danger (of) on purpose at the peak (of)
in detail on radio/television at present
in existence on the whole at the moment
in the front/middle/back at birth
in general at death
in practice at random
in the past/future
in a row
in style
in theory
Other Prepositions
By is often used with forms of communication and transportation: by car, by plane, by
phone, by express mail (Note: if the noun is plural or is preceded by a determiner, the
prepositions in or on must be used: in cars, on a boat, on the telephone, in a taxi).
By is also used with gerunds to show how an action happened:
How did you get an appointment with the President? By calling his secretary.
With is used to indicate the idea of accompaniment or possession:
Melanie came to the party with her friend. He wanted a house with a garage.
Without indicates the opposite relationship:
Melanie came to the party without her friend. He bought a house without a garage.
With also indicates that an instrument was used to perform an action:
He opened the door with a key. Without indicates the opposite relationship:
He opened the door without a key.
By and for are also used in the following expressions:
by chance for example
by far for free
by hand for now
For is sometimes used to show purpose; it means "to get."
She went to the store for toothpaste and shampoo.
Unit 1-9. COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
1. A definition of communication
What exactly is communication? What happens when we communicate? In answering
those questions, we will first define and then explain the phenomenon.
Communication has been defined variously, and each definition is usually a reflection of
the author‘s objective or of a specific context. Often the definition is long and rather abstract,
because the author is trying to incorporate as many aspects of communication as possible. In
some instances, the definition is narrow and precise, designed to explain a specific type or
instance of communication.
When studying the union of culture and communication, however, a succinct, easily
understandable definition is in everyone‘s best interest. Thus, for us, communication is the
management of messages with the objective of creating meaning (Griffin, 2005).
This definition is somewhat broad, yet is precise in specifying what occurs in every
communicative episode. It does not attempt to establish what constitutes successful or
unsuccessful communication, which is actually determined by the involved participants, can vary
from one person to another, and is frequently scenario dependent. The only qualifiers we place
on communication are intentionality and interaction. In other words, if communication is
considered to be purposeful – to persuade, inform, or entertain – then we communicate with an
intention, and we achieve our objective only by interacting with someone.
3. What is culture?
Culture is an extremely popular and increasingly overused term in contemporary society.
Expressions such as cultural differences, cultural diversity, multiculturalism, corporate culture,
cross-culture, and other variations continually appear in the popular media.
Culture has been linked to such fields as corporate management, health care, psychology,
education, public relations, marketing, and advertising. We often hear about U.S. forces
operating in Afghanistan with insufficient knowledge and understanding of the local culture. The
pervasive use of the term culture attests to the increased awareness of the role it plays in our
everyday activities. Seldom, however, are we given a definition of just what constitutes culture
or exactly what culture does. This section will provide that information.
4. Explaining Culture
As with communication, the term culture has been the subject of numerous and often
complex, abstract definitions. What is frequently counted as one of the earliest and easily
understandable definitions of culture, and one still used today, was written in 1871 by British
anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, who said culture is ―that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of society‖ (―Sir Edward,‖ 2010).
Ruth Benedict offered a more succinct definition when she wrote, ―What really binds men
together is their culture – the ideas and the standards they have in common‖ (1959). A more
complex explanation was provided by Clifford Geertz, who said culture was ―a historically
transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions
expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop
their knowledge about and attitudes toward life‖ (1973). Contemporary definitions of culture
commonly mention shared values, attitudes, beliefs, American, or Russian American. Cultural
identity can become especially prominent during interactions between people from different
cultural groups, such as a Pakistani Muslim and an Indian Hindu, who have been taught varied
values, beliefs, and different sets of rules for social interaction. Thus, cultural identity can be a
significant factor in the practice of intercultural communication.
Instruction: These are revision assignments in which you should combine all skills you
have employed in the preceding eight units. You will have to start with identifying the main idea,
the main topic, or the main purpose of the text. Then follows the task of: matching headings
with paragraphs or sections, and identifying which sections relate to certain topics. Basing on
circumstantial evidence, inferences and vocabulary-in context you will have to look into specific
information given in the text.
Read the passage: Physical noise is separate from the communication participants and can
take many forms, such as two people talking in the back of the classroom during a lecture,
someone talking loudly on the subway, the sounds of traffic coming through the window of an
apartment, or static on your cell phone. Noise that is inherent to the people participating in the
communication episode can take a variety of forms. Suppose that during a Friday afternoon class
you find yourself concentrating more on plans for a spring break trip than on the lecture. Perhaps
you are in a funk after learning your car needs an expensive brake job, or are worried about a
term paper due the next week. These are examples of psychological noise that can reduce your
understanding of the classroom communication. Physiological noise relates to the physical well-
being of the people engaged in the communication activity. Coming to class with too little sleep,
dealing with a head cold, or simply feeling too hot or cold in the room will interfere with your
ability to comprehend fully the classroom activity.
Which of the following can be inferred about physical noise?
(A) Both physical noise and the communication participants can take many forms.
(B) During your spring break trip you will have to learn how to repair your car brake.
(C) Psychological noise interferes with your understanding of the classroom
communication.
(D) Physiological noise is useful for the physical well-being of the people engaged in the
communication activity.
Use your general background knowledge and knowledge of the general context.
Your knowledge and experience about what is logical or illogical can help you guess the
meaning of some words. Let us take, for instance, the second section of the text. This passage
logically connects and explains how the eight major structural components interact in
communication:
(A) The sender – the person or group originating the message.
(B) The message consists of the information the sender desires to have understood ...
(C) The channel – messages, which can be verbal or nonverbal, are encoded and
transmitted via a channel to the receiver.
(D) The receiver(s) is the intended recipient of the message ...
Basing on these definitions you can build a logical chain: the sender – the message – the
channel – the receiver. This logical chain presents the communication part of the main idea of
the whole text. Add the other four components to this logical chain.
Collect specific information by pointing out groups of synonyms, semantic and thematic
groups. Keep it in mind that vocabulary in context includes both single words (usually
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs). and two- or three-word phrases.
It is claimed in paragraph 1 that the definition communication is the management of
messages with the objective of creating meaning is ―somewhat broad‖. Why is it
broad?
Find a synonym for the words spreading widely throughout an area or a group of
people in paragraph 3.
Find a synonym for the word certify in paragraph 3.
Skim read each paragraph and collect a word nest for the noun culture and a
thematic group of expressions with the word culture.
What is the referent word for the word combination This type of distraction in the
paragraph below?
―People who use another language will often have an accent or might misuse a word or
phrase, which can adversely influence the receiver‘s understanding of the message. This type of
distraction, referred to as semantic noise, also encompasses jargon, slang, and specialized
professional terminology.‖
Missing conjunctions
Conjunctions are connecting words; they join parts of a sentence. Coordinate
conjunctions are used to join equal sentence parts: single words, phrases, and independent clauses.
When two full clauses are joined, they are usually separated by a comma. The coordinate
conjunctions you will most often see are listed in below.
And (addition), or (choice, possibility), but (contrast), nor (opposition)
Hereford cows are brown and white.
He washed his car and cleaned up the garage.
This plant can be grown in a house or in a garden. Her action was very brave or very
foolish.
Charlie brought his wallet but forgot his checkbook. The book discussed some
interesting ideas but it wasn't very well written.
He's never taken a class in sociology, nor does he intend to. 1 didn't have breakfast
nor lunch.
(The conjunction so is used to join only clauses—not single words or phrases.)
Conjunctive adverbs (moreover, therefore, however, nevertheless, and so on) are also used
to join clauses: It was a bright day, so she put on her sunglasses. (negation effect)
Correlative conjunctions are two-part conjunctions. Like coordinate conjunctions, they are
used to join clauses, phrases, and words:
Both…and, not only…but also (addition) Both wolves and coyotes are members of the dog
family. Dominic studied not only mathematics but also computer science.
Either…or (choice, possibility), neither…nor (negation) We need either a nail nor a screw
to hang up this picture. Neither the television nor the stereo had been turned off.
Errors with correlative conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions are two-part adjectives. Errors usually involve an incorrect
combination of their parts, such as neither . . . or or not only . . . and. Anytime you see a
sentence containing correlative conjunctions you should be on the lookout for this type of
error. This is an easy error to spot!
Another error is the use of both . . . and to join three elements. E.g.: The air that surrounds
the plant is both odorless, colorless, and invisible. Both…and can be used to join two elements.
In this sentence the word both must be eliminated.
Identify errors involving conjunctions. If the underlined form is correct, mark the
sentence C. If the underlined form is incorrect, mark the sentence I, and write a correction for
the underlined form at the end of the sentence.
Model airplanes can be guided both by control wires or by radio transmitters.
Information in a computer can be lost because it is no longer stored or because it is
stored but cannot be retrieved.
Martin Luther was not only a religious leader and also a social reformer.
Although fish can hear, they have neither external ears or eardrums.
In all animals, whether simple and complex, enzymes aid in the digestion of food.
The two most common methods florists use to tint flowers are the spray method or
the absorption method.
Beekeepers can sell either the honey and the beeswax that their bees produce.
The alloys brass and bronze both contain copper as their principle metals.
The human brain is often compared to a computer, and such an analogy can be
misleading.
Rust both corrodes the surface of metal but also weakens its structure.
Choose the correct conjunction
Some people are smart in music, (and/or/but/nor) they are not so smart in mathematics,
(and/or/but/nor) are they smart in computer science.
Many people cannot fix their cars (however/or/so/nor) they have to ask car repair
workers.
(However/Or/So/Nor) car mechanics cannot teach languages, (however/or/so/nor) can
they bake bread.
John can memorize everything in a book, (moreover/therefore/however/nevertheless) he
can be a good student.(But/ Or/So/Nor) he is not.
Everybody was exhausted after a day-long walking tour,
(moreover/therefore/nor/nevertheless) no one wanted to go to bed.
When you realize what you‘re good at, you can figure out the best way to study,
(moreover/therefore/however/nevertheless) you can help others to study.
Unit 1-10. HOW TO TEACH MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Instruction: This is another revision unit in which you should combine all skills you have
mastered in the preceding nine units. You will have to start with identifying the main idea, the
main topic, or the main purpose of the text. Then follows the task of deciding if headings match
with paragraphs or sections, and identifying if sections relate to definite topics. Basing on
circumstantial evidence, inferences and vocabulary in context you will have to look into specific
information given in the text.
Step 1. Survey the text. The list of headings will give you some clues to help you quickly
understand what each part of the text is about. Step 2. Skim-read each paragraph. Every
paragraph deals with a specific aspect of a topic. The first sentence of a paragraph may tell you
what the rest of the paragraph is about. Therefore while trying to identify the main idea of a
paragraph, you should read the first sentence and skim the rest of the paragraph.
Task:
Basing on paragraph 1 give a definition of intercultural understanding.
Basing on paragraph 1 explain why the ―overt culture‖ is easily observable in the
―iceberg model of culture‖.
Basing on paragraph 1 explain why the ―covert culture‖ is below the waterline in the
―iceberg model of culture‖.
Basing on paragraph 2 explain why Socrates‘ maxim: ―Know Thyself.‖ is true for
intercultural understanding.
Answer the following questions:
What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) Different meanings of cultures.
(B) Intercultural learning involves developing an understanding of one‘s own language
and culture in relation to an additional language and culture.
(C) The door to one‘s perception of one‘s culture.
(D) A better understanding of cultures.
What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) New approach to intercultural understanding.
(B) Intercultural understanding, which is based on the knowledge of culture.
(C) The cultural perspective of the study of languages.
(D) Lack of opportunity to use the language for communication.
What is the author's attitude toward the opinion that it is practically impossible to find
out the perceptions a person has about her or his own culture?
(A) He shares this position.
(B) He strongly disagrees.
(C) He tries to be objective.
(D) He doesn‘t care.
Where in the four sentences does the author discuss culture as ways of thinking: modes
of perception, beliefs and values?
(A) When asked to describe one‘s culture, a person might have very vague answers or often
provide certain social generalizations which are stereotypes about one‘s culture.
(B) Cultures are not static, they change constantly.
(C) Even if a person loses the active and even the passive knowledge of a second language,
the learning of this language is a very enriching and beneficial process.
(D) Nations are not culturally homogeneous, individuals in a nation might have different
ideas about their culture.
Collect specific information by pointing out groups of synonyms, semantic and thematic
groups. Keep it in mind that vocabulary in context includes both single words (usually
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and two- or three-word phrases.
Read the passage: ―Perceptions about one‘s culture are mostly unconscious. When asked
to describe one‘s culture, a person might have very vague answers or often provide certain social
generalizations which are stereotypes about one‘s culture. There are two important facts
concerning perceptions of one‘s culture:
First, nations are not culturally homogeneous, individuals in a nation might have different
perceptions about their culture. These perceptions will vary according to social class, age,
education, gender, experiences in life and many other factors.
Second, cultures are not static, they change constantly.
These two facts are true for all cultures. Does this mean that it is practically impossible to
find out the perceptions a person has about her or his own culture or the perceptions a person of a
different culture holds about her or his own culture?
No, it is quite possible through questioning, debates, discussions, reflective writing about
one single cultural aspect, thus allowing the person to reflect about her or his own perception
about one cultural aspect, often linked to other aspects of the culture. Thus, the door to one‘s
perception of one‘s culture has been opened..‖
This passage is marked for semantically coupled expressionsn characterising perceptions:
Unconscious – vague; generalizations – stereotypes; not homogeneous – different (they vary);
are not static – change; it is practically impossible – it is quite possible.
How do these expressions illustrate the author‟s idea that the door the perception of
culture has been opened?
Qualify the following questions and statements by marking that you 1/ strongly agree, 2/
agree, 3/ have no opinion, 4/ disagree, or 5/ strongly disagree:
Men in my country usually expect women to prepare and serve food. __________
A married man should help around the house, doing cleaning, ironing and cooking.
__________
In my country, it is common for a man to give up his seat to a woman on public
transport. __________
In my country, it is not typical for women to speak their minds and contradict men.
__________
Should both husband and wife contribute to the household income? ___________
Is it normal ―going Dutch‖ (when each pays half of the costs) when a man and a
woman go out? __________
If a man and a woman are having dinner together, is it OK for the woman to pay the
bill? __________
Is it OK for a man to give a woman a pat on the backside to show he likes her?
__________
Is it proper for a man to hold a door open for a woman? __________
Whenever a mixed group of people (male/female) come together the men always sit
together. __________
If you are a student at school and you received a mark that seemed not to reflect
your knowledge, is it proper to talk to the teacher about it? __________. Is it proper
in your country?
If children do well at school, parents should reward them with a present or pocket
money. __________
Students treat what the teachers and textbooks teach as something final and
unquestionable. __________. Do they follow this stereotype in your country?
Faithfulness is the most important factor for a successful marriage. __________
In English, the terms stewardess (or steward for men) have been replaced with the
gender-neutral term ―flight attendant.‖ ____________. Can you give examples of
such changes in your language?
How do your answers qualify Ukrainaians‟ ways of thinking, beliefs and values?
Does our culture impact upon our daily lives and the way we communicate with others? Do
we need to learn the art of intercultural communication in a multi-racial and multi-cultural
society?
In a world where globalization is increasingly becoming a way of life, cultural
intercommunication is taking on increasing importance. Cross-cultural communication is defined
as a transitional, symbolic process involving the attribution of meaning between people of
different cultures. Having an understanding of people from other cultures, and appreciating their
value is expected to be an essential part of the framework needed to provide for a harmonious
multi-cultural society. Communication in this sense is not strictly referring to speech but includes
the attitude we take, our preconceptions, reactions and understanding of diverse cultures and
traditions. We need to learn how to communicate with other cultures and, even in language this
is not easy. It is a learning process. In speech as well as with actions, one has to learn that what is
considered norm and acceptable in some cultures may be seen as the opposite in others.
1. It is an axiom of our times that our world is rapidly changing. With change comes not
only a different view of the world, but also changes in language to name that new world. Old
words take on new meanings and new words enter the vocabulary, resulting in another way of
"seeing."
It was not too long ago that as a nation we moved from an Agrarian Society concerned with
conformity, through an Industrial Society concerned with nationalism and uniformity, to our
present Information Society concerned with diversity within a global context, on our way to the
Global Society of the 21st century with a planetary worldview. Such cultural and political
upheavals have given rise to knowledgeable players in the game of social change, while leaving
most people as confused bystanders, desperately hanging on to a past which in part is
dysfunctional to the present and in many ways irrelevant to the future.
The needs of the 21st century demand a citizenry that is culturally sensitive and
internationally focused, with an orientation toward the future rather than the past.
Multiculturalism, as the new paradigm for education for the 21st century, is a political
ping-pong term greatly misused and highly misunderstood. Since for many it is also a value-
ladened concept, it has come under fire from diverse segments of the population, who due to
their social position view the world differently. The fact that where you stand determines what
you see is a reality in most situations, and it is especially true for the concept of multiculturalism.
The purpose of this article is to provide an operational definition of multiculturalism as a
basis for understanding the changes coming to our society, and to propose a model for what
makes a school multicultural.
3. The first is recognition of the rich diversity in a given society or organization. For the
longest time racial/ethnic minorities, the physically disabled, and women have not been given the
same recognition as others. The one-sided approach to history and education has been a
testimony to that fact.
With recognition should also come respect. Respect and recognition are not the same, since
recognizing the existence of a group does not necessarily elicit respect for the group. In a slave
economy, for example, the presence of slaves was recognized but their humanity was not
respected.
4. Multiculturalism also entails acknowledging the validity of the cultural expressions and
contributions of the various groups. This is not to imply that all cultural contributions are of
equal value and social worth, or that all should be tolerated. Some cultural practices are better
than others for the overall betterment of society. These cultural expressions and contributions
that differ from those of the dominant group in society are usually only acknowledged when
there is an economic market for them, such as music for African American, native Indian dances
for tourism or Mexican cuisine. When the business sector wants our money, the advertising
industry pictures people of color in a positive light. But in most other cases the entertainment
media simply caricatures minority stereotypes, such as women usually in supportive roles.
Multiculturalism thus means valuing what people have to offer, and not rejecting or belittling it
simply because it differs from what the majority, or those in power, regard as important and of
value.
5. Multiculturalism will also encourage and enable the contribution of the various groups
to society or an organization. Women and persons of color, for example, often experience
discouragement because what they bring to the "table" for discussion is often regarded as of little
value or worth. Not everything can be utilized, however, nor is of the same worth and value. But
it does have value, even if for no other reason than the effort invested in bringing it forward.
Such efforts must be encouraged, for who knows from where the next great idea may come from
a youth, from an elderly person, from an African American, from a single parent, from a lesbian,
from a high school drop out, from a business executive, etc.? The word enable here is important,
because what lies behind it is the concept of empowerment – the process of enabling people to be
self-critical of their own biases so as to strengthen themselves and others to achieve and deploy
their maximum potential. People's sense of self-worth, value and dignity is most often
determined not only by the kind of support and encouragement they receive from others, but also
from how willing they are to self-examine negative behaviors in their own life and in their
cultural group. If I or my group is practicing self-destructive action, all the external help will go
for naught.
7. A new age demands new methods and new structures, for the ferment of change cannot
be contained in the old structures, but will burst these. It is the old problem of "new wine in old
wineskins." This age-old truism of Jesus Christ is so clear that one wonders how people
throughout the ages can continue making the same old mistakes in the face of inevitable change.
Yet Jesus Himself gave us the reason why people continue making the same perennial mistake.
In the very next breath, He declared, "No one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says,
'The old is better'" (vs. 39). What He is telling us here is that even in the face of inevitable
change, no one really wants to change; people still prefer the old. Thus those who have the most
invested in the old structures are the most reluctant to change, since they stand the most to loose
in the new order of things. The bigots would prefer spillage rather than change their self-
preserved, sacro-sanct, social structures. They may woof, woof all they want, however, but the
caravan of change moves on. When change is inevitable, they desire that change which will not
necessarily change the old structures. The result is a lot of fine rhetoric that is slow to change,
because the concern is with reformation not revolution.
9. Therefore, one of the dangers that must be avoided in grasping a proper understanding of
multiculturalism is bashism. Bashism is the tendency to verbally and/or physically attack another
person or group based solely on the negative meaning given to group membership‹due to
biological, cultural, political or socioeconomic differences (such as gender, age, race/ethnicity,
political party, class, education, values, religious affiliation or sexual orientation)‹without regard
for the individual. The motivating factor for bashism is fear, arising out of ignorance of the other.
One of the backwashes of a narrow view of multiculturalism, especially as espoused by
some women and persons of color, is what I call "white maleism." White Maleism is the
tendency of minority groups to blame white males for most of the social evil in the world today,
especially as it relates to sexism and racism, and view them as selfish, ruthless, unrepentant and
unredeemable, and, as a consequence, refuse to recognize and accept the contribution that many
white males have made, continue to make, and desire to make, to remove oppression.
While much of oppression today has been the historical by-product of the abuse of power
by white males, not much is gained in terms of creating an inclusive, caring, compassionate
educational system and society, by reversing the process and excluding many white males who
have been instrumental in creating the "house of abundance" and structures of inclusion. Some of
us, persons of color, would not be where we are today if it were not for culturally, politically and
morally concerned white males who opened institutional doors, made decisions, implemented
policies, and stood in the breach to bridge the gulf of intolerance. The effective management of
diversity includes, empowers and benefits all persons concerned, whites included.
In an age of cultural pluralism, multiculturalism is needed to manage diversity effectively.
In essence, then, multiculturalism is nothing more than the art of managing diversity in a total
quality manner. It is the only option open to educators, leaders and administrators in an ever-
increasing culturally pluralistic environment. In schools the process of multiculturalism is best
maintained through Multicultural Education, an intrinsic approach to education and curriculum
construction that acknowledges and respects the contributions which the various racial/ethnic
groups have made to society, and incorporates these contributions in an overall program of
instruction which meets the needs of an ever-changing society and is sensitive to the personal
and social development of all persons concerned.
Today's diverse student populations and workforce are simply not going to go away, but
increase. This is the direction of the future – multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual
communities. And effective leaders, concerned with the bottom line – the maximizing of profit,
whether material or nonmaterial – are recognizing this new direction.
The art of managing diversity is thus of great concern to all persons charged with the
responsibility of overseeing the work of others. Organizations, however, that try to force today‘s
reality into yesterday's management styles will seriously jeopardize the viability of their
enterprise. Beyond the challenge of creating a humane educational environment where students
and staff of diverse backgrounds and experiences learn to appreciate each other, lies the
additional one of changing the structural arrangements.
REVISION: THE TOPIC, THE PURPOSE, THE IDEA, TEXT STRUCTURE AND
ORGANIZATION, CLUES IN THE TEXT, MAKING INFERENCES, EXPLICATION OF
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Instruction: We are not all born equal with regards to communication skills. It‘s obvious
some people find communication easier than others and this is the same in cross-cultural
communication. No matter what your natural skill level is in communication, you can always
work on developing stronger cross-cultural skills. Of course, international experience and
exposure to different cultures plays an important role, but there‘s a lot of work you can do to
help you acquire stronger cross-cultural skills faster. In the analysis of this text, make sure to
take steps you have mastered in the preceding ten units. You will have to start with matching
headings with paragraphs or sections, and identifying which sections relate to which topics.
Then follows the task of identifying the main topic, or the main purpose of the author, the main
idea of the text. Basing on circumstantial evidence, inferences and vocabulary in context you will
have to look into clues for specific information given in the text.
Matching headings with paragraphs
Step 1. Survey the text. A list of headings can give you some useful information to help you
quickly understand what each part of the text will be about.
Step 2. Skim-read each paragraph. This technique gives you a general idea of what the writer
is saying in each paragraph.
Step 3. Determine which heading is the best match for each of the paragraphs marked by
the numbers.
Empowerment of diversity 1
Recognition of diversity 2
Acknowledgement of diversity 3
Partnership in diversity 4
The ferment of change 5
New names for the new world 6
Managing Diversity 7
Ignorance of the other 8
What Is Multiculturalism? 9
Collect specific information by pointing out groups of synonyms, semantic and thematic
groups. Keep it in mind that vocabulary in context includes both single words (usually
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and two- or three-word phrases.
Read the passage: ―In an age of cultural pluralism, multiculturalism is needed to manage
diversity effectively. In essence, then, multiculturalism is nothing more than the art of managing
diversity in a total quality manner. It is the only option open to educators, leaders and
administrators in an ever-increasing culturally pluralistic environment. In schools the process of
multiculturalism is best maintained through Multicultural Education, an intrinsic approach to
education and curriculum construction that acknowledges and respects the contributions which
the various racial/ethnic groups have made to society, and incorporates these contributions in an
overall program of instruction which meets the needs of an ever-changing society and is
sensitive to the personal and social development of all persons concerned.
Today's diverse student populations and workforce is simply not going to go away, but
increase. This is the direction of the future – multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual
communities. And effective leaders, concerned with the bottom line – the maximizing of profit,
whether material or nonmaterial – are recognizing this new direction.
The art of managing diversity is thus of great concern to all persons charged with the
responsibility of overseeing the work of others. Organizations, however, that try to force today‘s
reality into yesterday's management styles will seriously jeopardize the viability of their
enterprise. Beyond the challenge of creating a humane educational environment where students
and staff of diverse backgrounds and experiences learn to appreciate each other, lies the
additional one of changing the structural arrangements. ‖
What is inferred in the sentence: ... ―multiculturalism is nothing more than the art
of managing diversity in a total quality manner.‖
What is inferred in the sentence: ―Beyond the challenge of creating a humane
educational environment where students and staff of diverse backgrounds and
experiences learn to appreciate each other, lies the additional one of changing the
structural arrangements.‖
What is inferred in the sentence: ―Organizations that try to force today‟s reality
into yesterday's management styles will seriously jeopardize the viability of their
enterprise.‖
How do these words and expressions: Multicultural Education, multiculturalism
multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual, cultural pluralism, culturally pluralistic, diversity,
diverse, various illustrate the author‟s idea that multiculturalism is the basis for
understanding the changes coming to our society?
Qualify the following questions and statements by marking that you 1/ strongly agree, 2/
agree, 3/ have no opinion, 4/ disagree, or 5/ strongly disagree:
"No one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, 'The old is better'".
__________
One of the backwashes of a narrow view of multiculturalism, especially as espoused
by some women is what I call "maleism. __________
In my country, one of the dangers that must be avoided in grasping a proper
understanding of multiculturalism is bashism. __________.
In my country, not much is gained in terms of creating a European educational
system and society. __________
White Maleism is the tendency of minority groups to blame white males for most of
the social evil in the world today, especially as it relates to sexism and racism.
___________
Does it happen in your country that educators try to force today‘s reality into
yesterday's management styles? __________
People's sense of self-worth, value and dignity is most often determined not only by
the kind of support and encouragement they receive from others, but also from how
willing they are to self-examine negative behaviors in their own life and in their
cultural group. __________
Cultural diversity, in the context of Caleb Rosado‘s text below, covers gender, age,
language, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, religious belief and family
responsibilities. Cultural diversity also refers to the other ways in which people are different,
such as educational level, life experience, work experience, socio-economic background,
personality and marital status. Cultural diversity in a multicultural society envolves recognising
the value of individual differences and managing them in the workplace.
It has been proved in the previous units that a multicultural society can be defined as a
society or group of people from various backgrounds and ethics. In determining whether a
multicultural society has more advantages or disadvantages, both sides of the argument need to
be examined. These arguments include tolerance and respect and cultural exchange. A
multicultural society may promote an exchange of culture, and this inevitably enriches a person
as new approaches and conducts to experience may be garnered. The various approaches and
conduct towards a method, problem or experience can help a student make a better decision as
well as open mind to the different ways available to conduct, or commence, a problem, or even
way of life. It can be seen that in this instance, a multicultural society is an advantage and not a
disadvantage.
1. Diversity has two dimensions, the primary (mainly biological, usually visible: age,
gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities), and the secondary (sociocultural, usually
invisible: language, education, values occupation, culture, learning sty, etc.). These various
differences, that inhibit inclusion at both the individual and institutional dimensions, need to be
examined in light of the goal of schools and communities to begin ―living diversity.‖ This is an
approach to education and communal life that views multiculturalism as integral to the very
fabric of our culture, as a basic value undergirding all that is done.
Managing diversity should be a comprehensive, holistic process for developing an
environment that works for all concerned. This holistic model of managing diversity is called
Total Quality Diversity. The Total Quality Diversity model shows how exclusion, as the model
of the past, has been replaced by inclusion, the coming together at the center of the vision-
values-mission of the organization in Cultural Inclusion. Total Quality Diversity (TQD) is a
holistic model of managing diversity that operates on two levels: The Horizontal – the individual
interactional change dimension (embracing and valuing diversity); and The Vertical – the
institutional structural change dimension (harnessing and empowering diversity). Both factors
are driven by the bottom line profit motive, to help businesses deliver a quality product –
employees prepared to meet human needs in a competitive global economy.
3. The second dimension, focused on the institution, is the vertical dimension concerned
with harnessing and empowering diversity, the area that deals not only with corporate culture
and structure, the way tasks are divided to accomplish the mission of the company, but also with
thinking systems. This dimension holds the key to effecting the greatest change in a school or
company, for it is here where exclusion finds its most comfortable home. But change must be
more than merely cosmetic, such as adding a diverse-looking population to the university or
business. It must also examine in what ways the vision, values, mission and structure of the
school contribute or undermine effective utilization of the assets all persons bring to a work
environment. Change at both of these dimensions results in Cultural Inclusion at the center,
where ―living diversity‖ takes place.
