RSS Feed for the unit Teaching languages: language awareness

Introduction

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

This unit explores phonic and historical connections between languages and suggests how such knowledge might be used when teaching modern foreign languages (MFL).

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Learning outcomes

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

After studying this unit you should:

have developed a greater awareness of the phonic and historic connections between the vocabularies of the target language and English and other mother tongues of students;
be able to demonstrate how and where to use students' knowledge of English and other languages when introducing new target language vocabulary and when developing students' reading skills.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.1 Teaching languages: language awareness

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

Refresh this screen to play the animation file below, or click 'Launch in separate player' to open the file in a larger window (recommended).

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

‘Those who have been brought up to speak the [English] language have one great … advantage. […] With a little knowledge of the evolution of English itself, of the parallel evolution of the [Germanic] languages and the descendants of Latin, … [any English speaker has] a key to ten living European languages.’
Adapted from Bodmer, F. (1943) The Loom of Language

Click 'View document' to open The loom of language

View document

In the seventies and eighties an energetic minority spearheaded by Professor Eric Hawkins of York actively encouraged the inclusion of language awareness in modern foreign language (MFL) teaching and learning. The belief was that an understanding of language per se and the connections between, in particular, the European languages, would be beneficial. It has taken until the turn of the century to see this pedagogic movement translate itself into a general reality. In England both the National Literacy Strategy and the Key Stage 3 Framework include references to students learning about the origins of words, word families, morphology, loan words and so on. In teaching MFL we must be prepared for our students’ awareness and make maximum use of it.

Before we can make connections for our students, we have to be able to see them for ourselves. As Bodmer says above, a passing understanding of the history of English helps enormously, as well as the individual histories of the target languages being taught.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.2. Tracing word histories

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

‘Romance languages, a group of modern languages derived from the ancient Latin language and spoken by about 400 million people. These languages form a major group in the Indo-European languages, belonging to that family's subfamily of Italic languages. They developed from the colloquial Latin of late Roman times, their separation from Latin becoming evident in the 5^th to 9^th centuries.’
www.verbix.com

Activity 1

The animation below shows how writers such as Kipling, Claiborne and Tolkien recognised the impact of language on their writing. Refresh this screen to play the animation file from the beginning, or click 'Launch in separate player' to open the file in a larger window (recommended).

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

Each of the animations below contains examples of word histories and links. Some are simple, others more complicated: unless you are already a student of etymology, most are likely to reveal some unexpected perspectives on history. Once you have finished looking at one, move on to the next in the list of word histories.

To get the most out of the interactive files below, click on 'Launch in a separate player' to open them in a larger window where the histories and links will be easier to read. Otherwise, click on the central image in each pane to reveal the etymologies.

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

For your students to be able to follow such word histories, they need to understand about basic sounds and sound shifts. Showing children how just three basic positions in the mouth are used to create the sounds of their language can be a real revelation to them, so much do they take their own language and all its elements for granted. Once they have grasped and practised how many sounds can be generated from these three positions and how one sound can shift to one but not another, then they are ready for specific word investigation.

Many students will be surprised to learn of the connections between languages as far apart as Irish and Hindi. Click on the link to read more about the origins of Proto-Indo-European.

To understand how languages have developed yet retained clear relationships, you could refer to the presentation in Activity 2, which show how consonants shift according to set patterns.

French and German have descended down different routes: French, like Spanish, is a Romance language, while German is a Germanic language.

Click on the first 'View document' link below to read the 'Derivation of "Romance"', then click the second for some background reading on the history of Germanic languages.

View document

Click on the link to listen to an extract from the BBC's Routes of English radio series detailing the history of Anglo-Saxon (scroll down to the sub-heading 'An alien language?').

To read a brief listing of Romance languages, click on the 'View document link below.

View document

Click on the link to listen to a further extract from the BBC's Routes of English about the effect of the Norman invasion of 1066 on the English language. The relevant extract is under the sub-heading 'French enters the language'.

