A. English Everywhere?

1. Welcome to the global village

1. Read the text below quickly. Find all the words which refer to:
People

Communication

The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the

image of a global village.
-- Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan's observation (1962) that the world is becoming

a global village as a result of electronic interdependence is
particularly true in today's business world. Technology has made
it easier for a businessman in Manila, Philippines, to conduct
business with a client in Chicago than with a compatriot in
Zamboanga thanks to electronic mail, the fax, and satellite
communications. And it is most likely that the language they will
use together will be English.
Indeed, English has become the common linguistic denominator, a
lingua franca* of our time. Whether youre a Korean executive on
business in Shanghai, a German Eurocrat hammering out laws in
Brussels or a Brazilian biochemist at a conference in Sweden,
youre

probably

speaking

English.

Even

in

face-to-face

communication between non-native speakers of English, like a

Japanese banker and his/her Turkish counterpart, English is more

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likely to be the medium of communication than either Japanese or

Turkish.
*any contact language that is widely used as a means of communication
among speakers of other languages or groups having no language in
common. Examples of lingua franca are English and French for diplomatic
purposes.

After you read

2. Fill in the table below with missing words/expressions to get the
definitions and their corresponding words.
definition
a word with a negative ___________
a ____________of probable
to discuss something until _______________________
a _________________manager
European + ____________________
a person coming from ____________________like you
an expression used in mathematics
a synonym for ____________of communication
to do (business)
two persons/items that can be easily compared for
being in a similar position etc.
a synonym of _____________
a synonym of __________, ____________

word / phrase
non-native
likely
hammer out something
executive
Eurocrat
compatriot
medium of communication
to ___________ business

image
observation

3. Find examples of prefixes in the text on page 1.

4. Find at least two examples of comparison in the text on page 1.

Handout 1a, Engleski jezik 1 (IPS)

2. Who Owns English?

Which of the words/expressions in the table below refer to English?

Which of them refer to information technology?

Which of them refer to both? Explain your choice.

English

IT

both

global phenomenon (sg.)/phenomena (pl.)

revolution
fast, dynamic growth
changing the world
being constantly changed
hard to control the growth
tool/tools for conducting business
huge business generating a huge profit
global triumph
Read the text on the following pages. Which of the items mentioned in the table
appear in the text?

Handout 1a, Engleski jezik 1 (IPS)

2.1. A Global Revolution

Did you know that in India alone the massive English-learning
industry is a $100-million-per-year business? Chinese English
fever has been elevated to epidemic proportions by the country's
recent accession to the World Trade Organization. Governments
from Tunisia to Turkey are pushing English, recognizing that along
with computers and mass migration, the language is the turbine
engine of globalization. From Caracas to Karachi, parents keen for
their children to achieve are spending a lot of money on tuition
for English-language schools. To achieve fluency, non-native
speakers are learning English at an ever-younger age. As one 12year old self-taught English-speaker from China says, "If you can't
speak English, it's like you're deaf and dumb."
What is going on at the moment is a global revolution in which
hundreds of millions of people are learning English, the planet's
language

for

commerce,

technology,

and,

increasingly,

empowerment. Within a decade, 2 billion people will speak it,

according to a recent report from the British Council.
Complete the table using words/phrases in the text that match the definitions
on the left (1):
1
2
giant; involving large numbers of people (3
phrases)
money you pay to be taught
a sense of autonomy and self-confidence /
equipping someone with autonomy and selfcondfidence
ability to speak a language well
locomotive of growth
the act of becoming a part of an organization
a person that is one's own teacher
someone who can neither speak nor hear
a governmental organization responsible for
promoting British language and culture
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abroad
foreign speakers of a language

2.2. Non-Native Speakers

Linguistically

speaking,

it's

a whole

new

world.

