renewing "access to international english"
DESCRIPTION
second edition of textbookTRANSCRIPT
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by Richard Burgess
Have you heard the one about the Brit,
the American and the Canadian in a
hotel lift, together with a pretty girl
in a short skirt? Well, suddenly there
is a power cut and the lights go out. A
loud slap is heard. When the lights go
on again the American has a big red
slap mark on his cheek. “These damn
North Americans,” the Brit thinks, “they
simply don’t know how to behave!”
“These damn Canucks,” the American
thinks, “they’re just a bunch of hicks,
and I get the blame!” The Canadian
thinks: “I hope there’s another power
cut soon so I can slap the Yank again!”
No, not a real-life anecdote from
a Cappelen Damm work session on
the new Access to International
English book. But confi rmation, as if
confi rmation were necessary, that the
national stereotypes are all there
waiting to be put to use.
Renewing Access tonternational English
The Canadians resent the Americans,
the Americans disparage the Canadians
– and the British still haven’t learned
to differentiate between the two!
Of course, it hasn’t been like that
between us three writers. Far from
it – Robert Mikkelsen (the Yank), John
Anthony (the Canuck) and myself (the
Limey) have worked together on the
new edition of Access to International
English in a spirit of equality,
cooperation and amiability. (After all,
it must be diffi cult enough for them not
being British without me adding to their
burdens!) Three ex-pats with, between
us, several decades of experience
of writing textbooks in Norway. You
would think, then, that we would be
used to the process and prepared for
its challenges. But, strangely, each
book is like a new expedition into the
unknown in which you make exactly
the same discoveries as last time, but
are equally surprised by them. Such
discoveries include:
• how much time there seems to be at
the beginning of the expedition.
• how little time there seems to be at
the end.
• how it is perfectly possible to spend
several hours writing one short
paragraph.
• how it is equally possible that that
very paragraph is the one that gets
axed by the editor, Butchering Birger.
An expedition is one metaphor for
writing a textbook, but there are also
others. Pregnancy, for example. Not
perhaps an immediately obvious one
when the three writers are all middle-
aged men, but it’s nonetheless apt: the
long period of gestation, the regular
check-ups to see that the foetus is
developing properly, and fi nally the
diffi cult birth itself, when Butchering
Birger becomes Benign and Benevolent
Birger, providing encouragement (“just
one more push!”) and laughing gas (i.e.
three-course restaurant meals) as
required. Fortunately, on this occasion,
we at least don’t have to argue about
what to call the infant. She will be
named after her elder sister …
A rather more macabre extension of
the birth metaphor is found in a term
familiar to all textbook writers, namely
“killing one’s babies”. This refers to
the process necessitated by a little-
known law of physics, closely related
to Sod’s Law, which states that
“the optimum number of pages of a
textbook equals the total number of
pages of the fi nal draft minus one
fi fth” (often formulated as
confi rmation were necessary, that the
national stereotypes are all there
waiting to be put to use.
discoveries include: requ
we a
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Spot check
a) How has the digital revolu-
tion tied modern communica-
tion devices together?
b) What is an app?
c) How does Wikipedia
encourage democracy?
d) What are social media?
digital revolution is deeply affecting the way we live our lives, impacting
a wide range of human activities. Some have been expanded and em-
powered. Others have been created entirely anew. For example,
Wikipedia extended the idea of the encyclopedia onto the internet. But
even more importantly, it showed that this information could be pro-
vided for free and that anyone who wanted to could take part in gather-
ing and editing it. That is a profoundly democratic thought. Similarly,
YouTube took the invention of the home video and opened it up to the
world. Soon it became much, much more than a form of video enter-
tainment. Just ask the young revolutionaries who used it to spread the
democratic revolution in Egypt in 2011.
The list of internet innovations could go on to Twitter, MySpace, Buzz
and many others. No doubt by the time this is printed on paper and in
your hands in book form, entirely new “killer apps” will have seen the
light of day. Taken together, they make up the “social media” – media
that allow us to interact with one another in new and exciting ways. The
most famous of these is, of course, Facebook – the blueprint for what is
now called a “social network”. In the 2010 film of that same name, one
of the characters puts it this way – “We lived on farms, then we lived in
cities, and now we’re going to live on the internet!” At present, Facebook
membership is over 700 million and growing. If it were a country, it
would be the third largest in the world. As to its impact, just consider the
entirely new meaning it has given to that old question, “How many
friends do you have?”