To read about how both Romance and Germanic languages contributed to the present day English, click on the 'View document' link below.

View document

Clicking on the following link takes you to An alternative history of English.

Have a look now at Activity 2.

Activity 2

Read the presentation in the file below by using the scrollbar on the right, or click 'Launch in separate player' to open the file in a larger window (recommended: note that the 'previous' and 'next' buttons on each of the pages has been disabled).

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

If all this was new to you, you may enjoy testing your new-found knowledge on a fun activity. Click on the link to read Grimm's Tale – can you work out the Indo-European words and the Primitive Germanic ones through to Modern English?

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.3. Moving forward

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

Language is constantly changing: words come and go and human history is caught like a fly in amber in words we use without thinking every day. By developing in our students the awareness of links, cognates, changes in meaning, oddities of spelling and sound, we enrich not just their mother tongue and foreign languages but their knowledge of global history of the last two thousand years.

The statement above is pertinent to all subjects, not just MFL: teachers of English and other subjects can also be involved. Geographic terms, for example, are a lesson in Latin and Greek all by themselves, as are the words to be learnt for chemistry and biology! Have a look now at Activity 3 to assess what you have learnt about the history of words so far.

Activity 3

Click here to go to the BBC's Routes of English website, then play the first game on the page ('Where do words come from?'). How much do you feel you have learnt from this unit? How much that is still immediately unknown can you now work out? Are you looking at English vocabulary differently?

You may be interested in exploring this topic further:

World wide words is a website dedicated to English words and their meanings.

Faux-amis, or false cognates, are words which look very similar in English and in French but are in fact very different. Click on the link to see a list of faux-amis and learn more about them.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.4. Encouraging students to think about etymology

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

When is the best time to introduce students to making connections between languages?

When introducing them to the new language.
When introducing new vocabulary.
When developing whole-class reading skills.

It is very encouraging to students about to embark on the study of their first foreign language to know that they already possess a working knowledge of some of its vocabulary. English is littered with direct loan words – the only problem being that our students are often entirely unaware that these are foreign words. We have to point them out!

Activity 4

Below you will find three lists: German loan words (click on the first 'View document' link), French loan words (the second 'View document' link) and Spanish loan words (the third 'View document' link).

German loan words

View document

French loan words

View document

Spanish loan words

View document

Open and save the file or files relevant to you. You should also start your own list of of any loan words you come across.

Ask students to keep an ear/eye out for new loan words. Supermarkets are a good source of foreign food, but which words actually get adopted (e.g. pâté, camembert, frankfurter, paella)?

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.5. Introducing vocabulary

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

How do you introduce new vocabulary to your students? There is nothing more deadly than being given a list of words and being told to learn them. Utterly essential as this is to language learning, it is probably the most ‘missed’ homework of them all.

Pupil: But they’re hard to learn!
Me: Why? How do you learn them?
Pupil: I look at the paper they’re written on.
Me: And … ?
Pupil: Well … I look at them … I take the paper out … maybe two … three times in an evening and look at them.
Me: And that’s enough? You can learn them like that?
Pupil: Oh no! I don’t learn them like that. That’s why it’s hard.
Me: Then why do you go on dong it like that? Why don’t you do something else?
Pupil: (surprised) How else can you learn then?
Her friends immediately stated telling her how they learnt their vocabulary. Their methods ranged from writing them out over and over again to getting a friend or family friend to test them. The pupil complaining was quite surprised. It apparently had not dawned on her in four years of language learning that to continue with a method of learning that wasn’t working, was pointless. The idea of changing her method had never crossed her mind. Perhaps she had never had her attention drawn to various other possible ways of learning. Perhaps it had never been discussed before; it had just been taken for granted that from the age of eleven onwards she would know how to learn off by heart. What was more saddening was the fact that her poor methods of learning had resulted in her being judged as a natural and ‘for ever’ poor learner and no extra effort appeared to have been made to make her a better one.
Rendall, C/LT – Pathfinder 1998

The English Key Stage 3 and MFL Frameworks have both placed a great deal of emphasis on students being taught how to learn and one method among many is to make a connection with already known information, here known words. To do this we can show students words derived from the target language, which have become standard English vocabulary with minimal sound changes. The aim is to make such a clear connection between the words that whenever the target language is seen again, there is an immediate link to the known word.

