The World Of English

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

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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? ………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………….

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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

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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

5th

Saxons

Celtic

Germany

France North

Denmark Scotland 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

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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)

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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,

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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 .

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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

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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.

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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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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In the next activities we are going to learn about this expansion. Draw arrows to show the different continents and countries where English travelled.

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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.encarta.com

www.biography.com ,www.britannica.com

www.askjeeves.com , www.yahoo.com

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, ,

• Find out where Newfoundland is and how it is called in Spanish and Catalan. Find some information about it and write

a

short

paragraph.

www.lonelyplanet.com

,

Useful

websites:

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.

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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)

SCOTLAND

CANADA

USA (west)

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

American English

British/American English

Jenny feels ill. She ate too much.

Jenny feels ill. She's eaten too much.

I can't find my keys. Did you see them anywhere?

I can't find my keys. Have you seen them anywhere?

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

American English

British/American English

A: Are they going to the show tonight? B: No. They already saw it.

A: Are they going to the show tonight? B: No. They've already seen it.

A: Is Samantha here? B: No, she just left.

A: Is Samantha here? B: No, she's just left.

A: Can I borrow your book? B: No, I didn't read it yet.

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

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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.

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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.enchantedlearning.com,

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,

www.lonelyplanet.com,

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

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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.

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• 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.

•

By the end, she is confident that it will always be part of who she is.

The mother tongue remains with her in her dreams.

Is there a similarity with you?

• EXTRA ACTIVITY: Watch the film GANDHI

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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

Senegal

Morocco

Mozambique

Lesotho

Ghana Angola 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?

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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?

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 Why do you think the British conquered Africa?

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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.

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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 18581864.



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-

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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.

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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?

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

 What was the aim of having such an Empire?

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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

between races and authorized

most

social

contacts

:

-………………………………………………… …. -………………………………………………… ……. -………………………………………………… ……. 

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/mandelabio.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. 44

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. b. c. d.

e. f. g.

h.

Canada’s First Nations Peoples USA’s First Nations Peoples Slavery Apartheid The Independence of India India and Pakistan The Maoris Australia’s Aborigines

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