Use the words from box in the correct form in the following sentences.

Due to, maintain, adopt, expand, enable, diverse, intrinsic, international, essential, mother tongue, minority, characterize, background

1. Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one …, and be bilingual.

2. Oxford wants the best students, from every kind of ….

3. People who migrate … a disaster in their home country are not covered by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

4. A … government is a cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament.

5. In her ​essay, she … the ​whole ​era as a ​period of ​radical​ change.

6. Computers are an … part of our lives.

7. A large house is very expensive to ….

8. We are hoping to … our range of products.

9. We've … a new approach.

10.  I’m proud of my … collection of music.

11. This money has … me to buy a new computer.

12.  We’ll invite an … team of scientists to our conference.

13. Maths is an … part of the school's curriculum.

 

Speaking

In small groups choose and discuss one of the following problems and collect the information on it. Then present this information in class. Try to give strong and reliable arguments for you answer.

1. The necessity of a Global Language. Is a Global language really needed?

2.  Advantages and disadvantages of a Global Language?

3. English as a Global Language. Is English really appropriate as a Global Language?

4. Your predictions about a Global Language of future. What language is possible to be global in a) 20; b) 50; c) 70; d) etc. years time?

 

Increase your Knowledge

Read the following article from the BBC website to understand its main idea. Discuss in class if it is worth keeping alive dialects that are sometimes only spoken by a handful of people. Do you agree with the ideas presented in the article? Give your grounds.

"Language is the dress of thought," Samuel Johnson once said.

About 6,000 different languages are spoken around the world. But the Foundation for Endangered Languages estimates that between 500 and 1,000 of those are spoken by only a handful of people. And every year the world loses around 25 mother tongues. That equates to losing 250 languages over a decade - a sad prospect for some.

Apart from English, the United Kingdom has a number of other languages. Mr Nicholas Oster, the foundation's chairman, estimates that half a million people speak Welsh, a few thousand Scots are fluent in Gaelic, about 400 people speak Cornish, while the number of Manx speakers - the language of the Isle of Man - is perhaps as small as 100. But is there any point in learning the really minor languages?

In Europe, MrOstler's view seems to command official support. There is a European Charter for Regional Languages, which every European Union member has signed, and the EU has a European Language Diversity For All programme, designed to protect the most threatened native tongues. At the end of last year the project received 2.7m euros to identify those languages most at risk.

But for some this is not just a waste of resources but a misunderstanding of how language works. The writer and broadcaster Kenan Malik says it is "irrational" to try to preserve all the world's languages.

Earlier this year, the Bo language died out when an 85-year-old member of the Bo tribe in the India-owned Andaman islands died.

While it may seem sad that the language expired, says Mr Malik, cultural change is driving the process.

"In one sense you could call it a cultural loss. But that makes no sense because cultural forms are lost all the time. To say every cultural form should exist forever is ridiculous." And when governments try to prop languages up, it shows a desire to cling to the past rather than move forwards, he says.

"To have a public policy that a certain culture or language should be preserved shows a fundamental misunderstanding. I don't see why it's in the public good to preserve Manx or Cornish or any other language for that matter." In the end, whether or not a language is viable is very simple. "If a language is one that people don't participate in, it's not a language anymore."

The veteran word-watcher and Times columnist Philip Howard agrees that languages are in the hands of people, not politicians. "Language is the only absolutely true democracy. It's not what professors of linguistics or academics or journalists say, but what people do. If children in the playground start using 'wicked' to mean terrific then that has a big effect."

The former Spanish dictator Franco spent decades trying to stamp out the nation's regional languages but today Catalan is stronger than ever and Basque is also popular.

And Mr Howard says politicians make a "category mistake" when they try to interfere with language, citing an experiment in Glasgow schools that he says is doomed to fail. "Offering Gaelic to children of people who don't speak it seems like a conservation of lost glories. It's very romantic to try and save a language but nonsense."

But neither is he saying that everyone should speak English. "Some people take a destructivist view and argue that everyone will soon be speaking English. But Mandarin is the most populous language in the world and Spanish the fastest growing."

There are competing forces at work that decide whether smaller languages survive, Howard argues. On the one hand globalisation will mean that many languages disappear. But some communities will always live apart, separated by sea, distance or other barriers and will therefore keep their own language. With modern communications and popular culture "you find that if enough people want to speak a language they can".

"Language is not a plant that rises and falls, lives and decays. It's a tool that's perfectly adapted by the people using it. Get on with living and talking."

(Shortened from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11304255 )

Writing

Language Biography

Describe your language biography on the basis of the following plan:

- Your mother-tongue;

- Language(s) you learn (already know);

- Reasons of learning these languages;

- Aspects of the learning process which you especially enjoy / dislike;

- Language of learning the language which you find easy / difficult;

- Your plans for the use of the language in future.

 

Study Skills

People learn in many ways: by seeing and hearing; reflecting and acting; reasoning logically and intuitively; memorizing and visualizing. Read the following descriptions and choose the learning style, which is true for you. What other types do you know? How can learning styles help you learn the foreign language? Discuss it with your partner.

Visual - you prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others. You can easily visualize objects, plans and outcomes in your mind's eye. You also have a good spatial sense, which gives you a good sense of direction. You can easily find your way around using maps, and you rarely get lost. You use images, pictures, color and other visual media to help you learn.

 

Aural (auditory-musical) - you like to work with sound and music. You have a good sense of pitch and rhythm. You typically can sing, play a musical instrument, or identify the sounds of different instruments. Certain music invokes strong emotions. You use sound, rhyme, and music in your learning.

 

Verbal (linguistic) - you find it easy to express yourself, both in writing and verbally. You love reading and writing. You like playing on the meaning or sound of words, such as in tongue twisters, rhymes, limericks and the like. You know the meaning of many words, and regularly make an effort to find the meaning of new words. You use these words, as well as phrases you have picked up recently, when talking to others.

 

Kinesthetic – you prefer to learn via experience—moving, touching, and doing (active exploration of the world, science projects, experiments, etc.). You enjoy learning in a group or using flash cards or anything else that satisfies their hunger for 'experience'.

 

Reading for Fun