Included in TQD is TQR—Total Quality Respect. Total Quality Respect is an integral part
of Total Quality Diversity, in that the proper management of today‘s diverse business world is
not possible without respect for human beings. TQR is the process whereby the Other is treated
with deference, courtesy and compassion in an endeavor to safeguard the integrity, dignity, value
and social worth of the individual. It means treating people the way they should to be treated. It
is a lack of respect for others, no matter their position or the differences they bring to an
institution, which gives rise to most of the conflicts in organizations.
The key dynamic in diversity management then is to maintain the two dimensions of unity
and diversity in balanced tension, without erring to either side. Erring on the side of unity results
in uniformity and sameness at the expense of our human uniqueness and distinctiveness. Erring
on the side of diversity magnifies differences and separation at the expense of our common,
shared humanity. Unity is not synonymous with uniformity, neither is diversity synonymous with
separation. The solution to the tension is to respect and value diversity while working for unity,
otherwise exclusion is the result. Thus the strength of a nation or organization lies in unity in
diversity.
4. So how does this Total Quality Diversity Model work out in "real life"? The answer to
this question lies in examining what makes a school or organization multicultural. Many schools
and organizations regard themselves as "multicultural" simply on the basis of the ethnic diversity
present in their midst. But is this what makes an organization multicultural? And if not, what
does and what are the implications for effective schools in the 21st century?
The mere presence of an ethnically and racially diverse student population, due to legal,
moral or social imperatives, does not make a school multicultural. This is merely being
concerned with affirmative action. This was the main accomplishment of the 1960s and 70s,
giving people access to the system. In the 1980s the concern was with "valuing differences." In
the 1990s the push was for "managing diversity." But in the 21st century the focus of schools and
corporations needs to be on "living diversity".
Many schools and organizations, however, have begun to go back on affirmative action,
instead of going on to living diversity. What this means is that the number of ethnically diverse
students sitting in the classrooms does not make a school multicultural. All that this may simply
represent is that students have gained access to the school – they've gotten through the front
door. But if all a school does is to give access, then students may leave just as quickly out the
back door.
Neither is it merely a concern for understanding, respecting, valuing and celebrating the
differences among the various groups represented in the school. Valuing diversity is important,
as it may engender an awareness of and a sensitivity to differences, but it does not necessarily
translate into structural changes.
5. What makes a school multicultural is whether or not its "Five Ps": Perspectives; Policies;
Programs; Personnel; Practices implement the following Four Imperatives:
(A) Reflect the heterogeneity of the school – the dynamic of Affirmative Action;
(B) Be sensitive to the needs of the various groups comprising the student population
– the dynamic of Valuing Differences;
(C) Incorporate their contributions to the overall mission of the school – the dynamic
of Managing Diversity;
(D) Create a cultural and social ambiance that is inclusive and empowers all groups in
the school – the dynamic of Living Diversity.
These four imperatives form the basis of multicultural education. This is an approach to
education and curriculum construction that acknowledges and respects the contributions which
the various racial/ethnic groups have made to society, and incorporates these contributions in an
overall program of instruction which meets the needs of an ever-changing society and is sensitive
to the personal and social development of all persons concerned.
In other words, at the heart of what makes a school multicultural lies managing diversity –
the proper management of the diversity in a school for the empowerment of all groups, which
includes changing mindsets as well as the underlying culture of a school, especially if this culture
is what is impeding change, in order for the school to begin living diversity so as to more
effectively accomplish its mission. This is what makes a school multicultural. The point behind
this is that unity in diversity needs to be the basic premise of all that is done in education.
This is where the five "Ps" come into play, because the rapid changes taking place in
society are forcing schools to move away from a lethargic business-as-usual, reactive mindset, to
a proactive one that anticipates and implements change.
Perspectives refers to the vision without which education as well as schools perish. What
is "vision"? Vision is the bifocal ability to see what lies ahead (farsightedness), as well as the
various impediments in the present (nearsightedness), and how to avoid them in order to arrive at
the future. It must be bifocal, for focus on the future at the expense of the present, or vice versa,
will result in loss and in a detour in the mission of the school.
A sense of vision and mission, will lead to appropriate Policies, the guarantees that make
known the intents of the school. Policies give rise to Programs that put in action what education
is all about. But effective programs cannot be run without the right Personnel, reflective of the
diversity in the school. The last one is Practices, the actual conduct of the school, its staff and
administration.
Of these five Ps, the most important one is the last one, "practices." A school may have the
best perspectives, policies, programs, and personnel, but these are only cosmetic until practiced.
And it only takes a small number of personnel who in their practice refuse to go along with a
program or fail to implement policy, for an otherwise well designed plan to be sabotaged. As the
saying goes in Spanish, Podemos destruir con nuestros pies lo que construimos con nuestras
manos; "we can destroy with our feet what we build with our hands."
These five "Ps" have to alter present school structures and cultures, especially if these are
exclusive and do not benefit everyone in the school. Why? Karl Mannheim, the renowned
German sociologist, gives us the reason. "To live consistently, in the light of Christian brotherly
love, in a society which is not organized on the same principle is impossible. The individual in
his personal conduct is always compelled – in so far as he does not resort to breaking up the
existing social structure – to fall short of his own nobler motives." This is why structural change
– a new paradigm of inclusion – is necessary.
What is at issue in multiculturalism is not just sensitivity to other cultures and racial/ethnic
groups that are marginal to the dominant culture, nor a transference of power, but an entire
paradigm shift – a different mindset – which gives rise to a whole new way of seeing the world,
as inclusive; and brings a change in institutional and societal structures, so as to create an
environment (local, national and global) which is inclusive of all groups, is safe for differences
and where everyone benefits. The basic measure of how well we are managing diversity is this:
"If when all is said and done, you look around and notice that everyone looks like you, you have
done it wrong!"
6. But some are threatened by this inclusive process, and begin to woof, woof. Why?
Because they see multiculturalism as having to give up power in order to make room on the stage
of life for new characters in the play. Yes, power will have to be shared. Unfortunately, the
beaches of time are strewn with wreckage from the many ships of people that set sail for ports
unknown in search of power and unwilling to share it, but who ran into the gale winds of greed
and the coral reefs of corruption, and ended their journey drowning in seas of racial despair. Life
is a journey we as humans have to take. The going may not be smooth, the set course will not
always take us through sunny, tropical waters; and once in a while the storms at sea may deviate
us from our desired destination into the 21st century. But how one runs the good ship of
education – how one treats the crew (faculty/staff), how one develops the product
(curriculum/students), and how one maintains the course (vision, values, mission) – will
determine a successful docking at the port of the 21st century, or a shipwreck on the beaches of
time in the 2000's.
Multiculturalism, then, may very well be part of an on-going process which enables
administrators, teachers and their students to become world citizens – persons who are able to
transcend their own racial/ethnic, gender, cultural and socio-political reality and identify with
humankind throughout the world, at all levels of human need. They are thus a transcending
people who know no boundaries, and whose operating life-principle is compassion. This is the
principle that should be modeled in our schools by the faculty, students, staff and administrators,
in the process of living diversity. The challenge is great but so is the reward.
7. This second area of change, focused on the institutions, deals with school culture and
structure, the way tasks are divided to accomplish the mission of the school. This dimension
holds the key to effecting the greatest change in a school, for it is here where exclusion finds its
most comfortable home. It must also examine in what ways the vision, values, mission and
structure of the school contribute or undermine effective utilization of the assets all persons bring
to a school.
It is important to note that organizations are unlikely to embark on change initiatives unless
they either are experiencing pain regarding diversity issues, or lack a vision of the challenges
before them. Both factors are driven by the bottom line profit motive, to help organizations
deliver a quality product or service that meets human needs in a competitive society. The main
objective of the holistic model of managing diversity is to accomplish this motive. The end result
of this Total Quality Diversity process of management is a lean, competitive organization, with a
multicultural, truly diverse student body/workforce, where creativity, imagination, and
intelligence operate in a democratic classroom, workplace and environment.
Two extremes must be avoided. The first is similarities where no differences between
humans and cultures are recognized. This is the direction of McWorld resulting in uniformity.
But at whose expense? In the end it ends up being exclusive. The other extreme is differences,
where, because of sociocultural differences, the different groups are regarded as having nothing
in common. This is the direction of Jihad, resulting in separation. But like the other, this one is
also exclusive. The solution lies in the center, focused on unity while valuing and respecting
diversity. The result is inclusion.
REVISION: THE TOPIC, THE PURPOSE, THE IDEA, TEXT STRUCTURE AND
ORGANIZATION, CLUES IN THE TEXT, MAKING INFERENCES, EXPLICATION OF
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Instruction: It has been emphasised that this course‘s primary focus is multicultural
education and/or a directly related topic (multiculturalism, cultural diversity in education,
intercultural education), in other words it is a general foundations course with a partial focus on
educational equity. As the course is offered in a graduate education program, it aims at
developing sensitivity to and understanding of the values, beliefs, lifestyles, and attitudes of
individuals and groups; developing skills and knowledge necessary for communication with
people from other cultures and co-cultures. In this module revision unit you are expected to
deploy skills acquired in the preceding eleven units. You will have to start with matching
headings with paragraphs, and identifying the topic, the purpose of the author, the main idea of
the text. Make inferences, discover clues for specific information given in the text.
Collect specific information by pointing out groups of synonyms, semantic and thematic
groups. Keep it in mind that vocabulary in context includes both single words (usually
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and two- or three-word phrases.
Read the passage: ―Two extremes must be avoided. The first is similarities where no
differences between humans and cultures are recognized. This is the direction of McWorld
resulting in uniformity. But at whose expense? In the end it ends up being exclusive. The other
extreme is differences, where, because of sociocultural differences, the different groups are
regarded as having nothing in common. This is the direction of Jihad, resulting in separation.
But like the other, this one is also exclusive. The solution lies in the center, focused on unity
while valuing and respecting diversity. The result is inclusion.―
What is inferred in the sentence: ―This is the direction of McWorld resulting in
uniformity.‖
What is inferred in the sentence: ―This is the direction of Jihad, resulting in
separation.‖
What is inferred in the sentence: ―The first is similarities where no differences
between humans and cultures are recognized. ... The other extreme is differences,
where, ..., the different groups are regarded as having nothing in common.‖
How do these words and expressions: “Perspectives, policies, programs,
personnel, practices; Perspectives, vision, farsightedness – impediments,
nearsightedness; Reflect – be sensitive – incorporate – create; Inclusive –
exclusive‖ illustrate the author‟s concept of the two dimensions of diversity?
Qualify the following questions and statements by marking that you 1/ strongly agree, 2/
agree, 3/ have no opinion, 4/ disagree, or 5/ strongly disagree:
Treat people the way they should to be treated. __________.
"The individual in his personal conduct is always compelled – in so far as he does
not resort to breaking up the existing social structure – to fall short of his own
nobler motives." __________
Podemos destruir con nuestros pies lo que construimos con nuestras manos; "we
can destroy with our feet what we build with our hands. ___________
If when all is said and done, you look around and notice that everyone looks like
you, you have done it wrong! __________
How one runs the good ship of education – how one treats the crew (faculty/staff),
how one develops the product (curriculum/students), and how one maintains the
course (vision, values, mission) – will determine a successful docking at the port of
the 21st century, or a shipwreck on the beaches of time in the 2000's. __________
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
Why is it that English is now so popular and other major European languages (German,
French, Spanish) are losing ground to it like never before? The answer is globalization, and the
European Union certainly is part of it. In fact, from a European point of view, the most direct and
obvious sign that we now live in a wider, more internationalized world than a few decades ago is
the EU. Borders were scrapped, national currencies merged, and people can look for work in
anywhere in the single market area without worrying about visa or work permit. Because
Europeans are travelling and migrating more, getting in touch and working with a greater
number of other Europeans with different native languages, it is only natural that a single
common language of communication should arise.
In the global debates on English as international lingua franca or as ‗killer language‘, the
adoption of English as medium of instruction in Higher Education is raising increasing concern.
Plurilingualism and multilingualism are embedded in the official policies of the European Union
and Council of Europe, and the Bologna Process for harmonizing Higher Education promises
‗proper provision for linguistic diversity‘. But even enthusiasts acknowledge the problems of
implementing such policies in the face of an inexorable increase in the use of English.
Claude Truchot‘s survey draws on the most recent and sometimes disparate sources in an
attempt to paint a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the spread of English-medium
teaching in Europe‘s universities. The article sets the changes in the context of accelerating
globalization and marketization, and analyses the forces which are driving the adoption of
English, and some of the problems which accelerating ‗Englishization‘ of European Higher
Education might create.
English in education
While the teaching of English in continental Europe can be traced back to the 16th century,
it remained restricted until the 19th century mainly to places that traded with Great Britain, and
was more common outside school in professional circles (van Essen, 1997). True competition
with French and German in secondary education started in the 1880s. In certain parts of
Germany the teaching of English began to take preference over that of French from the 1920s
onwards.
Until the Second World War, English was still little taught in central and Eastern Europe,
where German and French were firmly established. After the war differences in trends developed
between Western Europe and what were then called the East European countries.
In Western Europe English supplanted German and French from the 1950s onwards as the
first foreign language taught in the Scandinavian countries and from the 1960s in the
Netherlands. It was also during this period that the teaching of English in France started clearly
to outstrip that of German. The swing from French to English occurred in the late 1970s and
early 1980s in Spain, and a little later in Portugal and Italy. In eastern Europe the teaching of
Russian became compulsory after the Second World War and remained so until the end of the
1980s.
At the end of the Stalinist period English was re-introduced alongside German, which as
the language of the German Democratic Republic was still taught, particularly in Hungary,
Poland and Czechoslovakia, and alongside French, which was still taught in Romania and
Bulgaria. Its importance grew progressively until the end of the 1980s (Fodor and Peluau, 2001).
In Eastern Europe the requirement that Russian be taught was abandoned in the 1990s and
languages were allowed to compete. This greatly benefited English, which began to be taught
much more widely. Nevertheless, in countries like Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic it is
in competition with German. In Romania English and French are both widely taught, the strong
presence maintained by the latter being due to its recognised social and historical status (Truchot,
2001). Almost everywhere, English has become the first modern language taught, and the
proportions of pupils learning it are fast approaching those found in the European Union.
Note: The Eurydice [juri‘disi] network supports and facilitates European cooperation in
the field of lifelong learning by providing information on education systems and policies in 36
countries and by producing studies on issues common to European education systems. It consists
of 40 national units based in all 36 countries participating in the EU Lifelong Learning
programme (27 Member States, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland,
Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and a coordinating unit
based in the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels. Since 1980,
the Eurydice network has been one of the strategic mechanisms established by the European
Commission and Member States to support European cooperation in the field of education. Since
2007, Eurydice has been included in the EU Action Programme in the field of Lifelong
Learningin which, as part of the transversal programme, it helps to support the development of
policies as well as cooperation at European level.
In the others, the obligation to learn a foreign language, in conjunction with the widespread
introduction of English teaching, gives English a quasi-compulsory status, albeit one that differs
on the political and cultural front. English courses are getting longer in nearly all countries.
Language learning in primary school (children under 11) is an ancient tradition in central and
Eastern Europe. Northern European countries have organised it on a large scale since the 1970s.
It became the general rule in all non-English-speaking countries of the European Union in
the 1990s. In all cases it has been or is about to be made compulsory, with learning starting
between seven and ten years of age. The early learning of languages has benefited English
almost exclusively. The only other language taught to any significant degree is French but even
here only 4% of the school population is reached. The share of the other languages is too small to
appear in the statistics.
Instruction: Writing a good summary of the text requires practice and skills. Below are
recommendations for students, abridged after Christine Bauer-Ramazani, Consultant for
Integrating Technology into Online and On-campus Learning and Teaching, Saint Michael's
College, Colchester, Vermont. The recommendations are published in the Internet and free of
copyright limitations. You are to read, understand, and work at Claude Truchot‘s study with the
purpose of acquiring summary preparation strategies to employ in your prospective professional
activity. There are a few preparatory steps you can learn now to avoid the worry before you‘re in
the heat of the moment. Give these proven study tips a try and see how much better you feel
while doing your real assignment.
Before writing the summary – read, mark, and annotate the original:
highlight the topic sentence;
highlight key points/key words/phrases;
highlight the concluding sentence;
outline each paragraph in the margin;
Take notes on the following:
the source (author – first/last name, title, date of publication, volume number, place
of publication, publisher, URL, etc.);
the main idea of the original (paraphrased);
the major supporting points (in outline form);
major supporting explanations (e.g. reasons/causes or effects);
Preparing to Write: To write a good summary it is important to thoroughly understand the
material you are working with. Here are some preliminary steps in writing a summary.
Skim the text, noting in your mind the subheadings. If there are no subheadings, try to
divide the text into sections. Consider why you have been assigned the text. Try to determine
what type of text you are dealing with. This can help you identify important information.
Read the text, highlighting important information and taking notes.
In your own words, write down the main points of each section.
Write down the key support points for the main topic, but do not include minor detail.
Go through the process again, making changes as appropriate.
When the markers which, that, and whom are used as objects in relative clauses, they can
correctly be omitted. Example: The painting Ms. Wallace bought is very expensive, (which is
omitted).
The adjective-clause markers which and whom can also be used as objects of prepositions:
Example: That is the topic. I will write on it. That is the topic on which I will write.
You may also see sentences with adjective clauses used in this pattern: quantity word + of +
relative clause.
Examples:
He met with two advisers. He had known both of them for years. He met with two
advisers, both of whom he had known for years.
I read a number of articles. Most of them were very useful. I read a number of articles, most
of which were very useful.
Any part of a relative clause can be missing from the stem, but most often, the marker and
the subject (if there is one) and the verb are missing. Any word or phrase from another clause—
usually the head noun—may also be missing from the stem.
Example:
Cable cars are moved by cables ______underground and are powered by a stationary
engine.
(A) they run
(B) that they run
(C) run
(D) that run
Choice (A) is incorrect because the pronoun they cannot be used to join two clauses.
Choice (B) is not appropriate because the subject they is not needed in the adjective clause;
the marker that serves as the subject of the clause. Choice (C) is incorrect because there is
no marker to join the adjective clause to the main clause.
Identify and correct errors involving types of clauses
(By growing the body of literature/There is a growing body of literature/With a growing
body of literature/It is a growing body of literature), (having suggested/that suggests/by
suggesting/to suggest) that languages (who marginalize publications/ marginalizing/whose
publications are marginalized/which publications are marginalized) are negatively stereotyped
and discriminated against.
Researchers asked undergraduate students to fill out questionnaires (describing English
lingua franca/to describe English lingua franca /that describes English lingua franca /for to
describing English lingua franca), (that is replacing German and French/who was replacing
German and French/which was replacing German and French/whom was replacing German and
French) both in education and business.
Unit 1-14. TEACHING AND LEARNING EURO-ENGLISH IN SWITZERLAND
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
It is part of the EU‘s multilingualism policy to encourage all citizens to learn and speak
more languages, in order to improve mutual understanding and communication. Multilingualism
is regarded as a form of empowerment, which, however, includes the appropriation of English to
a degree that may eventually give rise to a European variety of English.
The education systems in Europe, particularly at the university level, are in the process of
becoming more mutually compatible, with the result that English is becoming more prevalent not
only as the lingua franca of research but also of instruction. It should therefore surprise no one
that EU research programmes are administered completely in English.
What might a European variety English be like? Projects aimed at collecting and analyzing
samples of intra-European English have been launched in the last few years, but a linguistic
description still lies some distance in the future. The term Euro-English was first used to denote
the particular register of English spoken by bureaucrats in multinational discussions in Brussels,
but is also used to denote the emerging variety of English spoken as a lingua franca by EU
residents. If Euro-English were one day to become a recognized, standardizing variety of World
English, would it be a target language to be taught in European schools? And, if this were the
case, how might English teaching have to change? These are among the questions that arise as
work on the description of Euro-English progresses. Some of these questionss are discussed in
the article by an American teacher Mercia Mcneil who lived in Swtzerland and taught English
for two years at a Swiss German university
My Swiss connection:
I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for two years in Switzerland at the
University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur, which is a mere 20-minute express train ride from
Zurich, the country‘s largest city. My job title was English Teaching Assistant. I usually took
half of the class, while the other half stayed with their Swiss English teacher. I worked with a
variety of teachers and classes and so I led class with each group of students every other week.
I usually had a good deal of freedom to do what I wanted with the students in class.
Sometimes I was asked to give students extra practice using specified vocabulary or grammar.
Other times I was able to create lessons on topics of choice, for example about current events,
communication strategies, cultural topics, sometimes American, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.,
sometimes Swiss, such as controversial issues in current events. I had half the class at a time and
the emphasis was on improving communicative competency. Sometimes students talked in pairs
or small groups, and sometimes they gave oral presentations.
My class offered students the opportunity to practice speaking and listening to each other
and with a native speaker in English and to learn about each other‘s countries, cultures, and
educational topics of interest, such as comparing and contrasting the Swiss and American
education systems. Also, I‘m pretty sure their motivation to speak English was increased because
I‘m a native speaker, was close to their age, I tried to provide interesting material, and my class
was more relaxed because it was not in my job description to give grades or tests. Most of the
classes were pretty much a monolingual groups with the majority being Swiss German, although
there were a few other L1s represented.
I worked with students at a variety of levels from low intermediate to advanced. The
students were taking English because it was a required course for them. Their motivations varied.
Not surprisingly, oftentimes, some of the more advanced students had already spent some time
abroad in an English speaking country. Some of them had gone to study abroad for a few months
in Australia, England, Ireland, or the U.S., while some went on vacation to one of these
countries. For these students, they were motivated to communicate with native speakers of
English or non-native speakers in those countries.
For the advanced students, some of them already had work experience using
English talking to native speakers and/or using English as a lingua franca. Some of the
students accepted the challenge of writing their thesis in English, some of which I helped
revise. All students had to provide an abstract of their senior project in English. Sometimes
this proved challenging for me because there was technical jargon with which I was
unfamiliar. Some professors in our department met with students who needed help in this
challenging task.
I taught some Swiss students also in an English as a Second Language (ESL)
environment at Global Village, a language school in Honolulu. When I taught Business
English there, a majority of my students were Swiss German. Many of them needed English
for their jobs in Switzerland to be able to communicate with native speakers of English
sometimes, and also with non-native speakers of English.
Many of the mistakes students make is due to L1 influence. Because I have studied
German, Swiss German, and French extensively, I was able to use these skills to understand
Swiss students and, in helping them, say what they wanted to express, although sometimes it
was easier to express in a way that would not be familiar or natural sounding to another native
speaker of English. When such things came up in speaking class in exercises, conversation or
student presentations, I would sometimes explain this point to students for future reference,
however, I usually emphasized communicative competence and thus was not a stickler for
requiring students to conform to traditional native speaker norms. Now that I look back on it,
this seems to match Euro-English ideals as it was appropriate in expressing their ―underlying
cultural context‖ (Modiano 2003), i.e. Modiano mentions an example of a metaphor Swedes
might use in English ―blue-eyed‖ to mean naïve. Similar to Swedish, this expression is also in
German ―blau augig‖ and means the same. In Switzerland, where speakers from different L1s
are increasingly using English as a lingua franca, some misunderstanding can occur when a
speaker uses expressions unique to their L1. For example, in a survey that Heather Murray
conducted of English teachers in Switzerland results from the questionnaire show that the
majority of teachers (58.8%) from the French-speaking part rejected the term handy (a cell
phone), a term, a typical false loanword from German (Murray 2003).
A new model for English language teaching:
The idealized variety of English that is taught in schools in Europe is usually British or
American English. Traditionally, if students deviate from the native speaker norm, they are
considered incorrect, even though if they are understood. Wouldn‘t it be better instead to
focus on communicative competence? Changing tradition and standards would take a lot of
struggle. Some linguists are fighting for change and want to revolutionize English language
teaching and learning to introduce Euro-English as a new model for English language
teaching and learning in Europe. That would entail a total readjustment in our goals of
English language teaching and learning and would thus necessitate new materials and
assessment to match this new ideology. In this paper, I will draw on my own experience
teaching English in Switzerland and present research discussing several pros and cons of
Euro-English as a new model for English language teaching. In the end, I will offer some
considerations and ideas for English language teaching.
Instruction: The purpose of a summary is to give the reader, in about 1/3 of the original
length of an article/paper, a clear, objective picture of the original paper or article. Most
importantly, the summary restates only the main points of a text without giving examples or
details, such as dates, numbers or statistics.
There are quite a few skills to be practiced in summary wreiting: note-taking, paraphrasing
(using your own words and sentence structure), condensing, etc. Below are some important tips
for writing a summary.
Adverb clauses
An adverb clause consists of a connecting word, called an adverb clause marker (or
subordinate conjunction), and at least a subject and a verb. An adverb clause can precede the main
clause or follow it. When the adverb clause comes first, it is separated from the main clause by a
comma.
Example:
The demand for economical cars increases when gasoline becomes more expensive.
When gasoline becomes more expensive, the demand for economical cars increases.
In this example, the adverb clause marker when joins the adverb clause to the main clause.
The verb clause contains a subject (gasoline) and a verb (becomes).
The following markers are commonly used:
Examples:
Time: Your heart rate increases when you exercise.
Time: Some people like to listen to music while they are studying.
Time: Some people arrived in taxis while others took the subway.
Time: One train was arriving as another was departing.
Time: We haven't seen Professor Hill since she returned from her trip.
Time: Don't put off going to the dentist until you have a problem.
Time: Once the dean arrives, the meeting can begin.
Time: Before he left the country, he bought some traveler's checks.
Time: She will give a short speech after she is presented with the award.
Cause: Because the speaker was sick, the program was canceled.
Opposition (contrary cause): Since credit cards are so convenient, many people use them.
Contrast: Although he earns a good salary, he never saves any money.
Contrast: Even though she was tired, she stayed up late.
Condition: If the automobile had not been invented, what would people use for basic
transportation?
Condition: I won't go unless you do.
In structure items, any part of a full adverb clause – the marker, the subject, the verb, and so
on – can be missing from the stem.
Clause markers with ever: Words that end with -ever are sometimes used as adverb clause
markers: whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever, whichever, however. In some sentences, these
words are actually noun-clause markers.
Examples:
Put that box wherever you can find room for it.
They stay at that hotel whenever they're in Boston.
No matter how/ Wqhatever way/However you solve the problem, you'll get the same
answer.
Reduced adverb clauses
When the subject of the main clause and the subject of the adverb clause are the same
person or thing, the adverb clause can be reduced (shortened). Reduced adverb clauses do not
contain a main verb or a subject. They consist of a marker and a participle (either a present or a
past participle) or a marker and an adjective.
Examples:
When linguists are studying a minority language, they don't neglect its social functions, (full
adverb clause).
When studying a minority language, linguists don't neglect its social functions, (reduced
clause with present participle).
Although it had been limited, the regional language was still operational, (full adverb
clause).
Although limited, the regional language was still operational, (reduced clause with a past
participle).
Although he was nervous, the lecturer gave a wonderful speech, (full adverb clause)
Although nervous, the lecturer gave a wonderful speech, (reduced clause with an adjective).
You will most often see reduced adverb clauses with the markers although, while, if, when,
before, after, and until. Reduced adverb clauses are NEVER used after because.
Identify and correct errors involving adverb clauses
(When human rights are the equal rights of everyone/Even though human rights are the
equal rights of everyone/If human rights are the equal rights of everyone/Because human rights
are the equal rights of everyone) , I don‘ think criminals and terrorists can be included.
No one has less or more rights (if the next person does/than the next person does/because
the next person does/when the next person does).
But all of the rights (to have/which all of us have/because of all of us have/when of all of us
have) (though limited/when limited/if limited/because limited) to some extent and in some
circumstances belong to criminals as well.
We have freedom of movement (although it does not/when does not/that it does not/if it
does not) entail the right to enter the private property (because it belongs/that belongs/if it who
belongs/that belongs) to our neighbors.
So the fact (when criminals‟ rights are limited/of criminals‟ rights are limited/that
criminals‟ rights are limited/as criminals‟ rights are limited) does not set them apart from
ordinary citizens.
It does not mean (whose human rights/which human rights/that human rights/more than
human rights) are not equal anymore.
Human rights are equal (as soon as they are/with the purpose that they are/because they
are/if they are) the unconditional property of us all.
We do not have to fulfil certain conditions – such as respect (because we must have for the
law/though we must have for the law/as we must have for the law/we must have for the law) –
(wherever we have them/since that we have them/in order that we have them/because we have
them).
Unit 1-15. EURO-ENGLISH ACCENTS
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
By virtue of the considerable number of speakers English has in the world, and also due to
the rich variety of its variants, English is more likely to be subjected to accented speech than any
other language. The speech of non-native English speakers may exhibit pronunciation
characteristics that result from such speakers imperfectly learning the pronunciation of English,
either by transferring the phonological rules from their mother tongue into their English speech
("interference") or through implementing strategies similar to those used in primary language
acquisition. They may also create innovative pronunciations for English sounds not found in the
speaker's first language.
The text below looks at attitudes towards accents, with particular interest in the solidarity
dimension (i.e. how much a person identifies with an accent) and status dimension (i.e. how
much prestige is assigned to an accent).
A person‘s identity is determined not only by personal but also by social identity. Social
identity includes ethnic identity and originates from group membership which is established by
self-categorisation. Accent and language are considered to be major determinants of social
identity, and there has been a lot of research on the expression of social identity through people‘s
accents and their attitudes towards other accents. Below is an account of a research of a Swedish
teacher Britta Larson Bergstedt on attitudes of non-native speakers (NNS) of English towards
their own (ingroup) accent and other (outgroup) accents of English.