To see a list of words derived from the target languages, click on the 'View document' links below. The first contains nouns and verbs derived from German, the second words derived from French, the third words derived from Spanish while the final file is about words derived from Arabic.

Nouns and verbs derived from German

View document

Words derived from French

View document

Words derived from Spanish

View document

Words derived from Arabic

View document

Encourage students as much as you can to see connections for themselves and to work out the patterns of change. Some elements they will have to have explained: such as why Spanish has so many words beginning in ‘al-‘.

Expect them also to make overgeneralisations in which they mistake the direction of movement or influence – “we get the word Sport from French/German, because we spell it the same as they do”.

For the origin of the word sport, click below.

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

Activity 5

Click on the 'View document' links below to see examples of possible connections using vocabulary from text books: the first German; the second French.

View document

Time will be one of the great restrictors as to how much or how little you tell your pupils Once a term concentrate on a major feature such as the French use of ‘é- ’ or ‘es-’ or the connection between ‘gu- and ‘w’. In German it is worth looking at the influences of Saxon and what happens to a German ‘g’. Watch the presentations below for an illustratation of this.

Changes: French es /

As French developed from Latin, many words beginning with 's' changed to 'es':

By late medieval times spoken French had in many cases dropped the 's'. Eventually the written version followed, changing the 'e' to '':

It also happened when words were borrowed from other countries:

It also happened when a Latin word began with 'ex':

English has borrowed directly from the Latin and from both early and late French:

See if you can fill in the blank columns below. When you have finished, clicking on 'reveal' will show the answers.

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

Changes: French gu / w

As French developed from Latin, many words beginning with 's' changed to 'es':

First, the phonic connection. Check these sounds before going further.

The French 'Guy' (sounds like 'ghee') is made in the throat but with the lips drawn well back.

Relax the throat and start with the lips together and the result is an English 'wee' or the French sound now spelt 'oui' or 'hui'.

The Franks imported the 'w' sound early into France and there it was treated in the same way as the Latin 'v'.

It was changed to the gutteral 'gu':

This is one of the main differences between Late medieval French (gu) and Norman French (w) and explains how English was able to adopt pairs of words, one from each source, with only a difference of gu / w.

The following animation shows examples of similar words from different places. It can be launched in a new window if the current view is too small.

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

To view the animation file below, click on Start. It can also be launched in a new window.

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

In the animation file below, click on next to move on a page and back to go back a page. It can also be launched in a new window (recommended).

Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.

1.6. Listening, reading and language assimilation

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

One assumption that is widely held as axiomatic is that people learn by doing … We seem to have deduced that people learn to speak by speaking and so on. In reality one simply drowns by attempting to swim without some sort of prior preparation and theoretical instruction. Obviously the art of speaking can be improved by practice but the skill of speaking is learnt primarily in a vast complex of other ways. It might be suggested that listening and reading contribute more to the assimilation of language, especially at the L2 stage.
David Wall, Herriot Watt University: Recall 7 1992: Survival or Fluency

Of all the four skills, reading is the most comforting: the words stay on the page; you can take as long as you need to work on the text without constantly rewinding or repeating; you do not have to proceed linearly. Rather, you can zoom all over the text, picking up words and phrases you know or recognise and piecing them together like a jigsaw.

Students need to be shown how to use clues to interpret meaning. These include all the linguistic connections, cognates and sound shifts detailed previously and can be developed during whole class reading sessions, which should be an essential part of MFL methodology from the start.

Activity 6

Have a look at one or other of the following stories; download a copy, print it out and highlight words that you could use to emphasise patterns of change, loan words, cognates and derivations.

Click 'View document' to open 'Sonne und Wind'.