New possibilities
The digital revolution has also galvanized the entertainment industry. At
first music, film and TV companies floundered as they watched their
products reduced to digital copies and circulated on the internet for free
by file-sharing websites like Pirate Bay. Gradually, however, they adapted
to the new technology. On the one hand, they took illegal websites to
court, forcing them to shut down or go legal by charging payment. On
the other hand, they provided products that could be downloaded online
which were superior in terms of variety, quality and accessibility.
Today millions download TV programs, computer games, pieces of
d many more items legally every day. In addition, live internet
t ccess to sports events, music concerts and
around the globe takeisjoin Second
empowered styrket/styrkt
extended utvidet/utvida
profoundly tvers gjennom
innovation nyskapning
impact innflytelse/
innverknad
to galvanize å vekke
to flounder å famle
to adapt å tilpasse
accessibility tilgjengelighet/
tilgjenge legheit
instant umiddelbar
aptly passende/passande
A mural depicting a man in shackles and the
Facebook logo and a mobile phone is seen on the
wall of the University of Helwan in Egypt along with
other murals commemorating the 2011 revolution
that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
Renewing Access to International English
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©Thinkstock
x = y – y/5). This means that not just
sentences but whole exercises, indeed
whole texts have to be thrown out at the
last moment. In the old days these poor
rejected texts, like stillborn children,
would live out a sort of shadowy
existence in the Teacher’s Book – a
real book, but one rarely opened (and
invariably printed on inferior paper).
Today the advent of the internet
has made the Teacher’s Book, like
Purgatory, a thing of the past. Now any
text that doesn’t make it past Birger’s
axe may be permitted a virtual
existence at access.cappelendamm.
no, along with all the other resources
to be found there. This not
only saves the writers from the
trauma of literary infanticide,
it also means that textbooks
now come with a wealth of “free
extras” – at least, as long as the
websites are free, as they are at
Cappelen Damm.
Why is a new edition necessary?
The need for a radical rewrite – and
it is a rewrite rather than just an
update – is twofold; for one thing,
the world is a different place to what
it was in 2007 when the old book
was published. The Great Recession,
the Occupy Wall Street movement,
WikiLeaks, the Arab spring, the ubiquity
of social media – these are just some
of the events and developments that
have changed the world we live in
and that demand the attention of a
textbook writer trying to take the
pulse of the English-speaking world. If
I might be permitted a little trumpet-
blowing, feedback from present users
of Cappelen Damm’s books for English
at videregående level suggests that
the quality of the main “focus texts”
of our chapters is still seen as one of
our chief strengths. While some argued
that the internet and its revolution in
accessing information would somehow
make such texts superfl uous, we have
always believed that the opposite
is true – that the sheer volume
of information available, and the
overwhelming cacophony of voices it
represents, makes the role of a focused,
explanatory text more important than
ever. In the new Access to International
English this role has been deepened and
broadened by drawing in other source
texts and embedding them in the focus
text. The result is, if you will pardon
the buzzword, a sort of “polyphonic”
narrative – where explanation and
exemplifi cation are combined – that
we hope will both clarify and inspire
debate.
The other need for a rewrite calls for a
dose of humility on our part; the last
book was the fi rst of its kind for an
entirely new course. After it had been
used for a year or two it was clear, not
least from teachers’ suggestions to
our surveys, that there was room for
improvement. One important issue
here was the focus on language. While
the curriculum for Internasjonal
engelsk has important competence
aims concerning culture, society and
literature, it is nevertheless fi rst and
foremost a language course. By the end
of the year, students should be able to
feel that, as well as gaining insights
into the world of international English,
they have raised their game in the
language itself. The old book wasn’t
Read the first paragraph below and then make a list of the forms of mediayou have access to on a daily basis. Which of these are most importantto you? Compare your list with a fellow student’s.
Introduction: Media in MotionIn this chapter we are going to be looking at international English andthe “media”. But what does “The Media” mean? The roots of this termgo back to the 1800s, when newspapers were the first “medium” throughwhich information could be conveyed to a mass audience. In the 1920sthe term became plural – “media” – to cover the invention of new chan-nels of mass communication such as radio and movies. Today, the termrefers to a bewildering array of communication channels, including TVbroadcasting, cable networks, online news websites, blogs and much,much more which we will touch on in the coming pages. These are some-times referred to collectively as a single entity as in “The media will becovering the election closely.”
The internetThere is no doubt that the most important media development of thelast decades has been the rise of the internet. The growth and develop-ment of the “web” has been breathtaking. In 1989 it became a systemopen to anyone with a computer. By 1995 there were about 15 millionpersons online. By 2000 that number had exploded to 361 million users.Ten years later there were more than 2 billion people online – 30% of thepopulation of the world – and the growth showed no signs of stopping.
