The Adventure of English: The Biography Of A Language
by Melvyn Bragg
Unabridged
read by Robert Powell
English has become the primary language of the world. It is the language used for business, for air traffic control and of course the Internet. Quite an accomplishment for what began as a minor Germanic dialect in about the year 500. This book is a history of the language itself. How did the language become so important? The Church fought the publishing of the Bible in English because this would allow anyone to read it rather than just the official priests. Part of the reason for the spread of English has been the wealth of literature written in English. From Beowulf to Chaucer and of course the vulgar playwright William Shakespeare (who contributed 2,000 new words to the language). The growth of English continues in spite of things like France making it illegal to use English words where good French words could be used. And English continues to change, the English of India for instance allows computer support desks to be located in Mumbai, but communication is not all that easy. English is the collective work of millions of people throughout the ages. It is democratic, ever-changing and ingenious in its assimilation of other cultures. English runs though the heart of world finance, medicine and the Internet, and it is understood by around two thousand million people across the world. It seems set to go on. Yet it was very nearly wiped out in it’s early years. In this book Melvyn Bragg shows us the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings to a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. Along the way its colourful story takes in a host of characters and locations, from the early tribes, Alfred the Great’s stubborn resistance to the Danes, and through its early literary masterpieces such as Beowulf and the bawdy Geoffrey Chaucer; Henry VIII’s battles with the church over bootleg bibles; a ‘coarse’ playwright named William Shakespeare; the songs of the Creole slaves and the words of Davy Crockett; street slang and Dr Johnson’s dictionary; the role of English in India and its adoption in the United States of America which returned the language with full interest.
Young Learners Go! is a complete English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course that gives young learners a solid foundation and a positive first experience in learning English.
Relevant: teaches English through meaningful themes and practical contexts that are relevant to learners' daily lives
Based on the multiple intelligences theory: designed to introduce and reinforce language items through specially crafted activities
Spiral progression teaching: allowing for a complete understanding and acquisition of the language
Studio Classroom Advanced June 2007 ISO
Studio Classrooms publishes three monthly magazines for English
learners: Let's Talk in English, Studio Classroom and Advanced. Each
magazine provides practical, interesting articles to help readers
improve their English skills. Radio and television programs accompany
each article and air Monday through Saturday. The radio programs are
also available on MP3 and on the Internet. Studio Classroom is a
program under ORTV (Overseas Radio & TelevisIon Inc.). Currently,
more than 600,000 people seek to improve their English skills by the
product of Studio Classroom in China, Taiwan Korea, and other country
in America, Europe, and Australia.
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Audiobooks | 16 June 2007
67
Unabridged Read by Christopher Cazenove With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening.
