Understanding the History of the English Language as an Aid to Learning and Communication

The English language has a long enduring history, which scholars often divide into three main periods:
Old English (450-1100), Middle English (100-1500) and Modern English (1500-present). Two major
historical trends during the past 1500 years have been the spread of the language from its origins, to
becoming the leading worldwide language of todayone of the most influential languages worldwide
nowadays, and the development of the English language in terms of etymology the compositions
and meaning of the words. This essay will discuss the advantages available to language learners who
have developed an understanding of the origins of English, and how they can use this knowledge to
improve their learning and communication skills. The understanding the history of English language
will prove to be beneficial and advantageous for those aiming to learn English and improve their
English communication skills.

Throughout its history, the English language has adopted and adapted words from other languages,
most notably the Germanic languages, French, Greek and Latin. Learners who are aware of this can
begin to analyse vocabulary vocabularies in search of their etymological roots. One example of how
this process might work in practice is as followsfollowed: the learner might discover during a dictation
exercise that dictation is based on the Latin verb dicere with the meaning to speak. The learner
may then see the word predict and be able to infer that when the Latin prefix pre-, meaning before,
is added to dict, which is based onmeans to speak, the result will beresulting in a word with a
meaning of to speak before. Without having seen the word before, or learned the word explicitly, the
knowledge that many English words have their historical roots in Latin can help learners who know
some Latin to determine the meaning. For English learners who do not have previous knowledge of
Latin, the recognitionrecognizing that many English words are based onderived from Latin words can
still be applied in seeking out the components pre- or dict in other words, such as prepare,
prevent, verdict or abdicate.

The understanding of history of English language is is a particularly advantageous for English learners
who speak other modern languages which are based on French, German or Latin, . because it It can
be easier for these learners to guess the meanings of many English words, knowing their etymological
roots. However, this advantage is not exclusively for those who speak other modern languages. even
Thai speakers can benefit in some cases, even though Thai and English languages are not closely
related. The Thai word for Monday, wan jan, has a clear link to the moon, and thus to monandaeg in
Old English the day of the moon. Furthermore, the Thai day known as wan suk doesnt obviously
connect to Friday, but dao suk is the planet Venus, linking to the days vendredi in French or dies
veneris in Latin. Venus is the Roman goddess of love, while the Norse goddess of love was Freyja
hence Friday.

Cognitive Load Theory holds that students are better able to learn and recall new information when
they can link new knowledge to their existing knowledge. Historical awareness provides a stronger
knowledge base on which to build, allowing learners to assimilate new languages by relating it them to
things they know about theirits origins. This can improve the learners acquisition and retention of new
vocabulary vocabularies and will enable them to read and understand complicated texts much more
easily.