Task 1Read
the quotes, then discuss your views about some
of them in class.
“Conversation is the slowest form of human
communication.” ~Author
Unknown
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
~Federico
Fellini, Italian filmmaker
“Learn a new language and get a new soul.” ~Czech
Proverb
“Language is by its very nature a communal thing;
that is, it
expresses never the exact thing, but a compromise - that which is
common to you, me, and everybody.” ~Thomas Earnest Hulme, Speculations,
1923
“He who does not know foreign languages does not know
anything about
his own.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kunst and Alterthum
“Words signify man's refusal to accept the world as
it is. ” ~Walter
Kaufmann
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also
corrupt
thought.” ~George Orwell
DISCUSSION
Why do you study foreign languages?
Are studies of foreign languages important at
university? Why?
Why is it important for an academic to speak at least
one or two
world languages? (lengua franca)
Which foreign language is the most important one for
you personally?
Which foreign language is the most important one for
you
professionally?
Why do you study English?
What do you expect of this course (the two-semester
one)?
What are your priorities in studying English?
(speaking, writing,
reading, grammar, stylistics, etc.)
Which of these skills will you need most in your
academic life /
everyday life?
Is this course your only way of improving your
English?
How much time are you planning to spend on self-study?
Task 2 Try to match the languages with the numbers of people
speaking them.
A)
Portuguese
million speakers
B)
Chinese (Wu)
million
speakers
C)
Bengali Standard
million speakers
D)
Russian
million speakers
E)
German
million speakers
F)
Spanish
million speakers
G)
Czech
million speakers
H)
English
million speakers
I)
Chinese (Mandarin)
million speakers
J)
Japanese
million speakers
K)
Hindi
million speakers
READING - English in the World
How many people in the world speak English? In the first place, it is
not simply a matter of taking all the English-speaking countries in the
world and adding up their populations. America alone has forty million
people who don't speak English -- about the same as the number of
people in England who do speak English. Then there is the problem of
deciding whether a person is speaking English or something that is like
English but is really quite a separate language. This is especially
true of the many English-based creole or pidgin languages in the world.
A second and rather more serious problem is whether a person speaks
English or simply thinks he speaks it.
Task 3 Read the following examples and decide
which one is
correct English, which is creole/pidgin, and which is incorrect
English.
a) Dem plaan di tri.
b) I even cannot say you how I have bad mood.
c) I am having lunch with my friends tomorrow.
d) It was written in the newspapers that the
cinema doesn’t
play.
e) I hope the above is convenient.
f) Wanpela man i kam, sikspela man i kam.
POLYSEMIES
We can talk about fine art, fine gold, a fine edge, feeling fine, fine
hair, and a court fine and mean quite separate things. The condition of
having multiple meanings is known as polysemy, and it is very common.
The polysemic champion must be set. Superficially it looks like a
wholly unassuming monosyllable, yet it has 58 uses as a noun, 126 as a
verb, and 10 as a participal adjective. Its meanings are so various and
scattered that it takes the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] 60,000
words -- the length of a short novel -- to discuss them all. A
foreigner could be excused for thinking that to know set is to know
English.
Task 4 Look at the following words and try to find as many
meanings as possible.
BANK CHIP
CONTROL
FOUND
LIE
STAND
CONTRONYMS
Sometimes, just to heighten the confusion, the same word ends up with
contradictory meanings. This kind of word is called a contronym.
Sanction, for example, can either signify permission to do something or
a measure forbidding it to be done. Certain can mean something definite
or something hard to specify (He had a certain feeling). Something that
is fast is either stuck firmly or moving quickly.
Task 5 Think of the contradictory meanings of
the following
contronyms.
APPARENT
CONSULT
DUST OVERLOOK
QUITE
VITAL
INFLECTIONS
Let us consider the parts of speech. In Latin the verb has up to 120
inflections and in Czech there are usually about 30 inflections; in
English it hardly ever has more than five (e.g. see, sees, saw, seeing,
seen) and often gets by with just three (hit, hits, hitting).
Task 6 Look at the following verbs and say
which belong to
the “hit type” and which to the “see type”.
DRIVE
THROW
CUT
LET
WRITE
SPLIT
How many inflections do the majority of verbs have?
How many inflections does the verb BE have?
VERB FORMS
Task 7 Fill in the gaps with the following
expressions:
According to any textbook, the present tense of the verb drive is
drive. Every secondary school pupil knows that. Yet if we say, "I used
to drive to work but now I don't", we are clearly using the present
tense drive in the
sense. Equally if we say, "I will
drive
you to work tomorrow", we are using it in a
sense. And if
we say, "I would drive if I could afford to", we are using it in a
sense. In fact, almost the only form
of sentence
in which
we cannot use the
form for drive is, yes, the present
sense. When we need to indicate an action going on right now, we must
use the
form driving. We don't say, "I drive
the car now",
but rather, "I'm driving the car now". Not to put too fine a point on
it, the labels are largely meaningless.
Task 8 Read the text on Euro-English and
correctly spell the
underlined expressions.
Euro-English
The European Commission has just announced an agreement
whereby
English will be the
official language of the European Union rather than German, which was
the other
possibility. As part of the negotiations Her Majesty’s Government
conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5
year
phase-in plan that would be known as “Euro-English”.
