Introduction Unit

Overall Objective:

After completing this unit you will be able to recognize the relevance of the History of the English Language in ELT.

Relevance of The History of English Language for

ELT

There are aspects of the origin and development of

the English language that most of us are not aware of and rarely consider.

The English language traces back its history to

Bronze Age c. 1200 B.C. with the arrival of the Celts to the British Isles. However, these are not the people whose language we speak. The Celtic languages are only kept alive in some edges of the Isles surviving in Wales, Ireland, and with Gaelic in Scotland. It is until the A.D. 500 – 600 when the invading Angles, Saxons and Jutes bring this Germanic language of the Indo-European family to England and thus English begins its course.

We too begin our journey in that space and time.

Therefore, we find ourselves considering the

relevance between those historical events and the course of English to our profession.

Why would it be important for an ESL teacher to know these facts?

Why would they need to know where some words trace?

How English became an uninflected language?

Who Alfred the Great was and what part he played in the development of English?

All these questions will get an appropriate answer in

the coming of the course but for now only consider the relevance of this course into your career.

1. As a teacher of English you have to be aware of the origins of the

Language you are teaching.

2. Sometimes students ask where some words come from.

3. As a teacher you sometimes wonder why some words are similar but have different meaning.

4. To expand your general knowledge it is good to know about history.

5. To have a global understanding of the language.

6. To understand how social features influence the learning of a language.

7. To understand how people from different cultures that speak the same language use variations in it.

8. To understand the development of vocabulary and spelling of English.

9. To know the different foods and habits that have been adopted from other cultures.

From the following list choose the three reasons that you think are the most relevant for ELT.

Now give reasons for your choice.

After making your choice, did you find yourself marking all options?

It may all seem relevant being that the origins as well as the historical and cultural aspects of the language are part of the language itself. Therefore they all could be applicable in any given moment.

English carries the story of its origin as an independent

language in its name. The "Engl-" part of the word goes back to the Angles, a Germanic tribe that invaded and colonized much of Great Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries. The "-ish" part means "belonging to": in this case, the language that belonged to the Angles the "Angle-ish" language.

DID YOU KNOW?

DID YOU KNOW?

DID YOU KNOW?

We learn something new everyday, don’t we?