THE WORLD OF

ENGLISH
Maria Rosa Batlle English Department IES Icaria

THE WORLD OF ENGLISH

In this credit you are going to

Discover who speaks English around the world

Find out where English is spoken

Learn how English became the language of distant countries

Learn to distinguish the different types of English spoken all

over the globe
Use computers to do your work

Learn to learn in cooperation with your classmates

Become more responsible of your own learning process

2
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE

What do you know about the English Language? Answer these

questions as completely as you can.

1-List the 3 languages that are most widely spoken in the

world.
a) largest number of speakers:
b) second largest number of speakers:
c) third largest number of speakers:

2- Name 10 countries where English is spoken as official language.

……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

3- What kind of language is English? (what family of

languages does it belong to?
……………………………………………………………………………….

4 – Take a guess: how did English travel to the countries where it is

spoken nowadays?
……………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………….

3
 WHAT IS ENGLISH?

What is this thing we call “English”? Where does it come from?

What is its history?
• Load this URL http://www.krysstal.com/english.html

to discover the history of the English language.

• Click on the link Indo- European family. Read it carefully

and

• DRAW A FAMILY TREE OF THE INDO- EUROPEAN

LANGUAGES WITH ITS 12 BRANCHES .

• In the Germanic languages, click on the link “Finnish

belongs to a different family”. What family does Finnish
belong to? What other languages belong to this family?

• In the Latin languages section, read the information about

Basque.Click on the link and write the names of the other
Independent or Isolated languages.

READ THIS TEXT

The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of three

Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the 5th Century AD.(*)

Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the

present day Denmark and northern Germany. The inhabitants of

Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. This was quickly displaced.

Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and

4
Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where

their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The

Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language

was called Englisc from which the word, English derives.

*AD=Anno Domini, Latin expression that means “In the year of the

Lord”, or after Jesuschrist was born.The opposite is BC= Before

Christ.

Fill in the gaps in the text you have just read WITHOUT looking at it!

Missing words:

Breton Angles France Denmark

5th Saxons North Scotland

Celtic Germany Three

The history of the language can be traced back to the arrival of ………

………… Germanic tribes to the British Isles during the …………………

Century AD.(*) …………………, ………………… and Jutes crossed the ………

………… Sea from what is the present day …………………and northern ……

……………. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a …………………

language. This was quickly displaced. Most of the Celtic speakers

were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and …………………. One group

5
migrated to the Brittany Coast of ………………… where their

descendants still speak the Celtic Language of ………………… today. The

Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. Their language

was called Englisc from which the word, English derives.

TIMELINE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

*CE= Common Era (or AD).Some people prefer not to use a

religious reference to date events.
BCE= Before Common Era (or BC)

6
OLD ENGLISH

The following brief sample of Old English is taken from Aelfric's

"Homily on St. Gregory the Great" and concerns the famous
story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert the
Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale
as slaves in Rome:

Eft he axode, hu ðære ðeode nama wære þe hi of comon.

Him wæs geandwyrd, þæt hi Angle genemnode wæron. Þa
cwæð he, "Rihtlice hi sind Angle gehatene, for ðan ðe hi
engla wlite habbað, and swilcum gedafenað þæt hi on
heofonum engla geferan beon."

• Activity: Some words are identical to present-day words.

Which words do you recognize? Other words look similar to

words we use.Can you spot them?

IDENTICAL SIMILAR

The former text reads like this in modern English

Again he [St. Gregory] asked what might be the name of

the people from which they came. It was answered to him
that they were named Angles. Then he said, "Rightly are
they called Angles because they have the beauty of angels,

7
and it is fitting that such as they should be angels'
companions in heaven."

NOTE:

Some of the words in the original have survived in altered

form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla

(angels), habbað (have), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven),

and beon (be). Others, however, have vanished from our

lexicon, mostly without a trace, including several that were

quite common words in Old English: eft "again," ðeode

"people, nation," cwæð "said, spoke," gehatene "called,

named," wlite "appearance, beauty," and geferan

"companions." Recognition of some words is naturally

hindered by the presence of two special characters, þ, called

"thorn," and ð, called "edh," which served in Old English to

represent the sounds now spelled with th.