Research Interest
Like many other mammals, human beings are complex social animals that are
fundamentally built to rely on the group for survival while still possessing the skills to endure
alone. Although our metacognition skills may distinguish humans from other groups of
mammals, our lack of, among other things, sufficient fur, has left us at a disadvantage in the
natural environment and thereby even more dependent on a well-structured and effective social
network. Individuals are fundamentally aware of the social hierarchy surrounding them and of
their place in it. It is no wonder then, that upon meeting unknown people, we both consciously
and subconsciously listen and look for clues displaying rank so that we know how to behave
(Trudgill, 2000).
A person‘s language often serves as a sort of index, or ―scent marker‖ if you will, of one‘s
life by displaying geographical and social origin, as well as some of one‘s ideas and opinions. It
is apparent in the animal kingdom that scent markers, vocalizations, and similar cues incite a
response in the listener and help to determine whether a stranger is friend or foe. As territorial
animals, what kind of reactions do strange and different accents provoke within us, the listeners?
Is our response based on previous contact with a particular group and the stereotypes associated
with them? Does the amount of time we‘ve spent abroad in general affect our reply? And without
the sensitive olfactory organs of other mammals, how accurately can we actually identify these
vocal ―scent markers‖?
Are we able to discriminate between them, and most importantly, do we truly recognize our
own? As the world continues to contract, we have the opportunity to interact with more and more
people outside of our own flock than ever before. How do we react to them and how will they
react to us?
Purpose
The main aim of this study is to investigate the response of non-native English speakers,
specifically, Swedish female students, towards European (female) foreign accents in spoken
English. Are there differences between the attitudes towards different accents? In that case, is the
difference in perceived Power, Solidarity, or Competence? What kind of hierarchy is created?
How capable are Swedish high school students of correctly identifying a particular accent as
coming from a particular country including their own? And does spending time in a foreign
country affect the attitudes and judgements made?
In Europe
While large portions of the globe came under the influence of English between the 16th and
19th century, this was not really the case in Europe. Not until after World War II did English
truly begin to flourish, sweeping across Europe at an uneven pace, starting in the west and
spreading eastward after the fall of the Iron Curtain. It was also around 1945 that American
English began to exert a stronger influence than its predecessor from the British Isles. Since that
time American English has dominated the European and world scene primarily through influence
of media, technology and power while British English has predominated the educational systems.
Internationalization and increased mobility have also played their part and as Cenoz & Jessner
noted ―It requires little linguistic sensitivity to note the omnipresence of English in Europe
today‖(2000). Currently English is one of more than 20 official languages of the European Union
yet enjoys a privileged status as one of three working languages and as the unofficial status quo.
Surveys financed by the EU have shown that it is the most used and most learned language with
an entire 31% knowing English well enough to hold a conversation (Europa website, 2004).
Despite current and probable future opposition, English will undoubtedly continue to play
an important role in Europe and in European cooperation.
In Sweden
In comparison with the rest of Europe, Sweden has long had an advantage concerning
English. As some of the first countries in Europe to require English as the first second language
learned, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries are well known for their proficiency. With
ready access to quality educational material, British English was the standard taught for many
years. This requirement has since been revoked and though still largely British-influenced,
schools now teach American and other varieties of English as well. English is used daily in
business, in higher education and even in many parts of public life.
Language and Identity
The English language is often considered a cultural byproduct and export of England and
America – a language, like others, inseparable from its literature and history. In many
universities and other institutions, the demand and desire exists that learners of a second
language should try to produce as near-native pronunciation as possible. This has been supported
by studies that have shown that native listeners respond more positively to lightly or
unnoticeably accented speech. For the majority of learners, this task is impossible and therefore,
the feasibility and need for this goal, at least in English, is being reevaluated (Dalton-Puffer, et
al.,1997).
English today functions as an international language, a ―free agent‖ in society. Released
from cultural constraints, many non-native speakers agree it is no longer necessary to imitate the
pronunciation (or other language features) of the standard varieties but instead have begun to
mark English as their own. Accordingly, English in Europe is losing its foreignness and
becoming nativized. This does not, however, deter from that fact that English still must be
understandable, pertinent, and accepted by the community (Smith, 1983).
In Europe widespread use is leading to one or more non-native varieties dubbed ―Euro-
English‖ or European English (Modiano 1996, Crystal 1995 in Cenoz & Jessner, 2000) which
differ from standard native varieties of English. These new varieties of Euro-English are similar
to other ―New Englishes‖ in that they are not the result of a pidgin but rather education and
exposure. As Crystal (2003) mentioned, it is a divergent variety of English that appears when
different nationalities communicate in English. They will adapt and modify their speech while
still exhibiting features (i.e. interference) from their native tongues. If these speakers are
European, the result is an original variety of Euro-English..
What makes these new varieties different from standard English varieties is the mother
tongue interference normally called ―errors‖ by native speakers and English teachers.
Interference is not a limitation, a distraction, or a hindrance. Instead, these ―errors‖ become
standardized, regular and accepted as part of a nativised European English .
Another explanation for the appearance of ―Euro-English‖ is the fact that language is the
primary vehicle for a culture; it is the wisdom of centuries passed on and preserved generation to
generation. When a language meets with death it is not replaced by a new linguistic culture but
rather compromises between the old language and the new one, creating a new variety that is
neither one nor the other (Kramsch, 1998). Certainly this is somewhat the case with the Euro-
English varieties; in a similar fashion speakers move their language features and accent over into
spoken English in order to stamp themselves as belonging to that particular group (and not a
native English one) thus creating a new variety that is neither English nor their mother tongue - it
is Euro-English.
Consequences
The strong social group identity created by language and other factors is not only important
in social interaction and in identifying others as ―the same‖ but it also forms our judgements of
others as ―different‖. This ultimately leads to a division of in-group and outgroup, in layman‘s
terms: ―us‖ against ―them‖. Not only does our social identity shape our evaluations of someone
in an out-group, they will also affect our evaluation of our ingroup (Cargile & Giles, 1997). But
how to determine and define which group someone belongs to? Human beings do not react on
the basis of stimulus and sensory input alone but rather we interpret what we perceive and then
react (Edwards, 1999). Perception is a cultural screen window in the mind through which all
things filter. ―What we perceive about a person‘s culture and language is what we have been
conditioned by our own culture to see, and the stereotypical models already built around our
own‖ (Kramsch, 1998). We do not create our own attitudes; our attitudes are passed on to us by
the generations before us and the society around us. These stereotypes are learned behavior, and
persist; although they may or may not reflect the social reality, they are obligatory for our
survival (Ladegaard, 1998). (To be continued in Unit 2-15)
UNDERSTANDING THE SUMMARY ORGANIZATION AND EXPLICATION OF KEY
FACTS AND IDEAS
Instruction: Getting ready to write a summary keep in mind that the first sentence or
paragraph often is an opening or a general definition. It may be safe to assume that your reader is
already familiar with the subject matter; thus you do not have to include it in your summary.
This can save time and effort for you. But remember that the classification of the
principles, concepts and facts is mportant. Ignore specific details about the different principles.
Remember that many terms are self-explanatory. Include a description of the problem
surrounding correct identification of a particular accent. Provide some support/explanation for
the problem, but not all the details. Describe other problems associated with differing speaking
modes of ethnically different students. Provide some explanation, but not all the details. Describe
the action taken by the author to solve the problem.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It refers to teaching subjects
such as science, history and geography to students through a foreign language. This can be done
by the English teacher using cross-curricular content or by the subject teacher using English as
the language of instruction. Both methods result in the simultaneous learning of content and
English. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a term created in 1994 by David
Marsh and Anne Maljers as a methodology similar to but distinct from language immersion and
content-based instruction.
It's an approach for learning content through an additional language (foreign or second),
thus teaching both the subject and the language. The idea of its proponents was to create an
"umbrella term" which encompasses different forms of using language as medium of instruction.
CLIL is fundamentally based on methodological principles established by research on "language
immersion".
This kind of approach has been identified as very important by the European Commission
because: "It can provide effective opportunities for pupils to use their new language skills now,
rather than learn them now for use later. It opens doors on languages for a broader range of
learners, nurturing self-confidence in young learners and those who have not responded well to
formal language instruction in general education. It provides exposure to the language without
requiring extra time in the curriculum, which can be of particular interest in vocational settings."
The European Commission has therefore decided to promote the training of teachers to
"..enhance the language competences in general, in order to promote the teaching of non-
linguistic subjects in foreign languages".
According to the recent research, one of the most effective methods of ESL instruction is
the content-based approach, where language instruction is integrated with the content areas.
Rather than developing an ESL program that is focused on the language needed for social
interactions or the structure of language, this method incorporates language into the context of
academic content. The core curriculum is the basis for teaching language. Instructors focus on
the key principles and concepts and use visuals, hands-on activities, simpler language, adapted
readings, graphic organizers, and so forth to help make the most important academic content
comprehensible. Thus, language skills develop as students work on their special subjects: math,
social studies, science or language arts at their appropriate levels.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) involves teaching a curricular
subject through the medium of a language other than that normally used. The subject can be
entirely unrelated to language learning, such as history lessons being taught in English in a
school in Spain. CLIL is taking place and has been found to be effective in all sectors of
education from primary through adult and higher education. Its success has been growing over
the past 10 years and continues to do so.
Teachers working with CLIL are specialists in their own discipline rather than traditional
language teachers. They are usually fluent speakers of the target language, bilingual or native
speakers. In many institutions language teachers work in partnership with other departments to
offer CLIL in various subjects. The key issue is that the learner is gaining new knowledge about
the 'non-language' subject while encountering, using and learning the foreign language. The
methodologies and approaches used are often linked to the subject area with the content leading
the activities.
If you teach EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction), LAC (Language Across the
Curriculum), CBI (Content-based Instruction) or CBLT (Content-based Language Teaching; if
you work in Bilingual Education; if you‘re a subject teacher working through the medium of a
foreign language, or a language teacher bringing in content into your English lesson, you work
within the area of Content and Language Integrated Learning.
“CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a
foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content, and the
simultaneous learning of a foreign language”. “It [CLIL] provides exposure to the language
without requiring extra time in the curriculum“. (Marsh, D. 2002. Content and Language
Integrated Learning: The European Dimension – Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential).
This would seem a good reason as any to promote an approach with a twin set of
objectives. One of these objectives is clearly educational (to learn subject content and a foreign
language) and the other is administrative. Since educational and administrative needs often fight
for space, this seems a good way to promote peace between them. We were told in the European
Council Resolution in 1995 that, ―...all EU citizens, by the time they leave compulsory
schooling, should be able to speak two languages other than the mother tongue‖.
Curricula attempting to achieve this aim have been getting more and more desperate in
their attempts to find timetabling space. What is the possible answer to this problem? Why,
CLIL, of course. Instead of studying Geography in the majority language, do it in a foreign
language. As long as it works, the pupils learn the same subject concepts and skills, but increase
contact time with the foreign language – crucial consideration in the improvement of attainment
levels.
“…an approach to bilingual education in which both curriculum content (such as
science or geography) and English are taught together. It differs from simple English-
medium education in that the learner is not necessarily expected to have the English
proficiency required to cope with the subject before beginning to study“. (Graddol D. English
Next, British Council Publications, 2006)
Graddol suggests that a powerful element of CLIL is its role in the improvement of
language skills, and that pupils do not necessarily need a particularly high level of foreign
language attainment to do their ‗CLIL-ing‘. Now this sounds quite radical. Why? Because the
teachers would have to adjust their methodology to ensure that the students were understanding
the content.
Teachers would not be able to simply ‗transmit‘ the content, assuming that their audience
understood. They would have to think of other means (group work, tasks, etc) which would
result in an increase of the skill-based focus of the learning.
The educational materials (textbooks) would also have to reflect this approach.
The pupils would be learning language that was more clearly focused on, and related to, the
subject matter that they needed to learn.
CLIL is not confined to higher-achieving students. It is not an approach for the elite. It fits
in perfectly with a mixed-ability philosophy. Ensuring that students understand the content,
reducing teacher-talk, increasing the focus on skills, influencing publishers to do likewise and
getting students to learn language items that are always contextualised, always functionally
necessary in the classroom – sound good at any level of curricular discourse. What is CLIL?
Well already it looks as if it is something like ‗good practice‘, and if we take Graddol at his
word, it can be applied across the ability range.
Finally, another quote that extends the scope of CLIL still further: “CLIL is about using
languages to learn… It is about installing a „hunger to learn‟ in the student. It gives
opportunity for him/her to think about and develop how s/he communicates in general,
even in the first language”. (Marsh, Marsland & Stenberg, 2001)
We can see from the first part of the underlined sections that CLIL views language as a
‗vehicle‘, not simply as an entity in itself. This is a central component of the CLIL package.
David Graddol said something similar too in his book English Next, when he talked about the
world now viewing English not so much as a language but as a core skill. This is a crucial
observation, and it lies at the heart of the educational and social change that has taken place since
the development of the Internet and the parallel growth of globalisation. As English becomes an
essential add-on to any curricular programme around the world, it is moving into a position
where it becomes a subject that pupils learn in order to do something else.
CLIL, with its ‗dual-focused‘ aims, encapsulates perfectly this post-modern, utilitarian
view of the English language. Liberal educationalists may not agree with it, but for the time
being it is here to stay. In its defence, CLIL also seems to contribute to the buzz-concept of our
times – namely ‗motivation‘. Teachers‘ forums talk about it endlessly, as do the blurbs on the
back of scholastic textbooks and the opening lines of ministerial declarations. Does CLIL install
a ‗hunger to learn‘ as Marsh et al. claim? If this is true, then we need to know exactly why. We
can examine this in subsequent articles, but for now, why should CLIL motivate more than other
conventional approaches?
Could it be because:
It provides reasons for learning and improving the foreign language level, because the
understanding of the subject contentis compulsory.
It focuses on and assesses the subject content, so the learner is not being assessed on his/her
mastery of the Past Simple (for example) but rather his/her ability to use it in the appropriate
places.
It gives students a feeling of real achievement. They are coping with, and talking and
writing about, complex material in the foreign language.
They are not being asked to discuss ‗vox-pop‘ content as in standard language learning
textbooks (Pop Stars, Global Warming, My Favourite Auntie) – where the content is used as a
slave to illustrate a certain language structure – but because the content is important in itself. In
CLIL there is a chance that they are being asked their opinions because the expression of
opinions (for example) is a key competence in the syllabus content. This method includes
learning situations that provide for the following critical factors:
Comprehensible input
Low anxiety for the students
Many opportunities for interaction and language use
Meaningful communication and natural language
Language-learning situations that are fun and motivational
Development of higher-order thinking skills
Instruction: When writing a summary of the article ―Content and language integrated learning‖
keep in mind that there are four main requirements to be met:
1. The summary should cover the original as a whole.
2. The material should be presented in a neutral fashion.
3. The summary should be a condensed version of the material, presented in your own
words.
4. Do not include anything that does not appear in the original (do not include your own
comments or evaluation.) and be sure to identify your source.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
Due to its practical nature and flexibility CLIL can be incorporated in many ways, with
different subjects, languages, types of schools and learners of different age. For example, it
might involve university students having 2-3 periods of „language showers― per week, in which
they learn as much as half or more of all their assignments in the other language.
In Europe over half of the countries with a minority/regional language community resort to
partial immersion as the preferred way of teaching both the minority and the state language. In
the 1970s, a number of central and eastern European countries established a parallel system of
bilingual schools aimed at pupils exhibiting high attainment. During the 1990s this system was
made available to all pupils in the general education system. In the same period, several
European Union countries launched initiatives involving CLIL.
CLIL involves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a language other than
that normally used. The subject can be entirely unrelated to language learning, such as computer
technology being taught in English in a school in Sweden. CLIL is taking place and has been
found to be effective in all sectors of education from primary through to adult and higher
education. Its success has been growing over the past years and continues to do so.
Teachers working with CLIL are specialists in their own discipline rather than traditional
language teachers. They are usually fluent speakers of the target language, bilingual or native
speakers. In many institutions language teachers work in partnership with other departments to
offer CLIL in various subjects. The key issue is that the learner is gaining new knowledge about
the 'non-language' subject while encountering, using and learning the foreign language. The
methodologies and approaches used are often linked to the subject area with the content leading
the activities.
Why thinking CEFR may distract from the real language issues in CLIL.
According to a recent OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
study (2009) teacher quality is one of the most important schooling factors influencing student
achievement. The difference between having an effective versus an ineffective teacher is
estimated to be equivalent to a full year‘s difference in learning growth for students. Moreover,
the impact of differences in teacher quality outweighs the impact of other educational
investments, such as reductions in class size. This raises an important question in CLIL training
and research: In which respects can the CLIL teacher‟s foreign language competence be
seen as a quality indicator of his or her teaching?
The starting point for reflections on the issue of language competence for CLIL teachers
was the request for a review of a Spanish research project which investigated into the language
competence of CLIL teachers in the Madrid region. The outcome appeared straightforward and
clear. Train non-language teachers to pass a CEFR (The Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages) level – mostly B2 or C1 – and half the CLIL battle would be won
easily. However, given the linguistic complexity of any CLIL incident, this can lead to
frustration and quality loss.
According to available resources (Eurydice) the following tentative (not comprehensive)
picture for official language requirements for CLIL in Europe emerges:
Several countries such as Germany, Austria and Norway state that teachers have
generally studied two subjects during their education. If they study a foreign language and a non-
language subject, they are thus competent in the two types of subject targeted by CLIL.
According to the Eurydice country report on Austria, school heads themselves decide whether
teachers may teach their subject(s) in a language other than the normal language of instruction
(German). In so doing, they may consider the following:
is the teacher also a teacher of the CLIL target language?
has (s)he spent a certain period of time in a country in which the CLIL target
language is spoken, for example, studying or working there?
has (s)he had any specific linguistic and/or methodological in-service training in
the field of CLIL?
is the teacher a native speaker of the CLIL target language?
has (s)he taken a proficiency examination in the CLIL target language?
is (s)he married to a native speaker of the CLIL target language?
However, only Hungary requires certified evidence of these two specific areas of
specialisation. If teachers have no initial language qualification, they have to possess a B2-C1
level certificate. (Eurydice)
Poland has introduced teacher training standards where graduates have to master a
foreign language and reach a level of B2 or B2+. If they choose the combination ‗non-language
subject plus foreign language‘, they have to reach level C2 of the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages, in the case of the language subject. (Eurydice)
Italian CLIL teachers‘ competence is B1/B2, according to Ludbrook, and in providing
implications for CLIL content teacher training, she somehow vaguely states that CLIL teachers
should have a level of general language proficiency that allows independent teaching.
France: CLIL is typically carried out within the SELO system (Sections europeennes et
da langue orientale) with teachers being subject teachers rather than language teachers. In the
first years of experimentation, the CLIL teacher was a subject teacher whose foreign language
competence was certified by the regional inspector for the language concerned. Generally, this
competence corresponded to a B2 level in the European Framework, although some activities
were considered as needing a C1 level. In 2004, the Ministry set up a national certificate for
teaching in a SELO, the certification complémentaire. Every year, the regional authorities, the
Rectorat, organize a regional session open to all qualified teachers, and to initial trainees
qualifying at the end of the year. Candidates must submit a paper giving their qualifications and
motivations, and then take an oral exam before a jury composed of subject and language
specialists. This certification is valid all over the country. (Bertaux).
The Netherlands: The Dutch education authorities recommend at least a B2 level.
Schools introducing CLIL usually do so with their regular Dutch staff. Interested teachers are
selected and trained during a two year period of in-service training courses. Most schools offer
teachers‘ courses ranging from classroom English to advanced English language programmes.
Training is usually supported in-school by the English teachers. In addition, there are several
institutions in the Netherlands that offer training for content and language integrated teaching,
focusing mainly on the development of teachers‘ language proficiency. (de Graaf et al)
Belgium: The requirements for CLIL teachers comprise a basic (sic) qualification
obtained in the target language and/or certificate of upper secondary education obtained in the
target language.
Spain: Sacramento Jaimez and Ana M. Lopez Morillas (2011), as proponents of the
Andalusian plurilingual program in primary and secondary education, report that B-2 has been
set as the minimum level a content teacher must have in order to apply for a definite bilingual
post.
Following the Eurydice survey 2006 four main language criteria for the prospective CLIL
teachers evolve. They should either:
1) be native speakers of the target language,
2) have completed a course or studied in the target language,
3) be undergoing in-service training on CLIL type provision, and
4) have taken a language test or examination.
Strategies associated with the last two categories are developed specifically for recruiting
teachers. Those associated with the first two are ways of ensuring less directly that appropriate
teachers will be selected for CLIL. In most countries, all such strategies are adopted on a
voluntary basis. (Eurydice, 2006)
Needless to say that most of these language requirements for CLIL or any preparatory
courses for CLIL go hand-in-hand with carefully elaborated and detailed statements on the
methodology of CLIL, often suggesting various CLIL models and principles. Interestingly, some
proponents would even go so far as to compensate foreign language deficits with more advanced
methodological skills. Jaimez and Lopez Morillas (2011) consider methodological updating
essential in the Andalusian bilingual education model ―in order to compensate for the lack of
confidence and competence in the use of the foreign language‖. Metaphorically speaking, this
could be compared to the idea of who is the best football coach? Someone with a personal
international career or someone who spent the same time reading a lot about the ―beautiful
game‖ and all the psychological and sociological aspects connected to it?
Furthermore, CLIL pedagogies have been highly influenced by language acquisition
theories which favour language teaching perspectives may also play an important role in the
animated discussion on CLIL teachers‘ language competence.
Summing the data up the following picture emerges. The diversity of opinions, the lack of
authentic teacher data, and the linguistic complexity of any CLIL event seem to make an
approach whose language requirements are (almost) exclusively based on CEFR scales strongly
questionable.
Instruction: Writing a good summary demonstrates that you clearly understand a text and
that you can communicate this understanding to your readers. Sometimes you are asked to write
a summary of a paper/article which abounds in factual information. Such a summary can be
tricky to write at first because it‘s tempting to include too much or too little information. But by
following our easy 8-step method, you will be able to summarize texts quickly and successfully
for any class or subject.
1) Divide…and conquer. First off, skim the text you are going to summarize and divide it
into sections. Focus on any headings and subheadings. Also look at any bold-faced terms and
make sure you understand them before you read.
2) Read. Now that you‘ve prepared, go ahead and read the selection. Read straight through.
At this point, you don‘t need to stop to look up anything that gives you trouble—just get a feel
for the author‘s tone, style, and main idea.
3) Reread. Rereading should be active reading. Underline topic sentences and key facts.
Label areas that you want to refer to as you write your summary. Also label areas that should be
avoided because the details – though they may be interesting – are too specific. Identify areas
that you do not understand and try to clarify those points.
4) One sentence at a time. You should now have a firm grasp on the text you will be
summarizing. In steps 1-3, you have divided the piece into sections and located the author‘s main
ideas and points. Now write down the main idea of each section in one well-developed sentence.
Make sure that what you include in your sentences are key points, not minor details.
5) Write a thesis statement. This is the key to any well-written summary. Review the
sentences you wrote in step 4. From them, you should be able to create a thesis statement that
clearly communicates what the entire text was trying to achieve. If you find that you are not able
to do this step, then you should go back and make sure your sentences actually addressed key
points.
6) Ready to write. At this point, your first draft is virtually done. You can use the thesis
statement as the introductory sentence of your summary, and your other sentences can make up
the body. Make sure that they are in order. Add some transition words (then, however, also,
moreover) that help with the overall structure and flow of the summary. And once you are
actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys!), remember these tips:
Write in the present tense.
Make sure to include the author and title of the work.
Be concise: a summary should not be equal in length to the original text.
If you must use the words of the author, cite them.
Don't put your own opinions, ideas, or interpretations into the summary. The purpose of
writing a summary is to accurately represent what the author wanted to say, not to provide a
critique.
7) Check for accuracy. Reread your summary and make certain that you have accurately
represented the author‘s ideas and key points. Make sure that you have correctly cited anything
directly quoted from the text. Also check to make sure that your text does not contain your own
commentary on the piece.
8) Revise. Once you are certain that your summary is accurate, you should (as with any
piece of writing) revise it for style, grammar, and punctuation. If you have time, give your
summary to someone else to read. This person should be able to understand the main text based
on your summary alone. If he or she does not, you may have focused too much on one area of the
piece and not enough on the author‘s main idea.
(After John Swales and Christine Feat. Academic Writing for Graduate
Students,Essential Tasks and Skills, 1994)
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of English in European education
People from Scandinavian countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland speak
English more fluently compared to people from, say, France, Italy or Czech Republic.
What are the secrets or those nations' fluent English? Is it because the children at school
learn English at a younger age, as compared to the rest of Europe? Do they have better English
education systems at schools?
Finns are amongst the best English speakers in Europe. If you are travelling to Finland and
do not speak Finnish, you'll have no problems getting help if you need it in English. Everyone
but the old and very young can at least understand English, if not speak it. Even though English
is a foreign language here, it is widely taught at schools and thus most people speak and
understand English. About 90% of Finns think that the importance of English will increase in the
next 20 years and almost half (47%) of them are of the opinion that in the future everyone must
know English.
Many Finns think that the lack of English proficiency leads to marginalization in certain
areas of life. When they were asked to indicate the areas in which this is a danger, the most
common answer to this (86%) was that Finns with no English skills will be excluded from
international interaction. At the same time, nearly half of the Finns (44%) indicated that
marginalization is not really a serious threat because, in their view, up-to-date information will
be available also in Finnish in the future.
Instruction: Write a summary of the text ―English in Finland‖ based on Ella Hujala‘s
study ―English as a lingua franca in the workplace: one-size-fits-all?‖
Remember that an effective summary must follow the rules given below. An effecvtive
summary:
Begins with an introductory sentence that states the article's title and author and restates
its thesis or focus;
Includes all of the article's main points and major supporting details;
Deletes minor and irrelevant details;
Combines/chunks similar ideas;
Paraphrases accurately and preserves the article's meaning;
Uses student's own wording and sentence style;
Uses quotation marks when using phrasing directly from the article or source;
Includes only the article's ideas; excludes personal opinion;
Reflects article's emphasis and purpose;
Recognizes article's organization;
Stays within appropriate length; is shorter than the original;
Achieves transition through use of author's name and present-tense verb;
Has few or no mechanical errors.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
Introduction
This extract from an article in the ‗New York Times‘ newspaper, reinforces what is now
beyond dispute, regardless of any ideological objections, that the use of English for international
business is firmly established in Europe:
... As European banks and corporations burst national boundaries and go global, many are
making English the official corporate language.
Two years ago, when France, Germany and Spain merged their aerospace industries into
one company, they not only gave it an English name – the European Aeronautic Defense and
Space Company, or EADS – they also made English its language. In Germany, the national
postal service, Deutsche Post World Net, increasingly uses English as its working language.
Smaller companies are doing likewise. In Finland, the elevator maker Kone adopted English in
the 1970s; in Italy, Merloni Elettrodomestici, a midsize home appliance maker, did so in the mid-
1990s. Management meetings at big banks like Deutsche Bank in Germany and Credit Suisse in
Switzerland are routinely in English. „„I can‟t give percentages, but now many executives are not
Italian – French, English, Danish, Russian and so on‟‟, said Andrea Prandi, Merloni‟s
spokesman. „„We consider ourselves a European group. For Europe, the official language is
English‟‟.
While there are a number of reasons for the current spread of English both internationally
and within Europe, many of these are founded on what Brutt-Griffler terms ‗econcultural‘
grounds, i.e., they are the product of the development of a world market and global
developments in the fields of science, technology, culture and media (Brutt-Griffler, 2002).
Many languages have been used around the world as contact languages for international
trade and communication. Within Europe itself, there have been several lingua francas since
Roman times, including Greek, Latin, French, German and English. The latter three are currently
widely used in parts of Europe, and make up what Graddol refers to as the ‗Big Languages‘ in
Europe (Graddol, 2000). Nevertheless they are not the only languages used for international
communication in Europe with, for example, Russian being used in the newer eastern European
nations and the pidgin, or hybrid blend of several Scandinavian languages, ‗Scandinaviska‘, used
in several northern European countries (Louhiala-Salminen, Charles, & Kankaanranta, 2005).
Historically, the development of any language as a lingua franca or pidgin to facilitate
communication between speakers of different languages has often been initiated by international
commerce or trade. In fact the word ‗pidgin‘ is said to be derived from the Chinese
pronunciation of the English word business and Pidgin English was the name given to a
Chinese–English–Portuguese pidgin used for commerce in Canton during the 18th and 19th
centuries.
Indeed, in its strictest sense, the term ‗lingua franca‘ seems to be equated with a pidgin
being a language with no native speakers. The term English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) is
generally used in this way to refer exclusively to the use of English between speakers whose
mother tongue is not English (Firth, 1996; Seidlhofer, 2001). The term BELF (Business ELF) is
also used by some (Louhiala-Salminen et al., 2005) to refer to the use of English for business
purposes between speakers whose mother tongue is not English.
However, both of these terms exclude a substantial body of communicative events where
English is used as a common language both between ELF speakers and between ELF and
English as a mother tongue (EMT) speakers. Broader terms such as ‗English as an International
Language‘ (EIL), along with ‗Global English‘ and ‗International English‘, seem open to this
more flexible and liberal interpretation. Consequently, in this study, the term English for
International Business (EIB) is used to refer to the use of English as a common language in
business contexts where both EMT and ELF speakers could be present.
This study focuses on one such context, where English is used for international meetings in
a particular European professional organization, presenting and discussing some of the
communication difficulties reported by the meeting participants. This preliminary study will
form part of a broader discourse analytic study investigating the linguistic and sociocultural
issues involved in using EIB. The initial study will not only inform this second stage of research
but also hopefully make a small contribution to the growing body of knowledge on the use of
English in Europe and particularly in European business.
