Examples of English pronunciation which have learners pulling their hair out!Allow me to present you with a little present:
Perils of English pronunciation (with audio)
Labels: audio, comprehension, English, oral, pronunciation
"This is the most important report on the future published by this Government in its time in office.
Some will always make a case for doubt in an issue such as this, partly because its implications are so frightening. But what is not in doubt is that the scientific evidence of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is now overwhelming. It is not in doubt that if the science is right, the consequences for our planet are literally disastrous. And this disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future, many years ahead, but in our lifetime.
What is more, unless we act now, not some time distant but now, these consequences, disastrous as they are, will be irreversible..."
Tony Blair at the launch of the Stern Review, 30/10/2006.
You can read the full text at 10 Downing Street but you are better off just watching the video.
My colleague Yvan Baptiste has added to his extensive selection of online exercises.
After meeting Jean-Paul Nerrière, the author of Don't speak English, Speak Globish, Yvan asked me to record the "1500 English words" that are essential to Nerrière's concept of "Global English" (basically a selection of words which, in the author's opinion, are sufficient to allow people around the world to communicate without the bother of learning the whole of the extensive English lexicon).
Whatever my views on the Globish concept [For one, I think it skirts the problem of communicating with the majority of English speakers, most of whom don't actually restrict themselves to 1500 particular words, native speakers or not], it was actually a great occasion to get a nice corpus of generally common English words into audio format for the use of teachers and students alike. Obviously the words are used out of context but there's nothing like practising stressed and unstressed syllables if you want to be understood by natives. I can't er...stress this enough (BOOM BOOM!)
So, you can get listening over at Yvan's Globish page and if it tickles your fancy you can have a look at my three two (see the comments on this post) recommended books on the subject of English basics: There's Les 1800 mots de base ("collège" level in France), Les 3500 mots essentiels ("lycée/BTS" level in France), both by Christian Bouscaren and Claude Rivière, two of the most eminent exponents of French-style English linguistics. There is also Don't Speak English: Parlez Globish by the aforementioned Jean-Paul Nerrière.
As teachers of English you may well teach your students about British or American society and in particular, fashion and youth movements. Indeed, who doesn't fondly remember Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers, Hippies, Punks and New Romantics? So what's happening in 2004? Well you may well have come across the expression "Chav" (or "Charver" or "Scally"...). If so, you have you will almost certainly have seen the words "Bling" and "Burberry" in the same paragraph. There may well have been a reference to Ali G and people finishing every sentence with 'innit' too.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you all go out and prepare lessons on the Chav theme but I do think it's worth getting yourself acquainted with the phenomenon:
Warning!
The Chav lifestyle has invited some extremely virulent criticism and even hatred. Whilst some commentators have suggested that...
"the chav thing is just another way of marginalizing and demonising the poor".
"The Chavs and the Chav nots" The Friday Project 24th September 2004
Whatever your opinion, you will find it an interesting and sobering journey through modern British youth culture. Underclass or a hopeless, helpless generation? You decide, innit?
The Chavscum and Chavtown webistes were actually down for a couple of days due to server overload when the IT and science site The Register linked to them. More uplifting information in their article entitled "Oi, Chav! Check out me website!".
La page sur Translations de Brian Friel a été mise à jour.
Donegal (Nord-Ouest de l'Irlande), 1833. Une communauté rurale de langue maternelle irlandaise est confrontée à l'arrivée de soldats anglais chargés d'effectuer une étude cartographique du pays et "d'angliciser" les noms de lieu...
Labels: anglais, English, literature, lycee
"If your mission in life is not already to preserve the English tongue, it should be."
And now it's official...
English Teachers in the French Lycées have a new set of set texts for the 'literature specialists' according to the BO n°14 du 1er avril 2004. The list is below. I have started compiling ressource pages for each book, which go from the Amazon France links to each (and related) titles to online material and information which should be of use to teachers embarking on the study of one or more of these works.
"Pour les sessions 2005 et 2006 de l'examen du baccalauréat général, le programme de lecture de l'épreuve orale d'anglais, langue de complément LV1, en série littéraire, est le suivant :"
Here are the individual resource pages for the set texts:-
Labels: anglais, English, literature