• Activity: Try to read the text aloud .

8
MIDDLE ENGLISH

• Activity: Look for a short text by Chaucer and a short

biography of this important Middle English writer. Use the

internet and when you find it write down a short

biography and a few lines written by this author. Can you

translate them into Modern English? Useful websites:

www.askjeeves.com www.encarta.com

www.biography.com

EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

• Activity: Look for a short text by Shakespeare and a short

biography of this important English poet and playwright.

Use the internet and when you find it write down a short

biography and a few lines written by this author. Can you

translate them into present-day English? Useful websites:

www.askjeeves.com www.encarta.com

www.biography.com

9
MODERN ENGLISH

Modern English is the end result of a long development with

lots of influences.

• Activity: Study the timeline closely. Answer these

questions:

Which peoples and languages influenced Old English?

Which peoples and languages influenced Middle English?

Which peoples and languages influenced Modern English?

Each of the peoples who went to Britain and stayed there

brought their own language along. So the language of Britain

acquired loans from many other languages.

From Norse and other Nordic languages, words beginning with

“Sk” like “skull”, “sky” etc

From Norman (the Normans came from Normandy, in the north

of France), French words like “forest” (forêt),develop

(developer),and many others . It is assumed that up to 60 & of

present-day English words come from the French language.

10
From Latin: alias, agenda, curriculum, alibi, bonus, cactus ,

propaganda

From Greek: school, hour, hemisphere, sphere, geography etc

• Activity: Find more words that are loans from:

Norse:
Latin:
French:
Greek:

EXTRA ACTIVITY: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

BEFORE YOU WATCH

Load this URL

http://www.iesronda.org/professor/jjordan/daring/docs/films/sh
akes/carla/porta/main.htm

Click on the link Summary. Read the summary of the film. Write six
key sentences about the plot.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

Click on the link Characters. Do the matching exercise.

______________________________________________________

11
 AFTER YOU WATCH

HOPES AND DREAMS

Both reality and literature get mixed up until the last sequence in which
Will is playing Romeo and Viola is playing Juliet.
In a fairy tale, the characters have hopes and dreams which seem
impossible to achieve but by the end have miraculously or magically
happened.
1. Can you write the hopes and dreams each characters has at the beginning and if they
are fulfilled by the end of the story? Think of all the characters in the film.
Will Shakespeare
Viola de Lesseps
Mr. Fennymann
Lord Wessex

2-Who do you think managed to get all his/her goals in life?

A LOVE STORY

Write all the obstacles Will and Viola find against their relationship and the tricks they
use to overcome them.

The story also has some humorous moments. Explain just one.

12
However, when seeing the ending one could think it t is sad.

1. Do you think so? Did you like it?

2. How is this ending related to William's plays? That is, which play does the ending
refer to?

WILL AT WORK

What is the title of the play and the genre Shakespeare is working on at the beginning of
the film?
And, at the end?

ACTING
1. Performing in Tudor times or performing at the theatre nowadays is different, very
different. In two columns, explain the differences and also the similarities you may
see. Think about the shape of the buildings, how the performances were advertised,
how people stood or sat, who the actors were etc...

DIFFERENCES SIMILARITIES

13
2. What do you think of the performances of the actors and actresses of the
film? Who did you like best? Why?

MY OPINION ON THE FILM

1- Did you like the film?

2- If you could become any character of the film, which one would you like
to be?

14
 WHE RE IS EN GLIS H SP OK EN ?

• Load this URL http://www.krysstal.com/english.html

Answer these questions:

 What is English?

 Read the list of countries where English is spoken.In

pairs, draw a map of the world in a large sheet of paper
and paint IN RED the countries where English is
spoken.

 Draw a diagram showing the proportion of the different

languages spoken in the world.

THINK:
How do languages travel?

Find examples of other languages that travelled to other parts of the

world.

Look at the map you have drawn. Use your knowledge of world
history to decide approximately when, why and how English
“travelled” to this country where it became the official language.

15
Example: India. We think English travelled there when the
British conquered it and made it become pat of the British
Empire. We think this happened in the 18th century.

