Developing intercultural communicative skills

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English is also hugely important as an international language and plays an important part even in countries where the UK has historically had little influence. It is learnt as the principal foreign language in most schools in Western Europe. It is also an essential part of the curriculum in far-flung places like Japan and South Korea, and is increasingly seen as desirable by millions of speakers in China. Prior to WWII, most teaching of English as a foreign language used British English as its model, and textbooks and other educational resources were produced here in the UK for use overseas. This reflected the UK's cultural dominance and its perceived ‘ownership’ of the English Language. Since 1945, however, the increasing economic power of the USA and its unrivalled influence in popular culture has meant that American English has become the reference point for learners of English in places like Japan and even to a certain extent in some European countries. British English remains the model in most Commonwealth countries where English is learnt as a second language. However, as the history of English has shown, this situation may not last indefinitely. The increasing commercial and economic power of countries like India, for instance, might mean that Indian English will one day begin to have an impact beyond its own borders.

Handout 2

Group A

597	Britain cut off from continental Europe by English Channel
600	Proto-Indo-Europeans living in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
55 BC	Germanic Indo-European tribes living in parts of modern-day Germany
450-480	Celts inhabit much of Europe, and beginning to colonize the British Isles
C 450	First Roman raids on Britain under Julius Caesar
43 AD	Roman occupation of Britain under Emperor Claudius (beginning of Roman rule of Britain)
410-436	RomanwithdrawalfromBritain
C 1000 BC	Anglo-Saxon settlement (Angles, Frisians, Saxons, Jutes) of Britain begins
c.500BC	EarliestOldEnglishinscriptions
c.6000 BC	St. Augustine arrives in Britain (beginning of Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons)
c.5000 BC	Anglo-Saxon language covers most of modern-day England

Group B

792 The Venerable Bede writes “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (in Latin)

865 Viking raids of Britain begin

C 1150 Old English epic poem “Beowulf” composed

C 1100 The Danes launch full-scale invasion and occupy Northumbria

731 Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex, encourages English prose and translation of Latin works

865 Charles II of France grants Normandy to the Viking chief Hrolf the Ganger (the beginning of Norman French)

911 The oldest surviving manuscript of “Beowulf” dates from this period

1086 The Norman conquest under William the Conqueror