A Cultural History of the English Language and Middle School English Teaching Instructor: Xia Kangming (A professor of English) School of Foreign Languages of Leshan Teachers College

Part 1 A brief history of English Langage Part 2 American English & Other Varieties Part 3 English as a Globe Language Part 4 ESL and EFL

Part 1 A brief history of English Langage 1. Indo-European Family of Langages 2. A brief histroy of English language

Indo-European Family of Languages GermanicIndo-IranianSlavicBalticCelticRomance Anglo-Saxon French Old English AD Latin Middle English Early Modern English Late Modern English 1800-present Dominated by Germanic words Beowulf A mixture of Anglo-Norman due to Norman Conquest in 1066 Beef and Cow Canterbury Tales More Classical Latin and Greek words into English due to the Renaissance, th Centuries Many more words due to Industrial Revolution and British Empire West Germanic

Definitions of different Branches 1.Germanic: a branch of the Indo-European family of languages; members that are spoken currently fall into two major groups: Scandinavian and West Germanic. 2. Indo-Iranian:. the branch of the Indo-European family of languages including the Indian and Iranian language groups. 3. Slavic: The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of Central Europe, and the northern part of Asia.

4. Baltic: The Baltic languages are part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by the Balts. Baltic languages are spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. They are usually considered a single family divided into two groups: Western Baltic, containing only extinct languages, and Eastern Baltic, containing two living languages, Lithuanian and Latvian. 5. Celtic: a branch of the Indo-European languages that (judging from inscriptions and place names) was spread widely over Europe in the pre-Christian era. Modern Celtic languages are mostly spoken on the north-western edge of Europe, notably in Ireland, Scotland, Wales. 6. Latin: Latin is the language which the ancient Romans used to speak. Latin countries are countries where Spanish, or perhaps Portuguese, Italian, or French, is spoken. You can also use Latin to refer to things and people that come from these countries. 7. Romance: Romance languages are languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian, which come from Latin.

1. Old English ， Also called Anglo- Saxon ( AD), Old English, whose best known surviving example is the poem Beowulf （裴欧沃夫） （ The legendary hero of an anonymous Old English epic poem believed to have been composed in the early eighth century. Beowulf slays the monster Grendel and its mother, becomes king of the Geats, and dies fighting a dragon.

2. The Norman Conquest and Middle English ( ) heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, the dialect of Old French, derived chiefly from Norman French, that was used by the Anglo-Normans. The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

3. Early Modern English ( ) The next wave of innovation in English came with the Renaissance(from 14th to 16th centuries AD in Europe). The revival of classical scholarship brought many classical Latin and Greek words into the Language.

4. Late-Modern English (1800- Present) The principal distinction between early- and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words.

The last major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press. William Caxton brought the printing press to England in Books became cheaper and as a result, literacy became more common.

Two other major factors influenced the language and served to separate Middle and Modern English. The first was the Great Vowel Shift. This was a change in pronunciation that began around 1400.

Part 2 American English and other varieties American English and other varieties Also significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of American English.

Likewise dialects of English have developed in many of the former colonies of the British Empire. There are distinct forms of the English language spoken in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and many other parts of the world.

English as a globe language English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca. It is spoken as a first language by the majority populations of several sovereign states, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations; and it is an official language of almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third-most-common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as in many world organisations.

Global English: English is used in over 90 countries as an official or semi-official language. English is the working language of the Asian trade group ASEAN. It is the de facto working language of 98 percent of international research physicists and research chemists. It is the official language of the European Central Bank, even though the bank is in Frankfurt and neither Britain nor any other predominantly English- speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union. It is the language in which Indian parents and black parents in South Africa overwhelmingly wish their children to be educated.

According to survey conducted by British Council in 2005: there are more than four hundred million people who use English as their native language, more then one billion people who are now learning English as a second language or a foreign language, more than two billion people who are now using English directly or indirectly in the world, The number of English learners in China is almost the same as that of the English native speakers, The total income of English teaching conducted by Britain reached 10.5 billion pound in 2005, 4% of its total export and 1% of its GDP, English has without a doubt become the global language.

Part 4 ESL and EFL ESL: English as a Second Language: It is used side by side with the native language in academic fields, education, commerce, etc found extensively in Asia, especially in India and Africa and former British colonial territories. (India) EFL: English as a Foreign Language It is required as the first foreign language for study as part of the country’s education curriculum, though the language has no official, or even traditional standing in that country (e.g. China)