HOW ENGLISH TRAVELLED ALL OVER THE WORLD

Think: Till up to the 17th century, English was the language of a

rather smallish island in the Atlantic Ocean.

So, some questions come up:

how did it get to travel to remote parts of the world?

who took it overseas?

why did the English decide to travel overseas?

Discuss and list some of your ideas.

English travelled to the four continents for a number of

different reasons , at different times and with different results.

16
In the next activities we are going to learn about this

expansion.

Draw arrows to show the different continents and countries

where English travelled.

17
ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD

AMERICA STEP BY STEP

1- In the 16th century CE an Italian sailor called Giovanni

Caboto arrived at the court of King Henry VII. He wanted

the king to support an expedition to the New World. The

King agreed and Giovanni Caboto, who changed his name

to John Cabot to sound more English, sailed west until

he found “New-found-land”. He didn’t know it, but he was

also founding the British Empire.

• Use an internet browser to find out some more

information about John Cabot. Write a short biography.

Suggested websites www.biography.com ,

www.encarta.com ,www.britannica.com ,

www.askjeeves.com , www.yahoo.com

18
 • Find out where Newfoundland is and how it is called in

Spanish and Catalan. Find some information about it and

write a short paragraph. Useful websites:

www.lonelyplanet.com , www.askjeeves.com

www.nationalgeographic.com

2- In Elizabeth I’s reign (1558-1603), the English established

small colonies on the east coast of what is present-day

USA:Virginia (named after Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen),

and Massachussetts.This second colony was founded by the

Pilgrim Fathers, a puritan religious group of refugees from

Holland, who hired the ship Mayflower in 1620, sailed to

America and ended up in Massachussetts. By the end of the

century the English had established colonies in Maryland and

Nova Scotia, and could rival the colonies of the French

(Lousiana, New Orleans) and the Spanish (Florida).

The English sold furs, tobacco, fish and potatoes to England,

but the king of all products was sugar. But harvesting sugar

was a lot of hard work, that’s why the British Empire in the

Americas was based on slavery.

19
The British were the most successful European predators on

the Spanish possessions. In 1623 the English occupied the

island of Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts) and in 1625 Barbados.

By 1655, when Jamaica was captured from a small Spanish

garrison, English colonies had been established in Nevis,

Antigua, and Montserrat, and they proceeded to conquer many

of the islands in the area, which provided them with the two

things they valued most: sugar and slaves.

• Activity: Load the website www.thecommonwealth.org .

click on the link members and list the names of the

countries that were part of the British Empire in the

Americas.

• Choose ONE of these countries and write a short profile.

Useful websites: www.thecommonwealth.org ,

www.lonelyplanet.com, www.enchantedlearning.com,

www.yahoo.com, www.canadahistory.com ,

3-The English went about discovering and conquering the

world for various reasons: political, economic, religious etc.

They were usually brutal and cruel with the peoples who lived

in the countries they conquered, and they spread war and

20
disease, but they also took along their language. The language

spoken in each country got mixed with the local languages and

this accounts for the rich variety of English accents and

vocabulary around the world.

• Can you tell where the speaker comes from? Listen to the

tape and choose the right country from this list:

GREAT BRITAIN USA (East) USA (west)

SCOTLAND CANADA JAMAICA

Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3

Speaker 4 Speaker 5 Speaker 6

BRITISH OR AMERICAN ENGLISH?

Nowadays British and American English share almost the same

grammar, the same syntax and most of the vocabulary and
pronunciation, but there are some differences in all these fields.

DIFFERENCES IN GRAMMAR
Use of Present Perfect /Simple Past

21
 British/American
American English
English
Jenny feels ill. She ate Jenny feels ill. She's eaten too
too much. much.
I can't find my keys. Did I can't find my keys. Have you
you see them seen them anywhere?
anywhere?

(ii) In sentences which contain the words already, just or yet:

American English
A: Are they going to the
show tonight?
B: No. They already
saw it.
A: Is Samantha here?
B: No, she just left.
A: Can I borrow your
book?
B: No, I didn't read it
yet.
British/American
English
A: Are they going to the show
tonight?
B: No. They've already seen
it.
A: Is Samantha here?
B: No, she's just left.
A: Can I borrow your book?
B: No, I haven't read it yet.