40 THE WORLD AT YOUR DOORSTEP
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Oliver Field from Los Angeles video chats viaSkype with his girlfriend,Elizabeth Chamberlain, astudent in Tacoma,Washington. Skype, theinternet video confer-encing service, has beena godsend for parentswith children away at college, for far-flung relatives keeping tabs onone another, and, ofcourse, for long distancelovers.
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to convey å (over)bringe, åmeddele / å formidle, åkunngjereplural flertall (gram.) / fleirtal (gram.)bewildering forvirrende/forvirrandearray samling, rekkeentity enhet/eining
onferencing service, has beena godsend for parentswith children away at college, for far-flung relatives keeping tabs onone another, and, ofcourse, for long distancelovers.
A key aspect to consider when analysing a text
is whether it is formal or informal.
We use informal langauge with people we
know well, and in relaxed, friendly situations,
like communicating with friends on Facebook,
twittering, and writing post cards and letters to
friends and relatives. This is an informal text
written by Ida to her friend Sandra in London:
I’m looking forward to coming to London to
see you. It’s gonna be a blast! Can’t wait.
This text uses informal expressions like “blast”.
Contractions are used: I’m, it’s, can’t. Simple
and common words are used. Ida even uses a
slang word, “gonna”, instead of “going to”.
“Can’t wait” expresses Ida’s excitement and
anticipation, but it is not a complete sentence.
In this context, it does not have to be a com-
plete sentence, as not only is it understood by
the intended reader, but its abbreviated form
intensifies the feeling of excitement. In the
most informal settings and genres, spelling,
150 A MEETING OF WORLDS
punctuation and grammar rules are not seen
to be that important.
However, many contexts require a more formal
English, for example texts that are going to be
published (articles, letters to the editor, public
notices, announcements), reports, inquiries to
people we don’t know, personal statements for
college and job applications, letters of applica-
tion, school essays and so on.
A formal text will also probably use more diffi-
cult words, words will be written in full (no
abbreviations and contractions), and the text
will likely have more complex sentences (see p.
30) and may have more passive constructions
(see p. 34) than an informal text. Safety in-
structions are an example of formal texts that
make use of the passive voice. This type of text
also often uses imperative verbs. The impera-
tive is the form of the verb that is used without
a subject. It is used when giving commands
(e.g. stand up, shut up).
Pull the lifejacket over your head and tie it
around your waist. Air is added by blowing in
the mouthpiece on the shoulder of the jacket.
LANGUAGE COURSE 3: FORMAL AND INFORMAL LANGUAGEWhen you want to make a good impression on a
prospective employer, or an academic institu-
tion you have applied to, you should write more
formally. So if in a letter to the Director of
Studies at Bambridge College Ida had written:
I’m looking forward to coming to London to
start studying. It’s gonna be a blast! Can’t
wait -
the Director of Studies might be a little put off.
It would be better if she wrote:
I am looking forward to coming to London to
pursue my education at your college. It will
be a new experience for me and I can hardly
wait to get started.
Looking further into formal and informal
texts
1) A formal text may use more abstract nouns
(e.g. history, love, interest, society):
The book requires further revision.
Whereas a corresponding informal text will
replace the abstract noun:
The author should revise the book.
2) A formal text will use the passive voice
more:
Tenants were given three days’ notice.
Whereas informal texts will use the active
voice more:
The landlord gave the tenants three days’
notice.
3) A formal text will likely use more verbal
nouns, i.e. nouns that are made out of verbs:
Inspectors made a recommendation
that …
A MEETING OF WORLDS 151
Whereas an informal text will use verbs
more than verbal nouns:
Inspectors recommended that …
4) A formal text will likely use more non-finite
constructions (the -ing participle, see p. 90):
Having been to London, I find Halden
rather dull.
Whereas an informal text will make greater
use of finite constructions:
I have been to London, so I find Halden
rather dull.
5) A formal text will likely use more words of
Latin/French origin:
Implementation will be initiated with
immediate effect.
Whereas an informal text will use more
words of a Germanic/Anglo-Saxon origin:
We are going to do this straight away.
London – better than Halden?
This text uses informal expressions like “blast”.
Contractions are used: I’m, it’s, can’t. Simple
and common words are used. Ida even uses a
slang word, “gonna”, instead of “going to”.
“Can’t wait” expresses Ida’s excitement and
anticipation, but it is not a complete sentence.
In this context, it does not have to be a com-
plete sentence, as not only is it understood by
the intended reader, but its abbreviated form
intensifies the feeling of excitement. In the
most informal settings and genres, spelling,
150 A MEETING OF WORLDS
notice.
