Brexit y el idioma Inglés

El 23 de Junio de 2016, Se va a efectuar un referéndum en el Reino Unido a para decidir si este país se queda o se va de la Unión Europea.  (Para el momento en que hice esta traducción, ya la fecha pasó y los resultados del referéndum son hoy conocidos). Mucho se ha dicho sobre las consecuencias de esta votación, en temas como Economía, Política, Libertad de Movimiento, Beneficios sociales y Derechos Humanos, si Gran Bretaña vota por abandonar a la Unión Europea. Una pequeña búsqueda en Google revela que también se ha tratado de visualizar lo que ocurriría con el Status de la lengua Inglesa en la UE.

Algunos Artículos sugieren que podría haber una reducción en el uso del Idioma Inglés entre los miembros de la Unión Europea.  Otros artículos, más bien dicen que Europa seguirá hablando inglés tras el Brexit. (Brexit es la forma como se ha denominado al posible abandono de la Unión Europea por parte de la Gran Bretaña, del inglés Britain – Exit)

En primer lugar, es importante aclarar que el inglés no va a dejar de ser uno de los 24 idiomas oficiales de la UE. Aunque el Reino Unido es el país de origen de la mayoría de los Anglo parlantes europeos, no es el único país donde el Inglés es la Lengua Nacional.  Irlanda y Malta también usan al inglés como su lengua Nacional.

Muchos de los más importantes socios comerciales de la Unión Europea usan el idioma inglés como su idioma de Negocios. El socio comercial más importante de la Unión Europea es Estados Unidos. Entre los 10 socios comerciales más importantes de la UE están China, Turquía, Noruega, Japón, Corea del Sur e India, todos ellos usan principalmente el inglés para hacer negocios.

El uso del inglés como segunda lengua es una tendencia muy fuerte en algunas áreas de la Unión Europea. La expansión del año 2004 atrajo al seno de la UE a una lista importante de nuevos países en donde sus respectivas poblaciones tienden a hacer uso del inglés para hablar entre sí. El alemán y el francés, los otros idiomas de peso que se usan ampliamente en la sede de las instituciones  de la UE, no tienen esa popularidad en la Europa del Este.

Sin embargo, las publicaciones acerca del Brexit, tienen algunos puntos muy interesantes que resaltar a la hora de hablar de las  consecuencias del mismo sobre el idioma inglés en la UE.  

En un artículo publicado por  Quartz (Qz.com) llamado “El idioma inglés podría ser realmente raro si al Gran Bretaña abandona a la UE”, se escribe acerca de un posible surgimiento de un inglés más  “Euro céntrico” en la sede de la UE. Esta publicación da ejemplos de algunos términos en uso en los pasillos de Bruselas,  cuyo significado puede parecer extraño para las personas que hablan un inglés más convencional.

Se espera que el Brexit, sea una amenaza para las escuelas de ingles de la GB, debido a que los estudiantes de la UE no sentirán el mismo incentivo para aprender este idioma siendo que el Reino Unido ya no será tan abierto como lo es hoy en día.   

De acuerdo con  Euobserver, el 13% de los ciudadanos de la UE son parlantes nativos de inglés, la mayoría de ellos son ciudadanos del Reino Unido. Si ellos dejaran de ser ciudadanos de la UE, este porcentaje pasaría a ser menos del  1%. Sin embargo, aparte del impacto demográfico, Europa no dejaría de usar el inglés en sus comunicaciones diarias ni en sus negocios,  como consecuencia del Brexit.  

Brexit and the English Language

Brexit and the English Language

On Jun 23rd 2016, a referendum is being held to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the EU. A lot has been said about the consequences that might happen, on topics such as Economy, Politics, Freedom of Movement, Social Benefits and Human Rights, if Britain votes to leave the European Union. A brief search on Google reveals that there were also some exercises trying to visualize what would happen with the status of the English Language in the EU.

Some articles suggest that there might be a decline in the use of the English language among the members of the EU. Other articles, suggest that Europe will continue to speak English after Brexit.

First, it is important to highlight that English will not cease to be one of the 24 Official Languages of the EU. Although Britain is the country of origin of most of English speakers within the Union, is not the only country where English is the National Language. Ireland and Malta also use English as their national language.

Most of EU largest trading partners use English as their business language. The largest trading Partner is the USA. Among the 10 largest trading partners of the EU we can find China, Turkey, Norway, Japan, South Korea and India, all of them use mainly English for Business.

The Use of English as a second language is a very strong trend in some Areas of the EU. The enlargement of 2004 attracted to the EU an important list of new countries whose population tend to have English as their main language for intercommunication.   German and French, the other strong languages widely used in the Headquarters of the European institutions have not such popularity in Eastern Europe.

However, the publications related with this topic, have some interesting points to make about possible consequences of Brexit to the use of English Language in the EU.

In an article published by Quartz (Qz.com) called “The English language could get really weird if Britain leaves the EU”, writes about the rise of a more Eurocentric English Language in the EU Headquarters.  Examples are shown of some terms already in use in the corridors of Brussels, differing in meaning with the same words used by English speakers from other parts of the world.

It is expected that Brexit will be a threat to English language Schools in the UK, at the time EU students have less incentives to learn this language and the UK may not be as open as it is today.

According to Euobserver, 13% of EU Citizens are now Native English Speakers. Most of them are British Citizens. If they cease to be EU citizens, this percentage will be less than 1%. However, outside the demographic consequences of this, does not seem that Europe will cease to use English in their everyday communications and in the Business.       

Today, we finally finished the module 2 of the TKT exam.  In this Module we study all the things related with the Lesson Planning.