Non-native

speakers of English now outnumber native speakers 3 to 1,

according to English language expert David Crystal, who says,
"There's never before been a language that's been spoken by
more people as a second than a first". In Asia alone, the number
of English-users has topped 350 million roughly the combined
populations of the United States, Britain and Canada. There are
more Chinese children studying English about 100 million than
there are Britons. The idea of linguistic globalization seems to be
to make everyone bilingual.
In the paragraph above, find the words in (1) that match their definitions on
the right (2):
1

2
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

to be greater in number
a linguist
a foreign language you can speak well
your mother tongue
able to speak two languages equally well
all the people living in a particular place/area
to be higher than
the people of the United Kingdom

Match the words on the left (1) with their definitions on the right (2):

pop-up style guides

adopt / absorb

common language used to do business

pieces of advice on how to spell / choose a word etc.

English usage tips

revolutionize
electronically stored
to draft a letter
to push English
unprecedented
the working language

properly
to write the first version of a letter
to spread quickly
try hard to make people accept/learn English
the first one of its kind
in digital form
radically change
advice on language usage which appears on the

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computer screen
accept (2 x)

mushroom (v.)

Use the words in column (1) in the table at the bottom of page 5 to
complete the text below. The form of the word / phrase in the table may
need to be changed in the text.
A generation ago, only elites like diplomats and CEOs needed
English for work. English is one of the important skills to get a
good job. Some say it's the skill. In China, the Organizing
Committee for the 2008 Olympics is _________________ among staff,
guides, taxi drivers and ordinary citizens. At the new Toyota and
Peugeot

plant

__________________

in
of

the
the

Czech

Republic,

Japanese,

French

English
and

is

Czech

the
staff.

Technology also plays a huge role in English's global triumph.

Eighty percent of the ______________information in the world is in
English; 66 percent of the world's scientists read in it. New
technologies are helping people _________________ the language too.
Japanese students can get ________________ on their mobile phones.
English-language teachers point to the rise of Microsoft English,
where computer users are ______________ advised by the Windows
spell check and _________________.
The new English-speakers aren't just passively _____________ the
language they're shaping it. New Englishes are ______________the
globe over. All languages are works in progress. But English's
globalization,

_______________in

the

history

of

languages,

will

__________________it in ways we can only begin to imagine. As the

world ____________an international brand of English, it's native
speakers who have the most to lose. British or American execs
who refuse to understand how English is used by non-natives,
might even lose out on deals. Although at present the British and
American versions still carry prestige, in the future, says Crystal,
there could be a tri-English world, one in which you could speak a
local English-based dialect at home, a national variety at work or
school, and international standard English to talk to foreigners.
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(Source: Newsweek Magazine, March 2005)

After you read

1. Make sentences using the following key words used in the text
second

1962

2008

2 billion in a decade

350 million

66% of scientists

12-year old
Brussels

Switzerland
Microsoft

China

the Czech Republic

CEOs

2. Make sentences using the following key words from the text. Compare the
linguistic situation in China / Asia to that in the UK / English-speaking countries:

China / Asia

UK / English-speaking world

non-native speakers

native speakers

English second language

English first language

350 million
100 million Chinese children >

Britons

bilingual

3. Answer the following questions:

Can the word English be used in plural? Why?

What does the expression tri-English world stand for?

Handout 1a, Engleski jezik 1 (IPS)

B. Digesting the original text

What procedures are implied?
When you are using a text as a source for your own writing and/or
presentation, one of the procedures you may find useful is digesting the
text.
It includes (1) shortening the original text, (2) substituting less common
or informal words with their more common and neutral equivalents and (3)
transforming detailed information (e,g, names, figures, locations)
into less specific wording.
In doing so, whole sentences or parts of sentences, not only individual
words, can be deleted. The order in which information appears in the
original text can also be changed.

Why use digesting?

The idea is to make the final text more readable and neutral (in case
informal or colloquial register is used in the original. Digesting the
original wording of texts you use for your own writing also helps you avoid
plagiarism.

