LABEL

Surname

Initial(s)

Signature

Centre
No.
Candidate
No.

Examiners use only

Paper Reference(s)

4152/01

4065/01

Team Leaders use only

London Tests of English

Certificate of Attainment
Level 5

Question Leave
Number Blank

Session Two 2006

Time: 2 hours 55 minutes

2
3a
3b
4a

Materials required for examination

Cassette player
1 Cassette per 10 Candidates

Items included with question papers

Information sheets

4b
5

Instructions to Candidates
Your candidate details:
Step 1: Write your surname, initials and signature in the boxes at the top right of the page.
Step 2: - If you have been given a label containing your details then stick it carefully in the box at
the top left of the page.
- If you have not been given a label, then write your centre number and candidate number in
the boxes at the top left of the page.
Do not use pencil. Use blue or black ink. Some tasks must be answered with a cross in a box ( ). If you
change your mind about an answer, put a line through the box ( ) and then mark your new answer with
a cross ( ). For Task 5 indicate which question you are answering by marking the box ( ).
Answer ALL the questions. Write your answers in the spaces provided in this question paper.

Information for Candidates

The marks for the various tasks are shown in round brackets: e.g. (15 marks).
There are 5 tasks in this question paper. The total mark for this paper is 100.
There are 24 pages in this question paper. Any blank pages are indicated.

Advice to Candidates
Write your answers neatly.
You should remove information sheet 1 (pages 1112) to answer Task Three (a).
You should remove information sheet 2 (pages 1314) to answer Task Three (b).
You should remove information sheet 3 (pages 1920) to answer Task Four.
This publication may be reproduced only in accordance with
Edexcel Limited copyright policy.
2006 Edexcel Limited.
Printers Log. No.

N29354A
W850/U4152/57570 8/8/8/8

Total

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Hello everybody. Todays test is the London Tests of English Level Five. The theme of
this test is Language. This test lasts two hours and fifty-five minutes. There are five tasks.
Tasks One and Two are listening. You must listen to the tape and write your answers in
the booklet. Good luck!
1.

Task One: The Origins of Language (15 marks)

While studying in Britain, you are doing a research project on language. You hear part of
a radio discussion in which three people are discussing how language developed.
Listen to the first part of the programme and fill in the boxes next to the statements below.
In each box, put a cross ( ) if the person agrees with the statement, or leave it blank if
they disagree or do not say anything about it.
One has been done as an example. You will hear the programme twice. Do as much as you
can the first time and finish your work the second time.
You have one minute to look at the statements.
Statement

John

Helen

Eric

Example:
Early forms of language are best described as
proto-language.
1.

Language developed primarily as a means of

communicating information.

2.

Gesture was very significant in the development

of language.

3.

Gesture was not always a practical way of

communicating.

4.

Language encouraged the development of

social groupings.

5.

The main function of language is to establish

group identity.

Q1
(Total 15 marks)

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2.

Task Two: Esperanto (15 marks)

You now hear a talk from a radio educational programme on the development of Esperanto,
an artificial language invented in 1887.
Listen to the talk and complete the notes below. Write no more than four words in each
gap, as in the example.
You will hear the talk twice. Do as much as you can the first time and finish your work
the second time.
You have one minute and a half to read the notes.
eye specialist
Zamenhof was an (example) ......................................
who invented Esperanto in 1887.
1.

He invented Esperanto to promote ...................................... between nations.

2.

He had been influenced by the ........................................................ between the

different communities in his home town.

3.

He realised that any existing languages wouldnt have the necessary

...................................... to be accepted as an international language.

4.

Other invented languages tended to be both ...................................... and difficult to

learn.

5.

Esperanto is simpler and more regular than other languages and allows people to
communicate with no cultural advantage to ...................................... .

6.

Esperanto would also play a role in helping ...................................... to survive.

7.

Most of the vocabulary comes from ...................................... languages.

8.

The vocabularys European bias is not such a problem because many of its
...................................... are used in other languages.

9.

Esperanto is phonetic, spoken as it is spelt, with no exceptions or

....................................... .

10. Grammatically it has no irregular verbs, six verb endings, and regular plurals.
To give a word ...................................... a prefix is added.
11. Its flexible word order allows people of very different languages to be both
grammatical and ....................................... .

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12. It appears that learning Esperanto helps people to ....................................... .

13. Esperanto is unlikely to develop ...................................... as some people think.
14. This is because it is designed to be used as ....................................... .
15. Also, dialects tend to disappear with the domination of ...................................... .

Q2

(Total 15 marks)

That is the end of the listening parts of the test. The other tasks test your reading and
writing of English. Now go on to Task Three.

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3.

Task Three: Dying Languages

As part of your research, you become interested in the survival of minority languages.
You find information in a number of articles on the internet.
Three (a): Reading (10 marks)
Read the article on Information Sheet 1 and complete the task below.
The article has six gaps labelled (16). For each gap find the best missing sentence (AH)
from the list below. Then put a cross ( ) in the appropriate box, as in the example.
Be careful. There are two more sentences than you need.
Missing sentences
A

The linguistic campaigners debt to

Romanticism has left them with a
thoroughly confused notion of rights.

Campaigners for linguistic diversity

portray themselves as liberal
defenders of minority rights,
protecting the vulnerable against the
nasty forces of global capitalism.

When a language dies we lose

the possibility of a unique way of
perceiving and describing the world.

