English around the world

Reading

Unit Two: English around the world

(Reading)

The road to modern English

Pre-reading questions:

1.Do you think it important for you to learn English? Why?

2.Why do so many people speak English?3.Which country do you think has the most English learners?

English-speaking countries:

UK, USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland

mother tongue/ native language

official language

India, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, etc.

Find out the main idea for each paragraph

• Para 1: describes the extension of English in the world.

• Para 2: tells us native speakers can understand each other but not everything.

• Para 3: tells us why English has changed over time.

• Para 4: tells us English was settled by two dictionaries.

• Para 5: tells us English is spoken as a foreign or second language in many countries.

Time How is English developed?

Between about ______ and _____

Spoken in ________ and based more on _____.

Between about _____and ____

_______and ______ enriched the English _______ and especially its ________

At the end of _____ century

About __________________ people spoke English

In the ____ century Used by more people as the result of the _______ to conquer other parts of the world

Later in the ___ century

Began to be spoken in ______ and ______

By the ___ century Settled by two _________

AD450 1150England

German

AD800 1150Danish French

language

vocabulary

16thfive to seven million

17thvoyages

18th AmericaAustralia

19th dictionaries

Time How is English developed?

now Spoken in countries such as China,______, _________, ________ and __________ as a foreign or second language

In a word, English is ________ and _________ over time and is spoken ___________ the world.

India Singapore

changing

South Africa

developingall over

Malaysia

1.Which of the following statement is true?

A. Languages always stay the same

B. Languages change only after wars

C. Languages no longer change

D. Languages change when cultures change

2. From AD 450 to 1150, English

sounded more like_____?

A. French B. Chinese

C. German D. Russian

3. Shakespeare’s English was spoken

around ______?

A. 1400’s B. 1150’s

C. 450’s D. 1600’s

4. Which country has the fastest

growing number of English speakers in

the world?

A. Australia

B. China

C. India

D. Britain

Samuel Johnson

Born: September 18, 1709

One of the English language’s most profound influences.

Two important persons

Noah Webster Born: October 16, 1758Died: May 28, 1843When Noah was 43, he started writing the first American dictionary. He did this because Americans in different parts of the country spelled, pronounced and used words differently.

True (T) or false (F). Page 10