DIFFERENCES IN VOCABULARY

Here is a list of American common words. What are their British

equivalents?

AMERICAN ENGLISH BRITISH ENGLISH

Truck
Vacation
Grades
Cookie
Highway
Eggplant
Elevator

22
Folks
Line
French fries
Persons

Another difference is spelling. American English tends to simplify the

spelling of certain words.
AMERICAN ENGLISH BRITISH ENGLISH
Humor Humour
Honor
Color
Thru
License Licence
Advise
Defense
Meter Metre
Kilometer
Center
Program Programme

EXTENSION: The British Slave Trade and its abolition

1770-1807

23
The British Empire, like most empires, was based on slavery.Find
out about the slave trade and how it was abolished.
Load this URL
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/hist/abolition/

and watch the video “Why did Britain get involved?” or read the
transcript here:
Slavery has existed since the beginning of time, almost all
cultures, civilised or otherwise have practised some form
of slavery, indeed we continue to practise slavery in our
own modern times. I think what’s different about the
African slave trade is just the sheer scale of it, nothing
has ever been done on that scale, either before that period
or indeed after that period.
Britain got involved in the slave trade for three real
reasons – money, land and power. Early on in the 1500s, the
Spanish and the Portuguese had already begun trading in
slaves. Not in a huge way, but certainly significant. After
the Spanish Armada of 1588 and the English became more
dominant, England saw this as an economic opportunity for
advancement. They quickly established colonies as sugar
plantations.
Reporter, Mara Menzies:
The land in the colonies was ideal for growing sugar,
cotton and tobacco. Huge profits were made from these crops
due to consumer demand back home in Britain.

LIST 3 REASONS WHY THE BRITISH TOOK UP SLAVERY

1......................................
2.......................................
3.......................................

WATCH THE VIDEO “WHY AFRICAN SLAVES?” or READ THE

TRANSCRIPT

Transcript of 'Why African slaves?' clip

Dr Douglas Hamilton:

24
The Spanish tried to use native Americans, but they died
out very quickly through a mixture of overwork and
European disease. European countries then tried to use
Europeans.
Reporter, Mara Menzies:
The Scots and the Irish crossed the Atlantic to work in
the fields. Despair drove them to sign five year contracts
to work for food, clothing and shelter. They would not be
paid money during this time, this was called indentured
servitude. The government was glad to see the back of the
poor, they got rid of criminals by selling them to the
plantation owners. The poor, the needy and the unwanted
became the workforce.
Dr Douglas Hamilton:
But they too tended to die out very quickly in the heat of
the Caribbean.
Dr Lizanne Henderson:
They needed another and a cheaper form of labour. There
were simply not enough indentured servants to meet the
demands.
Professor Geoff Palmer:
So somebody had the bright idea ‘let’s get black
Africans’. Because they’re infidels and therefore, in
fact, it would be quite acceptable to enslave them. And
the important aspect of that as well, the labour would be
free.
Dr Douglas Hamilton:
And Europeans didn’t care so much that Africans died out
in the same sorts of ways because they could easily be
replaced.
Reporter, Mara Menzies:
Africans were not offered a five year work contract, they
were given no choice and were fiercely forced into chattel
slavery. The word chattel means moveable property. We
consider livestock as moveable property.
Professor Geoff Palmer:
If we look at the management of chattel slavery, we’ve got
to remember that chattel slavery was sanctioned by the
church, by the politicians, by the merchants, by
academics, and by the general public who were in general
ignorant, did not know about it, but all that was within
the law.
Reporter, Mara Menzies:
British governed Caribbean islands drew up a slave code to
provide a legal framework for slavery. The code denied
captives sold into slavery all human rights. Slave owners
had the right to do anything they wanted to their
captives, even kill them.

25
 A TICKET TO RIDE: ASIA

1-The story of the British in India begins on the very last day of the
sixteenth century, when a group of merchants met in London to set
up the East India Company to trade with the East.
The first Englishman to go out, Sir Thomas Roe worked out a very
good deal with the Mughal Emperor which gave the English a
trading base on the west coast.
Gradually the English, like the French and the Portuguese, who also
had trading bases in India, got involved in the complicated Indian
politics, with repeated battles and wars. There were bloody and
cruel fights from both sides and finally Great Britain decided to
“anglicize” India by enforcing their laws, their language and their
traditions.
• Activity: Load the website www.thecommonwealth.org .

click on the link members and list the names of the

countries that were part of the British Empire in Asia.

