english haCheckpoints 

1) 

A lingua franca is when a language is used for communication by two people who are not native speakers. 

2) 

We say that English is the world's most important lingua franca because the British established colonies and the English language was spread in all corners of the world. 

3) 

Queen Elizabeth the first started to build the British empire.

4)

The reasons for its decline is because Britain lost two world wars and lost control over Indian and Africa. So they lost their position as the strongest country. 

5)

Today is the language getting more and more important and popular for many people. There is hardly a job you can do if you can't speak some English, because we uses it so much. 

Viewpoints

1)

I do think English threatens the position of national languages in Norway, because more people are coming to Norway now then before. We uses English much more daily then for 100 years ago.  So I think maybe English will take over in the future, but it will take some 100 years.

2)

No i don't think any other languages can threaten English as a world language, because it's no languages which is so big like English today. And English is just getting more popular. We are using English much more daily then before, and i just think English will get bigger.

Comprehension questions

1. 1500 years have passed since the Romans left Britain. They could start speak English again, after the Romans left. The Romans had forced Britain to speak Latin while they had control.

2. The capabilities the English language had was that Britain had invaded many countries so people was learning English, and it was no so hard to learn.

3. English have adopted over 350 words from different languages.

4. The total number of English speakers is around 1,5 billion.

5. Around a quarter of 1,5 billion speaks it as their mother tongue.

6. Around a quarter speaks it also as a second language. 

7. The problems English present for a learner is that it has so little to do with England these days, that it's maybe time to stop calling it English.

8. Singlish, Hinglish and Chinglish are mentioned when they speaks about change the name of English to something else. We find these accents in Singapore, and China. And Hinglish comes from Hindi English. It is necessary to give these accents individual names because they are so different from each other.
9. I think the lecturer suggests that if somebody should think up a new word for English it should be i Chinese, is because the Chinese language is going to be the next global language. Because China is just getting bigger and stronger.
Why So Much Variety in English?-Tasks

1.      There is a difference between the varieties of English spoken in the north and the south of England because the Vikings invaded North-East England and the Midlands. They brought with them their language to the North, so they started to speak more like them.

2.      The term ‘’substrate language’’ is that another language was there before another took over. Like when the Viking invaded North-East England and brought with them their language and that language took over.

3.      A local accent is important for the inhabitants in a particular area because they are included in our overview of varieties of English.

4.      Peoples which contributed to the language in the British Isles is the Vikings, the French people, the Caribbean people, the Indian people, the Africa people and the Australian people.

5.      The difference between the accents in New England, Southern USA and General American is that New England has no post-vocalic ‘’r’’, so they said words like car without a final ‘’r’’. In General American they do pronounce ‘’r’’, and in the Southern USA the vocalic ‘’r’’ was in the process of disappearing or had disappeared. Where people were settled in different areas was determined their peculiarities.

6.      The difference between the African English used in Jamaica and that used in Nigeria is the creation of pidgins and creoles.

7.      The dialect, which is the basis for Australian English, is from London. Because many prisoners were sent to the penal colonies in Australia, who mostly came from London.