EIB in Europe
Within Europe, there is growing evidence that English has become the biggest business
lingua franca. A study conducted by the Danish Council of Trade and Industry estimated that
Danish companies conducted 80% of their international business in English (cited in Firth,
1996). Similarly, Crystal (1997) claims that according to a recent yearbook of international
organizations 99% of European organizations use English as a working language (cited in
Graddol, 2000). However, while English may well be the most widely used business language in
Europe, a survey of language use in European businesses (Hagen, 1998) found, for instance, that
German is increasingly being used in central and Eastern Europe, especially with the accession
of new Eastern European states into the EU. Hagen also claims that in order to do cross-border
business successfully, companies need to be able to communicate in all three of Europe‘s ‗Big
Languages‘, namely English, German and French (Hagen, 1998). Although, as Graddol (2000)
points out, this is a target which many British companies find hard to meet, as illustrated in a
further survey of European executives‘ language skills which found that while in the EU as a
whole, 70% of businesses have executives with foreign language abilities (rising to over 90% in
Sweden, Greece, Spain and the Netherlands), only 39% of UK businesses had executives
proficient in more than one language. These figures also reflect the findings of similar surveys.
For instance, Labrie and Quell‘s study of foreign language knowledge across the EU showed that
although British people‘s knowledge of French and German is increasing, particularly in the
younger generation (i.e., 15–24-year old), they still lag behind many European nations in that
only 47% can speak any foreign language (Labrie & Quell, 1997).
The multifunctional role of English in Europe is not only restricted to its use within specific
countries but can also be illustrated within international organizations where it may be used as a
mother tongue (EMT) by native English speaking employees but also as a lingua franca (ELF)
between non-native English speakers and as an international language between ELF and EMT
speakers. In the current study, all three types of users are represented.
Instruction: You have already invested much time and effort into mastering skills for
intensive reading and ESP text analysis. While skimming, surveying and scanning the fourth
module texts, you are expected to deploy skills acquired in Units 1-12. You will have to start
with understanding the text organization, identifying the topic, the purpose, the tone and attitude
of the author, the main idea of the text, making inferences, discovering context clues and
circumstancial evidence for specific information given in the text. All these facts and details will help
you write a good summary following effective summary rules given in Units 13-18.
Preparing to write a good summary make sure you understand the material you are working
with perfectly well. Go through indispensable preliminary steps:
Skim the text, noting in your mind the subheadings dividing the text into sections. Try to
determine what problems P. Rogerson-Revell‘s paper is dealing with. This can help you identify
important information.
Read the text, highlighting important information and taking notes.
In your own words, write down the main points of each section.
Write down the key support points for the main topic, but do not include minor detail.
Go through the process again, making changes as appropriate.
One more stage in the ESP text analysis will be learning how to write a valid abstract of the
text.
Abstract writing
An abstract is a condensed version of a longer piece of writing that highlights the major
points covered, concisely describes the content and scope of the writing, and reviews the
writing's contents in abbreviated form.
Abstracts are short statements that briefly summarize an article or scholarly document.
Abstracts are like the blurbs on the back covers of novels. They entice someone to read further.
With an abstract, you have to prove why reading your work is worthwhile.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
Business English as a lingua franca (BELF) has come to dominate as the shared code used
to ―get work done‖ in international business. In this article, Evan Frendo explores
internationally operating business professionals‘, teachers‘ and trainers‘ perceptions of BELF
communication and its ―success‖ at work, based on selected data from surveys and in-depth
studies conducted in European multinational companies. The findings show that BELF can be
characterized as a simplified, hybridized, and highly dynamic communication code. BELF
competence calls for clarity and accuracy of content (rather than linguistic correctness) and
knowledge of business-specific vocabulary and genre conventions (rather than only ―general‖
English). In addition, because BELF interactions take place with nonnative speakers (NNSs)
from a variety of cultural backgrounds, the relational orientation is perceived as integral for
BELF competence. In sum, BELF competence can be considered an essential component of
business knowledge required in today‘s global business environment.
Over the last couple of years BELF (Business English as a Lingua Franca) has been gaining
prominence, with articles appearing in various publications. Last year the Journal of Business
Communication devoted an entire issue to it. And Vicki Hollett has invited several prominent
speakers to discuss the issue in the next BESIG webinar. What I would like to do in this post is
to introduce the idea of BELF and discuss some its implications for us as teachers and trainers of
business English.
Note: BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group of International Association of
Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), is a truly professional body representing
the interests and serving the needs of the international business English teaching community.
Instruction: Below are the guidelines for abstract writing continued. This is an adaptation
of several texts placed in the Internet without copyright limitations. You are sure to realize that
to write a good abstract you will have to gain experience of using all steps recommended in this
unit. Your abstract must be in the right format to meet necessary requirements. On following the
given steps and writing a good abstract your purpose is not only to acquire the standard
guidelines along which an abstract is written but also to get ready to discuss abstract writing
skills in class.
Subject/verb agreement
There are some special rules about subject-verb agreement that you should be familiar with:
A sentence with two subjects joined by and takes a plural verb. E.g.:The chemistry lab and
the physics lab are . . .
Some words end in -s but are singular in form. Many of these words are the names of fields
of study {economics, physics, etc). News is another word of this kind. E.g.:
Economics is . . . The news was . . .
When a clause begins with the expletive there, the verb may be singular or plural,
depending on the grammatical subject.
Subjects with each and every take singular verbs. (This includes compound words like
everyone and everything.) E.g.:
Each state has . . .
Each of the representatives was . . .
Every person was . . .
Everyone wants . . .
The verb in relative clauses depends on the noun that the relative pronoun refers to. E.g.:
The house that was built . . .
The students who were selected . . .
The phrase the number of + plural noun takes a singular verb. The phrase a number of +
plural noun takes a plural verb. E.g.:
The number of trees is . . .
A number of important matters have . . .
Singular subjects used with phrases such as along with, accompanied by, together with, as
well as, and in addition to take singular verbs. E.g.:
The mayor, along with the city council, is . . .
Together with his friends, Mark has . . .
Quantities of time, money, distance, and so on usually take a singular verb. E.g.:
Five hundred dollars was . . .
Two years has . . .
Ten miles is . . .
Problems involving subject-verb agreement. Underline the form that correctly completes
each sentence. Then circle the subject with which the underlined verb agrees. The first one is
done as an example.
The first bridge to be built with electric lights (was/were) the Brooklyn Bridge. .
Ethics (is/are) the study of moral duties, principles, and values.
There (is/are) two types of calculus, differential and integral.
George Gershwin, together with his brother Ira, (was/were) the creator of the first musical
comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize.
In a chess game, the player with the white pieces always (moves/move) first.
The Earth and Pluto (is/are) the only two planets believed to have a single moon.
A number of special conditions (is/are) necessary for the formation of a lingua franca.
Each of the Ice Ages (was/were) more than a million years long.
The national language, along with regional and minority languages, (makes/make) up the
linguistic situation in a country.
A lingua franca may be any natural or any artificial language which (is/are) used among
speakers of different mother tongues.
Sheep (is/are) covered with thick fur.
The more-or-less rhythmic succession of economic booms and busts (is/are) referred to as the
business cycle.
The number of migrants in developed countries (depends/depend) on its economic
conditions.
All trees, except for the tree fern, (is/are) seed-bearing plants.
Fifteen hundred dollars a year (was/were) the per capita income in the United States in
1950.
Everyone who (goes/go) into the woods should recognize common poisonous plants such as
poison ivy and poison oak.
Unit 1-21. THE USE OF ESP IN BUSINESS ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
Introduction
As English continues its growth as a lingua franca, more and more speakers across the
world find themselves in front of an audience that needs to hear the speaker‘s message in a
language that neither speaker nor listener is entirely comfortable with. One reason for the
discomfort can be traced to the extra time it takes to formulate one‘s message in a second
language (ESL). Slower English speakers in business meetings have inhibitions about taking the
floor from native speakers, and both Swedish and international students may be frustrated by
their ability to formulate responses quickly enough to contribute to classroom discussion (J.
Jones, 1999). Though researchers have begun to explore the effect of L2 language use in
interactive situations such as the meeting or the seminar, the ramifications of slower L2 speaking
rates when holding an instructional monologue, such as a presentation or a lecture, have not been
explored.
Understanding differences in speaking rate is important for many reasons, one of which is
the changing linguistic situation in universities across Europe. By facilitating the movement of
students between countries, the Bologna Process has instituted a dramatic increase of the use of
L2 English in the university classroom (Wilkinson, 2004). For example, at Sweden‘s Royal
Institute of Technology (KTH), the balance between native Swedish students and foreign
students has changed greatly in recent years. As many as 70% of its Master‘s programs are now
being given in English to serve the needs of the growing numbers of students who don‘t speak
Swedish. More than 20% of the student engineers who participated were soon to leave the
classroom and enter the lingua franca environment of Northern European industry, and were
practicing one of the most critical and high-stakes tasks they would need to perform in their
future careers.
For that reason, I believe, it is appropriate to use the term ‗English as a lingua franca‘
regarding the study. Many of the university‘s students come from outside Sweden. For teachers,
this of course means a switch from teaching in one‘s native language to teaching in a lingua
franca medium. Neither teachers nor students are entirely satisfied with this new linguistic
situation. Teachers complain that they lose spontaneity in their teaching; students complain about
the quality of their teachers‘ English.
English courses for teachers have been instituted at many northern European universities,
but teachers often do not have time to attend them. The pedagogical implications for students of
the shift to English-language instruction have also been studied. Klaassen (2001) concluded that,
at least after the first year of instruction, a teacher‘s pedagogical skill was more important than
the language used. Airey & Linder (2006), on the other hand, found that when lectured in
English, ―students asked and answered fewer questions and reported being less able to follow the
lecture and take notes at the same time,‖ (2006) even though the students themselves had not
anticipated differences in the learning situation.
The cognitive demands of using a second language result in a slower rate of speech for
most speakers. When time is limited, as it usually is when one is to deliver a lecture or an oral
presentation, a slower rate of speech must affect the content of the lecture in one way or another.
The best-case scenario would be a more concisely delivered L2 lecture; the worst-case scenario
would be that important information was omitted for lack of time. The purpose of the research
reported on in this paper was to first quantify differences in speaking rate when speakers hold
presentations in their native language and in fluent English, and then to examine the effect of
different speaking rates on the information content of the two presentations per speaker.
Data collection
Instruction in presentation skills is an important component in the Technical English
classes. The students practice what they have learnt by holding their own presentation and by
analyzing other presentations in the form of written peer review comments. The presentation is
to be about ten minutes in length though teachers generally do not enforce the time restrictions as
strictly as is commonly done in conference settings. The topic for the presentation is up to the
student but is to be of a basically technical nature.
All students but one used presentation software. Speaker 8 used overhead transparencies.
None of the speakers used a manuscript. Teachers and classmates gave the students feedback on
the class presentation.
During the two different terms when these subjects were studying English, they and many
of their classmates allowed their classroom presentations to be audio recorded as part of a larger
effort to collect a presentation corpus, presently consisting of about 100 recordings. All Swedish
natives were also asked whether they would like to present their presentation again, this time in
Swedish, for a small sum of money. Though many students expressed an initial willingness,
scheduling difficulties and time pressures in the end narrowed down to a group of five students
in Fall 2004, and nine students in Spring 2006. The students were told that they could use the
same visual material as they had used for the English material and were assembled in small
groups, so that an audience would be present to hear the presentation.
Audio recordings were made directly into a computer using a small clip-on microphone.
Analysis was done using WaveSurfer (Sjölander & Beskow, 2000) to present the speech
waveform and enable the measurement of pause length.
Transcription
The 28 presentations were carefully transcribed in a two-step process. First the entire
presentation was orthographically transcribed, including filled pauses. Speech recognition was a
helpful tool in the English transcriptions. The speaker-dependent dictation software Dragon
NatSpeak 9 was trained to the researcher‘s voice, who then repeated exactly what the speakers
said into a microphone—a task that required concentration, but made the transcription process
very efficient. A complete, though imperfect, transcription could be produced in real time – 10
minutes for a 10-minute presentation. Listening to the presentation two or three more times
allowed for correction of the inaccuracies and addition of the filled pauses that the speech
recognition is trained to ignore. The vocabulary of the dictation software was impressive,
including Swedish place names and rare words such as types of pharmaceuticals and phenomena
(e.g. quantum teleportation).
The second phase of transcription, which allowed further correction to any eventual
inaccuracies, was to break the transcriptions into ‗runs‘, using pauses as boundaries. The speech
waveform was used to locate all silent or filled pauses longer than 250 milliseconds. A filled
pause is not readily visible in the waveform, and so it was necessary to listen carefully and make
run breaks for most of the filled pauses as well, unless they were extremely short ones. The run
breaks appear as line breaks in the transcription, but the length of the pauses themselves was not
collected as data.
Results
The main research issue addressed was an attempt to quantify the effect on speaking rate of
using an L2 in the oral presentation situation. Using English instead of their native language
meant that all speakers had shorter run lengths and slower rates of speech. On average, using
English slowed the speakers down by 23%. When using a second language, the participants in
this study, though they were speaking about material they themselves had prepared and were
fluent speakers of English, show the degree to which operating in a second language affects the
cognitive processes underlying speech production.
The transcripts reveal that a number of the speakers did not know how to express some
concepts in Swedish, indicating that they had not thought through their presentations before
coming to be recording. This discrepancy between the two presentation situations is mirrored in
real-life: speakers who must work in a second language are likely to practice ahead of time to
make sure that they have command of the vocabulary and expressions they must use to
communicate. If these speakers had been better prepared for their L1 presentations, even larger
differences between L1 and L2 would have been found, so these methodological imperfections
should not negatively impact the validity of the results.
This study might dispel any illusions that L2 speakers can manage to deliver the same
amount of information despite their slower rate of speech in an L2. When time was not
controlled, there were some differences in information content, but they were not large,
indicating that the speakers were proficient in English and well-prepared for their task. When
time was kept constant, however, the slower speaking rate meant that information was left out.
The study has used the idea unit as a unit of measurement adequate to establish quantifiable
differences in content. However, there are other differences between the presentations that would
be trickier to measure. One of these might be the use of metaphor or the frequency of adjectives,
aspects that add important detail for the listeners. Another phenomenon revealed by the study is
that of domain loss in the first language. Though several speakers at times had to search for
terminology in Swedish, one speaker, S7, was at such a loss to explain an American road race in
Swedish that the information content of his L1 presentation suffered.
Implications
Let us consider what would happen if the results of this study were extrapolated from a ten-
minute presentation to a 45-minute lecture. If the rate of a delivery of a 45-minute lecture is
slowed down by 25%, then the lecture will take closer to an hour to finish. If information is
omitted from the L2 lecture at the same rates as were found in this study, then a 45-minute
lecture could lack as much as 60 pieces of information that would have been mentioned in the
lecturer‘s first language. The challenges faced by L2 speakers extend beyond the classroom –
other measures that could be considered to accommodate them could include variable speaker
time at conferences and other gatherings.
The slow-down effect of 20-25% that was found in the study needs to be seen as a
conservative estimate, given the facts that the students were relatively fluent speakers of English
and had prepared and practiced for their English presentations. Faster lecturing is generally not
better, far from it. While teachers using an L2 may be constrained by combinations of their own
speaking style and their L2 proficiency, L1 teachers have at least the theoretical possibility of
choosing a speaking rate that is appropriate for the audience and context. Yet, this can be
extremely difficult to do. Therefore, ―training in rate perception and modification should be more
rigorously incorporated into teacher training programs‖ so that teachers can learn to slow down
their speech when necessary. Speech engineers could contribute to the pedagogy of public
speaking by developing applications that give online feedback on rate of speech, so that speakers
could be warned when they begin to speak too quickly. Indeed, present-day dictation software
could give this kind of information after the fact, by calculating the words transcribed in relation
to the time spent speaking.
Instruction: These are guidelines for presentation issues which usually pose a big problem
for graduate students and young researchers. This is a collection of data from study materials
placed in the Internet without copyright limitations. You are sure to realize that, no matter how
brilliant your ideas might be, they will fail to achieve their potential because of your failure to
address presentation issues. On reading and understanding the following information your
purpose will be to acquire the standard guidelines along which a presentation is built. This will
be your goal as a graduate student and beginning researcher.
Many good research papers fail to achieve their potential because of the student's failure
to address six important presentation issues: (1) Presentation Format; (2) Grammar and
Style; (3) Adequate Research; (4) Citation; (5) Plagiarism; and (6) Field Component.
(4) Citation:
Your research paper will contain material gained from a variety of academic and non-
academic sources. All sources must be clearly and correctly attributed in the text and listed in a
Bibliography or Works Cited section at the end of your paper.
(5) Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a serious problem that is not very well understood by most students. Simply
stated, plagiarism is the act of passing someone else's work off as your own or using someone's
research without proper citation. Direct plagiarism occurs when a passage is quoted verbatim
(word for word).
Indirect plagiarism occurs when the student paraphrases the original work without
giving credit to the original author. Paraphrasing means to substitute certain words and to alter
some sentences while repeating all the main ideas. Even though the original work was not copied
verbatim, the ideas and substance have been copied.
If you use ANY piece of material from a published (or, in certain circumstances,
unpublished) source, you MUST provide proper citation. The rules on how to avoid plagiarism
can be quite confusing. Consult your professor or a good writing guide on tips to avoid this
serious problem. Basically, you should have a citation in every paragraph where you have used
material from a published source, including the Internet.
Moreover, EVERY map, table, graphic, or picture that you include from whatever source
(even if it's your own material) must have a proper caption and a full citation (i.e. Source:
Photograph by the author). DO NOT fill up the paper with lines of direct quotes from material.
Put the material in your own words and cite the original source.
If you have more than four lines of direct quotation on any one page in your paper, you
probably have too much direct quotation. If in doubt about this, talk to your professor!
Learn the rules NOW!! DO NOT PLAGIARIZE.
(6) Your field Component of the Research Paper:
Finally, we come to the very heart of many research paper problems – the failure to
include your field component in the paper. Having your field component does not mean throwing
some table in at the end of the research paper!
Your discipline is concerned with definite relationships. Ask yourself at the beginning of
the research project what the field component of your paper is going to be. What pattern or
process are your investigating? How has it changed? How might it change as the result of some
action or process?
Also important to this concept is the "SO WHAT?" question. You must have a good
rationale for conducting the research. Why are you researching this topic or issue? Adding to the
body of knowledge about a topic, exploring new methodological approaches to a problem or
issue, evaluating policy implications for a specific problem, or helping us to understand more
fully the complexity of human-environment relationships all are solid rationales for conducting
research.
Finally, and above all, you should enjoy your research. Choose issues or problems that
really motivate you and challenge you professionally and intellectually. Don't opt for the already
hashed-over approach that will bore you to distraction. Address the serious and challenging
issues – the reward and satisfaction will be much higher in the long run.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
Objectives
The focus of this paper is the use of formulaic language in English Lingua Franca (ELF).
The conversation in Example 1 demonstrates a frequent problem occurring in lingua franca
communication in which the language in use is not the L1 of either speaker:
Example 1:
Chinese student: – I think Peter drank a bit too much at the party yesterday.
Turkish student: – Eh, tell me about it. He always drinks much.
Chinese student: – When we arrived he drank beer. Then Mary brought him some vodka.
Later he drank some wine. Oh, too much.
Turkish student: – Why are you telling me this? I was there.
Chinese student: – Yes, but you told me to tell you about it.
One of the nonnative speakers used a formulaic expression in a nativelike way. However,
the other nonnative speaker was not familiar with the conventional connotation of the expression.
For him the most salient meaning of the formula was its literal meaning, its combinatorial
meaning. This discrepancy in processing led to misunderstanding between the speakers.
Recently English Lingua Franca communication has been receiving increasing attention
in language research. Globalization has changed the world and the way we use language. With
English being the most frequently used lingua franca much communication happens without the
participation of native speakers of English. The development and use of English as a lingua
franca is probably the most radical and controversial approach to emerge in recent years, as
David Graddol (2006) claimed in his book English Next. The book argues that it is an inevitable
trend in the use of global English that fewer interactions now involve a native speaker, and that
as the English-speaking world becomes less formal, and more democratic, the myth of a standard
language becomes more difficult to maintain. Graddol claims that in this new world the presence
of native speakers hinders rather than supports communication. In organizations where English
has become the corporate language, meetings sometimes go more smoothly when no native
speakers are present. Globally, the same kind of thing may be happening on a larger scale.
Understanding how non-native speakers use English talking to other non-native speakers has
now become an important research area. The Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English
(VOICE) project, led by Barbara Seidlhofer, is creating a computer corpus of lingua franca
interactions, which is intended to help linguists understand ELF better. Although several studies
have been published on the use of ELF (e.g., House 2002, 2003; Meierkord 1998, 2000; Knapp
and Meierkord 2002; Firth 1996; Seidlhofer 2004), our knowledge about this particular variety of
English is still quite limited.
What makes lingua franca communication unique is that interlocutors usually speak
different first languages and belong to different cultures but use a common language that has its
own socio-cultural background and preferred ways of saying things. So it is essential to ask two
questions:
1. With no native speakers participating in the language game how much will the players
stick to the original rules of the game?
2. Can current pragmatic theories explain this type of communication in which basic
concepts such as common ground, mutual knowledge, cooperation, and relevance gain new
meaning?
Second language researchers have worked out several different tools and methods to
measure language proficiency and fluency. In the center of all these procedures stand
grammatical correctness and pragmatic appropriateness. There is no room here to discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. Let‘s just say that if we want to learn how
much lingua franca speakers stick to the original rules of the language game, we will need to find
out something about their thought processes and linguistic conventions as reflected in their
language use. What are the possible means for this? First of all, people belonging to a particular
speech community have preferred ways of saying things (cf. Wray 2002) and preferred ways of
organizing thoughts. Preferred ways of saying things are generally reflected in the use of
formulaic language and figurative language while preferred ways of organizing thoughts can be
detected through analyzing, for instance, the use of subordinate conjunctions, clauses and
discourse markers. This paper will focus on the use of formulaic language in ELF to answer the
two questions above.
Misplaced modifiers
A misplaced modifier is a participial phrase or other modifier that comes before the
subject, but does NOT refer to the subject. Look at this sentence:
Driving down the road, a herd of sheep suddenly crossed the road in front of Liza's
car. (INCORRECT;)
This sentence is incorrect because it seems to say that a herd of sheep – rather than
Liza – was driving down the road. The participial phrase is misplaced. The sentence could
be corrected as shown:
As Liza was driving down the road, a herd of sheep suddenly crossed the road in front
of her. (CORRECT),
This sentence now correctly has Liza in the driver's seat instead of the sheep.
The following sentence structures are often misplaced.
Present participle.Walking along the beach, the ship was spotted by the men.
Correction: Walking along the beach, the men spotted the ship.
Past participle. Based on this study, the scientist could make several conclusions.
Correction: Based on this study, several conclusions could be made by the scientist.
Appositive. A resort city in Arkansas, the population of Hot Springs is about 35,000.
Correction: A resort city in Arkansas, Hot Springs has a population of about 35,000.
Reduced adjective clause. While peeling onions, his eyes began to water.
Correction: While he was peeling onions, his eyes began to water.
Adjective phrases. Warm and mild, everyone enjoys the climate of the Virgin Islands.
Correction: Everyone enjoys the warm, mild climate of the Virgin Islands.
Expressions with like or unlike. Like most cities, parking is a problem in San
Francisco.
Correction: Like most cities, San Francisco has a parking problem
Structure items with misplaced modifiers are usually easy to spot. They generally
consist of a modifying element at the beginning of the sentence followed by a comma, with
the rest or most of the rest of the sentence missing. The answer choices tend to be long.
To find the answer, you must decide what subject the modifier correctly refers to.
Examples:
Using a device called a cloud chamber, ____________
(A) experimental proof for the atomic theory was found by Robert Millikin.
(B) Robert Millikin's experimental proof for the atomic theory was found.
(C) Robert Millikin found experimental proof for the atomic theory.
(D) there was experimental proof found for the atomic theory by Robert Millikin.
Choices (A) and (B) are incorrect because the modifier (Using a device called a cloud
chamber) could not logically refer to the subjects (experimental proof and Robert Millikin's
experimental proof). (D) is incorrect because a modifier can never properly refer to the introductory
words there or it.
1. Fearing economic hardship, _____
(A) many Ukrainians emigrated to other countries in the 1990s.
(B) emigration from Ukraine to other countries took place in the 1990s.
(C) it was in the 1990s that many Ukrainians emigrated to other countries.
(D) an emigration took place in the 1990s from Ukraine to other countries.
2. Rich and distinctive in flavor, ____
(A) there is in the United States a very important nut crop, the pecan.
(B) the most important nut crop in the United States, the pecan.
(C) farmers in the United States raise pecans, a very important nut crop.
(D) pecans are the most important nut crop in the United States.
3.____________ orbiting from 2.7 to 3.6 billion miles from the sun.
(A) The astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930
(B) Pluto was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930
(C) It was in 1930 that the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto
(D) The discovery of Pluto was made by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930
4. A popular instrument,____.
(A) only a limited role has been available to the accordion in classical music.
(B) there is only a limited role for the accordion in popular music.
(C) classical music provides only a limited role for the accordion.
(D) the accordion has played only a limited role in classical music.
Unit 1-23. INTERPRETATION OF MEANING IN SUCCESSFUL LINGUA
FRANCA INTERACTION
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
The insights gained from ELF research during recent years have made a considerable
impact on the conceptualization of English as an international language and have told a lot about
interactional practices and pragmatic strategies successful ELF speakers use. These insights into
successful ELF usage are gained from the observation and analysis of spoken data, and there are
very good reasons for doing so. The fact that much of what we know about ELF today comes
from researching spoken interactions, at one of the central principles governing such spoken
interactions – the principle of turn-taking is arguably a central issue to be investigated in ELF.
But despite the huge body of work on turn-taking, in general, and the immense growth of
research on ELF over the last few years, turn-taking management in English as a lingua franca
remains still very much unknown territory.
Christiane Meierkord‘s study analyses informal non-native speaker (NNS} – non-native
speaker conversation to see what types of NNS errors lead to what types of NNS response
constituting negative input available to the NNS. This study further examines the differential
effect of the NNS response on subsequent NNS speech in a given conversation.
The data
The following discussions are based on tape-recorded, naturally occurring, face-to-face
group conversations. The data was collected in a student hall of residence for overseas students
in Great Britain and comprise 23 conversations of a total of 13.5 hours. The speakers
participating in the conversations are aged roughly between 20 and 30. They are of both sexes,
speak 17 different mother tongues and include both less competent and more competent
speakers. The corpus, thus, is very heterogeneous, but is, nevertheless, representative of the
situations which involve lingua franca communication.
Instruction: Not all non-native speakers have trouble communicating in English. Many
speak at a native level, but many do not. The ability to communicate with people who speak a
limited amount of English is actually a skill that can be developed over time with practice.
Whether you deal with non-native English speakers often or rarely, this advice will help you to
communicate more effectively and smoothly. Graduate students who are non-native speakers of
English should focus on developing a variety of oral presentation skills used in the non-native
EL academic community, in particular, and in any other non-native EL environment, in general.
You will address different aspects of spoken English, including higher level issues such as
linguistics, sociolinguistics, organizational and strategic competence, as well as more detail-
oriented issues, such as accuracy in pronunciation, stress patterns, intonation and rhythm.
Mastering these skills will be especially useful to students who wish to prepare for teaching
responsibilities, and to those graduate students who need to prepare for giving lectures, leading
discussion/lab sections, interacting with non-native speakers, presenting graduation papers,
reporting on current research, and engaging in job interviews. Below are some useful tips on
skills for writing and presenting a graduation paper.
Section 1. Guidelines for reading texts on the use of international English in European
business
Professor Jennifer Jenkins: Given that there are now more second language than first
language speakers of English around the globe, dramatic developments in spoken English are
likely to occur over the coming years. In Europe, we may be about to witness the emergence of a
hybrid European accent, albeit with local variations, which will no longer look to Britain to
dictate its norms.
Dr Jennifer Jenkins is co-ordinator of Teacher Education and Applied Linguistics in the
English Language Centre, King's College London.
Professor Juliane House: The role of English as a worldwide lingua franca is irreversible.
It is therefore more fruitful to accept this role than either bemoan it or follow the European
Union's hypocritical language policy. A distinction between a "language for communication" and
a "language for identification" is useful here. English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a language for
communication, and as such the "property" of all European speakers whose native languages will
continue to serve as languages for identification, i.e., means for speakers to identify with their
linguistic community's cultural heritage.
The usefulness of this "division of labour" is reflected in three recent developments: a
renewed concern with local, regional and national linguistic and cultural practices; attempts to
give English as a school subject a curricular status markedly different from other foreign
languages; results from empirical research into ELF interactions and the influence of ELF on
discourse norms in other European languages.
Dr Juliane House is professor of Applied Linguistics and head of the English language
programme at the University of Hamburg.
Jennifer Jenkins and Barbara Seidlhofer suggest how the results of new research into how
'non-native' speakers of English use the language must change the way it is taught
A Finnish scientist coming to Vienna for a conference on human genetics; an Italian
designer negotiating with prospective clients in Stockholm; a Polish tourist chatting with local
restaurateurs in Crete: they all communicate successfully in "English", but which "English"?
Well, chances are that it is not the language you hear in chat shows and soaps on British or
American television, but rather a range of "Englishes", with enough of a common core so as to
make it viable as a means of communication.
In fact, it is even claimed that a European variety of English, sometimes labelled "Euro-
English", is in the process of evolving to serve as a European lingua franca. As yet, however, this
new variety of English has not been described, largely because it is at such an embryonic stage in
its evolution. All we can say with any degree of certainty is that English as a lingua franca in
Europe (ELFE) is likely to be some kind of European-English hybrid which, as it develops, will
increasingly look to continental Europe rather than to Britain or the United States for its norms of
correctness and appropriateness.