• Write a short profile of India. Useful websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

www.thecommonwealth.org , www.lonelyplanet.com,

www.enchantedlearning.com,

26
Find out the following data about India:

Capital:

Largest city:

Official Languages:

Independence:

Area:

Population:

Currency:

• Fill in this chart about India. You’ll find information at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

National symbols of
India

Flag ………..

Emblem

Anthem

27
Animal

Bird

Flower

Tree

Fruit

Sport

• India soon wanted to become independent form Great

Britain. Find out more about this independence process in

this web site :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_independence_movement

Draw a TIMELINE of the process of independence.

28
• A person who played a key role in the independence of India
was Gandhi. Write a short biography.
Useful sites http://www.mkgandhi.org/
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/mahatma_ghandi.htm

• In India, people speak their mother tongue and are also

taught English at school. Read this poem about living in two
languages:

“Search for my tongue” by Sujata Bhatt

29
 You ask me what I mean
by saying I have lost my tongue.
I ask you, what would you do
if you had two tongues in your mouth,
and lost the first one, the mother tongue,
and could not really know the other,
the foreign tongue.
You could not use them both together
even if you thought that way.
And if you lived in a place you had to
speak a foreign tongue,
your mother tongue would rot,
rot and die in your mouth
until you had to spit it out.
I thought I spit it out
but overnight while I dream,
it grows back, a stump of a shoot
grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,
it ties the other tongue in knots,
the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,
it pushes the other tongue aside.
Everytime I think I've forgotten,
I think I've lost the mother tongue,
it blossoms out of my mouth.

What is from 'Search for My Tongue” about? Write TRUE or FALSE

• The poet explains what it is like to speak and think in two languages.
• She is not afraid of losing the language she began with.
• The mother tongue remains with her in her dreams.
• By the end, she is confident that it will always be part of who she is.

Is there a similarity with you?

• EXTRA ACTIVITY: Watch the film GANDHI

30
 ENGLISH IN AFRICA

Previous knowledge test . Are these statements true or false?

1-The British arrived in Africa before they arrived in America

2-They were looking for a trade route to Asia
3-They respected the native peoples in the countries they
conquered
4-Africa was little known in Europe
5- English is official in (write true or false)

Nigeria South Africa Ghana

Senegal Morocco Angola

Mozambique Lesotho Zwuaziland

STARTING OFF: AFRICAN GEOGRAPHY

The British Empire spread its conquered areas from

South to North of Africa. Here you have a white map
of Africa.
Using the red-coloured map on
http://www.friesian.com/british.htm and the URL
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/African_Geograph

31
y.htm, can you name and paint the countries that
once belonged to the British Empire?

32
How much do you know about these countries?

Write fact files about the African countries named

before. Include the following information:

Population:
Industry:
Literacy:
Life expectancy:
Languages: Official, others (name at
least 2)
Year of Independence:

Useful sites:
http://www.issafrica.org/AF/profiles/afrimap.html ,
http://go.hrw.com/atlas/span_htm/africa.htm,
http://www.friesian.com/british.htm

Putting all together

 In how many countries is English the official

language?

 Looking at the fact files again, what do you

think about the current situation in Africa?

33
 Why do you think the British conquered Africa?

34
A bit of History

The beginning: South Africa

The British took the Cape of Good Hope off the Dutch in 1795. The
Cape was very useful as it was half-way between Britain and India.
After the British abolished slavery, in 1836 the Dutch decided to
embark on the Great Trek to get away from the British and to find
some new Africans they could enslave. The Dutch set up two states
called the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

For a long time the Britsh considered Africa as the “Dark Continent”,
full of jungle and disease, and mainly because no one really knew it.
The man who changed all that was David Livingstone, a Scottish
physician and missionary who first went to Africa in 1841. Everyone
loved reading his reports and they began to dream of Africa.

