Notes TEFL course
The Principles of Teaching English as a Foreign
Language Course
Origins of English
Parent language of all indo-european languages= proto-indo-european (proto meaning
first/original/primitive)- root of over 400 languages and dialects
o Think that Lithuanian is the closest match to what it was like
o Began around 3500 BC- stone age/beginning of bronze age- earliest can confirm
o Different beliefs about where began
o Language evolved in different areas taking on different characteristics to suit different
people
Evolved into different branches
o English from the Germanic branch- closest branch before the split is frisian
English as a Germanic language
o Split into north Germanic which split into various Scandinavian languages and West
Germanic which split into German, Dutch and eventually English
o The influence of Latin-based languages
Lots of French words in English e.g., RSVP respondez s’il vous plait
Core rules form Germanic but borrowed words from latin languages over time
Result of invasions of Britain- 3 main invasions which shaped language- romans,
Vikings and normans
The romans
Spoke Latin (no longer spoken but left behind Italian, French, and
Spanish)- language of the Catholic church
The Vikings
1200 years ago from the North (Scandinavian countries)
Gave us words like egg, sky and take
The Normans
1066 William the Conqueror ruled Britain for several 100 years so
French was the language of the Elite (poor brits spoke old English)
So English and French influenced each other= middle English
The more recent spread of English across the globe
Estimated that a quarter of the global population today can speak English
Originally spread through colonialism, trade and military and industrial influence
How internet and technology have affected English
o Internet has rapidly increased the speed at which languages has changed
New online dialect where grammatical rules relaxed and more flexible, newly
coined words
o 55% of content on internet is in English- often used as a lingua franca online
Different types of English and the people who speak it
Native language and first language are not the same- native language is the language of the area
you grew up in and you are proficient in it, first language is the first language you speak as a
child
, Official language is the language that has legal status in a country or region and is usually used
by government
o English is not the official language of England as official language tends to only be where
not obvious which language it is
Lingua Franca
o common language used to allow communication between people who do not share a
native language
English is most common lingua franca
French dominant language in the past and was once the language of diplomacy
and literature in Europe
Spanish is growing and some think Chinese may have a future as a linga franca
due to presence in international business
o To be classed as a lingua France neither speaker should be a native speaker of it
o Need to know whether student aims to use it as a lingua franca or speak like a native
speaker as this will affect how they want to learn
With a lingua France communicative effectiveness is key
o Why it is used as a lingua franca
Lots of people speak it
¼ people speak English and is most studied language in the world
English is used as a lingua franca because it has no Royal Academy to say what
the correct way to speak English is so countries can use English and make it their
English e.g., Indian English
Spread through the British Empire (became the language of governance in many
countries), the industrial revolution, emergence of US as a global power
Declining popularity of other languages such as German and Russian after the
second world war and with the collapse of the soviet union
Education
Second language of choice in most countries in terms of education
Internet
o How being a lingua France affects English
Causes a lot of variation due to lack of fluency amongst speakers and speakers
aiming for effective communication rather than accuracy (will disregard
language and structures they feel are unnecessary for being understood)
Means sometimes words thrown in that are not English
o Who uses English as a lingua franca
Tourists, business, countries with more than one official language (e.g., India),
scientists and academics, friends of different nationalities, official language of
international bodies such as the UN, the internet, the media, international law
(one of the official languages of the European court for Human right and
international criminal court), tertiary education (university), air transport (official
language of air transport and control
o Problems with English as a lingua franca
Focus on communicative effectiveness rather than accuracy
Not one correct or standard version of English as a lingua franca
,Grammar
Nouns
Types of nouns- concrete, proper, abstract, collective, possessive, plural, countable and
uncountable
Concrete nouns
o An object or substance that can be felt through our 5 senses
Proper nouns
o Names we use for people, places and organisations so are days of the week and months
o Usually begin with a capital letter
Abstract nouns
o Cannot be experienced through the senses- cannot physically touch or affect us by
themselves
o E.g., emotions or feelings (love, sympathy), states or attributes (bravery, loyalty), ideas
or concepts (liberty, belief, dream, information), movements or events (progress,
education, friendship, hospitality)
o Can see things affected by these concepts but they cannot affect us themselves and not
physical
Collective nouns
o A single noun used to refer to a group of individual people, animals or things
Plural nouns
o Indicate that there is more than one
o Adding an s turns into a plural noun but some irregular e.g., people, mice, cacti
o Some same as singular e.g., sheep
o Some need es e.g., boxes
Possessive nouns
o Indicates possession
o Tend to as ‘s e.g., Alex’s book
o Words that end with s can just as apostrophe or put ‘s
o Plural possessive nouns
If ends in s then add apostrophe after the s e.g., teachers’
If doesn’t end in s then as ‘s e.g., men’s
Apostrophe
o Used for contractions- represents missing letter
E.g., don’t
o Possession e.g., the dog’s tail
If ends with s then just put apostrophe after the word (an as ‘s if want)
o It is = it’s for contraction
Its does not take an apostrophe when it is possessive!!
o Common errors
Apostrophes with plural, there instead of they’re, you’re and your
Countable and uncountable nouns
o Countable refer to something that can be counted
o Uncountable nouns (substances, concepts or things) cannot be counted even if divided
up e.g., glass of water
o Some can be both countable and uncountable in different contexts e.g., egg (the
dietician recommended I avoided recipes that contain egg
, Lesson ideas
o Have students come up to the board and write abstract or concrete nouns in the column
o Celebrations- talk about celebrations in their country, pictures of celebrations and write
the name of the celebration on the picture, wedding story and ask questions about the
story, then gap fill whilst listening to the story, pairs of words e.g., a bunch of flowers,
wedding cake, a pair of shoes, people have to find the person that has their matching
word, three words connected to festival then get them to ask questions to find out
more, then get them to write three words and ask words in pairs, then have to write
about it as homework
Verbs
Doing words- words that describe an action
Students tend to struggle with
o Using the correct form of the verb, choosing the correct modal verb, pronouncing past
form regular verbs correctly, confusing regular and irregular verbs, using verbs to form
grammatical structures like questions.
Identifying verbs
o Put in infinitive form- put to before e.g., to photograph, to dress
To be
o Present participle- being
o Present form- is, am, are
o Past simple form- was, were
o Past participle form- been
o Unusual as inflects in unusual ways
Verb inflection and pronouns
o Verbs change based on who the subject is (who is doing the action)
o First person- I
o Second person- you
Apart be and are verbs tend to be the same as in first person so have not
changed or inflected
o Third person- he she it
Verbs change- tend to have an s on the end e.g., you play goes to she plays (in
the present simple tense
Regular and irregular verbs
Present
o Generally will just add an s to the verb to make it third person in the present simple
tense
But add es instead if ends with s, z, x, sh, ch, o (not oo) e.g., he misses, he goes
o Have does to has
o To be very irregular I am, she is, you are
Past
o Tend to add -ed
o If ends in e then just as d e.g., close goes to closed
o If words ends with consonant vowel consonant then add extra letter and ed e.g., stop
goes to stop
o Ed has different sound depending on the word- d (played loved smiled), t (walked,
watched, introduced), id (intended, printed, imitated)
