Back to the Future
English from Past to Present
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the editors
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Introduction
- Section 1: The Pedagogic-Diachronic Perspective
- Languages as historical facts (Giovanni Gobber)
- The long-standing debate over spelling: how can the history of English be relevant to an EFL curriculum? (Sonia Piotti)
- Translation criticism revisited from a pedagogical perspective (Claudia Alborghetti, Laura Anelli, Simona Anselmi)
- Section 2: Developments in a Teaching and Learning Perspective
- What does research tell us about experiences and forms of bilingual education? (Francesca Costa)
- Culture in CLIL teaching through English between past, present and future (Costanza Cucchi)
- English as a lingua franca, YouTube and the rise of the lyrics videos (Olivia Mair)
- Section 3: Perspectives on Vocabulary
- Exploring the vocabulary learning behaviour of Italian EFL adult learners at the turn of the century (James Rock)
- The development of English legal language: changes in the use of deontic modality in UK Statutory Instruments and European Union legislation (Francesca Luisa Seracini)
- The fourth dude shift: “a rags-to-riches tale” continued (Pierfranca Forchini)
- Contributors
- Index
- Series index
Maria Luisa Maggioni and Amanda Clare Murphy
Introduction
The articles in this volume have been written by authors studying language/linguistics from different perspectives who have all been either colleagues or students of Margherita Ulrych and who have therefore experienced first-hand her lasting commitment to the English language and to the field of translation studies. The book is dedicated to her, and aims to show the breadth of research within English Language and Translation carried out in the University.
In the 20th century a series of socio-political, economic, and cultural reasons brought the English-speaking world (and especially the USA) to the forefront of the world scenario, with some specific domains witnessing the increasing use of English as an inter-national and even as an intra-national language, making it the leading lingua franca of political, economic, technical, and scientific activities the world over. Scholars of synchronic linguistics, teachers and students - not to speak of the general public - do not have a clear awareness of the historical reasons for this amazing ‘success story’.
A diachronic approach to language is sadly lacking in the current times. Much knowledge of English is therefore lost because of a purely synchronic view, which does not consider that during its bi-millenial history the English language has gone through expansions and fragmentations, while interactions between internal and external factors have made it the most widespread exchange language in a globalised world, demanding a common medium able to bridge cultural, political and ethnic gaps. This view of the dominance of English and of its instrumental use as solely due to external causes is of course the one commonly held by lay observers, who usually share the opinion according to which English is not particularly well suited to being the world’s lingua franca by virtue of its intrinsic features. Nonetheless, it is without doubt the language in which citizens of different countries ←7 | 8→most often converse and do business. As a matter of fact, present-day English reflects many centuries of development. The external cultural, political and social events that have in the course of English affected the English people have generally had a recognizable effect on their language.
A linguist (a teacher, a student) – without underrating the evident socio-political and economic reasons for the diffusion of English – cannot disregard those factors that have always favoured the spread of English, resulting in the formation of a new, international English-speaking community which uses English in international settings and fosters the emergence of traits that are typical of contact languages: recent pedagogical studies demonstrate the relevance of a diachronic approach in EFL (English Foreign Language) education. The unique lexical wealth of English, apart from its original Germanic vocabulary and the addition of a host of Latin and French words, derives from English having freely adopted and adapted words from many other languages, thus building up a mixed, extremely rich and flexible vocabulary, which is largely accessible to most learners.
In the course of the centuries, constant contact with other languages and cultures has contributed enormously to the enlargement of the vocabulary of English and also to its adaptation to geographical, natural, and human realities that are far away from the Eurocentric, Western model that the English language generically conveys. As a side-effect, the diffusion of English at world level also favours the diffusion of loanwords or calques in the great number of languages that, in turn, come into contact with English.
In morpho-syntax English has undergone a simplification process that has transformed it from a synthetic (i.e. highly inflected) language into an analytic (i.e. relatively uninflected) one. A few synthetic structures (for example, the Saxon genitive) still co-exist with the more common analytic ones; this structural laxity of English renders communication possible even at a low competence level.
Already in early Middle English, after the Norman conquest of 1066, the processes of morphological simplification, sound change, and lexical expansion that had already started in the Old English period accelerated rather dramatically, resulting in a radical modification of the nature of the language itself. This was of course due to the close ←8 | 9→contact between the English-speaking community and the Norman French-speaking one - not to mention the Scandinavian one - and to the cultural influence of Latin. This tendency of English is still recognizable and it is at the basis of its world-wide expansion; such assets as easiness of grammatical constructions, a reduced inflectional system, natural gender, and a wide presence of loanwords, derived from this historical evolution, are indeed advantages in the learning of English and make it an attractive language to learn in an international context. These factors are, however, often undervalued in teaching practice, where it is usually the apparently chaotic character of orthography and the consequent lack of correspondence between spelling and pronunciation which seem to constitute a stumbling block for learners of English as a foreign or second language. This is probably due to the fact that teaching is still prevalently linked to the written medium, undervaluing the priority of orality over the written word in approaching a language.
This volume, therefore, advocates that an awareness of diachronic development at all levels of language would enhance the learning and teaching of language and translation. The nine chapters all illustrate some aspect of this approach, and fall into three broad areas: diachronic-pedagogic studies, changing approaches to teaching and learning, and studies of the learning and development of lexis.
Details
- Pages
- 306
- Year
- 2021
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783034343107
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783034343114
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9783034343121
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9783034342735
- DOI
- 10.3726/b18274
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2021 (November)
- Published
- Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2021. 306 pp., 34 fig. b/w, 22 tables.