1. Original vs. digested version

Consider the original paragraphs from a text (1) that has been
digested in this handout. The text between asterisks (*) is included
below to provide the context.
*To see big business in action, one need only walk down London's busy
Oxford Street, where ads hawk instant access to the language of
success: DOES YOUR ENGLISH EMBARRASS YOU? BUSINESS ENGLISH
FOR BEGINNERS; LEARN ENGLISH IN JUST 10 WEEKS! Above clothing
stores, bustling English-language schools are packed with eager
twentysomethings from around the world. Ben Beaumont, a buoyant
28-year-old Briton, presides over a class that includes a South Korean
business manager, a nurse from rural Japan and an Italian law student.

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"Do you want a lot of homework or a little?" he asks. The class is

unequivocal: "A lot!"
Why such enthusiasm? In a word, jobs.* A generation ago, only
elites like diplomats and CEOs needed English for work.
Throughout organizations, more people need more English. In China,
the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics is
pushing English among staff, guides, taxi drivers and ordinary
citizens. For lower-middle classes in India, English can mean a ticket to
a prized call-center job. "With call centers, no longer is speaking
English one of the important skills to get a good job," says
Raghu Prakash, who runs an English-language school in Jaipur. "It is
the skill." At the new Toyota and Peugeot plant in the Czech
Republic, English is the working language of the Japanese,
French and Czech staff. Says Jitka Prikrylova, director of a Prague
English-language school: "The world has opened up for us, and English
is its language."

2. Practice
2.1. Read the original paragraph and 2 examples of students digests in A
and B.

Identify the general topic of the text.

Find some examples of the procedures listed on page 8 in sample
digests on this page.
Decide which digest you find to be better.

Original
BT created a highly personalised system that reflected National
Car Rental's dedication to their customers. Now they have a
system in which the details of each customer are stored such as
car preference and location so booking is faster and easier right
from the start. Then the final bill can be easily previewed onscreen to reduce the risk of any disputes. And all of it can be done
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is resulting in client
reservation times becoming 80% faster. Which in turn is projected
to result in an estimated cost reduction of 200,000 over the first
year. This is just one of the thousands of solutions BT has created
for organisations in the UK. There are countless ways BT can help
your organisation achieve the cost-reduction results it's looking
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for. For instance, there's automating your transactions. Simply by

putting more of your customers' transactions online, BT can help
you cut call handling costs dramatically.

Digest A.
BT, a company from UK, created a customized system for numerous
companies throughout the country. This system enables faster and easier
access to company's data and reduces the risk of making mistakes.
Another advantage is that the system is accessible 24/7. All of this
helps lowering companies' costs, and it doesn't stop here. There are
many more ways BT can help an organization in need.

Digest B.
BT created a highly personalised system which stores the details of each
customer, making the process of booking faster and easier. The system is
available 24/7, so result is faster client reservation times by 80%. This is just one
of many of solutions BT has created for different UK organisations. There are
many different ways of BT helping you to achieve cost-reduction results For
instance, it can help you by automating your transactions etc.
2.2. Digest the paragraph below. You don't have to follow (or copy) the
original very closely. Instead, try to extract the most important idea in
each sentence and express it in your own words.

English and its teaching are inexorably becoming more

complex.

Ilan

Stavans,

an

Amherst

College

professor,

recently finished a translation of Cervantes's "Don Quixote"

into Spanglish, the English-Spanish hybrid spoken in the
United States and Mexico. In countries like Germany, where
most kids begin English as early as the second or third
grade, the market for English studies is already shrinking.
German language schools no longer target English beginners
but those pursuing more-expert niches: business English,
phone manners or English for presentations. BeginningEnglish classes are filled with immigrants from places like
Turkey and Russia, eager to catch up with the natives. As

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10

with migrants the world over, they're finding that their

newfound land is an English-speaking one.
(Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7038031/site/newsweek/)

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