The History and Spelling of The English Language

Module 3 - The History and Spelling of English
Describe how your knowledge of the history of the English language will help you
explain things to your students in an EFL class. Give specific examples.
As ESL/EFL teachers, it is not important that we become experts about the history of
the English language, rather it is essential that we are familiar with the origins of
the English language and the historical events surrounding its development. By
doing so we become more knowledgeable and better able to help our students
understand vocabulary, syntax and pronunciation.
The intermingling of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Romans, Normans, Celts, and
the French just to name a few, has led over the course of almost 3,000 years to the
development of a language with extraordinary vocabulary richness and spelling
complexity. English more than any other language, is fluid. It is constantly
changing. The English language is continually adding new words to keep up with our
times. For example, we persistently add words in the fields of science, medicine,
and technology - even slang!
The English language belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European
family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and
Frisians. The English language is a profusion of many languages throughout Europe
(with the exception of Finnish, Etonian, Hungarian and Basque), including numerous
other languages such as:
Latin Languages: Italian, Spanish, French, etc.,
Germanic Languages: German, Swedish, Icelandic, English, Dutch,
Indo-Irania Languages: Farsi, Hindi, Sanskrit, etc.,
Slavic Languages: Russian, Polish, Serbian, etc.,
Baltic Languages: Latvia and Lithuanian,
Celtic Languages: Welsh, Breton, Gaelic, etc.,
and Greek
Besides the fact that knowledge of the history of the English language enriches the
classroom environment, it is useful when explaining to students why spelling,
pronunciation, endings, and pluralizations are different from many other languages.
What differences in student approach to English do you anticipate when working

with students who speak a Latin or Germanic language versus students who
speak Japanese, Chinese or Arabic?
Knowing for example, that English derives from the Germanic group of languages
and that it had a strong Latin influence will enable the teacher to limit the stress on
vocabulary and phonology when teaching students who speak a Germanic or Latin
based language. It will be the opposite when teaching students whose native
language does not utilize the Roman alphabet, i.e., Middle Eastern (Arabic) and
Asian (Japanese, Chinese et al) cultures. Learning how to properly read, write and
speak in English can be difficult, due to the fact that it is not a phonetic language
like Spanish and Italian. Incontrovertibly, those students that speak German or
Latin based languages will have an advantage over those students who do not their ability to recognize and use cognates will be a valuable advantage. Students
who speak at least one of the above mentioned languages (see question #1), will
be able to intuit the meaning of many words in English; that being said we should
not forget false cognates. Whenever we encounter a student using false cognates,
it is imperative that we point them out so that they avoid using them improperly.
On the other hand, those students that speak Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic will
have greater difficulties learning English simply because their native language is
completely different. One of their first challenges will be to learn the Roman
alphabet; they will have to practice and hone their listening skills; and finally they
will have the challenge of learning to pronounce words correctly. While their
sentence structure, will most likely be somewhat complicated, they will have
minimal if no issues at all with false cognates.
These are only a few of the contentions students of ESL/EFL will encounter.
Describe strategies you will use in class to help you with your own spelling, if its a
problem, like bringing a dictionary to class or writing down troublesome
vocabulary in your lesson plan.
Having myself studied Spanish, French and Italian, I have become more aware of
where words derive, and it has helped me to perfect my command of the English
language. Even so, because of I have studied these languages I often have
problems with spelling - I have been known to confuse all four languages!
Being able to properly spell words in English is a challenge for mother tongue
English speakers, let alone foreign language learners. This is due to the complex
origins of the language which has adopted vocabulary, phonetics etc. from other
languages. However, the importance of proper spelling cannot be stressed enough.
I believe, proper spelling demonstrates how much one cares about communicating
effectively and efficiently with others. I am a big believer in always carrying a
dictionary around with me. I have the dictionary downloaded on my cell phone,
tablet and of course my computer. Additionally I have downloaded google translate
which I find effective in learning new vocabulary. I naturally have an English
dictionary, as well as English/Spanish, English/Italian and English/French
dictionaries. While teaching English to my Italian students I ask them to download
the dictionary and google translate apps to their cell phones as well. I find them
useful when teaching a class. And when we learn new vocabulary words in our
lesson plans - which are invariably studied before our reading plan, I require that the
students, create their own sentence using the same word. In this way, I know they
truly understand the meaning of the work and its usage. I also find, that this helps
with their spelling.
In addition to a dictionary, I also have an etymological dictionary, which helps to
clear any doubts about the spelling of a word, as well as explains where a word
comes from and why it is spelled the way it is. In my opinion, if a student
understands the origins of a word they will
be less likely to misspell it. Further, knowing the history of the English language and
having the appropriate tools available, is essential to the productivity and
effectiveness of the ESL/EFL classroom.

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Module 3 - The History and Spelling of English

What differences in student approach to English do you anticipate when working

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