For an overview of the emergence and spread of English, see this BBC site, a series of radio programmes, with sound. (requires Real Player).
For old English, or Anglo-Saxon, see Hwaet! Hear The Lord’s Prayer. Read Beowulf in old or modern English. Here’s another. Write your own old English using these fonts. Go back even further in time, and use runes. Curious to know how modern English may have sounded if the Norman Conquest had never happened? Uncleftish Beholding is an article without any Latin or Greek, about chemical elements. This is the Hitchhikers Guide entry to Old English.
Middle English. A wonderful site on the Bayeux Tapestry, telling the story of King Harold defeated by William of Normandy, allows you to see the tapestry in full, and learn about the Battle of Hastings. See it animated. This site explains why Chaucer’s English sounded different from modern English. Don’t forget to click on the see and hear link.
See the Shakespeare Resource Center on Elizabethan English.
Use the Dialectizer to turn any text into several dialects, including Swedish Chef.
Most sites on political correctness, are maintained by rabid opponents of p.c. The most neutral one is probably the Wikipedia entry, though a drawback is that it has many links to unrelated terms. Some are worth following. Mainly those listed under “See also”. Another useful page is the bias and sensitivity guidelines. You may wish to read Hofstadter’s satirical article Person Paper on Purity in Language. Read Red Riding Hood in p.c English, or The Three Little Pigs.
The latter two fairy tales are by James Finn Garner, who also rewrote some nursery rhymes.
Dialects and accents are the focus of two sites, one on the dialects and accents of The United Kingdom called VOICES and one on the accents and dialects of The United States of America called DO YOU SPEAK AMERICAN? See also the wikipedia entry with many links.
Liz Lochhead’s poem Kidspoem/Bairnsang is here or here. (Scottish)
Benjamin Zephaniah (Jamaica, Birmingham) writes & recites poetry.
Language and Power
A guide to sensitive language (gender, race, age etc.) is here.
tig’s student site
english a2
language and culture
CULTURE OPTIONS
A starting point may be Anup Shah’s Global Issues that Affect Everyone. Then there’s The United Nations site, with an overview of issues currently on the U.N. agenda.
When selecting issues for further study, please bear in mind that issues must be related to the Anglophone world. A list of countries where English is the official language is here. See a model by Kachru to explain the position of English in the world.
A smashing resource, with extensive archives, is the BBC radio site with the Reith Lectures. Dr Reith was the founder of the BBC, and in his honour a series of lectures is held every year, on such topics as Respect for the Earth, A Question of Trust, and Climate of Fear. The 1999, the 2000, the 2004 and the 2007 lectures are of particular interest re Global Issues.
An exciting way to become involved in Global Issues is Model United Nations. Here is the ThIMUN site.
A possible venture for ISE A2 students is the Global Issues Network with annual conferences.
Global Issues affect everyone, but particularly children. Human Rights Watch looks at children’s rights. Read the Declaration of the Rights of the Child also in a plain language version, or go to War Child, or Beyond the Fire (Teen experiences of War)
Globalisation— too many sites to include them all. These recommended sites have many good links:
Various organizations and media:
Oxfam International: Make Trade Fair
The World Trade Organization (WTO)
Peter Singer’s site Peter Singer talks about poverty (video)
Hans Rosling’s free Gapminder: a fascinating visual aid to aid insight.
global isues
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