3) A formal text will likely use more verbal
nouns, i.e. nouns that are made out of verbs:
Inspectors made a recommendation
that …
A MEETING OF WORLDS 151
Whereas a
words of a Germanic/Angl
We are going to do this straight away.
1 AFTER READING
Were any of the differences you noted among your
local neighbourhoods or districts like those men-
tioned in this excerpt? Were the causes of these dif-
ferences similar to those found in London? For
example, were any caused by income or language?
Would you say there are major differences in
culture in your local milieu?
2 MAIN IDEAS
A classmate is having a very bad day and keeps mis-
understanding the text. Help him by correcting his
statements and questions.
a Apparently, Taquin Hall was lucky enough to
get a ride with a very knowledgeable taxi driver.
b I guess the East End is a very posh part of
London?
c And Banglatown is the home of the Cockneys,
right?
d Not much has changed in the East End over the
last few decades.
3 DISCUSSION
Work in groups:
a Look for examples of ethnocentrism (see page
100) in this excerpt. Note any you can find and
compare your results with the others in your
group.
b Culture clash is defined as “misunderstandings,
anxieties and conflicts arising from the inter -
action of people with different cultural values”.
Do you think Tarquin Hall will experience
culture clash when he moves to Brick Lane?
Give reasons for your opinion.
c+ Does the bar chart on page 110 give any
grounds for the taxi driver saying “There’s just
too many of them. Britain’s getting swamped”?
Why does he say this, do you think?
d+ Do you think the narrator trusts the description
of the Cockney East End that the taxi driver
gives? How does the author convey his opinion
about this to the reader? Can you find any
phrases he uses that make his attitude clear?
136 A MEETING OF WORLDS
e+ The Truman Buxon Brewery area seems differ-
ent from the rest of the East End. How?
4 ANALYSIS
See page 279 for an explanation of irony. This ex-
cerpt ends with the following quote from an Eng-
lishman who had moved to the Cockney East End
of the 1930s:
“I felt that I had stumbled on a secret society whose
members were communicating with one another by
signs whose significance was entirely lost on me. I
was in a strange land inhabited by a strange
people.”
a Why is this an ironic remark when compared
with the information given in this excerpt about
the people now living in the New East End?
b Irony is often used to make a point without
actually stating it. What point is the author
making here?
c+ Try to find other examples of irony in this
excerpt. What points (if any) does the author
make by using irony in these examples?
5 VOCABULARY
Look at the following sentences in Cockney East
End dialect and identify what is wrong with them
in terms of “proper” English expressions, spelling
and grammar.
– ’ardly a day goes by without a knifing or
shooting.
– Terrible it is.
T A S K S
A MEETING OF WORLDS 137
notes to help you answer the questions.
Answer individually:
a How long has the carnival been on the London
calendar?
b What are the roots of this carnival?
c What aspects of Caribbean culture are promi-
nent during the carnival?
d When does the carnival take place?
e What are the “dos” and “don’ts” to remember if
you are planning to go to the carnival?
Answer in pairs:
f What would you look forward to the most if
you went to this carnival?
g+ How can a carnival like this help overcome
cultural stereotypes?
h+ Are there any dangers or drawbacks to such
carnivals?
Interactive tasks:
www.access.cappelendamm.no
Glossary for task 8:
hostility fiendtlighet/fiend-
skapmayhem kaos
prior to før
oppressor undertrykker/
undertrykkar
to repeal å oppheve
tension spenning
murky mørk
whiff antydning, pust /
aning, pust
nibble godbit
sense of direction
retningssans
casual her: ikke penklær /
her: ikkje finklede
– We was like one big ’appy family.
– Naa! It’s no good, is it?
6 WRITING
a Tarquin Hall grew up in London, but even so he
felt like a stranger in a strange land when he ar-
rived in the East End. Have you ever had such
an experience? Write a story in the first person
(see page 278) about this experience.
b +Pick a place you are well acquainted with. Now
write a two-paragraph description of it as if you
were a foreign reporter seeing it for the first
time. You can choose your reporter’s nationality
as you wish. Make your description sound as
odd as possible. For example: “Compared to
New York, Oslo is a city where everyone seems
to wear a backpack. It appears as if they are all
prepared to head off to the woods in the
evening to set up their tent and cook dinner
over an open fire …”
7 QUICK RESEARCH
Choose one task:
a Write a brief report about Brick Lane including
a short history, pictures of the street today and
information about present day activities there.
b Find the origins of “Cockney culture” in
London’s East End. Give some examples of it.
Has it died out completely?
c+ The London Olympics in 2012 had as one of its
aims to rejuvenate East London. What has hap-
pened to the area after the games were held?