However, as long as there is no sound empirical basis for a description of how the language
is actually used, the forms ELFE will take will remain an object of speculation.
This is why we decided to record interactions among "non-native" speakers of English
from a wide variety of first-language backgrounds, and to investigate what happens linguistically
when English is used as a lingua franca. The focus of our research to date has been on
pronunciation and lexicogrammar (vocabulary plus grammar), and it has enabled us to make a
number of educated guesses at emerging characteristics of ELFE.
Jennifer Jenkins gathered data from interactions among non-native speakers of English in
order to establish which aspects of pronunciation cause intelligibility problems when English is
spoken as an International Language. This enabled her to draw up a pronunciation core, the
Lingua Franca Core, and certain of the features she designates core and non-core provide
evidence as to the likely development of ELFE pronunciation.
The features of the Lingua Franca Core are those which were found to be crucial for
intelligibility. They include:
• consonant sounds except for "th" (both voiceless as in "think" and voiced as in 'this') and
dark 'l' (as, for example, in the word 'hotel');
• vowel length contrasts (e.g. the difference in length between the vowel sounds in the
words "live" and "leave");
• nuclear (tonic) stress (eg the stress indicated by capital letters in the following: "I come
from FRANCE. Where are YOU from?").
Most other areas of pronunciation are then designated non-core, and these include many
features on which teachers and learners often spend a great deal of time and effort, such as the
exact quality of vowel sounds, word stress, or the "typical rhythm of British English", with lots
of "little" words such as articles and prepositions pronounced so weakly as to be hardly audible.
Taking the Lingua Franca Core as our starting point, we predict that the pronunciation of
ELFE will, over time, develop certain characteristics. For example, it is unlikely that "th" will be
a feature of ELFE accents since nearly all continental Europeans other than those from Spain and
Greece have a problem in producing it. What is not clear at this stage is whether the ELFE
substitute will be "s" and "z" (as used, for example, by many French- and German-English
speakers) or "t" and "d" (as used, for example, by many Italian- and Scandinavian-English
speakers), or whether there will be scope for regional variation. Given that users of "s" and "z"
outnumber users of "t" and "d", however, we predict that ultimately the former will become the
accepted ELFE variant.
Similarly, because of difficulties of many Europeans with dark "l", we predict that this
sound will not be included in the ELFE pronunciation inventory, but will probably be substituted
with clear "l" (a development which will run counter to that in British English, where dark "l" is
increasingly being substituted with l-vocalisation, such that "bill" sounds more like "biw").
On the other hand, the British-English distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants
is likely to be maintained in ELFE since the loss of this distinction proved to be a frequent cause
of intelligibility problems in the research. For example, a German-English speaker's devoicing of
the final sound on the word "mug" so that it sounded like "muck" rendered the word
unintelligible to an Italian-English speaker.
The phenomena which can be observed in the area of ELFE lexicogrammar are the
research focus of Seidlhofer's current work. For this purpose, she has been compiling a corpus of
interactions in English among fairly fluent speakers from a variety of first-language
backgrounds. This corpus, supported by Oxford University Press, is called the Vienna-Oxford
ELF Corpus and is housed at the University of Vienna.
The findings emerging from it are similar to Jenkins' research into pronunciation in that
they also involve many of those features often regarded, and taught, as particularly "typical" of
(native) English. In our analyses of a variety of interactions such as casual conversations and
academic discussions, no major disruptions in communication happened when speakers
committed one or more of the following deadly "grammatical sins":
• using the same form for all present tense verbs, as in 'you look very sad' and 'he look very sad';
• not putting a definite or indefinite article in front of nouns, as in "our countries have signed
agreement about this";
• treating "who" and "which" as interchangeable relative pronouns, as in "the picture who. . ." or
"a person which";
• using just the verb stem in constructions such as "I look forward to see you tomorrow";
• using "isn't it?" as a universal tag question (i.e. instead of "haven't they?" and "shouldn't he?"),
as in "They've finished their dinner now, isn't it?".
These characteristics, it will be noted, are described in a neutral way here, i.e. we are not
talking about "dropping the third person -s" or "leaving out the -ing ending of the gerund", but
this is not the way these "mistakes" are usually treated in English classrooms around Europe. As
many teachers of English as a foreign language will know, the time and effort spent on such
features as the "third person -s", the use of articles and the "gerund" is often considerable, and
nevertheless many learners still fail to use them "correctly" after years of instruction, especially
in spontaneous speech.
What our analyses of ELF interactions suggest is that the time needed to teach and learn
these constructions bears very little relationship to their actual usefulness, as successful
communication is obviously possible without them. It seems, in fact, that there is a very good
reason for many students' observed resistance to learning these characteristics of native-speaker
English: like the th-sounds discussed above, they are not communicatively crucial. Rather,
speakers tend to tune into them only when they use English in a native-speaker community and
wish to "blend in" (which, for certain learners, obviously remains a desirable objective) while
they seem to be redundant in much lingua franca communication.
As far as the implications for teaching are concerned we would like to make two general
suggestions. The first and most important point to emphasise is, in our view, the need to
encourage both teachers and students to adjust their attitudes towards ELFE. Even those who
strongly support the development of a continental European hybrid variety of English that does
not look to Britain or America for its standards of correctness, reveal a degree of schizophrenia
in this respect. For example Charlotte Hoffman has described the English of European learners
as spanning "the whole range from non-fluent to native-like", as though fluency in English were
not a possibility for those whose speech does not mimic that of a native speaker.
Similarly, Theo van Els pointed out in a lecture given last year in the Netherlands that the
ownership of a lingua franca transfers from its native speakers to its non-native speakers. Yet he
went on to argue paradoxically that the Dutch should not be complacent about their English
because "only very few are able to achieve a level of proficiency that approximates the native or
native-like level".
Our second point is that it is crucial for English language teaching in Europe to focus on
contexts of use that are relevant to European speakers of English. In particular, descriptions of
spoken English offered to these learners should not be grounded in British or American uses of
English but in ELFE or other non-native contexts (depending on where the particular learners
intend to use their English in future).
In this respect it is disappointing that so-called "authentic" materials offered to learners
continue to be based only on corpora of native speaker use. For example, Helen Basturkmen's
recent contribution to the ELT Journal argues in favour of "highlighting general strategies of
talk, and encouraging learners to become active observers of language use in settings relevant to
them". This would be admirable were it not the conclusion to an article in which she cites
examples taken exclusively from data of native speaker interactions. ELFE learners (along with
all other learners of English as an International Language) need descriptions drawn from
interactions between non-native speakers in the contexts in which they, too, will later participate.
To some, our proposal may seem to be a recipe for "permissiveness" and decline in "standards".
But what we are essentially seeking to do is to carry through the implications of the fact that
English is an international language and as such no longer the preserve of its native speakers. If
English is indeed a lingua franca, then it should be possible to describe it as such without
prejudice. And that may well be the biggest challenge for ELFE in the 21st Century.
TOPICS FOR THE FINAL DISCUSSION OF ELF/ESP IN EUROPEAN AS WELL AS
UKRAINIAN EDUCAION
Issues:
Should multilingualism be enforced as a goal in itself?
Should entirely monolingual higher education be effectively forbidden (or left to the private
sector)?
Should all European languages be given the protected status, given to some minority languages?
Should courses offered in one language be given in parallel, in other languages?
Should all courses be given in a fixed minimum of languages?
Should international courses especially, be multilingual, or available in parallel versions?
Should there be a maximum on the share of English-language courses?
Should visiting staff be required to speak a minimum of European languages?
Issues:
Should students have a right to course material in their native language?
Should students have a right to use multilingual material?
Should students have a right to use (multilingual) material in EU languages?
Aside from the claims of students, should course content and material be multilingual, as a
general policy?
Is bilingualism of material (teaching language plus English) an acceptable substitute for
multilingualism?
Should compiled works (readers, collections) be multilingual?
Are monolingual (English) works, excluding EU content, acceptable in the EU?
Should software be multilingual?
Does EU policy, on a multilingual information society, also apply to academic software and
academic computing centres?
Should course information (folders, syllabus, guides, websites) be multilingual?
Issues:
Is justice applicable between languages?
Are there moral obligations of equal acquisition, across languages?
Is there, in any case, a moral preference for multilingual libraries?
Should libraries give preference in acquisition, to multilingual works?
Should all EU languages be given equal library acquisition status with English, in the EU?
Should libraries in the EU give preference in acquisition, to EU languages, or to all European
languages?
Should there be a maximum on English-language acquisitions?
If a library refuses to supply a work in an official EU language, is that contrary to European law?
Can a monolingual library be prosecuted under national law, for criminal discrimination?
Issues:
Should all students be obliged, as a matter of justice, to use a non-native language as part of their
university study?
Should English-language students, specifically, be excluded from English-language international
courses, to prevent unfair advantage?
Should the number of languages of teaching be greatly increased, to include also non-standard
dialects?
Is an examination just or fair, if one student can use a native language, while others must use
their fourth or fifth language?
Are migrants (English speakers excepted) systematically disadvantaged at European
universities?
Is it just to give protected status (including education facilities) to some minority languages, but
not to others?
Issues:
The basic issue: is it legitimate for a journal to refuse an article on grounds of language?
Is this refusal discriminatory, and possibly a criminal offence?
Is this refusal morally equivalent to racism?
Should journals, published in the EU, be obliged to accept submissions in all EU official
languages?
Is refusal of an article in French by a British journal, for instance, contrary to European law?
Should there be quotas by native language, for journal editors, editorial boards, advisors and
reviewers?
Is it acceptable for a journal to refuse a person as editor/advisor, on grounds of language?
Is a requirement to use one language for conference papers legitimate?
Is lack of funds for translation a legitimate reason to limit conference languages?
Should the EU fund monolingual conferences?
Should a minimum number of EU languages be legally required at non-local conferences?
Are existing conference language restrictions contrary to European law?
Issues:
Should the EU enforce (or subsidise) multilingual journals, or parallel publication?
Is it acceptable to publish results of EU-funded research, in English only?
Should research funds, in general, be conditional on multilingual publication?
Is there a general moral obligation to multilingual publication?
Does legal protection of minority languages bind journal publishers to some publication in these
languages?
As a finishing touch to the final intensive reading unit of this Manual, below are
offered two popular samples of the "Euro English" satire published on the website Orwell
Today: www.orwelltoday.com which has been monitored by an independent researcher
Jackie Jura, under the title EURO ENGLISH. You are sure to enjoy correcting humorous
spelling mistakes:
Euro English
The European Union Commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to
adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German,
which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had
some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as
EuroEnglish (Euro for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive
this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up
konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph"
will be replaced by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be Expekted to reach the stage
where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a
deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is
disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "
v".
During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar
changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and
evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.
Ze drem vil finali kum tru.
Jackie Jura received ―a snotty-toned email‖ in response to a joke she had on the site
entitled EURO ENGLISH by Author Unknown. It said that the author who inspired "Euro
English" was none other than one of the greatest satirists in the history of the world, Mark
Twain.
Here's the Mark Twain,s version:
A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k"
or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c"
would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might
reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3
might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for
all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with
useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and
unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez
"c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh",
and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in
ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld."
More people than ever are on the move. Between 1960 and 2000 the total number of
international migrants had doubled to 175 million, representing nearly 3% of the world‘s
population. Many migrants seek a better life in one of the more developed countries which
encourage the immigration of skilled workers to counterbalance their ageing workforce. This is
changing the social and linguistic mix of the destination countries.
For example, London is now widely regarded as the most multilingual city in the world – a
study in 2000 found that children in London schools spoke over 300 languages.
Historically, the movement of people has been the main reason for language spread. It still
has important linguistic consequences today.
2. Returnees
As the economies of developing countries grow, many former economic migrants return –
often with the skills and capital they have acquired overseas. The governments of both China and
India encourage ‗returnees‘ who have become a new social category in these countries, part
envied, part resented. Returnees usually face challenging issues relating to identity. Some family
members of returnees may feel they belong ‗elsewhere‘ – children, for example, who have been
brought up in the USA with English as their first language.
People on the move: Migrant workers. Refugees and asylum seekers. Immigrants.
Tourists, visitors to friends and family. Business workers. International students. Troop
movements, peace-keeping. Emergency aid work, NGOs.
3. Tourism
International tourism is growing, but the proportion of encounters involving a native
English speaker is declining. There were around 763 million international travellers in 2004, but
nearly three-quarters of visits involved visitors from a non-English-speaking country travelling
to a non-English-speaking destination.
This demonstrates the scale of need for face-to-face international communication and a
growing role for global English: English to English – 4%; English to other countries – 12%;
Other countries to English – 10%; Non-English speaking to non-English speaking – 74%.
Tourism is growing, but the majority of human interactions do not involve an English
native speaker. (Data derived from World Tourism Organisation)
5. Expat workers
The stream of migrant workers flowing to richer economies threatens to impoverish the
developing economies they come from – Bangladeshi construction workers in South-East Asia,
Indian entrepreneurs in African countries. This exodus of talent has raised serious concerns.
There is, however, another dimension to this. English is a necessary skill for many of these
workers: for example, Malaysia in 2003 made basic proficiency in English a requirement for all
foreign employees, just as Bangladesh signed an agreement to send 200,000 workers to
Malaysia.
Mexicans working in the USA are estimated to send back 18 billion dollars a year but
remittances are known to be drastically underestimated by official statistics. . In many countries,
remittances from expat workers make a significant contribution to the national economy.
English is widely regarded as a gateway to wealth for national economies, organisations,
and individuals. If that is correct, the distribution of poverty in future will be closely linked to the
distributions of English.
Saudi Arabia, nurses and doctors from Nepal, indicate that the actual flow may be 10 times
or more than that published.
In many countries, such as sub-Saharan African countries, there may be no official
statistics actually collected. In other words, remittance economies are probably of far greater
importance in development than recognised in statistics.
Migrant workers not only remit money, but also often acquire – or maintain during periods
of employment difficulty in their home country – skills and knowledge which they may later
repatriate if the economic situation ‗back home‘ improves.
6. Internal migration
Internal migration to urban areas has a similar impact on rural economies. Workers may
leave their children with grandparents in the country, sending home money which is vital to the
support of not only their own families but also the rural economy as a whole. Such internal flows
of money are even less well documented than international flows but there is a language
implication here also. Many rural migrants seek employment in one of the hospitality industries
where some level of English is expected. Because the language of the city is often different from
that of their home area, new linguistic skills are acquired, and a linguistic conduit established
between the urban and rural varieties. If life in the city goes well, the worker may be joined by
the children who will also acquire new languages.
Instruction: After almost every text, the first question you should ask is an overview
question about the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the text. Main idea questions ask
you to identify the most important thought in the text, the main idea or topic of a passage.
Sample Questions
What is the main idea of the passage? Choose the right answer.
(A) Historically, the movement of people has been the main reason for language spread. It
still has important linguistic consequences today.
(B) Freedom of labour movement within the EU has led to the emergence of new linguistic
communities in Britain.
(C) We now live in a world in which migrants do not have to break connections with friends
and family to begin the generations-long process of assimilating to a new identity.
(D) Poverty, as well as wealth, is becoming globalised.
Will patterns of emigration become reversable in the 21st century?
Which line or lines best summarize the author's main idea?
Sample Questions
What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) Lack of English in some countries.
(B) Need for face-to-face international communication and a growing role for global
English.
What does the passage mainly discuss? What is the passage primarily concerned
with?
(A) People on the move.
(B) The impact of globalisation on wealth.
Main purpose questions ask why the author wrote a passage. The answer choices
for these questions usually begin with infinitives.
Sample Questions
• What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?
• What is the author's main purpose in the passage?
• What is the main point of this passage?
• Why did the author write the passage?
Sample Answer Choices
To define_____
To relate_____
To discuss_____
To propose_____
To illustrate_____
To support the idea that_____
To distinguish between _____and______
To compare ____and_____
Main detail questions ask about the most significant information of the passage. To
answer such a question you should point out a line or two in the text.
Sample Questions
What news is emphasized in the passage?
In what line is the most significant information given?
Caution:
Don't answer the initial overview question about a passage until you have answered the
other questions. The process of answering the detail questions may give you a clearer
understanding of the main idea, topic, or purpose of the passage.
The correct answers for main idea, main topic, and main purpose questions correctly
summarize the main points of the passage; they must be more general than any of the supporting
ideas or details, but not so general that they include ideas outside the scope of the passages.
If you're not sure of the answer for one of these questions, go back and quickly scan the
passage. You can usually infer the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of the entire passage
from an understanding of the main ideas of the paragraphs that make up the passage and the
relationship between them.
Unit 2-2. THE COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
1. Communications technology
The ‗communications revolution‘ has, in many ways, just begun. New communications
media are changing the social, economic and political structure of societies across the world.
In 1997, when David Graddol‘s book The Future of English? was published, the cost of
international telephone calls was falling fast. By the end of the 20th century, the cost of a call
was determined less by distance and duration and more by the extent to which the telecoms
business in a destination country had been liberalised. Countries such as Vietnam were amongst
the most costly to reach from the UK, whereas the English-speaking world had been brought into
close proximity, in terms of ‗teledistance‘.
The world is talking more. In 2004, international calls from fixed lines reached 140 billion
minutes. In 2002, mobile phone connections overtook fixed lines and passed the 2 billion figure
in September 2005.
With the development of voice over internet protocol (VOIP), calls can be made over the
internet across the world at no marginal cost. Such facilities are not only available to large
corporations – making Indian call centres more attractive – but also to ordinary consumers
through schemes such as Skype which, by the end of 2005, claimed to have 50 million users.
VOIP is replacing landline technology, which is expected to be obsolete in the UK by 2010.
2. Text messaging
Short text messages (SMS) have become a major form of communication in Europe and
Asia, especially among young people.
SMS has had several social and political impacts: in the UK new forms of bullying have
emerged; in Germany, it is used to organise mass parties. In 2001, text messaging helped bring
down the Philippines President, Joseph Estrada; in 2005, it helped mobilise participants in the
‗Orange revolution‘ in the Ukraine, and massive anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon after the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
3. Surveillance society
Technology is undermining the traditional distribution of power by redistributing
knowledge. The state builds databases on its citizens; businesses profile the buying habits of
their customers through loyalty cards; surveillance cameras provide data on civil disturbances,
crime, weather and traffic flow; eavesdropping technologies monitor citizens conversations,
email and text messages or comments on websites.
Citizens exploit the same technologies. Internet forums allow shoppers to compare prices
and read consumer reviews; volunteers create databases of the location of speed cameras for use
in car navigation systems; blogs, websites, and webcams allow individuals and small
communities to project and manage their own identities.
The Victorians debated the paradox brought by new communications technologies
(especially the electric telegraph which wired up the world by the end of the 19th century). On
the one hand, it allowed the ‗centre‘ to monitor and control the ‗periphery‘, whether it be the
government in London attempting to control the civil servants in the far reaches of the empire, or
central management controlling staff and rolling stock along the newly built railway lines. But it
also allowed information to be disseminated quickly and more widely inways that were
liberating and empowering to ordinary people.
(A) This „cat and mouse‟ game is likely to continue as technology allows even faster and
more powerful ways of collecting, analysing and communicating information.
Surveillance, censorship and cryptography are now some of the main drivers of language
technology research. International telephone traffic (in billions of international telephone
minutes) has been steadily increasing but may now be levelling off as other channels of
communication are used. (Data from International Telecommunications Union)
The proportion of internet users for whom English is a first language has been decreasing
fast. But is that also true of web content?
In 1998, Geoff Nunberg and Schulze found that around 85% of web pages were in English.
A study by ExciteHome found that had dropped to 72% in 1999; and a survey by the Catalan ISP
VilaWeb in 2000 estimated a further drop to 68%.
It seems that the proportion of English material on the internet is declining, but that there
remains more English than is proportionate to the first languages of users. Estimates from the
Latin American NGO Funredes suggest that only 8–15% of web content in English represents
lingua franca usage. Although it is difficult to estimate how much content is in each of the major
languages, these figures seem to be roughly correct.
This may be simply a time-lag – internet sites in local languages appear only when there
exist users who can understand them. Surveys of bilingual internet users in the USA suggest that
their use of English sites declines as alternatives in their first language become available.
An analysis published in November 2005 by Byte Level Research concluded:
(B) This data makes clear that the next Internet revolution will not be in English. While
English isn‟t becoming any less important on the Internet, other languages, such as Chinese,
Russian, Spanish, and Portuguese, are becoming comparatively more important.
The dominance of English on the internet has probably been overestimated. What began as
an anglophone phenomenon has rapidly become a multilingual affair.
Software has been made capable of displaying many different kinds of script. Many
corporate websites now employ multilingual strategies making choice of language a ‗user
preference‘. Machine translation of web content is only a mouse-click away. And there are many
reasons why the internet, which started as a long-distance, global communications medium, is
now serving much more local interests. Furthermore, the internet is proving to be a very useful
resource to those interested in learning lesser-used languages.
So, a much more important story than the dominance of English lies in the way lesser-used
languages are now flourishing on the internet and how communication is becoming more
multilingual. The proportion of English tends to be highest where the local language has a
relatively small number of speakers and where competence in English is high.
In Holland and Scandinavia, for example, English pages run as high as 30% of the total; in
France and Germany, they account for around 15-20%; and in Latin America, they account for
10% or less. (Geoffrey Nunberg ‗Will the Internet Always Speak English?‘ The American
Prospect) English on the internet is declining.
Instruction: A number of various questions are asked that require an overall understanding
of the passage. These are often the last questions in a set of overview questions.
Tone questions ask you to determine the author's feelings about the topic by the language
that he or she uses in writing the passage. Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions.
Again, you must understand the author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you
what his or her position is.
Above are five meaningfully tied paragraphs of variable length containing general
information in the field of communication revolution. For your convenience they are marked
with numbers 1-5. Your task is to understand the texts and determine the authors‘ feelings about
the topics.
Sample Tone Questions
• What tone does the author take in writing this text?
• How could the tone of this text best be described as?
Sample Answer Choices
The following adjectives indicate if the author's feelings are positive, negative, or neutral
• Positive • Humorous • Worried
• Favorable • Negative • Outraged
• Optimistic • Critical • Neutral
• Amused • Unfavorable • Objective
• Pleased • Angry • Impersonal
• Respectful • Defiant
If you read the italicized sentences in paragraph 3, would the tone of this paragraph most
likely be positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.
Note: The italicized words in paragraph 3 (A) show a doubtful tone; and the italicized
words indicate a negative attitude. Words like „cat and mouse‟, „Surveillance, censorship and
cryptography‟ and similar words can "reverse" the tone of the passage.
Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the
author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.
Sample Attitude Questions
If you read the italicized phrases in paragraph 3 (B), would the author‘s attitude most likely
be positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.
Organization questions ask about the overall structure of a passage or about the
organization of a paragraph.
A Sample Question
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
Answer Choices
A general concept is defined and examples are given.
Several generalizations are presented, from which a conclusion is drawn.
The author presents the advantages and disadvantages of ... .
The author presents a system of classification for ... .
Persuasive language is used to argue against ... .
The author describes ... .
The author presents a brief account of ... .
The author compares_and ....
A Sample Question
What is the author's attitude toward the growth of the number of non-English users of
the internet and the decline of use of English on the internet?
Questions about previous or following paragraphs ask you to assume how the passages
are organized, what would be the topic of the text. To find the order of the passages, look for
clues in the first lines. To find the topic of the text, look in the last lines.
Sample Questions
With what topic would the text most likely begin?
What does the second paragraph most probably discuss?
Can it be inferred from the text which paragraph is most likely the last one?
Unit 2-3. ENGLISH AS A UNIVERSL LINGUAGE
European identity
The EU has recently experienced a major expansion of membership, with new members
waiting to join and with ever-growing trends of migration from both within and outside. Yet,
major players within the EU are now adjusting to the newcomers, still without previously having
really established a clear sense of their own European identities. In this context, we aim at
exploring key issues in the negotiation of identities within the new socio-political, economic and
cultural framework. Key questions will be:
1. What are the main characteristics, mechanisms and dissemination features of neo-
colonial modes of representation in contemporary Europe?
2. How are they received by groups commonly associated with the former periphery, and
how are they shaped by other groups?
The case for considering neo-colonialism in Europe is justified and explained from the
perspective of postcolonial theory, while the context will be examined from the perspective of
EU discourse that reflects its stance on national, regional and ethnic identity and the policies
aimed at encouraging a harmonious bonding of Europe‘s postcolonial, diasporic, multi-cultural,
multi-ethnic and mobile communities. All this includes an investigation of aspects that might be
directly linkable to patterns of European colonialism and/or to related issues of globalization and
diaspora, which still represent a rather marginal area in postcolonial research.
Questions of European identity are much discussed and debated, both in relation to an over-
arching EU identity and in relation to the groups that go to make up the EU. It seems clear that
while a distinct European identity is some way off for many Europeans, within Europe there is
nonetheless a constant quest and a need by many people to re-position themselves, either
consciously or unconsciously, in relation to the changing environment. In this quest to reposition,
the role of language is fundamental on a number of dimensions.
Language is often cited as an essential element in our identity, albeit one among many. On
one level it is crucial as the medium through which groups express their own aspirations and
concerns, as their means to selfexpression and self-image: ―Language allows us to identify our
own place in the world and our own subjectivity. A language is the product of the collective
attitudes and values of a particular group‖. At the same time, language is also the medium
through which people‘s perceptions of others are reflected and is thus a mirror for the biases and
prejudices that they may hold.
On another level, language can be a vital factor in its own right, becoming another actor in
identity construction within debates over language status, language policy and language form.
The EU has of course long appreciated the importance of language in the future success or
otherwise of the EU and has embodied in its own treaties the inviolability of national languages
and the importance of guaranteeing individual language rights within Europe. It has also
increasingly supported Europe‘s minority languages, at least in its own discourse and in its
funding initiatives and both of these positions are reinforced in the Framework Strategy for
Multilingualism (Commission of the European Communities 2005) currently under discussion.
EU philosophy is enshrined in the new Framework Strategy which promotes linguistic and
cultural diversity, stating that:
It is this diversity that makes the European Union what it is: not a ―melting pot‖ in which
differences are rendered down, but a common home in which diversity is celebrated, and where
our many mother tongues are a source of wealth and a bridge to greater solidarity and mutual
understanding. Language is the most direct expression of culture; it is what makes us human and
what gives each of us a sense of identity.
Instruction: It is vital to identify the main point of each paragraph of the text and collect
circumstantial evidence in separate passages. When analyzing each paragraph of the text you
mostly rely on circumstantial evidence. Circumstantial evidence is evidence not drawn from the
direct observation of a fact. If, for example, Europeanization is viewed as a reaction to the two
world wars and the subsequent cold-war division of East and West, then there is circumstantial
evidence that European nations are now developing new relations with each other.
Overview questions ask you to determine the author‘s attitude to a specific item, the main
topic of a passage, the author's main point, the primary purpose of a passage, the organization of a
passage, etc. Before answering a variety of overview questions about short passages, read the
passages and mark possible answer choices.
Sample Questions
How would the author feel about a statement that a common understanding of EFL has
not been reached as yet?
Which of the following recommendations would the author most likely support?
A. To investigate all aspects that might be directly linkable to patterns of European
colonialism.
B To reduce human activities in favor of biodiversity.
C. To guarantee individual language rights within Europe.
D. To emphasise and value diversity in language and culture.
The author would be LEAST likely to agree with which of the following statements?
A. Neo-colonialism in Europe is not justified and explained from the perspective of
postcolonial theory.
B. Language is a minor element in European identity.
C. The idea of plurilingualism is viewed as a historically ―alien‖ and politically
unbalanced response to the question of how to come to grips with linguistic diversity in Europe.
The tone of the passage could best be described as (choose the right words):
objective, optimistic, angry, humorous, critical, threatening, neutral.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
Too specific. Chaotic. Too general. Logically structured. Incorrect.
Irrelevant. Correct. Not clear. Well organized.
The attitude of the author could best be described as
(A) objective
(B) optimistic
(C) angry
(D) humorous
Point out one most characteristic line that best summarizes the author's attitude.
What is the author's main point in the passage?
What is the main topic of this passage?
What is the main idea of the passage?
What does the passage mainly discuss?
Why did the author write this passage?
Sample Answer Choices
This author's main purpose in writing is to ...
The passage mainly concerns ...
The main idea of this passage is that ...
The primary purpose of this passage is to ...
The passage primarily deals with ...
The passage mainly discusses ...
The main topic of this passage is ...
The passage primarily deals with ...
The tone of the passage could best be described as
(A) objective
(B) optimistic
(C) angry
(D) humorous
Unit 2-4. MULTILINGUALISM
Polylingualism
The concepts of monolingualism, bilingualism, and multilingualism build on the notion of
languages as separate sets of features which can be distinguished from each other and counted. In
bilingualism speakers know two such languages, i.e. they have acces to and competence in using
two different sets of linguistic features in interaction.
However, over the past decades sociolinguistics has criticized the traditional concept of
languages as separate and separable sets of features. The idea of separate languages as bounded
systems of specific linguistic features belonging together and excluding other linguistic features
is found to be insufficient to capture the reality of language use, at least in late modern
superdiverse societies (Vertovec 2010), and perhaps altogether. Instead the concepts of
languages as separable entities are seen as sociocultural constructions which certainly are
important, but rarely represent real-life language use.
This has led to several new concepts of the relationship between people and languages, and
to different terminology with respect to behavior which involves features associated with
different languages. Where the multilingualism perspective views people's competences and
behaviors in terms of "how many languages" they know and use, recently the understanding has
developed that people will also use features associated with languages of which they know very
little (Rampton 1995, Otsuji & Pennycook 2009, Jørgensen et al. 2011).
