AI SEMINAR 1 Language QUOTES Task 1 -- Read the quotes, then discuss your views about some of them in class. 1 "Conversation is the slowest form of human communication." ~Author Unknown 2 "A different language is a different vision of life." ~Federico Fellini, Italian filmmaker 3 "Learn a new language and get a new soul." ~Czech Proverb 4 "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 5 "He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kunst and Alterthum 6 "Words signify man's refusal to accept the world as it is. " ~Walter Kaufmann 7 "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." ~George Orwell DISCUSSION 1 Why do you study foreign languages? 2 Are studies of foreign languages important at university? Why? 3 Why is it important for an academic to speak at least one or two world languages? (lengua franca) 4 Which foreign language is the most important one for you personally? 5 Which foreign language is the most important one for you professionally? 6 Why do you study English? 7 What do you expect of this course (the two-semester one)? 8 What are your priorities in studying English? (speaking, writing, reading, grammar, stylistics, etc.) 9 Which of these skills will you need most in your academic life / everyday life? 10 Is this course your only way of improving your English? 11 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 1. 885 million speakers B) Chinese (Wu) 2. 332 million speakers C) Bengali Standard 3. 322 million speakers D) Russian 4. 189 million speakers E) German 5. 182 million speakers F) Spanish 6. 170 million speakers G) Czech 7. 170 million speakers H) English 8. 125 million speakers I) Chinese (Mandarin) 9. 98 million speakers J) Japanese 10. 77 million speakers K)Hindi 73. 12 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 CUT WRITE THROW LET 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: present tense - participial - conditional - past tense - future 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. Reading section texts adapted from: Bryson, Bill: Mother Tongue (1990), pp. 174-175, 62-63 , 125. SPELLING 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 4^th 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! 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. Soars, J. & L.: Headway, Upper-Intermediate, Student's book, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1987, p.34 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. GRAMMAR EXERCISES Task 10 -- Fill in the gap with a suitable preposition if necessary. 1. He speaks English well enough to get ..... in an English speaking country. 2. Have you ever been ..... the U.S.A.? 3. Let's discuss ..... this issue over lunch. 4. If you don't understand the word, look it ..... in the dictionary. 5. I'd like to introduce Mr Maiden ..... you. 6. We met ..... a conference two years ago. 7. She translates ..... Czech ..... English. 8. I need to take a course to brush ..... my German. 9. Excuse me, would you ..... any chance be Mr Atkinson? 10. I study Spanish and Portuguese ..... Masaryk University. WORD BANK 1. mother tongue/mother language mateřský jazyk 2. native speaker rodilý mluvčí 3. broken English lámaná angličtina 4. improve one's language zlepšit si jazyk 5. brush up one's knowledge oprášit si znalosti 6. have a good knowledge of a language mít dobrou znalost jazyka 7. a good command of a language dobrá znalost jazyka 8. language skills jazykové dovednosti 9. mispronounce špatně vyslovovat 10. misspell psát s pravopisnými chybami 11. speak fluently mluvit plynně 12. make/correct mistakes dělat/opravovat chyby 13. speak a foreign language mluvit cizím jazykem 14. language barrier jazyková bariéra 15. limited/large vocabulary omezená/velká slovní zásoba 16. extend one's vocabulary rozšířit si svou slovní zásobu 17. consult a dictionary vyhledat ve slovníku 18. look up a word vyhledat si slovo 19. discuss a problem diskutovat o problému 20. part of speech slovní druh 21. get by vystačit si 22. translate from English into Czech překládat z angličtiny do češtiny APPENDIX TO SEMINAR 1 Formal Introduction to the Course This course, English for Academic Purposes I (CJVA1B or CJVA1M), runs in the fall semester and ends with a credit. It is followed by English for Academic Purposes II (CJVA2B or CJVA2M) in the spring semester and ends with an exam. There is detailed information about the courses in the IS Subject Catalogue. The course is primarily based on EAP (English for Academic Purposes) through readings, discussions, and presentations. To complete the first semester, you must fulfill two parts: 1) pass the written credit test (60% minimum), which includes academic vocabulary (synonyms and context gap fill), reading comprehension, grammar, summary writing; 2) give a presentation on a topic of interest to you that relates to your studies. The presentation is done during the semester in the case of full-time students (sign up in class), and at the end of the semester in the case of part-time and distance study students (presentation dates will be posted on IS). Presentations in first semester are to be 6-8 minutes long; in second, 8-10 min.) 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 Readings are to be done at home before the lesson. Class participation is an important part of the course (70% attendance) -- excluding SELF STUDY. Presentations will be done throughout the semester -- more information in seminars 2 & 3. Grammar will be covered only minimally in class. 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. You are responsible for knowing intermediate level vocabulary and 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. Office hours will be posted on IS on the pages of individual teachers and on the bulletin board by the office at Room 555, Joštova 10. There is a language studies facility available to students -- the Language Resource Centre at the MU Rectorate building (9 Žerotínovo náměstí, side entrance from Brandlova Street, go to the very top floor of the building and follow the signs).