Dr Livingstone- A man of Africa

Dr David Livingstone was a

renowed traveller and author
who spent many years exploring
and doing missionary work in
Africa. He became the first
European to cross Africa from
one coast to the other. He
respected the Africans and did
not try to change their way of
life.

35
Using these URLs http://www.mrdowling.com/610-
livingstone.html ,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/livingst
one_david.shtml , tell if the following statements are
True (T) or False (F). Correct the wrong information.
 He arrived in Africa in 1840.
 He was never concerned about the slave trade in
Africa.
 He took advantage of the African people.
 He worked for the New York Herald , sending
them reports about his trips.
 He changed the name of the massive waterfall
which local people called “the smoke that
thunders” to Victoria Falls.
 His second trip around Africa was from 1858-
1864.
 He has never been in Lake Tayanika.
 He was found by the reporter Stanley in 1881.
 He died in 1873 and his whole body is burned in
Westminister Abbey

The British and the Boers

Gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1867, causing

a large number of people from Great Britain to move to the colony. A
series of wars between the British, who wanted a unified South Africa
under British control, and the Boers, who wanted their own
independent states, continued off and on from the 1880s until 1902.
The most well-known is the one from 1899 to 1902, called the Anglo-

36
Boer war, where in the end the British defeated the Boers. In 1910 the
British established the Union of South Africa which became part of the
British Commonwealth.

37
Scrambling for Africa

In 1875 the two most important European holdings in Africa were

Algeria and the Cape Colony. By 1914 only Ethiopia and the republic
of Liberia remained outside formal European control. The transition
from an "informal empire" of control through economic dominance to
direct control took the form of a "scramble" for territory by the
nations of Europe. Britain tried not to play a part in this early
scramble, being more of a trading empire rather than a colonial
empire; however, it soon became clear it had to gain its own African
empire to maintain the balance of power.

The Conference of Western Powers of 1884–85 divided up Africa

and tended to regulate the competition between the powers by
defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international
recognition of territorial claims.

Britain emerged in 1914 with not only the largest overseas empire
thanks to her long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest
gains in the "scramble for Africa”. Between 1885 and 1914 Britain
took nearly 30% of Africa's population under her control, compared to
15% for France, 9% Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for Italy.

 Load the URL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire#Afric
a and read the text. Load also
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/africa.
htm and have a look at the map while reading.

Answer the following questions

 Why do you think the British were so keen on

occupying Egypt?

38
 What do you understand by “Cape-to-Cairo”
Empire?

 What was the aim of having such an Empire?

39
Recent History

The Apartheid

The British granted South Africa

independence in 1910, but gave power
only to white people. In 1948, the
National Party gained office in an
election where only white people were
allowed to vote. The party began a
policy of racial segregation known as
apartheid, which means “apartness.”

 Load the URL http://www.mrdowling.com/609-apartheid.html and

read the text. Complete the following sentences with the missing
information.

 Members of other races were forbidden to …………………

………………………………………… in areas belonging to
other races.
 South African laws forbade most social contacts
between races and authorized :

-…………………………………………………
….

-…………………………………………………
…….

-…………………………………………………
…….

 There was a 10% of …………………………………

population.

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 Apartheid existed in South Africa for more than …………
years.
 South Africa was forced to leave…………………
 In ………………………, a new constitution gave people of
all races the right to vote.
 Nelson Mandela was elected as ……………………………
…..of ………………………… in ...................................

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Look up this information in the Internet:

Who was Mandela?

Why was he so important for

African peace?

Which were his main achievements?

 Write a short biography of Mandela, mainly

focusing in the actions that he took to fight for
the Human Rights.

Useful sites:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/man
dela/ ,
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-
bio.html , www.wikipedia.com ,

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 ENGLISH IN OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA

Introduction

Read the text and fill in the gaps with the correct word. Look up the
information in the web to confirm it.

largest – smallest - driest - oldest - least- flattest - sixth

Australia is the …………………largest country in the world and the ……………

….island. It’s the ……………………. and ……………………. Continent. It’s also
the ………………………continent and the …………………populated one. It is
approximately the same size as the USA but has only 20 million inhabitants. It’s
also the …………….. continent, and, believe it or not, has more snowfall than
Switzerland. It also has a rich variety of weird animals and plants that have
developed independently from other animal forms, thanks to Australia’s
geographical position, far away from other lands.