Bailey comments on this in his "heteroglossic" approach to language. Approaching
monolingualism and bilingualism as socially constructed does not change their social force at the
level of lived experience, but it does show that this social force is not a function of formal, or
inherent linguistic differences among what counts as languages (Bailey 2007).
Different terms have been used for the practices through which speakers employ features
associated with different languages, in particular several different languages, some of which the
speakers do not know very well. For instance, Otsuji & Pennycook use the term
metrolingualism, and Jørgensen et al. 2011 use the term polylingualism. The view of language
use is the same, namely that there are no linguistic restrictions on what can be combined in real-
life language production, but there are social restrictions which are related to political and
ideologically motivated norms.
Linguistic behavior is often regimented by ideological norms of language use, in particular
ideas of "pure" language, so-called monolingualism norms which prescribe the restricted use of
features only belonging to "one" languge at a time (Jørgensen 2010). In real life people regularly
use features associated with different languages, however, and such behavior (so-called code-
switching) has been the object of intense study in sociolinguistics. The behaviors have been
regimented by the multilingualism norm.
The monolingualism norm. Persons with access to more than one language should be sure
to master one of them before getting involved with the other.
The (double or) multiple monolingualism norm. Persons who command two or more
languages should at any one time use only one language, and they should use each in a way that
does not differ from monolingual usage.
The integrated (bi- or) multilingualism norm. Persons who command two languages are
encouraged to employ their full linguistic competence in two or more different languages at any
given time adjusted to the needs and the possibilities of the conversation, including the linguistic
skills of the interlocutors.
The polylingualism norm. Language users employ whatever linguistic features are at their
disposal to achieve their communicative aims as best they can, regardless of how well they know
the involved languages; this entails that the language users may know - and use - the fact that
some of the features are perceived by some speakers as not belonging together.
The term polylingualism refers to a view of language based on features. Languages in this
view are sociocultural constructions. Speakers use features and not "languages". At times this
will entail using features side by side which are associated with different languages.
Furthermore, it involves the possible use of features not generally considered to belong to a
language to which the speaker has access, i.e. a language the speaker does not "know". This does
not mean that all speakers can use all language – speakers are restricted by sociocultural norms
of language behavior, by dynamics of power, ideology, and by different access to resources. In a
range of situations, however, they will use features "belonging to different languages", even
when they only know very few items from some of these "languages".
Multilingualism
The notion of multilingualism is commonly taken to refer to the knowledge and use of two and
more languages in the individual and in society at large. No clear distinction is made in this
context between bilingualism and multilingualism since the focus is not restricted to two
languages.
One reason for this vagueness can be seen in that research on bilingualism has traditionally
focused upon two languages while, at the same time, also including the study of more than two
languages, which were seen through a bilingual lens, however. It was only in the 1980es with
increasing globalization and growing multiculturalism in society that multilingualism gained
momentum, which eventually led to expanding the binary paradigm of bilingualism through
rethinking language, culture and identity in more dynamic and flexible terms.
The traditional understanding of languages as distinctly identifiable entities came to be
seriously questioned and critics argued that conceiving of bi- and multilingualism simply as a
collective container of separate parallel monolingualisms could no longer be maintained (cf.
Martin-Jones 2007). In recent publications, bilingualism is often taken to include multilingualism
(cf. Wei 2010) or multilingualism is in turn used to include bilingualism (cf. Pavlenko 2005).
Alternatively, both terms are used in conjunction to indicate the distinctiveness and yet similarity
of bi- and multilingualism.
Over the last two decades, the issue of multilingualism has come to be assigned increasing
political importance. This holds true for the European context, and particularly for the European
Union. Here, the requirements of advancing Europeanization and the move towards upholding
European cultural and linguistic diversity resulted in a conception of multilingualism as a
political strategy which would ensure the Union's cultural and economic integration into a
transnational community. The ideology of diversity suggested that a transnational community
necessitates a pluralistic language regime based upon the principle of equality, which allows for
democratic participation while at the same time forming the ground for a common European
identity.
Recent studies on the major principles that actually guide the central assumptions
concerning multilingualism in Europe reveal that the foundations of the concept are debatable
since there is a wide-spread tendency to conceptualize multilingualism as a simple addition of
the various languages, i.e. preferably the big national languages, while a great many languages
stemming from regional minorities and recent immigration are neglected in this conception.
At the same time, assumptions of this kind imply a severe blending of language, identity
and culture which, again, suggests that the languages are connected to homogeneous speech
communities, identities and cultures. This, however, leaves little room for the dynamic
realizations of the connections between culture, identity and language as they appear to be
currently conditioned by Europeanization, globalization and migration within the late-modern
European society. Needless to say, the nation-state ideology still continues to prevail in these
assumptions and that the step towards multilingualism beyond the nation-state has as yet not
been taken.
Another critical point is that multilingualism is put to the service of contradicting interests
such as linguistic equality and the respect of human rights on the one hand, and market-based
capitalization of languages on the other. The principle of equality of languages implies that all
speakers should have the right to use their languages, suggesting that minorities have an equal
share within the European diversity framework. At the same time, multilingualism as an
economic capital appears to be essentially restricted to a few powerful languages which are to
ensure mobility, market efficiency and competitiveness. The multiple linguistic resources of the
minorities, and particularly the immigrant minorities, in turn, are largely silenced in this
conception.
Examples of this kind show that to date the meaning of 'multilingualism' remains vague and
leaves scope for conflicting and inconsistent interpretations on how to shape a pluralistic regime
in Europe. Moreover, they indicate that managing linguistic diversity in terms of
'multilingualism' appears to experience great difficulty in adapting to minorities and to newly
emerging patterns of migration.
Plurilingualism
Plurilingualism is another concept of the relationship between people and languages.
Similarly to polylingualism it refuses the idea of languages as separate and separable linguistic
entities. Like the term multilingualism, plurilingualism has been used for individual and societal
phenomena as well, although it has a clear focus on the individual dimension of languages since
it is sometimes even understood as individual (as opposed to societal) multilingualism.
The development of plurilingualism is interpreted in different ways:
It may be interpreted as one of the terminological consequences of the European Union's
enhanced emphasis on multilingual education (e.g. Jessner 2008).
Others consider the use of plurilingualism as a terminological choice characteristic of
Francophone research, whereas Anglophone researchers tend not to differentiate
terminologically between societal and individual multilingualism (e.g. Kemp 2009, De Cillia
2008).
Most frequently, plurilingualism has become associated with the Council of Europe's
language policy, see chapter 1.3 of the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of
Europe 2001). The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is very clear
about the integrative and intercultural nature of plurilingualism in conceiving of plurilingual
competence as a complex competence which is fed by all linguistic knowledge as well as by the
linguistic and cultural experiences of the individual.
In this conceptualization, the components relating to the single languages are not to be
seen as being stored separately, but rather as parts of the plurilingual and pluricultural
competence. Despite the Council's focus on plurilingualism, there is no clear division between
the EU using multilingualism (and hence suggesting an additive framework) and the Council of
Europe's plurilingualism. To give an example, the term "multilingualism" may even imply that
the conceptual basis of plurilingualism is at stake, which is the case in some of the European
Union's language policy documents (e.g. COM 2003).
If one starts out from the conceptualization of plurilingualism mentioned above and goes
beyond the terminological debate, one can follow that "plurilingual" which is frequently
associated with "pluricultural" competence implies paradigmatic changes at various levels:
A holistic, multiple, dynamic, and individual vision replaces a segmented vision of
language skills.
The focus is on disequilibrium and partial competence rather than on balance of skills.
The importance of circulations, mediations and passages between languages and cultures
are highlighted instead of separateness (see Coste & Moore 2009).
It seems that these changes are most evident in the domain of multilingual education and
that in this domain a new theoretical frame is actually emerging which more or less explicitly
integrates plurilingualism. To give an example, Garcia's typology of bilingual education opens
up new perspectives on multilingual education in this sense: She assumes that monoglossic
ideologies do not cover the actual linguistic complexity, which cannot be seen through a
traditional "diglossic lens" (García 2009).
In her view heteroglossic ideologies differ from the monoglossic ones in so far as they start
out from multilingualism and go beyond the conception of two separate autonomous languages
that prevails in additive or subtractive bilingualism models (both pertaining to the monoglossic
ideologies). Within the heteroglossic ideologies she develops the recursive and dynamic
theoretical framework. The latter, which she explicitly relates to the Council of Europe's concept
of plurilingualism, is seen as the most appropriate model for multilingual education. The link to
polylingualism and translanguaging is more than obvious:
"If we focus then not on separate languages as we have done in the past, but on the
bilingual or multilingual discourse practices that we need and that are readily observable in
bilingual classrooms, we can see that bilingual arrangements that build on translanguaging, (...),
is indeed the only way to build the plurilingual abilities that we will need in the future" (García
2009: 297).
Instruction: Explication of facts and details given in the text. Factual or detail questions
ask about explicit facts and details given in the passage. To answer factual questions, you have to
locate and identify the information that the question asks about. Negative questions ask you to
determine which of the choices is not given in the passage. These questions contain the words
NOT, EXCEPT, or LEAST. Scanning questions ask you to find where in the passage some
particular information or transition is located. They are easy to identify: the answers are usually
found in the line of the text. If you are not sure from your first reading where to look for specific
answers, use the following scanning techniques.
• Focus on one or two key words as you read the stem of each question. Lock these words
in your mind.
• Scan the passage looking for the key words or their synonyms. Look only for these words.
Do NOT try to read every word of the passage.
• It may help to focus your attention. Don't reread the passage completely—just look for
key words.
• When you find the key words in the passage, carefully read the sentence in which they
occur. You may have to read the sentence preceding or following that sentence as well.
• Compare the information you read with possible answer choices.
The order of facts or details in the text almost always follows the order in which ideas are
presented in the passage. In other words, the opening information you need will usually come
near the beginning of the passage; the next factual information will follow that, and so on.
Knowing this should help you locate the information you need. Correct definitions of details are
seldom the same, word for word, as information in the passage; they often contain synonyms and
use different grammatical structures.
Factual Questions
What did Vertovec observe while studying modern superdiverse societies?
(A) Bounded systems of specific linguistic features in separate languages.
(B) Languages are separate sets of features which can be distinguished from each
other and counted.
(C) People use features associated with languages of which they know very little.
What terms have been used for the practices through which speakers employ features associated
with different languages?
What ideological norms of language use is linguistic behavior often regimented by?
What does the term polylingualism refer to?
Where in the passage does the author first discuss "pluricultural" competence?
Where in the passage does the author specifically stress that multilingualism serves contradicting
interests?
In what paragraph does the author first mention the ideology of diversity?
Scanning questions
Scanning questions are usually easy to answer. Use the same techniques for scanning given
about detail questions. For each question, locate that part of the passage in which the answer will
probably be found, and write it out. Don't worry about answering the question itself, only about
finding the information. Do these scanning questions as fast as you can.
Sample Questions
Is there another concept of the relationship between people and languages.?
What is the term for using in real life features associated with different languages?
What has plurilingualism become associated with?
Negative questions
Negative questions often take more time to answer than other questions. Therefore, you may
want to guess and come back to these questions if you have time. Scan the passage to find the
answers that ARE correct or ARE mentioned in the passage. Sometimes the three distractors NOT,
EXCEPT, or LEAST are clustered in one or two sentences; sometimes they are scattered
throughout the passage. The correct answer, of course, is the one that does not appear.
Sample Questions
According to the passage, only one of the following is true: The development of
plurilingualism is interpreted in different ways. (A) It may be interpreted as one of the
terminological consequences of the European Union's enhanced emphasis on multilingual
education. (B) Most evident paradigmatic changes at various levels of multilingual education.
(C) The principle of equality of languages. Which choice is true?
Unit 2-5. LANGUAGES BEYOND BOUNDARIES
Instruction: Making inferences and understanding indirect information given in the text.
There are questions that require you to make inferences. The answers to these questions are not
directly provided in the passage – you must "read between the lines." In other words, you must
make conclusions based indirectly on information in the passage. Many text readers find it
difficult to infer why the author of a text mentions some piece of information, or includes a quote
from a person or a study, or uses some particular word or phrase.
Sample questions:
Read the following paragraph:
Territorial modern states have also regulated linguistic practices in their bounded
territory, and linguistic characteristics have often been used as key markers to mobilize people as
a nation within an existing state or alternatively to secede from an existing state and establish a
separate state. As a result, state borders often coincide with linguistic boundaries and they
reinforce each other. In multilingual states, language arrangements are often territorial,
delimitating juxtaposed monolingual regions. In those cases administrative borders might
reinforce linguistic boundaries.
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(A) National governments impose titular languages upon the population.
(B) People are forced to speak the official language within the state borders.
(C) In multilingual states, local languages are limited by regional borders.
(D) Administrative borders coincide with linguistic boundaries.
Sample questions:
Read the following paragraph:
The linguistic tools available to individuals include not only different languages (like
English or German) and different styles or genres (appropriate for different situations), but also
different modes. Beyond the formal mode of a standardized language (these are generally
languages supported by state institutions and formal education as national and/or as foreign
languages, NL and FL), modes of communication include lingua franca (LF), code switching
(CS) and lingua receptiva (LaRa).
Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
(A) Languages supported by state institutions and formal education present a formal mode.
(B) Lingua franca (LF), code switching (CS) and lingua receptiva (LaRa) are available to
individuals as speech styles.
Which of the following would be the right guess about ReLoC?
(A) German is a Regional Vehicular (ReLoC) when it is used as a language of
communication by a Dutch, Czech, Pole or Hungarian or other L2-speakers of German in the
Central European macro region.
(B) French is a Regional Vehicular or ReLoC in former Czechoslovakia or former
Yugoslavia.
Dr. Phillipson: Thank you for contributing questions, all of which are important. They are
also, unfortunately, ‗big‘ questions that need rather detailed answers, which time does not
permit. Anyone working in our professional field is likely to suffer from information overload. I
definitely do: I‘m rather stretched both professionally and in my home life, since my wife, Tove
Skutnabb-Kangas, and I live in the country, grow most of our own vegetables and fruit, and have
sheep. We enjoy working with nature, and feel this complements our intellectual activities. Both
involve interaction with ‗the real world‘, in our view.
1. Could you tell us your background and why you decided to become an educator?
(from Ana Wu, City College of San Francisco, ESL Instructor)
Dr. Phillipson: My home background and schooling were entirely monolingual British
English, but with many factors triggering a love of languages: my mother was in drama, my
parents were internationally oriented, and music figured prominently. My first visit to the USA
was as an 11-year-old member of the choir of St Paul‘s Cathedral Choir in London in 1953; we
gave concerts in 40 cities. At school I specialised in French and German, which led to studying
these languages at Cambridge University. I spent half a year between school and university in
continental Europe, experiencing Austrian, French and German cultures and becoming proficient
in the languages. With a BA, I joined the British Council, the UK‘s official service for cultural
diplomacy, in 1964. It stands for bridge-building between Britain and countries worldwide, in
theory in the interests of both. Within the organization‘s career service, English teaching seemed
to me to be the most stimulating activity, and I therefore found myself in posts in Algeria, Spain,
Yugoslavia, and London that built up ELT professionalism. But by 1973 I had had enough of
being in Her Majesty‘s service, emigrated to Denmark, and was lucky enough to find work
straight away at an experimental university, Roskilde. Studies there are multi-disciplinary in the
first two years, problem- and project-oriented, with students working in groups at building up
academic competence in speech and writing, in dialogue with their professors. This forces
teaching staff to constantly renew their professional identity, which is demanding but very
productive. At several Danish higher education institutions over the years, I have found
traditional teacher-centred course teaching much less worthwhile.
So to answer your question more directly, I have enjoyed being an educator, i.e. teaching,
and the institutional teamwork and administration that this entails. I have also been fortunate
enough to be in university employment in which there has been a right and duty to research for at
least one-third of my time, in institutions that attempt to ensure that teaching is informed by
ongoing research.
There is some personal information on my background in my contribution ‗Dialogue and
Discourse‘ to Christian and Critical English Language Educators in Dialogue: Pedagogical and
Ethical Dilemmas, ed. Mary S. Wong and A. Suresh Canagarajah, 2009. London & New York:
Routledge, pp. 66-71.
Dr. Phillipson: The short answer to the first question is that my experience of being paid
for nine (youthful!) years by the British government to promote English worldwide, and of
working in countries with different political agendas (Third World liberation Algeria and
communist Yugoslavia, now both tragically fractured) made me sensitive to issues of
colonialism, neo-colonialism, and global and local inequalities.
One seminal experience was that my wife, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas was asked by a
Norwegain ‗aid‘ NGO in the early 1980s to get involved in support for the liberation movement
of Namibia, SWAPO, then still occupied by apartheid South Africa. It later transpired that well-
intentioned NGOs in Scandinavia were attempting to support Namibian refugee children living
in camps in Angola and Zambia by sending them literacy materials. And guess what? Large
amounts of money were being spent on British mother-tongue basic readers presenting a world in
which ‗Peter is helping Daddy wash the car, while Susan is doing the washing-up with Mummy‘,
and pictures of middle-class Brits to match. We were appalled, and started to look deeply into
what had happened in post-colonial education in ‗independent‘ countries in Asia and Africa.
Tove was already then a well-established scholar in bilingualism studies, with a worldwide
network, and publications for UNESCO dating back to the 1970s. We were twice at ‗aid‘
conferences for SWAPO in Zambia, planning education for an independent country, and have
never looked back. We have been deeply influenced by many African and Indian scholars and
creative writers (see, for instance, our ―Reviewing a book and how it relates to ‗global‘ English,
Wizard of the crow by Ngŭgĭ wa Thiong‘o‖. The European English Messenger, 16/1, 2007, 50-
54. It can be downloaded from my website, along with several recent articles,
www.cbs.dk/staff/phillipson).
I am afraid that the native speaker fallacy is alive and kicking in many parts of the world.
English as a ‗lingua franca‘ belongs in the same category of generally unchallenged myths that
serve to propel English forward uncritically, and which I have written about at length.
5. In your book English Only Europe? Challenging Language Policy, you contrast the
“diffusion of English paradigm” with the “ecology of languages paradigm”. Among other
things, the “ecology of languages paradigm” promotes multilingualism and linguistic
diversity, additive foreign/second language learning, and equality in communication. In this
book you also advocate English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as a way to legitimate a shift away
from native speaker norms towards equipping people to function effectually as non-native
speakers. Can you explain further how the “ecology of languages paradigm” can bring about
truly equitable communication? Also, what are the negative consequences of continuing to
treat native speakers as the learning target? How can the ELF model make a positive
contribution to non-native teacher issues, to help decrease discrimination against non-native
job applicants and to put to rest the idea that non-native teachers have to define their identity
in terms of “native teachers”?
Dr. Phillipson: Much of what I have written earlier (in this NNEST contribution and
generally) can be seen as pointing in the direction of a world of more equitable communication. I
think that analysis and discussion of the native speaker issue, and of the legitimation of Englishes
in all their diversity, are often derailed by a failure to distinguish clearly between norms in
speech and in writing. The amount of variation in written English worldwide is minimal, except
in texts that are of purely local significance. Whereas in speech the position is much more varied.
This applies equally to so-called ‗native speakers‘ as much as to non-natives.
Research into ELF is still in its infancy, even if the Vienna project has now made a large
corpus accessible on the internet. But there is no direct connection between insights from the
kind of research that Seidlhofer and Jenkins stand for and what happens in classrooms. On the
other hand, if classrooms can sensitise learners to a wide variety of relevant types of spoken
English, develop the receptive competence of learners, while maintaining clear and different
goals for the types of spoken proficiency that are needed for different contexts, and different
levels of the education system (local – regional – national – international), I see this as ensuring
that English is learned appropriately, additively, and with no reason for any teachers to define
themselves as either native or non-native, but rather as proficient users of English.
6. Dr. Phillipson: In the March, 2009 interview Marinus Stephan on this blog, Dr. Stephan
mentions that your book Linguistic Imperialism is one of the best books he has read in the
politics of ELT. He also says that much criticism has been leveled at your book. No doubt, Dr.
Stephan is alluding to criticism of your arguments which come from what I feel are un-
informed people who refuse to see the connections between colonialism, Americanization, and
now globalization. How would you reply to people who say that the “native speaker fallacy” is
no longer relevant when it comes to policy decisions and hiring practices?
Dr. Phillipson: I agree that much of the criticism of Linguistic imperialism tends to be
rooted in political differences. I am also tired of the book being misrepresented, even by eminent
scholars like John Joseph, and Bernard Spolsky, to whom I have responded in ‗Linguistic
imperialism: a conspiracy, or a conspiracy of silence?‘ Language policy, 6/3-4, 2007, 377-383.
7. How do you think we should call ourselves? What do you think English speakers
should be called in the future? Would terms such as intercultural speakers, multi-linguals, or
translinguistic teachers be more accurate and representative than "non-native speakers"?
(Questions 7 and 8 are from Ana Wu, City College of San Francisco, ESL Instructor).
Dr. Phillipson: I strongly agree with the need to get away from the non-native label. It
may be no comfort for you to learn that teachers of English in Scandinavia are never referred to
in this way! Also, ESL means very different things in different parts of the world. Obviously
TESOLers should be minimally bilingual. There was a symposium on this topic organised by
Shelley Taylor at TESOL 2008 in New York (with, among others, Tove, Jim Cummins, Ofelia
García, and Joan Wink), one purpose being to attempt to persuade the High and Mighty in
TESOL to make a clear break with monolingualism. The short papers from this symposium are
appearing in a number of the TESOL Quarterly which I have already read proofs for.
I don‘t think my (European) views on what labels might go down well in your local
contexts are relevant. Good luck in producing something snappy and valid.
8. You have written and discussed very controversial issues. How do you deal with
criticism? How do you react to people who disagree with your ideas?
Dr. Phillipson: This is a tricky issue. Tove told me, as soon as Linguistic imperialism was
published, that I would need to develop a thick skin. I felt the need to spend quite a bit of time
responding to critiques of my work that I thought were invalid, in several journals. I list the
references in my new book, which does not regurgitate these ‗dialogues‘, though the book does
contain my reviews of books by people like David Crystal, Abram de Swaan, and Janina Brutt-
Griffler, scholars who basically claim that linguistic imperialism never existed (!), and that I got
it all wrong – which happily a lot of people worldwide don‘t agree with (the book was published
in China in 2000 and in India in 2008, better late than never). One is tempted to simply ignore
attacks that either misrepresent what one has written or contradict one‘s conclusions on false
premises. This has also happened with what Tove and I have written about linguistic human
rights. On the other hand, if one does not challenge conflicting views, they have a habit of
getting recycled by others as though they are uncontested. Ideally scholarly dialogue should take
things forward, and lead to better empirical descriptions and to an improvement of our concepts
and theoretical approaches – for which all of us, including myself, need to be open-minded.
Ana Wu: Thank you very much for your time and insightful interview!
1. Interactive communication
All communication is cultural – it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give
nonverbal messages. We do not always communicate the same way from day to day, since
factors like context, individual personality, and mood interact with the variety of cultural
influences we have internalized that influence our choices. Communication is interactive, so an
important influence on its effectiveness is our relationship with others. Do they hear and
understand what we are trying to say? Are they listening well? Are we listening well in
response? Do their responses show that they understand the words and the meanings behind the
words we have chosen? Is the mood positive and receptive? Is there trust between them and us?
Are there differences that relate to ineffective communication, divergent goals or interests, or
fundamentally different ways of seeing the world? The answers to these questions will give us
some clues about the effectiveness of our communication and the ease with which we may be
able to move through conflict.
The challenge is that even with all the good will in the world, miscommunication is likely
to happen, especially when there are significant cultural differences between communicators.
Miscommunication may lead to conflict, or aggravate conflict that already exists. We make –
whether it is clear to us or not – quite different meaning of the world, our places in it, and our
relationships with others. In this module, cross-cultural communication will be outlined and
demonstrated by examples of ideas, attitudes, and behaviors involving four variables: Time and
Space; Fate and Personal Responsibility; Face and Face-Saving; Nonverbal Communication.
As our familiarity with these different starting points increases, we are cultivating cultural
fluency – awareness of the ways cultures operate in communication and conflict, and the ability
to respond effectively to these differences.
5. Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication is hugely important in any interaction with others; its
importance is multiplied across cultures. This is because we tend to look for nonverbal cues
when verbal messages are unclear or ambiguous, as they are more likely to be across cultures
(especially when different languages are being used). Since nonverbal behavior arises from our
cultural common sense – our ideas about what is appropriate, normal, and effective as
communication in relationships – we use different systems of understanding gestures, posture,
silence, spacial relations, emotional expression, touch, physical appearance, and other nonverbal
cues. Cultures also attribute different degrees of importance to verbal and nonverbal behavior.
Low-context cultures like the United States and Canada tend to give relatively less
emphasis to nonverbal communication. This does not mean that nonverbal communication does
not happen, or that it is unimportant, but that people in these settings tend to place less
importance on it than on the literal meanings of words themselves. In high-context settings such
as Japan or Colombia, understanding the nonverbal components of communication is relatively
more important to receiving the intended meaning of the communication as a whole.
Some elements of nonverbal communication are consistent across cultures. For example,
research has shown that the emotions of enjoyment, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise are
expressed in similar ways by people around the world. Differences surface with respect to which
emotions are acceptable to display in various cultural settings, and by whom. For instance, it may
be more socially acceptable in some settings in the United States for women to show fear, but not
anger, and for men to display anger, but not fear. At the same time, interpretation of facial
expressions across cultures is difficult. In China and Japan, for example, a facial expression that
would be recognized around the world as conveying happiness may actually express anger or
mask sadness, both of which are unacceptable to show overtly.
These differences of interpretation may lead to conflict, or escalate existing conflict.
Suppose a Japanese person is explaining her absence from negotiations due to a death in her
family. She may do so with a smile, based on her cultural belief that it is not appropriate to inflict
the pain of grief on others. For a Westerner who understands smiles to mean friendliness and
happiness, this smile may seem incongruous and even cold, under the circumstances. Even
though some facial expressions may be similar across cultures, their interpretations remain
culture-specific. It is important to understand something about cultural starting-points and values
in order to interpret emotions expressed in cross-cultural interactions.
Another variable across cultures has to do with proxemics, or ways of relating to space.
Crossing cultures, we encounter very different ideas about polite space for conversations and
negotiations. North Americans tend to prefer a large amount of space, perhaps because they are
surrounded by it in their homes and countryside. Europeans tend to stand more closely with each
other when talking, and are accustomed to smaller personal spaces. In a comparison of North
American and French children on a beach, a researcher noticed that the French children tended to
stay in a relatively small space near their parents, while U.S. children ranged up and down a
large area of the beach.
The difficulty with space preferences is not that they exist, but the judgments that get
attached to them. If someone is accustomed to standing or sitting very close when they are
talking with another, they may see the other's attempt to create more space as evidence of
coldness, condescension, or a lack of interest. Those who are accustomed to more personal space
may view attempts to get closer as pushy, disrespectful, or aggressive. Neither is correct – they
are simply different.
Also related to space is the degree of comfort we feel moving furniture or other objects. It
is said that a German executive working in the United States became so upset with visitors to his
office moving the guest chair to suit themselves that he had it bolted to the floor. Contrast this
with U.S. and Canadian mediators and conflict-resolution trainers, whose first step in preparing
for a meeting is not infrequently a complete rearrangement of the furniture.
Finally, line-waiting behavior and behavior in group settings like grocery stores or
government offices is culturally-influenced. Novinger reports that the English and U.S.
Americans are serious about standing in lines, in accordance with their beliefs in democracy and
the principle of "first come, first served." The French, on the other hand, have a practice of
resquillage, or line jumping, that irritates many British and U.S. Americans. In another example,
immigrants from Armenia report that it is difficult to adjust to a system of waiting in line, when
their home context permitted one member of a family to save spots for several others.
These examples of differences related to nonverbal communication are only the tip of the
iceberg. Careful observation, ongoing study from a variety of sources, and cultivating
relationships across cultures will all help develop the cultural fluency to work effectively with
nonverbal communication differences.
6. Summary
Each of the variables discussed in this module – time and space, personal responsibility and
fate, face and face-saving, and nonverbal communication – are much more complex than it is
possible to convey. Each of them influences the course of communications, and can be
responsible for conflict or the escalation of conflict when it leads to miscommunication or
misinterpretation. A culturally-fluent approach to conflict means working over time to
understand these and other ways communication varies across cultures, and applying these
understandings in order to enhance relationships across differences.
Sample Questions
What is the main idea of the passage? Choose the right answer.
(A) Differences of interpretation of communication varables may lead to conflict, or escalate
existing conflict.
(B) Nonverbal communication is very important in any interaction with others, because
verbal messages are often unclear or ambiguous,.
(C) Understanding of Time and Space; Fate and Personal Responsibility; Face and Face-
Saving; arises from our ideas about what is appropriate, normal, and effective as communication
in relationships.
(D) Cultures attribute different degrees of importance to verbal and nonverbal behavior.
Will differences related to nonverbal communication become less important in the 21st
century?
Which line or lines best summarize the author's main idea?
Sample Questions
What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) The outline and demonstration of cross-cultural communication.
(B) Four non-verbal variables of cross-cultural communication.
What does the passage mainly discuss? What is the passage primarily concerned
with?
(A) Nonverbal cues in crosscultural communication..
(B) The impact of different systems of understanding.
Main purpose questions ask why the author wrote a passage. The answer choices
for these questions usually begin with infinitives.
Sample Questions
• What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?
• What is the author's main purpose in the passage?
• What is the main point of this passage?
• Why did the author write the passage?