In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’.
Sertainly, this
will make the
sivil servants jump with joy. The hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of
the ‘k’.
This should klear up konfusion
and keyboards kan have
one less
letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond
year when the
troublesome ‘ph’
will be replaced with the ‘f’. This will make words like fotograf
20% shorter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the
new
spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where more
komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage
the removal of double leters which have always ben
a deterent to akurate speling.
Also al wil agre that the
horibl
mes of the silent ‘e’ in the languag is disgrasful and
it should
go away.
By the 4th year peopl wil be reseptiv to
steps such as
replasing ‘th’
with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’.
During ze fifz year, ze unesesary ‘o’ will be dropd from
vords
kontaining ‘ou’ and
similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis
fifz year ve vil hav a reali sensibl riten styl. Zer
vil be no mor trubl or difikultis
and evrivun
vil find it ezi tu understand
each ozer. Ze drem of a
united urop
vil finali kom tru!
konfusion
fotograf
akseptanse
expekted
enkourage
speling
disgrasful
zis
riten
Zer
trubl
difikultis
evrivun
ezi
urop
PRONUNCIATION
Read this poem and notice the irregularity of English
pronunciation.
When
the English tongue we speak
Why
is break not rhymed with weak?
Won’t
you tell me why it’s true
We
say sew, but also few?
And
the maker of a verse
Cannot
rhyme his horse with worse? Beard is not the same as heard, Cord is different from word, Cow is cow but low is low, Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think
of hose and dose and lose,
And
think of goose and yet of choose,
Think
of comb and tomb and bomb, Doll and roll and home
and some.
And
since pay is rhymed with say,
Why
not paid with said I pray?
Think
of blood and food and good; Mould is not pronounced like could.
Why
is it done, but gone and lone –
Is
there any reason known?
To
sum it up, it seems to me
That
sounds and letters don’t agree.
Task 9 Although there are very few rules
visible in the
above poem, can you think of any rules for English pronunciation?
GRAMMAR AND STYLE
Breaking the Ice – Informal Introductions – Direct Questions
Think of three yes/no questions that you would like to ask a classmate.
For example (e.g.):
Do you study at the School of Social Studies?
Have you ever been to a conference?
Can you say
“Thank you” in three foreign languages?
Formal Introductions – Indirect Questions
To make questions more formal you can use indirect questions.
Can/Could you tell me … who/what
Can/Could I ask you … + where/when + subject + verb
Do you know … how/why if
e.g. Can you tell me how much time you spend travelling to work?
Can I
ask you if you recognise this person?
Note: The word order of indirect questions is different from direct
questions.
Introductions
May I introduce you to… (Professor Pierson)?
I’d like to introduce you to… (Dr. O’Roarke)
Can I introduce myself? My name is… / I’m …
Can I introduce a colleague of mine? This is… (Pedro Ramiro)
I don’t know if you remember me. We met …(at a conference last year).
Hello. I don’t think we’ve met before.
I don’t think you two know each
other, do you?
Excuse me, would you by any chance be … (Ms. Jones)?
Hello, you must be… (Leena)
How do you do. => How do you do.
Pleased to meet you. => Pleased to meet you, too.
Please call me … (Anna). => Then you must call me … (Sean).
Greetings
Good/Nice to see you again. I haven’t seen you for/in ages.
How are you? => Very well. Thanks. And you?
How’s work? => Not bad. Thanks. Very busy.
How are your studies going? => Fine, thanks. What about you?
How are things going? => Great. I’m really glad to be here.
APPENDIX TO SEMINAR 1
Formal Introduction to the Course
CJV01 (ending with a credit) is the
first half of a year-long course which also includes CJV02 in the
second semester (ending with an exam). There is detailed information
about the course in the IS Subject Catalogue.
the course is primarily based on EAP (English for
Academic
Purposes)
through readings, discussions, and presentations.
the end of semester credit test (exam) will
have a
presentation part
and a written part which includes academic vocabulary (synonyms and
context gap fill), reading comprehension, grammar, summary writing.
course materials will be updated throughout
the semester
and posted
on the information system at
IS > Osobní administrativa >
Student > Studejní materály (CJV 01) > Microsoft WORD verze IS >Personal administration > Student >
Study
materials
(CJV 01) > Microsoft WORD version
the materials will also be posted on the bulletin
board by the
office
at Gorkého 7, Room 209
the majority of readings are to be done at
home before
the lesson
class participation is an important part of
the course
(70% attendance)
– not including SELF STUDY
presentations will be done throughout the
semester – more
information
in seminars 2 & 3.
grammar – will be covered only minimally in
class – not many detailed explanations.
You are responsible for knowing the grammar points in the materials,
and are expected to have intermediate general knowledge (which is
tested in the entrance test in the first lesson) learned on your own
time.
vocabulary – you are responsible for knowing
intermediate
level
vocabulary as well as some extra EAP/ESP words (i.e. the words that are
starred in the vocabulary list at the back of your seminar notes). The
words that are starred throughout the actual seminar simply show that a
translation is provided at the back.
There is a language studies facility available to
students – the Language
Resource Centre at the MU rectorate building (9
Žerotínovo
námìstí, side entrance from Brandlova Street, go to the very top floor
of the building)