Look up the missing information in the web.

1-Fill in the gaps with the correct word:

The first people in Australia were the ……………………., who came more than
40,000 years ago. ……………………… sailors visited 2,500 years ago, and
much later ……………………. sailors came – William Jansz in 1606, and Abel

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Tasman in 1642. Then in 1770 the British sailor Captain ……………………. …
…………………. landed on the east coast, and said that Australia now belonged
to Britain.
Britain soon began to send ……………………. to the new country.
In 1851 ……………………. was found in New South Wales and Victoria.
Thousands of people went looking for gold – first Australians, then people from
……………………. , Britain, New Zealand and ……………………. .

2- True or False? Find the correct information in the web

a- There were about 400,000 native people in Australia when the British came.
b-They belonged to the same group and spoke the same language.
c-The native people of Australia were nomads.
d-They called their past “Sleeptime”
e-All the native people of Tasmania were killed.
f-The children of native people were allowed to go to school .
g- The native people had to live in reserves.

THE ABORIGINES
The Aborigines are Australia’s Native People. They came to Australia about
50,000 years ago. They probably arrived on boats or simple rafts from
Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The Aborigines were nomads and lived as
hunters-gatherers eating the animals and plants they found. When the British
explorer Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his stories of the unspoilt land and
wide open spaces encouraged Britain to colonise the island and to send its
most violent prisoners there.
The British did not recognise the Aborigines and declared that Australia was
terra nullis (an empty land). This meant they could claim aboriginal land and
resources. The Borigines were only given the right to vote in 1967 and in 1992
the terra nullis claim was declared illegal and the Aborigines were recognised as
Australia’s native people for the first time. They live in tribal groups and share
similar traditions and beliefs.
Today there are fewer than 500,000 Aborigines, who live mainly in slums around
the cities. They live in poor conditions and their health is much worse than that
of white Australians.

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QUESTION:
In your opinion, what are the causes of the present situation of the native
people of Australia? Discuss in pairs and give 3 reasons.

NEW ZEALAND: LAND OF THE WHITE CLOUDS

1- Look up information on the history of New Zealand in the web and
answer the questions:
a. What was New Zealand’s original name?
b. Who were its native inhabitants?
c. How many islands are there in New Zealand?
d. What is the capital city?
e. What is the population of New Zealand?
f. Which Europeans discovered and colonised New Zealand?
g. Which are the official languages of New Zealand?
h. What is New Zealand’s most popular sport?

MAORI CREATION
The Maori myth that explains the creation is a fascinating legend. Read
and listen to it here:
www.mythicjourneys.org/bigmyth (click on Maori)
then do the following exercises
MAORI EXERCISES

1. Look at a map of the world. Where do the Maori originally come from?
Where do they live today? Make a little map showing this migration.

2. What two gods existed in the beginning? Could you consider them the
creators of heaven and earth? Explain your answer.

3. What gods were involved in the creation of the world and what role did each
one of them play?

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4. How did high and low tide come into existence, according to the Maori
creation myth?

5. The Maori creation myth also explains how other natural phenomena have
come into existence. What natural phenomena were these and explain what
roles the different gods played in these phenomena.

6. How do traditional Maori think that reptiles came into existence?

7. What have you learned about how animals and humans came into
existence, according to Maori mythology?

EXTRA: film THE PIANO

Watch the film and discuss these issues:
a. What is the relationship between the English and the Maoris?
b. Do the British learn the Maori language?
c. Who tries to impose his own traditions on whom ?
d. In what ways was the Maori culture at that time different from the British
culture?
EXTRA
Do these extra quizzes on Maori culture
http://www.maori.org.nz/kura/default.asp

FINAL PROJECT

Choose one of these topics and prepare a power point

presentation:
a. Canada’s First Nations Peoples
b. USA’s First Nations Peoples
c. Slavery
d. Apartheid
e. The Independence of India
f. India and Pakistan
g. The Maoris
h. Australia’s Aborigines

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