EDN2101 Task 2 – Rhiannon Huston

Teaching Area: English Year Level: 8

1. First descriptor:
Language—Language variation and change
Understand the influence and impact that the English language has had on other languages or dialects and
how English has been influenced in return (ACELA1540).

Elaborations
 Investigating borrowings from a range of languages into English, for example from French and
Italian.
 Exploring examples of Singlish (Singapore English) from a Singlish dictionary.
Modes
 Reading
 Writing
 Speaking
 Listening

2. Brainstorm:

Can be seen in a separate document upload.

3. Points that could be further explored:

 Variations in language, particularly in paralinguistics, linguistics and dialects.

 Dialects by definition refer to variations of language that is spoken in particular areas or

with particular groups (such as specific races, ages or social classes) that contain variants of
the overarching language, including different words, grammar, spelling and sentence
structure for example.

o Some common dialects are widely known such as in English there is British English,
American English, Australian English and many other dialects that are consistent
amongst countries.

o Furthermore, dialects can be more specific. For example, there are words that are
commonly known to Western Australians that people from New South Wales would
be unfamiliar with despite the fact that they both fall under the English language and
Australian dialect. This results in an infinite number of dialects existing and
continuing to be built upon in the world for all languages.

 Paralinguistics are the aspects of spoken communication that do not directly involve words.
These aspects enable certain emphasis, emotions or meaning underlying what is being said.

o Examples of this include speed, tone and volume of speech and even regards things
like body language, pronunciation, gestures, facial expressions and more.

o These can be particularly important in teaching and should be kept in mind by

teachers.
  Linguistics is the study of language and communication, and more specifically its structure.

o Includes the study of grammar, punctuation, syntax and phonestics.

o It has several different branches of further study including sociolinguistics,

dialectology, psycholinguistics, comparative linguistics and more.

 Influences on Old-English and modern day English.

 Old English refers to the language used from approximately c.500-c.1100 by Anglo-Saxons. It
was influenced by German most notably.

 Modern day English refers to more modern English that came about after Old English and is
dated as beginning around c.1300/1400 and has consistently evolved into what we call
current day English. This English had influences from German, Italian, Spanish, French, Latin,
Norse and many more.

 Impact of English on other languages and locations where English is not the dominant language.

 English is the language of many Westernised countries and therefore is an extremely

popular language and knowing how to speak English in many countries that rely upon
tourism is essential for business.

 According to Harvard Business Review (2016) 1 in 4 people speak English.

 Some countries have been so heavily influenced by English that it has created entirely new
languages and dialects. An example of this is the Singaporean English language known as
Singlish which is a creole language spoken in Singapore.

 How different language modes can influence learning.

 VARK as an example refers to the inventory coined by Fleming and Mills (1992) that
describes and measures four learning preferences; visual, aural, reading and writing. The
later three of these four modes refer directly to language and can be used in different ways
to influence learning.

 This could be apparent in the ways that some students find reading extremely taxing and
not a worthwhile form of studying in comparison to listening to someone speak about a
topic and communicating back and forth via questions and answers.

4. New points about the topic:

 What is a creole?

 A creole is a new mother tongue formed from the contact of another (usually European in
the modern day) language.

 The first creole languages were developed in European plantation settlements in the 17 th
and 18th centuries due to the contact of groups who did not speak another groups language.
This is how all creoles have formed and as a result of Westernisation many countries have
creole languages, in Australia this is sometimes referred to as Aboriginal English.
 What is the process of language change?

 New English words develop in several different ways, through storytelling, messages via
digital devices, abbreviation, slang and borrowing from other languages are all examples.

 Borrowing words from other languages was the main way in which English has developed
over the past few centuries. Now, with increased communication means such as the
internet, words are constantly being developed, borrowed or altered by abbreviations.

 For example you could use the word ‘email’, a word that most native English speakers
would be very familiar with that is an abbreviation of electronic mail. Similarly, words like
‘vlog’ are words that have been created by combining two existing words ‘blog’ and ‘video’
to make the word ‘blog’ that refers to video blogging.

 In 2006 the English language hit a milestone of one million words due to things such as the
internet and new words that borrow from English (e.g. Singlish, Chinglish etc.)

 Preservation of language.

 Many languages that once thrived no longer exist due to not preserving said languages.
Once the last people who speak a language die a language can no longer be preserved as
there is no one to interpret the language to other languages that more people can
understand. Language loss is very common particularly in Australia with the loss of many
native Aboriginal languages already with more language loss likely.

 Language needs to be preserved through educating new people how to speak, read and
write the language at basic or fluent levels which can then be passed on to younger
generations.

 This can also be done through the use of music which is becoming more mainstream now in
Australia with Indigenous acts such as Danzal ‘Baker Boy’ Baker incorporating native
Aboriginal language/dialects into songs so that the language is somewhat eternalised.