8 LISTENING: THE NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL
As we have seen in the text from the East End, there
can be conflicts and mistrust when different cul-
tures interact in an urban setting. The Notting Hill
Carnival in London addresses just this issue. It is a
celebration of Caribbean culture started specifically
to replace racial hostility between local whites and
Caribbean immigrants with multicultural fun. Now
it is the biggest carnival in the world outside Brazil!
Listen to find out more about this carnival. Take
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systematic enough in its approach
to improving linguistic competence,
neither in terms of students’ own
written production nor in what the
curriculum refers to as “kunnskap om
språkets oppbygning på setnings- og
tekstnivå og bevissthet om språklige
virkemidler i ulike sjangrer”. Teachers
have pointed this out – and we have now
had a chance to do something about it.
New courses
To remedy this we have made some
signifi cant changes and additions to
the book. At the end of each of the
book’s six chapters there are two
new units – a Writing Course and
a Language Course. The Writing
Course aims to give students a
helping hand in some of the basics
of writing well – crafting good
sentences and paragraphs, making
texts hang together. We don’t give
neat recipes for good texts – such
things don’t exist. Writing is a
creative process and as such can
never be completely systematised.
The focus is on practical work with
texts, looking at examples of good
usage as well as typical pitfalls
and how to avoid them. Essays get
special mention, since this is a
demanding genre that students
often wrestle with. This is not
surprising, really. It always
strikes me as a paradox that for
decades Norwegian students
have to a large extent been
evaluated in both Norwegian
and English in their ability to
produce a genre that they hardly ever
read – except for their own fumbling
attempts.
While the Writing Course is directed
towards language production, the
Language Course is directed towards
analysis. The aim of the course is to
provide students with some of the
terminology and tools with which to
manage the sort of linguistic analysis
that exam questions increasingly
demand: looking at how texts achieve
their effects, comparing texts for style
and intention. The six units deal with
everything from the basic concepts
of grammar to such topics as formal/
informal language, literary devices and
analysing genre. We believe that the
course will enable students to tackle a
wide variety of analytic tasks. In both
the language course and the writing
course the focus is on examples and
exercises. There is a world of difference
between telling somebody how to do
something and showing them how to do
it. We try to do the latter as much as
possible.
A world of literature
Another signifi cant addition to the new
book is the fi nal literature chapter.
There are basically two ways of using
literary texts in a textbook like this.
One way is to tie them to the themes
dealt with in the chapters and
select them primarily for their ability
to throw light on these themes. To
be honest, it always feels like a
rather unsatisfactory way of treating
literature, since it often involves
compromising quality for relevance.
Good short stories and poems about
particular topics are often diffi cult
to fi nd. The alternative is to choose
literature for its own sake. In the
new book we shamelessly use both
strategies. That is to say, there are
literary texts in the fi rst fi ve chapters,
chosen for their relevance to the issues
discussed in the main text. But we
have also included a whole chapter of
literature that is chosen for what it can
tell us about its own world – the world
of literature.
The literature chapter can be used in
two ways: either as a store from which
to pick stories and poems at random,
or as a separate and continuous
“literature course”. If you choose the
latter, you get a structured review of
some of the key elements of literary
analysis – plot and theme, point of
view and irony, characterisation and
setting, each element discussed in the
light of a story in which this element
is especially important. Poetry is,
of course, also given its due. Some
teachers may be surprised to fi nd that
we present students with our own
analysis of texts. We make no apologies
for this. It is part of our
belief in the importance of
showing rather than just
telling. Anyway, it doesn’t
leave the students idle. Far
from it – each analysis deals
with one aspect of the text,
and as the chapter progresses
and new elements of literary
analysis are dealt with, the
students are invited to look
back at earlier texts (and texts
elsewhere in the book) and put
their new insights to the test.
At the time of writing this, the
writers are slogging through a
second round of proofreading.
Soon the fruit of our loins, if
you’ll pardon the expression, will
see the light of day, delivered
from the printers in all its
illustrated, multicoloured glory
(complete, no doubt, with a
ridiculous error that inexplicably
survived fi ve rounds of proofreading
and made it into the fi nal text, only
to be discovered, triumphantly and
noisily, by a participating teacher at a
Cappelen Damm book presentation who
always preferred Aschehoug anyway).
Soon we can look forward to a time
without deadlines, a time when Birger,
if he appears in our dreams at all, will
appear as Bountiful Birger, without his
axe, but dressed in white, holding a
fl ower in one hand and a large cheque in
the other. Soon – but not yet. For after
the Birth comes the Afterbirth – the
book presentations, the answer key,
the website. Alas, paternity isn’t the
carefree business it used to be …
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