2 What is Britain

8/4/2019 2 What is Britain

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Language & Culture: ESOL

5LN005


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Lecture 2 Aims: Review what is culture? & the

relationship between language &

culture.

Provide general overview of diachronic

(historical) view of what is Britain?.

Reflect on geography of British Isles.


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What is culture?

The word culture encompasses all theelements that influence and form how asociety thinks, behaves and what itenjoys.


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The Brits!

Write down three words that come into your headwhen you think of the British


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What is Britain?

Diachronic(historical) viewSynchronic(social) view

Sociocultural context


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Germanic Invasions (5th Century)

(BBC, 2010)


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Anglo-Saxon Culture

On dark winter days, people

gathered in the hall around alog fire. They listened to storiesand poems, and sang. They ateroast meats, bread and fruit.They drank ale or mead, astrong drink made from honey.

People often drank too much, sofeasts were often noisy andsometimes ended in fights!

(BBC, 2010)


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Norman Invasions (1066-1485): Class Structure


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Henry VIII (1491-1547)

Mnemonic aid:

divorced; beheaded; died;divorced; beheaded; survived.

1534: English Reformation (Henry VIIIbreaks away from the Roman Church)


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The Monarchy vs. Parliament

17th & 18th centuries: shift in powerfrom Monarch to Houses ofParliament.

CivilWar (1642-1649)

Tories vs. Whigs


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The Empire & TheWorldWars


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British Colonies: 21st Century


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What is Britain?


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North/South Divide


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North/South Divide Read the newspaper article (North-south divide slides

down map ) taken from The Times on 15th August 2010.

Does the article offer any hints regarding the historicalreasons to account for the north-south divide(diachronic view)?

What social factors does it discuss (synchronic view)?

Economic benefit (house prices, incomes)

Life expectancy

Educational benefits


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Northerners view of London

Jason Manford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzNDM2ekSio


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Accents & Attitudes

Accents: how speakers sound.

Listen to these sound recordings and, refer tothe Attitudes & Accents in Englishworksheet.

By simply listening to their voices rate thespeakers out of ten against the listedcharacter traits/personal qualities.

Clips taken from the British Library, 2010


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Results Findings of a BBC radio survey of British listeners attitudes

towards different regional accents:

RP: top of the social scale and labelled as most honest. Also,perceived more favourably in terms of competence (ambition,intelligence, self-confidence, determination, andindustriousness).

Liverpool (Scouse): bottom of social scale.

Cockney: least attractive in terms of character.

Regional accents: perceived more favourably in terms ofpersonal integrity and social attractiveness (seriousness,talkativeness, good-naturedness and sense of humour).

(Information taken from Graddol, Leith & Swann, 1996: 287)


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Broader accents Glasgow:

http://www.friendsofscotland.gov.uk/scotlandnow/issue-02/arts/scottish-accent.html

Liverpool (Scouse):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4vxN9vP3mg


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Dialects of Great Britain Dialects: the words or phrases speakers

use (incl. grammar & vocabulary)

Measured against Standard English the language of formality, academia &

professionalism.

I dont want none (multiple negation)


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Answers

happy bread roll femalealcoholic

drinktoilet

chuffed barm lass bevvy petty

bostin stottie biddie gill netty

Made up scuffler chitty booze closit

bob

breadcake


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UsefulWebsites for Further Study BBC voice recordings from around the

country: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/

British Library voice recordings & discussion:http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html

Detailed analysis of dialects:http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/rp.htm#3


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References Leake, J & Dowling, K. (2010) North-south divide slides down

map. The Times 15th August, pg. 6.

ODriscoll, James (1995) Britain:The Country and Its People.

Oxford: OUP The BBC (2010) Anglo-Saxons: Stories and Pasttimes, bbc.co.uk[Online] Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/anglo_saxons/stories_and_pastimes/ Accessed on 21.09.2010


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ReferencesVoice Recordings:

The British Library (2010) Archival Sound Recordings. [Online]Available at: http://sounds.bl.uk/Default.aspx Accessed on

30.09.2010-09-30 The British Library (2010) Learning: Sounds Familiar? [Online]

Available at: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/Accessed on 30.09.2010-09-30

Friends of Scotland (2010) ScotlandNow Archive [Online]

Available at:http://www.friendsofscotland.gov.uk/scotlandnow/issue-02/arts/scottish-accent.html Accessed on 01.10.2010

Documents

2 What is Britain