Sample Answer Choices
To define_____
To relate_____
To discuss_____
To propose_____
To illustrate_____
To support the idea that_____
To distinguish between _____and______
To compare ____and_____
Main detail questions ask about the most significant information of the passage. To
answer such a question you should point out a line or two in the text.
Sample Questions
What factors are emphasized in the passage?
In what lines is the most significant information given?
Caution: Don't answer the overview questions about a passage until you have skim-read
all paragraphs. The process of answering the detail questions may give you a clearer understanding
of the main idea, topic, or purpose of the passage.
The answers for main idea, main topic, and main purpose questions summarize the main
points of the passage; they must be more general than any of the supporting ideas or details, but
not so general that they include ideas outside the scope of the passages.
Unit 2-8. APPROACHES TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
1. Social interaction.
Although the ability to communicate effectively has long been an important aspect of any
social interaction between people from different cultures, within the past two decades it has
become essential. In the wake of the Berlin Wall falling on November 9, 1989, the power
structure of the international community moved from a bipolar (United States and the Soviet
Union) to a unipolar (United States) position. Now, the movement is rapidly toward a multipolar
international arrangement. Responsible world leaders are working toward greater cooperation on
all fronts – economic, political, and military. President Obama‘s policy of engaging other
nations, even when their aims appear counter to U.S. interests, demonstrates this trend toward
increased international integration and crosscultural interaction.
Movement to a more global, interconnected community has been abetted by dramatic
technological changes, such as digital communication advances that permit the uninterrupted
transfer of large amounts of data across national borders and breakthroughs in transportation that
facilitate the rapid, economical movement of people and goods over vast distances. These events,
often referred to collectively as ―globalization,‖ have brought about unprecedented levels of
interaction among people from different national, ethnic, and religious cultural backgrounds.
Media originating in one country are generally available throughout the world.
Multinational and transnational organizations, replete with multicultural workforces, are now
commonplace. An increasing number of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
are engaged in emergency relief, humanitarian assistance, and charitable service work around the
globe. World tourism, once available only to the wealthy, is a growth industry, with package
tours to international destinations tailored to almost any budget. Nations with declining birthrates
and aging populations are recruiting health care workers from abroad. Immigration, international
marriage, and intercountry adoptions have added to U.S. cultural diversity. For example, for the
ten-year period 1999–2010, U.S. State Department statistics report that over 178,000 children
from other nations were adopted by U.S. families (―Total Adoptions,‖ 2010).
Broadly speaking, globalization has brought about the realization that modern societies
must learn to cooperate in order to prevent their mutual selfdestruction. There is a growing
perception that employment of force may result in near-term solutions but will ultimately create
problems that are more complex.
Increased concern over the planet‘s ecological degradation resulting from climate change
and pollution has raised awareness of the need for international cooperation on a scale previously
unseen. There is also a recognition of the need to engage in global cooperative efforts on a
number of other issues—nuclear arms, terrorism, over-population, world poverty, and escalating
competition for natural resources.
Closer to home, the United States is faced with such culturally related domestic concerns as
immigration, an aging population, growth of minority groups, and ideological divisions.
Solutions, either whole or partial, to these circumstances will require increased intercultural
understanding.
Before moving further into the study of culture and communication, we need to specify our
approach to intercultural communication and recognize that other people investigate quite
different perspectives. For example, some scholars who examine mass media are concerned with
international broadcasting, worldwide freedom of expression, the premise of Western domination
of media information, and the use of electronic technologies for instantaneous worldwide
communication. Other groups study international communication with an emphasis on
communication between national governments—the communication of diplomacy, economic
assistance, disaster relief, and even political propaganda.
Still others are interested in the communication needed to conduct business on a global
basis. Their concerns include such issues as cross-cultural marketing, negotiation Broadly
speaking, globalization has brought about the realization that modern societies must learn to
cooperate in order to prevent their mutual self-destruction.
As tides of immigrants and refugees continue to arrive in the United States and other
developed nations, we will be confronted with increased cultural diversity. If we are to continue
to assert that cultural diversity is a valuable, desirable asset and embrace the concept of a global
village, we must quickly learn to accept and tolerate the resulting differences. Your authors do
not profess to have the solution to these problems. However, as a means of better preparing you
for life in the global village, which will require frequent interactions with people who experience
the world differently from you, we do hope to stimulate thought and discussion about the
advantages and difficulties of multiculturalism and the need for effective intercultural
communication.
2. Looking Back
One of the most noticeable changes over the past two generations is just how international
the world has become. As a result of media and transportation advances, you now have access to
a wide variety of products and services from abroad. Depending on your location, U.S. cable TV
companies now offer channels in Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Russian,
and many other languages. For example, DISH TV has available more than 170 international
channels in 28 different languages (―International,‖ 2010). A visit to your local supermarket will
reveal a variety of ethnic foods, many imported from other parts of the world. In urban areas,
small ethnic food stores have become the norm. For instance, in La Jolla, California, a small
Iranian market sells a selection of fresh feta cheeses imported from France, Bulgaria, Denmark,
and Greece, as well as delicious pistachios from Iran.
A heightened awareness of culture in the U.S. armed forces is another significant change
from the past. During the Vietnam conflict (1961–73) and the first Gulf War (1990–91), culture
was an afterthought at best. However, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has brought the
importance of cultural understanding into the spotlight and several programs designed to instill
cultural awareness have been developed. The U.S. Army has instituted the Human Terrain
System, which co-locates civilian socio-cultural experts with commanders and staff to provide a
source of knowledge on local peoples and their culture (―Human,‖ 2010). In order to acquire and
effectively employ cultural knowledge, the U.S. Marine Corps established the Center for
Advanced Operational Cultural Learning, which has the mission of training personnel in the
application of language and culture to operations (―Center,‖ 2010).
Globalization has brought profound changes to the commercial sector, including the
creation of numerous transnational corporations whose reach influences markets around the
world. For example, Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long
John Silver, and others, employs over one million workers in more than 110 countries (―Taking‖,
2009). In earlier years, international corporate managers came to the United States to launch their
careers, but now it is common to see U.S. managers heading to foreign locations.
In 2009, for instance, 24 percent of the graduates from MIT‘s prestigious Sloan School of
Management took positions abroad (―Job,‖ 2009). Among U.S. employers, workplace diversity
is a continuing source of concern, and training courses designed to make employees aware of
cultural differences and varied communication behaviors have become routine.
Residence abroad has also increased ―because the globalization of industry and education
tramples national borders,‖ and among the developed nations, the foreign-born population
exceeds 8 percent on average (―Others,‖ 2009). This international movement also includes
students in higher education. Current estimates are that over three million students are studying
in a country other than their own, and some 672,000 foreign students were attending U.S.
universities in 2008 (―Leagues,‖ 2010; ―And,‖ 2009).
Contemporary U.S. demographics probably represent the most easily noticeable change
relating to crosscultural issues. Quite simply, the United States has become much more
multicultural over the past fifty years. A glance around your classroom will probably reveal a
mix of people from different ethnicities, nationalities, age groups, and, less obvious, sexual
preferences.
Most of these classmates will be U.S. born, but some may be from other countries. This is
because people born outside the United States constitute 13 percent of the total population, the
largest percentage among the developed nations (―Ponzi,‖ 2009). And lest you think all
immigrants work in low-wage, dirty jobs, the 2000 census indicated that ―47 percent of scientists
and engineers in America with PhDs‖ were foreign born (―Economics,‖ 2009, p. 84). Immigrants
in the United States often group themselves together in urban areas, where they retain their
language and culture, unlike their predecessors in the early twentieth century who were expected,
and indeed often forced, to assimilate to the dominant U.S. culture. A particularly vivid example
of contemporary U.S. cultural diversity was the 2010 census website, which could be accessed in
over fifty languages (―United States,‖ 2010).
Changing demographics in the United States also present fertile ground for future clashes
between people of varied cultures. According to multiple reports, minorities will represent the
collective majority by 2050, and 19 percent of the total population will be foreign born (Passel &
Cohen, 2008; ―U.S. Census,‖ 2008). This demographic shift is expected to produce considerable
social change as members of minority ethnicities continue to replace the white majority in
political, commercial, and educational positions of power.
In the commercial sector, changes are already occurring. In states such as New Mexico and
California, where Hispanics constitute over 30 percent of the population, Spanish-language
media programs are common, and several large U.S. retailers, including Walmart, have opened
stores in Texas and Arizona specifically catering to the Hispanic market. According to a
Walmart press release, the new stores ―feature a layout and product assortment designed to make
it more relevant to local Hispanic customers‖ (Moreno, 2009; ―New Supermercado,‖ 2009). This
is an excellent example of how culture influences our lives. We are comfortable with the things
we know and are drawn to them, but we are often uncomfortable with things we do not know and
frequently avoid them.
Instruction: Above are three meaningfully tied paragraphs of greater length than those in
previous texts. They contain general information in the field of global changes producing impact
on American society.This text abounds in facts and names which may sound vaguely familiar but
as a would-be professional in crosscultural communication you are advised to take your time and
clear out for yourself the connotations behind these facts and names. Tone questions ask you to
determine the author's feelings about the topic by the language that he or she uses in writing the
passage. Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the
author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.
Your task is to understand the texts and determine the authors‘ feelings about the topics.
Sample Tone Questions
• What tone does the author take in writing this text?
• How could the tone of this text best be described as?
Sample Answer Choices
The following adjectives indicate if the author's feelings are positive, negative, or neutral
• Positive • Humorous • Worried
• Favorable • Negative • Outraged
• Optimistic • Critical • Neutral
• Amused • Unfavorable • Objective
• Pleased • Angry • Impersonal
• Respectful • Defiant
If you read the italicized sentences in paragraph 3, would the tone of this paragraph most
likely be positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.
Note: The italicized words in paragraph 3 indicate a negative attitude. Words like „The
international community is beleaguered‟, „animosity, conflict, dispute‟ and similar words can
"reverse" the tone of the passage.
Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the
author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.
Sample Attitude Questions
If you read the italicized phrases in paragraph 3, would the author‘s attitude most likely be
positive or negative? Choose the right descriptors from the list above.
Organization questions ask about the overall structure of a passage or about the
organization of a paragraph.
A Sample Question
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
Answer Choices
A general concept is defined and examples are given.
Several generalizations are presented, from which a conclusion is drawn.
The author presents the advantages and disadvantages of ... __ .
The author presents a system of classification for ... __ .
Persuasive language is used to argue agains ... .
The author describes ... .
The author presents a brief account of ...
The author compares____and _________ ...
Sample Question
What is the author's attitude toward the the fact that globalization has brought
about the realization that modern societies must learn to cooperate in order to prevent their
mutual self-destruction?
Questions about previous or following paragraphs ask you to assume how the passages
are organized, what would be the topic of the text. To find the order of the passages, look for
clues in the first lines. To find the topic of the text, look in the first and last lines.
Sample Questions
With what topic would the text most likely begin?
What does the second paragraph most probably discuss?
Can it be inferred from the text which paragraph most likely sums up the author‘s attitude
towards the topic?
Unit 2-9. A NEW APPROACH TO A THEORY OF CULTURE
1. Introduction
Intercultural communication is based on intercultural understanding. Intercultural
understanding cannot be realized without an objective and up-to-date understanding of the notion
of culture. Globalization, however, has changed the notion of culture. Culture can no longer be
described as the property of a single nation.
Globalization has changed the concept of culture. Globalization stands for the overlapping
of global and local factors (Robertson, 1997). Human beings are living at the same time within
particular settings on the one hand, and between different cultural environments on the other one.
This is nothing new.
One lives between one‘s home in a family, on the one side, and also is situated in the daily
life world – going to school, working in one‘s professional life, on the other.
This has been happening for thousands of years. In a culturally globalized world, between-
situations are becoming essential for any understanding of culture. There were three stages in
globalization.
The first one was political, the founding of the United Nations in 1945.
The second one was the economic globalization, the spread of free-market capitalism in
virtually every country of the world since 1980.
The third one is … cultural globalization, which has an essential function for the efficient
working of the political and economic globalizations of the world. In fact, the economic and
political globalizations have given rise to the problematic triangle ―identity–culture–
communication‖ in international relations (Wolton, 2005). As the technology for worldwide
transmission of information continues to progress, attempts by some countries to restrict this
transmission are becoming more and more ineffective (McPhail, 1989).
The debates on globalization have focused on economic and political issues, but the
powerful impact of globalization on culture has not been sufficiently analyzed and researched.
Globalization provides a good opportunity to reflect on the efficiency of the tools which the
intercultural enterprise so far has developed to promote intercultural understanding (Kalscheuer,
2002). Thomas‘s (1996) definition of culture as a system that is valid for all members of a
society or nation, as well as Hall‘s (1984) and Hofstede‘s (1980, 1991, 1997) ―cultural
dimensions‖, fixed sets of polar attributes (collectivism vs. individualism, monochronic vs.
polychronic, high power distance vs. low power distance, high context culture vs. low context
culture, etc …) obtained with questionnaires to very small groups of participants of a given
society, are not any more adapted to research in intercultural understanding.
Cultures are not homogeneous and stable entities. Recent cultural theory takes into account
the increasing mixture of cultures and people within each culture, and emphasizes the hybrid
nature of culture (Bhabba, 1994, Pieterse, 1994, Shweder & Sullivan, 1990). Welsh (1999)
stresses the reciprocal influences of cultures.
3. Cultural Predestination!
Cultural comparisons should avoid overstressing differences because it leads to
overemphasizing the features of a given culture, as if it were a unique attribute. It is quite clear
that in the past, in order to make comparisons more striking, people have been tempted to
exaggerate differences, leading to a focus on a given country‘s distinctive features at the expense
of those characteristics it shares with other societies. Yamazaki (2000) writes: ―Human beings
seem to like to give themselves a sense of security by forming simplistic notions about the
culture of other countries.‖ Stereotypes are then often created.
It is essential to research distinctive features in the light of features which are common to
other cultures. To put it in Yamazaki‘s words:―Commonalities are essential if comparisons are to
be made‖ (Yamazaki, 2000). Cultures are not predestined to have some immutable distinctive
characteristics. Yamazaki uses the expression ―cultural predestination‖ (2000) and Demorgon
(2005) emphasizes the same idea: ―The absolute distinctiveness of cultures is a problematic
notion.‖ The reason for this is quite simple: cultures influence each other and often there is a
process of fusion. How can one attribute at a given moment distinctive features to a culture
which is in perpetual development and change? This point will be developed to a greater extent
in the section dealing with the dynamism of cultures.
4. Individual Values
A nation or an ethnic group cannot be considered as a single unit. Nations are not culturally
homogeneous. Within the same nation, social classes, age, gender, education, religious
affiliations and several other factors constitute theself-awareness and self-consciousness which
become the markers of cultural identity, subcultures within a national culture. There are, within a
nation, regional cultures, cultures of towns and villages, small group cultures, and family
cultures which form cultural units. Renan‘s 1882 famous definition of nation, ―L‘essence d‘une
nation est que tous les individus aient beaucoup de choses en commun‖ [The essence of a nation
is that the individuals of this nation have many things in common] has to be extended to the
various groups which constitute cultural units in a nation. The members of these groups also
have many things in common. Nations are not culturally homogeneous. Individuals within a
given nation are not always identical and their cultural behavior might be different. Several
studies, for instance, Kim (2005), and Kim, Hunter, Miyara, Horvath, Bresnahan and Yoon
(1996) have emphasized this point. Very often, individual values rather than cultural values will
be better predictors of behavior (Leung, 1989, Leung & Bond, 1989, Triandis, 1988). It is quite
evident in the modern world that culture-level generalizations or national-culture generalizations
are no longer adequate for intercultural research.
It is sufficient to consider the vast number of countries in the world which are multicultural
and multilingual and where there is considerable immigration. Canada, where you have English-
Canadians and French-Canadians, First Nations, and another 35 percent of the population which
is neither from British or French origin but coming from forty different countries, is only one
example. It is also the case for the United States, all countries of the European Union, South
American countries, most Asian and African countries. Here, one cannot resist quoting some
passages of a very recent article by James B. Waldram (2009): ―Anthropologists began to
appreciate the artificial nature of their notion of ‗cultures‘ as distinct, bounded units harbouring
culturally identical citizens…. We began to appreciate ‗culture‘ as a live experience of
individuals in their local, social worlds‖. In addition, he adds: ―Cross-cultural psychology has
retained the broad generalizations and essentializations rejected by anthropology, to continue to
assign research participants to groups as if there were no significant intra-cultural variability, and
then engage in primarily quantitative comparisons‖.
It is now more than evident that serious cultural research cannot apply anymore the
absolute and general dimensions of individualism versus collectivism, high-context versus low-
context and other similar dimensions to most countries in the world.
Overview questions ask you to determine the author‘s attitude to a specific item, the main
topic of a passage, the author's main point, the primary purpose of a passage, the organization of a
passage, etc. Before answering a variety of overview questions about short passages, read the
passages and mark possible answer choices.
Sample Questions
How does the author disprove the idea of individualism versus collectivism ?
Which of the following statements would the author most likely support?
(1) ―The operationalization of individualism/collectivism assumes a high degree of cultural
homogeneity of the surveyed countries across geographical regions and across different life
domains.
(2) The operationalization of cultural dimensions ignores the fact that different cultural
values and practices may be internalized by people to different degrees, thus demonstrating high
interpersonal variation in their endorsement.
(3) Measuring culture-related constructs to average individuals‘ scores on an
individualism–collectivism self-report scale, across samples taken from different countries is
wrong.
The author would be LEAST likely to agree with which of the following statements?
A. Culture can be described as the property of a single nation.
B. Hofstede‘s ―cultural dimensions‖ are all the rigid and universal fixed sets of polar
attributes that several scholars are still using in their intercultural research.
C. ―Anthropologists began to appreciate the artificial nature of their notion of ‗cultures‘ as
distinct, bounded units harbouring culturally identical citizens….
The tone of the passage could best be described as (choose the right words):
objective, optimistic, angry, humorous, critical, threatening, neutral.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
Too specific. Chaotic. Too general. Logically structured. Incorrect.
Irrelevant. Correct. Not clear. Well organized.
The attitude of the author could best be described as
(A) objective
(B) optimistic
(C) angry
(D) humorous
_________ Single out samples of contrast in the first pragraph. How do they predetermine the
ongoing narration?
Find out most characteristic lines that best summarize the author's attitude.
What is the author's main point in the passage?
What is the main topic of this passage?
What is the main idea of the passage?
What does the passage mainly discuss?
Why did the author write this passage?
Sample Answer Choices
This author's main purpose in writing is to ... .
The passage mainly concerns ... .
The main idea of this passage is that ... .
The primary purpose of this passage is to ... .
The passage primarily deals with ... .
The passage mainly discusses ... .
The main topic of this passage is ... .
The passage primarily deals with ... .
The tone of the passage could best be described as
(A) objective;
(B) optimistic;
(C) angry;
(D) humorous.
Point out samples of contrast in the first pragraph. How do they predetermine the ongoing
narration?
Unit 2-10. CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE GLOBALIZED WORLD
Instruction: This text is consructed around three problems: the opposition of strong
uncertainty-avoidance cultures vs. weak uncertainty-avoidance cultures, the dichotomy of
individualism vs. collectivism and four aspects of identities: individual, social, cultural and
national identities. You are expected to highlight these problems basing on explicit facts and
details given in the passage. You have to locate and identify the information and determine the
author‘s idea, purpose, attitude, etc. If you are not sure from your first reading where to look for
specific answers, use scanning techniques. The order of facts or details in the text follows the
order in which ideas are presented in the passage. In other words, the opening information you
need will usually come near the beginning of the passage; the next factual information will follow
that, and so on. Knowing this should help you locate the information you need.
• Focus on one or two key words as you read the stem of each question. Lock these words
in your mind.
• Scan the passage looking for the key words or their synonyms. Look only for these words.
Do NOT try to read every word of the passage.
• It may help to focus your attention. Don't reread the passage completely – just look for
key words.
• When you find the key words in the passage, carefully read the sentence in which they
occur. You may have to read the sentence preceding or following that sentence as well.
• Compare the information you read with possible answer choices.
Factual Questions
What did the author observe while studying the paper of the three Japanese authors
about the dichotomy of individualistic versus collectivistic?
(A) They must have regretted their allegiance to this rigid dichotomy ―individualistic versus
collectivistic‖;
(B) Students returning from so-called collectivistic countries were more individualistic than
returnees from so-called individualistic countries;
(C) The traditional approach to the study of culture and intercultural understanding was wrong.
What terms have been used for the articles of Hofstede‘s hypotheses?
Why did the author have serious doubts about the scientific value of the
confirmations of the Hofstede hypotheses?
What does the term strong uncertainty-avoidance cultures refer to?
Where in the passage does the author first discuss " fixed sets of polar attributes?
Where in the passage does the author specifically stress that individual identities,
group identity, cultural and ethnic identity, as well as national identity are no longer clearly
defined concepts?
In what paragraph does the author first mention that identity is never a finished
product?
Scanning questions
Scanning questions are usually easy to answer. Use the same techniques for scanning given
about detail questions. For each question, locate that part of the passage in which the answer will
probably be found, and write it out. Don't worry about answering the question itself, only about
finding the information. Do these scanning questions as fast as you can.
Sample Questions
What is inferred in the following quatation from Robert Christopher?
―To an extent unmatched by the inhabitants of any other nations, the Japanese succeeded in
marrying the social discipline that is the chief virtue of a strong collective consciousness with
individualism‖ What is the term for using in real life features associated with different
languages?
What is inferred in the following sentences?
Immigrants may give up parts of their cultural heritage without giving up their cultural identity.
―Cultural identity is a matter of becoming as well as being.‖
Where in the text are the negative dimensions of culture mentioned?
Unit 2-11. THE CONCEPT OF CULTURAL IDENTITY
5. Motivational needs
Implicit in any analysis of cultural identity is a configuration of motivational needs. As the
late Abraham Maslow (1962) suggested, human drives form a hierarchy in which the most
prepotent motivations will monopolize consciousness and will tend, of themselves, to organize
the various capacities and capabilities of the organism. In the sequence of development, the
needs of infancy and childhood revolve primarily around physiological and biological
necessities, i.e., nourishment by food, water, and warmth. Correspondingly, psychosocial needs
are most profound in adolescence and young adulthood when the people engage in establishing
themselves through mar, "un-becoming", something different from before while yet mindful of
the grounding in his or her primary cultural reality. Stated differently, the multicultural
individual is propelled from identity to identity through a process of both cultural learning and
cultural un-learning. The multicultural person, like Robert J. Lifton's concept of "protean man"
(1961), is always recreating his or her identity. He or she moves through one experience of self
to another, incorporating here, discarding there, responding dynamically and situationally. This
style of self-process, suggests Lifton, "is characterized by an interminable series of experiments
and explorations, some shallow, some profound, each of which can readily be abandoned in
favor of still new, psychological quests." The multicultural person is always in flux, the
configuration of loyalties and identifications changing, the overall image of self perpetually
being reformulated through experience and contact with the world. Stated differently, life is an
ongoing process of psychic death and rebirth.
Third, the multicultural person maintains indefinite boundaries of the self. The parameters
of identity are neither fixed nor predictable, being responsive, instead, to both temporary form
and openness to change. Multicultural people are capable of major shifts in their frame of
reference and embody the ability to disavow a permanent character and change in socio-
psychological style. The multicultural person, in the words of Peter Berger (1973) is a "homeless
mind," a condition which, though allowing great flexibility, also allows for nothing permanent
and unchanging to develop. This homelessness is at the heart of his motivational needs. He is,
suggests Lifton, "starved for ideas and feelings that give coherence to his world", that give
structure and form to the search for the universal and absolute, that give definition to the
perpetual quest. The multicultural person, like great philosophers in any age, can never accept
totally the demands of any one culture nor are they free from the conditioning of their culture.
Their psychocultural style must always be relational and in movement, able to look at their own
original culture from an outsider's perspective. This tension gives rise to a dynamic, passionate,
and critical posture in the face of totalistic ideologies, systems, and movements.
6. The flexibility of the multicultural personality
Like the culture-bound person, the multicultural person bears within him or herself a
simultaneous image of societies, nature, personality, and culture. Yet in contrast to the structure
of cultural identity, the multicultural individual is perpetually redefining his or her mazeway. No
culture is capable of imprinting or ingraining the identity of a multicultural person indelibly: yet,
the multicultural person must rely heavily on culture to maintain his or her own relativity. Like
human beings in any period of time, he or she is driven by psychobiological, psychosocial, and
psychophilosophical motivations; yet the configuration of these drives is perpetually in flux and
situational. The maturational hierarchy, implicit in the central image of cultural identity, is less
structured and cohesive in the multicultural identity. For that reason, needs, drives, motivations,
and expectations are constantly being aligned and realigned to fit the context he or she is in.
The flexibility of the multicultural personality allows great variation in adaptability and
adjustment. Adjustment and adaptation, however, must always be dependent on something
constant, on something stable and unchanging in the fabric of life. We can attribute to the
multicultural person three fundamental postulates that are incorporated and reflected in thinking
and behavior. Such postulates are fundamental to success in cross-cultural adaptation.
1. Every culture or system has its own internal coherence, integrity, and logic. Every
culture is an intertwined system of values and attitudes, beliefs and norms that give meaning and
significance to both individual and collective identity.
2. No one culture is inherently better or worse than another. All cultural systems are
equally valid as variations on the human experience.
3. All persons are, to some extent, culturally bound. Every culture provides the individual
with some sense of identity, some regulation of behavior, and some sense of personal place in the
scheme of things.
The multicultural person embodies these propositions and lives them on a daily basis and
not just in cross-cultural situations. They are fundamentally a part of his or her interior image of
the world and self.
What is uniquely new about this emerging human being is a psychocultural style of self-
process that transcends the structured image a given culture may impress upon the individual in
his or her youth. The navigating image at the core of the multicultural personality is premised on
an assumption of many cultural realities. The multicultural person, therefore, is not simply the
one who is sensitive to many different cultures. Rather, this person is always in the process of
becoming a part of and apart from a given cultural context. He or she is a formative being,
resilient, changing, and evolutionary. There is no permanent cultural "character" but neither is he
or she free from the influences of culture. In the shifts and movements of his or her identity
process, the multicultural person is continually recreating the symbol of self.
The indefinite boundaries and the constantly realigning relationships that are generated by
the psychobiological, psychosocial, and psychophilosophical motivations make possible
sophisticated and complex responses on the part of the individual to cultural and subcultural
systems. Moreover, this psychocultural flexibility necessitates sequential changes in identity.
Intentionally or accidentally, multicultural persons undergo shifts in their total psychocultural
posture; their religion, personality, behavior, occupation, nationality, outlook, political
persuasion, and values may, in part or completely, reformulate in the face of new experience. "It
is becoming increasingly possible," wrote Michael Novak (1970), "for men to live through
several profound conversions, calling forth in themselves significantly different personalities...."
The relationship of multicultural persons to cultural systems is fragile and tenuous. " A man's
cultural and social milieu," says Novak, "conditions his personality, values, and actions; yet the
same man is able, within limits, to choose the milieus whose conditioning will affect him." (To
be continued)
Guidelines for extensive reading of ESP texts on the use of English for European
education
Beyza Björkman‘s paper investigates the use of spoken lingua franca English (ELF) by
lecturers and students at a Swedish technical university where English is increasingly used as a
medium of instruction and as a vehicular language for speakers from a wide range of first
languages.
Beyza Björkman‘s project has investigated the language skills of the teachers and students
in this setting, namely non-native-like usage of spoken lingua franca English. The main aim has
been to find out what aspects of language cause communication failure. The material comprises
76 hours of digital recordings, of naturally occurring, authentic high-stakes speech from content
courses.
Beyza Björkman‘s results show a clear tendency by engineers to reduce redundancy and to
focus on function, thus disregarding standard forms. There is little communication failure
considering the relatively high frequency of non-standard forms. Her account of the round-table
discussion is based on the results of her investigation and is meant to be a starting point for a
larger study.
1. Introduction
English is now the overwhelmingly dominant language in academia since academic
communities use English as the default language, and there is a consequent development towards
an increase in English-medium teaching in Europe, in general. The number of programs offered
in English has tripled in the last five years in continental Europe (Wächter and Maiworm, 2008).
Most countries have chosen to participate in the Bologna process, which has led to increased
academic mobility and a number of student exchange programs. With visiting scholars and
exchange students, European universities are becoming increasingly diverse linguistically. There
are parts of academic communities in Europe now which operate predominantly in English, so
English serves as a lingua franca (ELF), i.e. ―a vehicular language spoken by people who do not
share a native language‖ (Mauranen, 2003). Across Europe, the subject area in which English-
taught programs are most frequently offered is engineering with 27 % (Wächter and Maiworn,
2008).
The Swedish academy is now international by nature and thus linguistically diverse as a
consequence of increased academic mobility and student exchange programs, both aims of the
Bologna Declaration. The transformation of the Swedish university from mostly monolingual to
highly multilingual has required a common language for all involved. English has become that
common language, being the most widely studied and the best known second language. So it is
now the lingua franca of engineering education, i.e. the common language through which people
from a large spectrum of first languages can communicate.
3. Methods
The data in this investigation come from real high-stakes technical speech from content
courses, i.e. non-language-teaching contexts, which is a strength of the present study. Another
strength is the fact that group-work as a genre has been included in the investigation along with
the lectures. Such highly interactive speech events are quite rich in terms of examples of usage
and therefore reveal considerable data that are not necessarily observable in other speech events.
The group-work sessions and lectures have been digitally recorded and have all been
analyzed for the present project. The data have been recorded straight into the computer through
Audacity (version 1.2.4), a free cross-platform audio editor that runs on Mac OS X, Windows
and GNU/Linux.