View document

Click 'View document' to open 'Le Vent et le Soleil'

View document

Once you have done that, open up the corresponding notes file and compare your highlighted words with those given. Did you spot any that were missed?

Click 'View document' to open the notes on 'Sonne und Wind'

View document

Click 'View document' to open the notes on 'Le Vent et le Soleil'

View document

Now take a reading passage from one of your text books or a reading scheme. Can you do the same with this? You will find that certain changes/sound shifts occur quite regularly; the students will soon be able to recognise these for themselves. Others may need more constant repetition.

Discussion

By age 14 students should be able to scan a new text and apply all the clues you have given them, as a primary key to reading a text.

So where to now?

Share this knowledge with your departmental colleagues. What existing ‘stories’ do they use when introducing vocabulary? You should consider developing a common stock, so that all students benefit. This can then be written into the departmental scheme of work.
Share your departmental decisions with your English department. You may be able to share even more ‘stories’.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

1.7. Resources for further study

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

Books

Potter, S. (1950) Our Language, Penguin.
McCrum, R., MacNeil, R., and Cran, W. (2003) The Story of English, Penguin.
Stevenson, V. (1983) Words, Mcdonald.
Bryson, B. (1991) Mother Tongue, Penguin.
Any title by David Crystal.

Reference books

Onions, C.T. (1966) The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford University Press.
Partridge, E. (1977) Origins: An etymological dictionary of Modern English, Routledge.
Crystal, D (1997) The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press.
Bodmer, F. (1987) The Loom of Language, Merlin Press.
Cable, T. and Baugh, A.C. (2002) A History of the English Language, Routledge.

Radio resources

– Routes of English is still available to listen to on the Radio 4 website.

Video resources

The Adventures of English (2002) Melvyn Bragg, ITV.
The Story of English (1986) Robert McCrum et al, BBC.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Next steps

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit or find out more about this topic. Here are some suggestions:

If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area:

Education

Or find out about studying and developing your skills with The Open University:

Or you might like to:

Post a message to the unit forum, to share your thoughts about the unit or talk to other OpenLearners
Review or add to your Learning Journal
Rate this unit

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

References

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

Claiborne, R. (1983; this edition 1990) The Life and Times of the English Language: The History of our Marvellous Native Tongue, Bloomsbury.

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954; this edition 2003) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, HarperCollins.

Bodmer, F. (1943) The Loom of Language, London: Allen & Unwin (republished Merlin Press, 1981).

DfES (1998) National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching, HMSO.

DfES (2001) KS3 National Strategy: Framework for teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9, HMSO.

Partridge, E. (1977) Origins: An etymological dictionary of Modern English, Routledge.

(1940) Der Sprach-Brockhaus Von A-Z Bildworterbuch, McGraw-Hill.

Rendall, H, (1998) Stimulating Grammatical Awareness, p33, Pathfinder 33. Published by C/LT, 20 Bedfordbury, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 4LB, ISBN 1 902031 08 3.

Skeat, W. W. (1963) An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Oxford University Press.

Wall, D. (1992) Survival or Fluency, Recall, The University of Hull, CTI Centre for Modern Languages

Verbix

The OU offers courses at a range of levels in French, Spanish and German. For further details see the Humanities course overview.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:19 GMT

Author Details

This unit was originally prepared for TeachandLearn.net by Heather Rendall. Heather is a CiLT Associate Trainer and freelance consultant. Her specialisms are ICT, grammar and reading skills. She continues to research into the ‘how’ of learning.

The Modern Foreign Language units have been developed for TeachandLearn.net in collaboration with CiLT.

Other Acknowledgements

The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

Table

‘National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching’, DFES. Crown copyright material is reproduced under Class Licence Number C01W0000065 with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Articles

All other materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

1. Join the 200,000 students currently studying with The Open University .

2. Enjoyed this? Browse through our host of free course materials on LearningSpace.

3. Or browse more topics on OpenLearn.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence