Chapter Three: Language
Objectives:
• To establish guiding principles of language development.
• To present a brief overview of the effects of historical events upon the English language.
•To present a perspective of the language in order to help students understand its sounds and
pronunciations.
• To survey the development of language in the individual.
Content:
• Terms—Linguistics, phoneme, English, dialect
• A definition of language
• Two principles of language—change and survival
• British English history in brief
• Modern English and the United States
• Language acquisition for the individual
Activities:
• Show excerpts from the PBS series “The Story of English.” (Your library will have had to
purchase the series.) Discuss the various dialects extant throughout England and the
United States today. Or you might use some other video on language.
Application Questions
Ask your students to write response to these questions; use them for in class
discussion; or simply ask students to personally apply the questions.
1. How would you assess your grasp of the English language?
2. What sounds or words are problematic for you?
3. What words have changed pronunciation over the time you have been speaking English?
4. What dialect of English do you use? What obvious differences do you notice between
your dialect and that which you hear on network television news?
Focus Messages:
• Try having ESL students compile lists of euphemisms, clichés, or colloquialisms that they
have heard but with which they are not familiar. Discuss these in class. You might also
Discussion questions:
1. What would happen if you suddenly lost memory of the rules of language (grammar,
semantics, etc.)? What do these “rules” serve to do for language? How does it affect
articulation?
2. If language changes constantly, how is it changing right now?
3. What might be some hypothetical situations wherein a language would survive?
4. What are some of your observations regarding dialects within the United States?
5. In what ways was your speech affected by your parents or other role models?
Quiz questions:
True/false
Multiple choice:
(c)
study language, (d) are media consultants.
rooting in common speech, (c) whether or not the king or president is speaking it,
(d) the number of words in the language itself.
_d 3. Before the Romans conquered England around 55 B.C., it was inhabited by the (a)
Anglo-Saxons, (b) Germanic tribes, (c) Normans, (d) Celts.
(c) [ tS ], [ j ] ; (d) [t] [d].
the (a) Romans, (b) Germanic tribes, (c) Scandinavians,
(d)
Normans.
Short Answer
1.
How would you define “language?” (A series of sounds which, when produced in a
2.
What manifestations of change might a language experience and why? (Foreign words
3.
How can a language survive? (Languages survive when rooted in common speech,
5.
Discuss the concept of articulation and pronunciation in relation to culture. (By the time