The subjects come from twenty different first language backgrounds: 50% of the students
were exchange students from different countries, 25% were Swedish and another 25% were
ethnically non-Swedish, i.e. residents in Sweden who have another home language than Swedish.
When it comes to lecturers, 54% were Swedish and 46%, speakers of other languages. It is worth
noting that none of the foreign languages in the material dominated over another one. Altogether,
63 speakers were recorded.
For the investigation of the material, all the occurrences of non-native-like usage in the
lectures and group-work sessions were identified and transcribed. Cases of nonnative-like usage
were grouped as ‗disturbing‘, i.e. causing overt comprehension problems and ‗non-disturbing‘,
i.e. causing no comprehension problems. An important stage of the study has been to investigate
listener attitudes towards the non-standard forms through interviews and questionnaires, using
slightly accented non-native speaker speech.
4. Results
In this section, brief examples will be given from each category of non-standard usage. If a
non-standard feature was used by different speakers in different types of speech events for a
minimum of ten times, it was noted down as a commonality and was included in the
investigation.
5. Conclusion
It is remarkable that despite the relatively high frequency of the non-standard forms of
English, there is little communication failure because of grammar- or vocabulary-related
oddities. The results show a clear tendency by engineers to reduce redundancy and to focus on
function regardless of standard form. The only feature that seems to cause communication failure
seems to be non-standard question formulation. However, audible problems at the accent level
have already indicated irritation and distraction, which might adversely affect communication.
It should be borne in mind that this project has investigated spoken English and overt
communication failure. Difficulties might lie in invisible, inaudible areas, such as what speakers
do not or cannot say rather than what they say.
Instruction: Writing a good summary of Beyza Björkman‘s paper ―English as the lingua
franca of engineering education‖ starts with skimming the text, and follows with highlighting
and marking the main points, making notes and annotating its parts.
The tips below will give you a general idea of preliminary steps to be taken before you get
down to actual writing.
Before writing the summary – read, mark, and annotate the original:
highlight the topic sentence;
highlight key points/key words/phrases;
highlight the concluding sentence;
outline each paragraph in the margin;
Take notes on the following:
the source (author – first/last name, title, date of publication, volume number, place of
publication, publisher, URL, etc.);
the main idea of the original (paraphrased);
the major supporting points (in outline form);
major supporting explanations (e.g. reasons/causes or effects);
Preparing to Write: To write a good summary it is important to thoroughly understand the
material you are working with. Here are some preliminary steps in writing a summary.
Skim the text, noting in your mind the subheadings. If there are no subheadings, try to
divide the text into sections. Consider why you have been assigned the text. Try to determine
what type of text you are dealing with. This can help you identify important information.
Read the text, highlighting important information and taking notes.
In your own words, write down the main points of each section.
Write down the key support points for the main topic, but do not include minor detail.
Go through the process again, making changes as appropriate.
Unit 2-14. TEACHING AND LEARNING EURO-ENGLISH IN SWITZERLAND
Guidelines for extensive reading of texts on the use of ESP in European transnational
education
This is the continuation of Mercia Mcneil‘s article ―Teaching and learning Euro-English in
Switzerland: a brief analysis and some ideas for teaching‖. It discusses the situation when
English has become an official working language in many large companies in Europe, such as in
Switzerland, e.g. Novartis, Alcatel, and English has become the most popular first foreign
language in schools in Europe. A huge debate in Switzerland in the last few years has ensued
because some German-speaking cantons decided that English instruction will begin at an earlier
age than French, the second national language of Switzerland. This fact signifies that a new
concept of English is being accepted in the Swiss education system. The article surveys all-
European causes and main components of this process, and offers a brief analysis and some ideas
for teaching.
Traditional ELT Standards: a brief discussion of people‟s views toward the two main
inner circle varieties (British and American English)
English is used as a lingua franca (ELF) between speakers from different L1 backgrounds,
and in fact this type of communication is much more common than communication between a
NS and NNS or between two NS. In the past, we usually assumed that the English Language
Learner (ELL) was trying to communicate with a native speaker of English, but this is less often
the case in today‘s society, which encourages mobility and globalization. Nowadays, fewer
interactions in English involve native speakers. According to Crystal, the number of native
speakers (NS) of English in the world is estimated to be less than 350 million, while non-native
speakers (NNS) are estimated to be in the ballpark of 450 to 1350 million (Crystal 1997).
These English as a Native Language (ENL) speakers have been the ones who arbitrated
what was right or wrong, what acceptable usage was, and also were the main characters in ELT
books, made ELT materials, and wrote tests. In this way, they have been a hegemonic measuring
stick and decision makers. Non-native speakers (teachers included) thus often have an inferiority
complex because they are told and believe that they can never attain the innate language skills of
a native speaker.
Oftentimes, current second language acquisition theories hypothesize that most English
language learners aim to develop native speaker standards in terms of grammatical standards,
phonological patterns, and discourse competence; however, there are several reasons, according
to Sandra McKay, why current bilingual English users may have different goals:
1.They may only need English in certain situations, for example in formal area, in which
case they would not need the full range of registers of a native speaker.
2.They may not want to acquire native speaker pronunciation and pragmatics for attitudinal
reasons.
3.English as an International Language is owned by those who use it and does not grant
more privilege to some speakers.
4.English does not belong to any one culture any more, and therefore should be culturally
sensitive to the diverse contexts in which it is used and taught. Instead of using exclusively
Western cultural content, as has been done in the past, there are definite advantages to using
source culture content, which do not marginalize the learners and embrace the non-native
speaker as a knower instead of an interpreter teaching a foreign culture.
5.Westerners often think communicative language teaching (CLT) is one methodology that
will work everywhere, but this is not the case as Confucian values in Asia differ greatly, we must
reconsider other teaching methodologies that are appropriate in other cultures. (ideas paraphrased
from McKay 2003)
What is Euro-English?
Studies are being done now, but from what has already been observed, there are some
observations to offer about the lexicogrammar of this emerging Euro-English. Although these
characteristics are different from standard English, they usually don‘t cause problems in
understandings:
Countable/uncountable nouns, e.g. an advice, advices, an information, informations
Dropping -s from third person present tense verbs
Using the relative pronouns who for things (e.g. a book who) and which for people (e.g. a
friend which)
Omitting definite and indefinite articles where they are obligatory in native speaker use
(these points from Murray, 2003:4)
Some features that can cause communication breakdown are:
‗unilateral idiomaticity‘ (Seidlhofer 2001), i.e. when one speaker uses an idiom from
English which the listener doesn‘t know, for example, ‗Would you like us to give you a hand?‘
as opposed to ‗Can we help you?‘
when one speaker uses words that the other person does not know, which might include
correct words in English or English loan words or false friends. An example is handy, which
means a cell phone in German. They think it means the same thing in English, but it has a
different meaning in English.
Seidlhofer concluded that using communication strategies and the willingness of
interlocutors to both try to accommodate is more important for effective communication than
―‗correctness‘ or idiomaticity in native English terms‖ (Seidlhofer 2001).
The biggest challenge to the establishment of Euro-English is the tradition that the goal is
to be close to native proficiency in either British or American English, an ideology that Modiano
claims is waning, but nevertheless still impacts current practices in education as this thinking
devalues other varieties of English (Modiano 2003).
Justifying Euro-English
Next, I‘m going to provide some arguments against Euro-English, and counterpoints to
refute them. Because Modiano points out the main arguments against Euro-English and offers
strong rebuttals, I have summarized them:
Argument 1: ―There are no native speakers of Euro-English, therefore it cannot be
identified as a variety‖ (2003).
Rebuttal: This is no longer a valid argument because English is used as a lingua franca
among lots of NNS. They often use English more with other NNS than with NS. Using ELF with
other NNS is more liberating because they can be themselves using English instead of trying to
imitate a NS.
Argument 2: Euro-English exists as many forms and therefore trying to define it will fail.
Rebuttal: Varieties of English from native speakers, such as accents and dialects in
England and Ireland are accepted as part of ones culture and identity, so it is not fair to not apply
this also for users of Euro-English. RP is the standard English accent taught in England, although
barely anyone really speaks like that.
Argument 3: The variety will be impossible to teach without a prescriptive standard
(Modiano 2003).
Rebuttal: Modiano claims that the goal of Euro-English instruction is ―to learn how
English can be used by mainland Europeans in cross-cultural interaction‖ (Modiano 2003). He
goes on to explain that the instructor, who is focused on how English is used in mainland
Europe, doesn‘t insist on imitating the idealized native speaker, but instead motivates students to
develop communication skills (2003). Those students who do aspire to emulate a native speaker
are free to do so, but this would be by choice that they make, not that they are forced into, which
is different than in the past.
Students‟ needs
So when teaching, we should consider the needs of the students. What are the students‘
motivations for studying English? Who are the students going to be communicating with in
English?
How will their English abilities be measured? Answers to such questions should lead us to
better analyze and understand the needs of our students and therefore help shape how we teach
English keeping in mind their end purpose and goals.
So what should we do? In the last couple of decades, many teachers have espoused
communicative language teaching (CLT) because it helps students use language to communicate.
However, there is a dilemma because many students have to pass demanding entrance exams
which test grammar, reading, and writing as opposed to communicative competence. That
dilemma of the vast difference between policy and reality in the classroom is another complex
issue.
Questions regarding standards are applicable to discussion of ELF. The kind of English that
people are using in Switzerland is quite different from the English in India, for example. Marko
Modiano, an American who has lived in Europe for nearly 25 years and currently a professor in
Sweden, claims that whenever English is used locally as a language to communicate among
people of different L1s, ―…distinct varieties of English have emerged, and there are strong
arguments for promoting such Englishes as educational models (Modiano, 2001).‖
And indeed, the investigations of Braj Kachru, well-known for his research in this area,
support this claim (Kachru, 1986). Marko goes on to argue that due to the role of Euro-English in
the E.U., surely legitimization, codification, and standardization processes will occur (2001). He
explains a few of the terms that are part of Euro-English, such as Schengen, the euro, the Euro
zone or Euro area, Member States. These terms are just but a few examples that are understood
by speakers of English in Europe, as these concepts are important in their context; however,
English speakers from other parts of the world may not understand them.
Pedagogical Materials:
The vast majority of English spoken in the world is between non-native speakers. However,
in English Language Teaching (ELT) materials, most interaction is usually between native
speakers or between a native speaker and a non-native speaker. It is extremely rare to find
dialogues between non-native speakers in ELT materials. Proponents of ELF would like to
change that. On one hand, it is hard for me to imagine having such materials. On the other hand,
in my classes I provide activities where students work in pairs, groups, and do presentations. In
this way, they often have practice using English with other non-native speakers. In considering
goals and materials for the course, it is useful to take students‘ current and future needs in mind,
if possible. Allowing them to make some choices about their learning and a teacher‘s effort to
accommodate for students‘ needs and interests can increase motivation and in turn performance.
Regarding transfer from their L1, teachers should discuss with language learners about
mutual comprehensibility (Modiano 2003). In Euro-English classrooms, it is important to focus
on communicative interaction with different NS, NNS to NNS in mainland Europe, as well as
English in international places (Modiano 2003). McKay recommends using content from the
source culture, which has many advantages, such as encouraging language learners to understand
their own culture better, which they can in turn share with people from other cultures using
English as a lingua franca in the future (McKay 2003). Grading should be based on
communicative effectiveness and not on imitation of native speakers (Modiano 2003).
We should encourage students to have more influence on their learning and endorse
opportunities for them to use the language to communicate with other NNS. Initially the
instructor should provide instructions and clear examples to start off and maybe some web sites
and help them get started. In order to do this, it is helpful to find out what they are interested in
and bring in materials. This scaffolding should help prepare them for the task you assign.
One of my colleagues in Switzerland was a Cambridge teacher trainer for CELTA and
taught at the same university as I did, from Ireland. I really liked his basic teaching philosophy:
ultimately we should try to provide students with tools and to help them become more
independent learners. There is very limited time in class but there are seemingly unlimited
resources available to them at their fingertips through the internet, for example.
Here is an example of a practical teaching idea. Dr. Higgins told me she heard that an
English professor in Japan assigned students to choose a current event and read about it in the
media in English on-line in a variety of different countries. An example would be to choose a
story in the headlines, such as North Korea‘s nuclear bomb test, and examine different points of
view, for example an American newspaper, a newspaper from England, a newspaper from India,
a newspaper from Japan, and a newspaper from South Korea (if information in English can be
found in the latter two).
Instruction: Don‘t borrow anything from Mercia Mcneil‘s summary above. Your
summary should look like this: The title of the article and the name of the author; your overview
or an introductory paragraph (the introduction); the single sentences summarising the main ideas,
with the key facts or figures that support the ideas. You'll need to organise all the information in
the most logical way. You might also have repeated ideas or details that you'll need to delete.
Don't forget to include linking words so your reader can easily follow your thoughts. This
will help your summary flow better, and help you avoid writing short sentences without any
connection between them.
Guidelines for extensive reading of texts on the use of ESP in European transnational
education
This is the continuation of Britta Larson Bergstedt‘s article ―Euro-English accents‖. Her study
considers whether or not 20 female Swedish high school students correctly identify nine
female European non-native English speakers by their accents. The basic criteria comprrise: the
levels of solidarity, competence, prestige, and the relationships between accents, attitudes and
stereotypes. Euro-English and attitude studies serve as a background in analysing connection
between identity and language. The resulting data revealed that differences were perceived by
listeners, and that the amount of contact or language exposure may somewhat negatively affect
attitudes, scoring and accent identification.
Euro-English findings
In studies concerning Euro-English, several different results have been documented. Some
studies have shown that speakers prefer their own nativised English over standard varieties, for
example Amsterdam English. Broeders and Gussenhoven at Nijmegen University in the
Netherlands presented a study in which they presented several English accents as models for new
students, among them RP (Received Pronunciation), Scots English, and Amsterdam English.
(cited in Ketteman, 1993). The students‘ attitudes showed clearly that ―Amsterdam English‖ was
received positively while RP was not very popular.
This sort of attitude, i.e. showing preference for an indigenous variety, even though another
variety may be more prestigious, is concordant with sociolingistic findings in English-speaking
communities. (Kettemann, 1993).
However a study done by Dalton-Puffer, et al, in Austria in 1997 with university students
of English showed just the opposite. The standard native English accents, such as RP and
General American, were clearly preferred over the non-native versions. However these results
also displayed the importance of personal contact and experience with a language.
Clear preference was shown for the native varieties to which the students had had most
access to during their schooling and during study abroad/home stays. The students with more
exposure to native speakers of English in their native environment had much more personal,
situation-based reactions (rather than rigid stereotypes) than those who did not have exposure.
Contact
Contact and experience are obvious factors that affect our stereotypes and attitudes. Just as
one breaks the cycle of prejudice through exposure and knowledge, one can ―liberate people
from such prejudiced discourses‖ by exposing them to linguistic diversity (Kubota, 2001). Much
exposure today happens naturally. Chambers (2002) cited the power of mobility as a powerful
linguistic force today and it is undeniable that face-to-face interactions, personal contact, and
broad international experiences are happening between more and more citizens of the world. Not
only are our knowledge and understanding increasing but consequently our attitudes are also
altering and changing course. Markham noted that in regards to his research on accents
―Experience with or awareness of foreign and native accents must also play a role‖ (1997,
p.100). Markham also pointed out that both specific familiarity with a particular non-native
accent as well as broad experience with non-native speakers may help in identifying accent.
Caveat
In a study by Boyd (2004), the relationship between accents, attitudes and stereotypes is
questioned. She pointed out that in order to have an attitude towards a speaker based on their
acccent and one‘s own stereotype of that culture, one must first be able to correctly identify that
speaker‘s first language/cultural identity. While her results showed clearly that while native
Swedish speakers could quickly and correctly judge the degree of accent of a second language
Swedish speaker, they were only able to correctly identify two accents (and therein cultural
identities/first languages) of the participants. Both of these languages, Finnish and German, are
languages with a long historical connection to Sweden. She also proposed that English and
French accents in Swedish would be correctly identified by Swedish speakers but that accents
from languages other than these four would be difficult to identify (even for trained
phoneticians). While Boyd‘s study focused only native speakers‘ ability to identify accents, it is
reasonable to assume the same principal applies to non-native and second-language speakers.
Responses
Affective and cognitive reactions may occur when one‘s emotions and reactions are
connected to a particular person or situation (Cargile and Giles, 1997). Both the Austrian study
by Dalton-Puffer, et al. and the Dutch study by Broeders and Gussenhoven mentioned earlier
displayed similar effects – a preference for that which one knows and feels comfortable with.
Dalton-Puffer also cites a Japanese study (Chiba, et al , 1995) in which students rated the accents
they recognized most easily (those that were most familiar), most positively (though not their
indigenous variety). These conflicting results coincide with the social identity theory that people
prefer their most salient in-group but are not immune to contact factors. The amount of
experience and exposure are powerful factors regarding attitudes. A study done by Byrnes,
Kiger, and Manning in 1997 showed that, among other things, the amount of experience a
teacher had working with minority language children positively affected their language attitudes.
Attitude Research
The term ―attitude‖ and the study of attitudes are both borrowings from social psychology.
Edwards wrote, ―Because language is one of the traditionally important social markers, it is
not surprising that the study of attitudes has a central position in the social psychology of
language‖ (1999). People have reacted to and evaluated different accents, dialects and languages
since the beginning of mankind‘s verbal history. Historically, two theoretical approaches are
discussed regarding the study of language attitudes. The first one is the behaviorist view, in
which attitudes must be studied by observing the responses to certain languages in actual
interactions. Conversely, the mentalist view says that attitudes are an internal, mental state,
which can explain certain forms of behavior. The mentalist view has been the one most widely
followed and employed in language attitude research as it is most conductive to surveys and
interviews.
One of the first groundbreaking attitude studies was made by Lambert in 1960 presenting
the ―matched guise‖ technique, i.e. the same speaker presented as ―native‖ in one or more
varieties. Since then many dialectal and bilingual studies have followed in a similar strain.
While the ―matched guise‖ technique is still often used, it is often removed due to lack of
authenticity and poor feasibility on the part of the speaker.
Indeed language is such a powerful social force that listeners, even small children, perceive
and interpret linguistic and paralinguistic variation in messages as indicators of both personal
and social characteristics (Cargile & Giles, 1997). Magen (1998) cited research (Flege &
Hammond, 1982; Flege, 1984) that showed that listeners could detect a foreign accent after
exposure to a sample of speech as short as 30 ms. However, there is no research that states how
long it takes for a listener to recognize or identify a foreign accent. In most language attitude
studies listeners are asked to rank or evaluate speakers on qualities relating to prestige, power, or
social attractiveness by asking questions like ―how friendly is this person‖ or ―how educated
does this person sound‖? The results of language-attitude studies are based on the premise that
languages (or linguistic varieties) are objectively comparable and intrinsically and inherently
equal and the differences in subjective evaluation of speech fragments are not caused by
differences in aesthetics or logic but rather by the differences in the social position of the
listeners and the imposed norms their culture has bred within them. Piske, et al, (2001) stated in
their review that it appears the accuracy of a non-native speakers pronunciation is dependent on
the L1. They also stated that studies have shown that read speech was judged to be more strongly
foreign-accented than spontaneous speech samples. Furthermore, Markham wrote that ―If
listeners are told that all speakers are non-native, then it seems likely that listeners will tend
towards hearing accent. If they are told that native speakers are present in the sample, then some
listeners may err on the side of caution and be inclined to give all speakers slightly better scores‖
(1997).
There are some questions as to the reliability of participants. scoring but Magen (1998)
cited sources that stated untrained listeners perform reliably when judging foreign accents
although experienced listeners can sometimes be more so. There are additional factors that may
affect a listener‘s response. Non-linguistic factors such as context, topic, and relevance of the
text may alter a listener‘s scoring. Degree of emotionality and humor may also factor in.
Previous studies have also considered rate of speaking and musical ability among other things as
possible and probable factors affecting attribute scoring.
Method
These hypotheses have been tested quantitatively on a group of Swedish female high
school students using recordings of non-native female speakers together with Likert-based
attitude scales and an identification task. The ―matched-guise‖ technique was not used in this
study due to lack of feasibility and authenticity. The dependent variable (DV) for the study was
the students‘ responses on the attitude scales. Attitude scales are indisputably the most popular
way to measure attitudes and these particular scales used in this study have been widely used in
accent attitude studies before and have therefore been proven both reliable and valid. The
independent variables (IV) were the students‘ time abroad also called ―contact‖ (contact/no
contact) and the speakers of the recordings (9 different nonnative English accents). The
experiment was a 2 (contact/no contact) x 9 (speaker ethnicity: nine different European accents)
factorial design where both factors were fixed.
There were linguistic variables both phonetic and phonemic, as well as extralinguistic
variables, that were uncontrolled and may have affected the results. Such linguistic variables
resided primarily within the speakers used and included, for example, the number of mistakes
and hesitations. Extralinguistic variables may have included those regarding the speakers or the
participants (social, regional, political, religion), group (size, immediacy, influence), and
situation (time of day, location). Two additional external factors that may have influenced the
results was my own native English speaking before the recordings and during the experiment as
well as the speakers‘ earlier models, i.e. what variety of English they have been most exposed to
during their education. Further factors that were not taken into account are the speakers‘ and
listeners‘ knowledge and familiarity of English as well as their time spent in English-speaking
countries.
Material
The material for this experiment consisted of 9 recordings of the same text read by 8
European exchange students and 1 Swede (all female) studying at Växjö University during the
spring term 2004. Their participation was voluntary. The text used is entitled ―The Rainbow
Passage‖ and, in its entirety, includes all the sounds of English. In this experiment, however,
only the first two paragraphs were used. These recordings were not altered or controlled in any
way in regard to time, rate of speaking, or pitch in order to produce the most natural recording
possible. The speaking time for the first paragraph ranged between 30 and 46 seconds for each
speaker while the time for the second paragraph ranged between 25 and 38 seconds. Also, each
speaker was given the text to review for only a few minutes before recording with the possibility
to ask questions about pronunciation or meaning. The result was a somewhat spontaneous
reading by each speaker.
Speakers
These nine speakers were located, interviewed, and recorded within their residence halls.
All 9 speakers were women between the ages of 21 and 31 currently studying at Växjö
University. Excluding the Swedish speaker, they had been in Sweden for a time period of
between 2 months and 1 year. All nine speakers were studying a subject other than English and
had not studied English since high school. Questions were also asked that involved if, how,
when, and where they had spent time in English-speaking or other foreign countries. Of the 9
speakers, 3 of them (Spain, Poland, Germany) had spent 2 months in an English-speaking
country (vacation/working) while the remaining 6 had spent less than a month in an English-
speaking country. Also, the women from France, Poland, and Germany had spent one month or
more in a non-English-speaking foreign country. All nine women classified their English as
Intermediate or Advanced and agreed that they had a typical foreign accent in English for a
person from their country. The recordings were placed in the following order: Germany,
Portugal, France, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands. No control was made
for age of learning, years of formal instruction, learning aptitude, order influence, or for the fact
that inclusion or exclusion of one voice or accent may affect judgements of those remaining.
Participants
Participants for this study were female students in their first or second year within the
International Baccalaureate Program at Katedralskolan, a high school in Växjö, Sweden in the
spring of 2004. Participation was voluntary. In order to qualify for the study, the student must
have been a Swedish citizen by birth or have moved to Sweden by the age of six. A total of 20
qualifying students listened to recordings and filled in the questionaire. Of these 20 students, 10
reported that they had had more than one month of continuous contact with a foreign country
(e.g. vacation, language studies). The remaining 10 did not report having more than one month
of continous contact. These two groups were designated ―Contact‖ and ―Non-contact‖
respectively. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to note that the ―contact/no contact‖ factor is
quantitative not qualitative. What kind of contact and international experience the listeners had,
for example how many different contacts and what level of contact are not measured or
controlled. There was also no differentiation made for whether the contact they had was with an
English-speaking or non-English speaking country.
Procedure
Once the recordings and the questionnaire were complete, I contacted the head of the
International Baccalaureate Program and decided on which classes would be most appropriate.
Two English classes were chosen and we met accordingly. I was given the first part of the class
to conduct the study, approximately 25 minutes. I was introduced to the class as a native English
speaker living in Sweden. I then explained that my study was about perception of a speaker
based on their voice, for example a stranger on the radio or on the telephone. They were not told
that the speakers were all non-native speakers of English.
I reviewed and explained how to fill in the attitude scales and answered questions regarding
the meaning of the qualitites. I then played each of the recordings (first paragraph of the text) in
the order mentioned earlier. I paused after each recording and waited for all the students to finish
marking the scales. In an effort to avoid fatigue, I encouraged them repeatedly to keep paying
attention. As an oral and mental ―palate cleanser‖, I also told them a knock-knock joke. I chose
knock-knock jokes since they require an active response from the class. After completing the
first nine attitude scales, the students were then given instructions for the accent identification
section. They were to listen to each speaker (second paragraph of the text) and then place the
number of the speaker in front of their best guess for where that speaker was from. There was no
space for ―I don‘t know‖ and each country was only to be used once. Following these
instructions, I played up the recordings with only a brief pause in which to say the number of the
next speaker and to remind them they were required to write an answer. After this section was
completed I asked the participants to complete the page of demographic questions on the back.
As they completed this page, I collected the packets and answered any further questions that they
had.
Summary of results
The results revealed that the speakers were indeed perceived and interpreted differently by
the listeners. The nine speakers scored at varying levels within the categories Power, Solidarity
and Competence. The speakers with Dutch, Austrian and Polish accent fared well in regards to
the three qualities Power, Solidarity, and Competence. Portugal, Italy, France and Germany were
rated generally low while Spain and Sweden placed somewhere in the middle. Time spent
abroad, as defined and used in this study, also had an effect on the listeners. attitudes and
responses as well as their ability to identify a particular accent. The contact group was seemingly
negatively impacted producing lower average score responses as well as a lower rate of correct
identification, even in regard to their own non-native English speaker [Swedish – speaker
number 5]. There was no strong overall tendency to evaluate Swedish highly though the Swedish
speaker‘s ethnicity was rather identifiable by the listeners.
While there exists a strong link between language and ethnicity, it is not a one-to-one
relationship. I believe both the listeners and speakers in this study may have responded, had they
been asked, differently in regards to their ―grouping‖ and as to their strength as a member of the
ethnic group in which I have categorized them. Loyalty to and identity with one‘s in-group might
occur at any level – local, municipal, provincial, regional, national or international. Most often,
the strongest identity is found at the lower levels and then successively weakens as the in-group
broadens.
These constructions are not only based on our personal history but also on functional
interaction. In many ways it is not until we meet someone from an out-group that we are able to
identify ourselves as part of an in-group. In particular the speakers in this study, as exchange
students, may be reevaluating their ―group‖ membership and redefining their identity based on
new functional interaction. Their personal contact and experience, especially situation-based,
may have drastically changed over the days, weeks, and months prior to the recordings as their
identity may have shifted from a local level to a national level (e.g. a change from ―I‘m from
Barcelona‖ to ―I‘m from Spain‖ except when meeting other Spaniards).
These differences may have been caused by their contact with foreigners or their time
abroad. In this study the non-contact group seems to identify more strongly with other European
non-native English speakers while the contact group does not. While contact and time abroad
may be a decisive factor in this difference there exists perhaps some difference ―at home‖ as
well. Some of the students may have more contact with foreigners (for example, immigrants)
without ever leaving Sweden.
Furthermore, the listeners‘ education may have an impact on their identity. The
International Baccalaureate Program is used throughout the world and embraces
multiculturalism. It is offered in several languages but most prominently in English. The
Swedish students who choose this program which is given in English would most likely have a
particular predilection for English and internationalism and there by also an identity that lays at a
level that is more national or international than local or regional. Surely these particular factors
must impact one‘s personal identity, one‘s group identity, and therein a speaker‘s accent and a
listener‘s reaction.
As I was recording the nine speakers, clearly they could be thought to be producing better
English then than had they been unaware of the proceedings. In authentic social situations
speakers should be more prone to communicate, to simply make themselves understood. It is
only when evaluation comes into the picture that people, even native speakers, make an effort to
produce correct English.
I believe that this choice can also be affected by the company kept. Anecdotally, I can state
that many people feel awkward speaking a second or foreign language such as English with a
native speaker. In a mixed ethnic group where no native speakers are present (and there is no
other shared language), participants feel that English is a natural choice and that they are on a
more even playing field. In a world where the number of non-native speakers of English
continues to expand prolifically beyond the number of native speakers, it seems reasonable that
more and more people will choose to simply communicate.
It is my personal experience that Swedes are particularly partial to near-native English as
opposed to ethnic (read Swedish)-accented English. Many Swedes laugh or are embarrassed to
hear Swedish journalists or politicians speaking accented English while surely the French
population would be in an uproar if Chirac began speaking fluent British English.
While it is plausible for a non-native speaker to reach native-like language skills, it is
neither always possible nor desirable.
Instruction: Don‘t copy Britta Larson Bergstedt‘s summary above, first of all, because she
limits it to the results of her own experiment without setting connection with the first six
paragraphs of the text. As there are quite a few references to interpretations of indicators of both
personal and social accent characteristics, you will have to select those that may be considered
valid for Bergstedt‘s study. Be sure to describe the basic hypotheses and the stages of the
experiment.
To repeat:
1. A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the article's title and author.
2. A summary must contain the main thesis or standpoint of the text, restated in your own
words. (To do this, first find the thesis statement in the original text.)
3. A summary cannot exceed 1/3 of the original.
5. A summary should contain all the major points of the original text, and should ignore
most of the fine details, examples, illustrations or explanations.
4. The backbone of any summary is formed by crucial details (key names, dates, events,
words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities.
5. A summa