I learnt a lot of things in this Module. But I would like to talk about one issue that concerns me. In this course, when we talk about teaching aids, we still can see that the module includes the using of old resources like Overhead Projectors, Tapes,   Flipcharts, but I did not read / heard a single word about devices like Mobile Phones, Ipods, or at least a Memory stick!

Is Technology advancing so fast that we teachers are staying behind? 

I spent 3 years of my life in the UK, where I got my MSc degree. The first thing I can say is that in this country, mobile phones are used for many things, like reading the Schedule on Airports and Railway stations, to investigate addresses, to chat, to shop, to read the weather predictions, or to investigate anything in Wikipedia. And many Universities are involved in what we call M-Learning, the using of Mobile aids to Teach / Learn Including my beloved English Alma Mater the UEL.

I am not proposing to eliminate from the course, the parts related with Flipcharts or tape recorders. We don’t know where our paths will lead us, but I think we should include those new devices, and welcome them as Real Teaching Aids. Our world is changing very fast, and we teachers should be prepared to use new devices in our work.  

Some words in English are quite tricky when we try to pronounce them properly. English is not a difficoult language to pronounce and has not the tricky combination of consonants as in other Indoeuropean languages, like the slavic ones. Not very often we find combinations of more than 2 consonants. However, how about this Combination existing in several english words: "SCH".
-Scheme = /skiːm/  (pronounciation in IPA)
-Schism = / ˈskɪzəm/ 
-School = /skuːl/ 
-Schooner = / ˈskuːnər /
 They all start with this combination, and the pronounciation starts with "sk".

Words like
-Schlepp = /ʃlep/ 
-Schmooze = /ʃmuːz/
-Schnitzel =  / ˈʃnɪtsəl/ 

These are foreing words that came into English and kept their original sound "ʃ" 

What about the word "Schedule? 

this word, depending on whether you are in Britain or in the US, it has different pronounciations. 

This word seems to exist since the times of middle English. It came from the french word "Cedule". As the time advances, this word retained it french pronounciation while adding other letters; meanwhile, americans tend to go through Greek pronounciation. The origine of the different pronounciations in UK and in US is not clear still, but in this blogg , there is a good explanation:

http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/schedule.html

a good web page to know tha right pronounciation of the words is this one:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp? 

 

Languages are like any Living Being: They were born, then they grow up, they reproduce and die.

I don’t like teaching my students just the content of a course book. I like to give my students examples of what they will find once they move (Visit) an English speaking country.

One of the best web pages I found, where I can get help for my classes is the http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish

I always recommend this web page to my colleagues from the University.  

But how does BBC help me to teach that languages are living?   A language is living as long as is producing new expressions, idioms, and it’s grammar tends to change. Thanks to BBC I know some useful idioms like:  “Monkey business”, or “It’s not my cup of Tea”, or “¨Pigs might fly”. But a special credit must be given to “The Teacher” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theteacher/index.shtml ) and his fantastic sessions with old and new idioms, from the Dickensian ones to some other more updated. Thanks to the Teacher, I am interested in research more about English idioms and slangs, and my understanding of TV programs and everyday conversations has improved. 

Presentation Techniques

One of the new things that I learnt in this course is the existence of different ways to present the language to students.

There are 6 techniques based on communicative approach.

TPR – Total Physical Response

Grammar Translation

PPP – Presentation Practice Produce

TTT – Test Teach Test

TBL – Task Based Learning

Guided Discovery

Here is a brief about those techniques:

	Definition	Advantages	Disadvantages
TPR	Total Physical Response – Learners act out or respond to the target words without speaking.	-Good for children -Open spaces	-Limited for adult education
Grammar Translation	Learners analyse a text, how the words are used, then translate to L1	-Good for specific courses. -For interpretation of texts. -To teach dead languages.	-Cannot apply in open environments -Difficult to produce (Write or speak).
PPP	Presentation – Practice – Production.  The language is presented (Taught) then learners practice in a controlled way through exercises, then in a more communicative way student practise what they learnt.	-For Grammar is fine -One of the most used methods in English schools.	-not good for fluency. -May have limitations for Students who do not live in an English speaking environment. -May not meet the linguistic needs of learners.
TTT	Test – Teach – Test The Teacher sees what students know and create a need for the target language. The language is then presented and finally students practice it.	-Adult centred. -Teacher has a better idea of the kind of students and how to proceed. -Motivating.	-More demanding for teachers. -Requires more planning.
TBL	Task based learning – Learners work completing a task while they learn and practice new language. The teacher presents some information students may need to complete their task	-Good for development of fluency. -Student centred. -Practical. Real language is learnt. Free use of Grammar. -Integrates Accuracy & Fluency	-Risk Free means students are happy with certain words. -limited when restrictions apply.
Guided Discovery	Learners work out the language structure by themselves with some guidance from the teacher.	-Promote Thinking, Exploration. -Good for Abstract situations. -Promotes creativity and responsibility. -Peer Collaboration.	-Some Theory may be missed. -not suitable for beginners.

  

A new Adventure began: TKT. 15 teachers involved in a new challenge, willing to improve their skills as English teachers.

The first discussion was about grammar. Personally I love Grammar. Being proficient in other languages and interested in the behaviour of other languages, perhaps I know better than other people the advantages of knowing the grammar of a language.

But my first surprise was when we started to discuss about the tenses in English, We always talk about many different tenses, like Simple present, Present continuous, Simple Past, Present perfect, conditional, etc. At least in my own words, English has many tenses, but verbs show up in 3 forms: Present, Past and Participle. But the answer given by today’s scholars of Cambridge University is something totally new for me: In English there are just 2 tenses, Present and Past. The rest of the presentations and forms of the verbs are called “Aspects”.  Something new in case I want to have formal chats with the experts of this and any other language!