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Many popular superstitions are associated with Good Friday. Blacksmiths do not shoe horses because of the use to which nails had been put, long ago, on Calvary. Miners do not go down the pit, believing that some disaster occurs if they do. Housewives do not sweep their houses because to do so is to sweep away the life of one of the family”.
8.2. “American English”
The basic idea of this lesson is to introduce main lexical and grammatical differences between the British English language and its American variant.
Lesson topic: “American English”
Lesson goal: study of the basic distinctions between the English language and it’s
American dialect, try to apply the knowledge in practice.
Lesson structure:
1) Lesson organization (2-3 minutes)
2) Particular review of the previous studies (4-5 minutes)
We accept that the there was a homework related to the given topic; it was based on the analysis of the following text:
“ American English
In the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America, and another series of changes began to take place. The settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries – for instance, chowder and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as lumber ( which in British English means approximately junk ) and corn ( which in British means any grain, especially wheat ). Some of the new terms were needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no exception.
Aside from the new vocabulary, differences in pronunciation, in grammatical construction, and especially in intonation developed. If the colonization had taken place a few centuries earlier, American might have become as different from English as French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the invention of printing, and continued through a period when the idea of educating everybody was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the books read in America came from England, and a surprising number of Americans read those books, in or out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to have felt strong ties with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, who apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.
A good many Englishmen and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did develop, and as recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all “Americanisms” condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in this country that we are not bound to the Queen’s English, but have a full right to work out our own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede this, though some of them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now having an influence on British usage.
There are thousands of differences in detail between British and American English, and occasionally they crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and others may develop.
It also seems probable that there will be narrow-minded and snobbish people in both countries for some time to come. But generally speaking, anybody who learnsto speak and write the standard English of his own country, and to regard that of the other country as a legitimate variety with certain interesting differences, will have little trouble wherever he goes”.
Students should translate and discuss this text in class, expressing their understanding of differences between two dialects, and to tell examples of such from their personal experience (if they have any).
3) New studies (approximately 20 minutes)
This section will be very useful if built upon listening comprehension and discussion exercises mainly. Thus students will be given both listening and oral experience of distinguishing between dialects and using their knowledge in practice.
The approximate volume of information for the first (but not the only one!) lesson on this topic is given below, for both lexical and grammatical differences.
3.1.) Lexical difference
Lexical differences of American variant highly extensive on the strength of multiple borrowing from Spanish and Indian languages, what was not in British English.
American variant British variant
Subway underground
the movies the cinema
shop store
sidewalk pavement
line queue
soccer football
mailman postman
vacation holiday
corn maize
fall autumn
Also claim attention differences in writing some words in American and British variants of language.
For instance, following:
American variant British variant
honor honour
traveler traveller
plow plough
defense defence
jail gaol
center centre
apologize apologise
3.2.) Grammatical difference
Grammatical differences of American variant consist in following:
-
In that events, when British use Present Perfect, in Staffs can be used and Present Perfect, and Past Simple.
-
Take a shower/a bath instead of have a shower/a bath.
-
Shall is not used. In all persons is used by will.
-
Needn't (do) usually is not used. Accustomed form -don't need to (do).
-
After demand, insist, require etc should usually is NOT used. I demanded that he apologize (instead of I demanded that he should apologise in British variant).
6. to/in THE hospital instead of to/in hospital in BrE.
7. on the weekend/on weekend instead of at the weekend/at weekend.
8. on a street instead of in a street.
9. Different from or than instead of different to/from
10. Write is used with to or without the pretext.
11. Past participle of "got" is "gotten"
12. To burn, to spoil and other verbs, which can be regular or
irregular in the British variant, in the American variant ALWAYS
regular.
13. Past Perfect, as a rule, is not used completely.
4) The training of practical application of the new knowledge should be given mainly in the form of listening/spoken exercises.
5) Homework (2-3 minutes)
A good kind of a homework for this particular lesson would be a task to compose a free-style topic in the British English language (about an A4 page in size) and then rewrite it in the American English; then discuss the lexical and grammatical differences between topics in class.
Bibliography
1. Hole, Christina. English traditional customs. London - Sydney, Batsford, 1975.
2. Hogg, Garry. Customs and traditions of England. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1971.
3. Baker, Margaret. Folklore and customs of rural England. Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1974.
4. Rabley, Stephen. Customs and traditions in Britain. Harlow (Essex), Longman, 1989.
5. Murphy Raymond. English Grammar in Use. - Cambridge University Press, 1997.
6. Швейцер А.Д. Американский вариант литературного английского языка: пути формирования и современный статус.//Вопросы языкознания,1995, №6,стр. 3-17.
7. Подласый И.П. Педагогика. т.1. Москва, Владос, 2001.
8. Bowle, John. England: A portrait. London, Benn, 1966.
9. Bryant, Arthur. A history of Britain and the British people. London, Collins, 1990.
10. Clark, George. English history: A survey. London, Oxford univ. Press, 1971.
Contents
1. Great Britain: General Facts ……………………………………………..…… 1
2. The History of Great Britain ……………………………………………...……1
2.1. Britain in the reign of Elizabeth …………………………………………..… 2
2.2. Britain in the seventeenth century ……………………………………….….. 3
2.3. Britain in the eighteenth century ……………………………………………. 5
2.4. Britain in the nineteenth century ……………………………………….…… 6
2.5. Britain in the twentieth century ……………………………………………... 9
3. Culture of Great Britain ……………………………………………………... 12
3.1. Cultural Life in Great Britain ……………………………………………... 12
3.2. Musical culture of Great Britain …………………………………….….…. 13
3.3. Art Galleries ……………………………………………………………….. 14
3.4. The British Theatre ………………………………………………………... 15
4. The British Education …………………………………………………….…. 15
4.1. The British Schools ………………………………………………………... 16
4.2. Universities and Colleges in Great Britain ………………………………… 16
5.The Modern British Economy ……………………………………………...… 17
6. The Modern British Industry ………………………………………………….18
7. The Modern British Army ……………………………………………...……. 18
8. The Two Lessons ……………………………………………………..……… 20
8.1. “Customs and Traditions of Great Britain” ……………………………...… 20
8.2. “American English” …………………………………………………..……. 27
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………...…….. 32
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