A Survey of Swiss English Teachers

A survey of a representative sample of 253 English teachers in Switzerland was conducted by Heather Murray to gather information about their attitudes toward Euro-English. I would like to point out the results of a relevant question relating to teaching materials. Teachers used a five point scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘don’t know’ to ‘strongly disagree.’ Here is the relevant statement and the results:

Most of the situations in my course book assume that my learners will later be speaking English with native speakers; I think there should be more situations showing non-native speakers communicating with each other. (Murray 2003)

This question was to take a poll of whether teachers think Euro-English situations should be shown in course books. At the moment, lingua franca English is almost never represented in course books. The responses were different from native and non-native English speaking English teachers; native speakers showed weak agreement while non-native speakers showed weak disagreement. When comparing age groups taught, a similar difference appeared, where 60% of teachers of adults agreed while 66% of teachers of teens disagreed, which could lead one to believe that a native speaker model is deemed more important in teaching English to teens than to adults (Murray 2003).

So why do people still insist that we still look to the native speaker of English as the official authority? Many are unhappy with this tradition and are trying to change things. When English is used as a lingua franca in a certain geographical area, over time, some differences emerge. There is thus an immersion of Englishes. There is not one standard monolithic English, but many different emerging Englishes around the world. For example in the English in India or in Switzerland is very different than where I’m from in the U.S. in terms of accent, pronunciation, and surely there are different words that are unique to each. But they are using English as a lingua franca in order to communicate meaning. Actually, the differences between Swiss-English and British English or American English aren’t that big of a deal. There is mostly mutual intelligibility. And in my opinion, that is the most important for communication in the real world. However, if one has to pass a standardized test in English, that is another thing all together. Perhaps the tests need to be changed? I don’t think the big (money-making) industries of Cambridge and ETS are going to change very easily.

(To be continued in Unit 2-14)

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A SUMMARY

 

Instruction: The purpose of a summary is to give the reader, in about 1/3 of the original length of an article/paper, a clear, objective picture of the original paper or article. Most importantly, the summary restates only the main points of a text without giving examples or details, such as dates, numbers or statistics.

There are quite a few skills to be practiced in summary wreiting: note-taking, paraphrasing(using your own words and sentence structure), condensing, etc. Below are some important tips for writing a summary.

Tips for writing a summary

1. First, read the text or article to get a general idea of the subject matter as well as the author's attitude.

2. Then read through a second time to identify the main points – either paragraph by paragraph, or heading by heading / sub-heading.

Identify the topic sentences. These are usually the first sentences of each paragraph. They give the main idea for the paragraph (with the following sentences supporting this main idea). Also look for the concluding sentence in the paragraph, as this often summarises the paragraph.

3. Now write the main idea of each paragraph (or section) in one sentence. Use your own words, rather than the author's words. This is important: if you copy what the author has written, you risk writing too much!

4. Start pulling out key facts or findings from the text which support the author's main idea (or ideas). You may need to either summarise these (if there are a lot of them) or decide which are the most important or relevant.

However, if you are summarising a number of texts or articles, start to look for common themes running through all the texts. Are the texts broadly in agreement, or do they have different points of view or findings? Choose only a few supporting details to illustrate similarity or contrast.

5. When you have written all your sentences, you should be able to get a good overview of the whole text. This overview can be your introduction to your summary. In your introduction, you'll also need to give the author's name and the title of the text you are summarising.

Your summary should now look like this: t ext/author information; your overview (the introduction); the single sentences summarising the main ideas, with the key facts or figures that support the ideas.

6. At this point, you'll need to organise all the information in the most logical way. You might also have repeated ideas or details that you'll need to delete.

7. Don't forget to include linking words so your reader can easily follow your thoughts. This will help your summary flow better, and help you avoid writing short sentences without any connection between them.

Important points to remember

Don't copy the article. Instead, paraphrase. While paraphrasing, use verbs of saying and reporting, e.g.: “the author argues, claims, maintains, states, suggests, etc.”
If you quote directly from the original text, use quotation marks. (Minimise how often you do this.)

Don't give your opinion.

Edit what you write. Check your English grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Section 2. Grammar workout

 

Adverb clauses

An adverb clause consists of a connecting word, called an adverb clause marker (or subordinate conjunction), and at least a subject and a verb. An adverb clause can precede the main clause or follow it. When the adverb clause comes first, it is separated from the main clause by a comma.

Example:

The demand for economical cars increases when gasoline becomes more expensive.

When gasoline becomes more expensive, the demand for economical cars increases.

In this example, the adverb clause marker when joins the adverb clause to the main clause. The verb clause contains a subject (gasoline) and a verb (becomes).

The following markers are commonly used:

Examples:

Time: Your heart rate increases when you exercise.

Time: Some people like to listen to music while they are studying.

Time: Some people arrived in taxis while others took the subway.

Time: One train was arriving as another was departing.

Time: We haven't seen Professor Hill since she returned from her trip.

Time: Don't put off going to the dentist until you have a prob­lem.

Time: Once the dean arrives, the meeting can begin.

Time: Before he left the country, he bought some traveler's checks.

Time: She will give a short speech after she is presented with the award.

Cause: Because the speaker was sick, the program was canceled.

Opposition (contrary cause): Since credit cards are so convenient, many people use them.

Contrast: Although he earns a good salary, he never saves any money.

Contrast: Even though she was tired, she stayed up late.

Condition: If the automobile had not been invented, what would people use for basic transportation?

Condition: I won't go unless you do.

In structure items, any part of afull adverb clause – the marker, the subject, the verb, and so on – can be missing from the stem.

Clause markers with ever: Words that end with -ever are sometimes used as adverb clause markers: whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever, whichever, however. In some sentences, these words are actually noun-clause markers.

Examples:

Put that box wherever you can find room for it.

They stay at that hotel whenever they're in Boston.

No matter how/ Wqhatever way/However you solve the problem, you'll get the same answer.

Reduced adverb clauses

When the subject of the main clause and the subject of the adverb clause are the same person or thing, the adverb clause can be reduced (shortened). Reduced adverb clauses do not contain a main verb or a subject. They consist of a marker and a participle (either a present or a past participle) or a marker and an adjective.

Examples:

When linguists are studying a minority language, they don't neglect its social functions, (full adverb clause).

When studying a minority language, linguists don't neglect its social functions, (reduced clause with present participle).

Although it had been limited, the regional language was still operational, (full adverb clause).

Although limited, the regional language was still operational, (reduced clause with a past participle).

Although he was nervous, the lecturer gave a wonderful speech, (full adverb clause) Although nervous, the lecturer gave a wonderful speech, (reduced clause with an adjective).

You will most often see reduced adverb clauses with the markers although, while, if, when, before, after, and until. Reduced adverb clauses are NEVER used after because.