In bemoaning cultural
homogenisation, campaigners for
linguistic diversity fail to understand
what makes a culture dynamic and
responsive.

There are around 6000 languages in

the world today. Shortly there will be
one less.

G What if half the worlds languages

are on the verge of extinction?

Language campaigners also confuse

political oppression and the loss of
cultural identity.

H The belief that different peoples have

unique ways of understanding the
world became, in the 19th century,
the basis of a racial view of the
world.

Missing sentence
Gap number

1
2
3
4
5
Q3(a)

6
(Total 10 marks)
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Task Three (b): (20 marks)

You receive this email from your course tutor, Dr Jackson.

Jeff Jackson
Next Weeks Seminar
Thank you for agreeing to lead next weeks seminar on Endangered Languages.
Id like you to write a paper before the seminar covering the following points:

a definition of an endangered language

why languages die
what is being done to save them
arguments for and against saving them

This will serve as a basis for discussion.

Thanks
Jeff

Using only the information on Information Sheet 1 and Information Sheet 2, write the
paper, covering all of the points above.

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Use your own words as much as possible.

Write 230260 words.
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(Total 20 marks)

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Q3(b)

Task 3
Information Sheet 1
Should we let this language die?

1. ...................................... Eighty-one year old Marie Smith Jones is the last living speaker of

Eyak, an Alaskan language. When she dies, so will her language. Over the past few decades a
huge number of languages have died. Some pessimists suggest that by the year 3000 just 600
languages will be left. The linguist David Crystal in a Prospect essay last year argued, We
should care about dying languages for the same reason that we care when a species of animal
or plant dies. It reduces the diversity of our planet.

2. ......................................

Beneath the surface rhetoric, however, their campaign has much

more in common with reactionary, backward-looking visions, such as William Hagues
campaign to save the pound as a unique expression of British identity. All seek to preserve
the unpreservable, and all are possessed of an impossibly nostalgic view of what constitutes a
culture or way of life.
The whole point of a language is to enable communication. A language spoken by one person,
or even a few hundred, is not a language at all. It is a private conceit. It is, of course, enriching
to learn other languages and delve into other cultures. But it is enriching not because different
languages and cultures are unique, but because making contact across barriers of language and
culture allows us to become more universal in our outlook.

3. ......................................

It is not the fracturing of the world with as many different tongues

as possible; it is rather the overcoming of barriers to social interaction. The more universally
we can communicate, the more dynamic our cultures will be, because they will be open to new
ways of thinking and doing.
At the core of the preservers argument is the Romantic belief that a particular language is
linked to a particular way of life and a particular vision of the world. The human capacity for
language certainly shapes our ways of thinking. But particular languages almost certainly do
not. Most linguists have long since given up on the idea that peoples perceptions of the world,
and the kinds of concepts they hold, are constrained by the particular language they speak.

4. ......................................

The contemporary argument for the preservation of linguistic

diversity draws on the same philosophy that gave rise to ideas of racial difference. Language
preservers may be acting with the best of intentions, but they are treading on dangerous
ground, and they carry with them some unpalatable fellow-travellers.

5. ...................................... When Nettle and Romaine suggest that the right of people to

exist, to practise and produce their own language and culture, should be inalienable, they are
conflating two kinds of rights - individual rights and group rights. Individuals certainly have
the right to speak whatever language they want, and to engage in whatever cultural practices
they wish to in private. But it is not incumbent on anyone to listen to them, nor to provide
resources for the preservation of either their language or their culture. The reason that Eyak
will soon be extinct is not because Marie Smith Jones has been denied her rights, but because
nobody else can - or wants to speak it. This might be tragic for Marie - and frustrating for
professional linguists - but it is not a question of rights.

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6. ......................................

Some groups are banned from using their language. But most
languages die out, not because they are suppressed, but because native speakers yearn for a
better life. Speaking a language such as English, French or Spanish, and discarding traditional
habits, can open up new worlds and is often a ticket to modernity. But it is modernity itself
which campaigners disapprove of. This is tantamount to saying that some people should live
a marginal life, excluded from the modern mainstream to which the rest of us belong. There
is nothing noble or authentic about local ways of life; they are often simply degrading and
backbreaking.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Edexcel will, if notified, be happy
to rectify any errors or omissions and include any such rectifications in future editions.

12

Task 3
Information Sheet 2
Text 1: Endangered Language Groups
Linguists have become more and more concerned about ethnolinguistic groups which are
either shifting from their original language to one which offers more power or opportunities,
or whose population is becoming so reduced that there is little chance of ongoing use of their
language. In nearly every part of the world, languages are becoming extinct. Just as we in
the developed world now enjoy the affluence and ability to put considerable efforts into the
preservation of threatened biological species, so we are able to worry about language extinction
and the loss of the cultures and the very people they represent.
There are many ways of defining endangered languages. Krauss defines three categories of
languages: moribund - those no longer being learned as mother-tongue by children; endangered
- those which, though now still being learned by children, will if the present conditions
continue cease to be learned by children during the coming century; and safe those with
official state support and very large numbers of speakers.
Currently there are several options for involvement with endangered languages:
1.

Do nothing; accept changes in language use as normal. Such a philosophy would perhaps
reflect the assertion that it is natural for language use to change.

2.

Document the language, recording as much data as possible. The arguments for being
involved in such documentation include the safeguarding of linguistic diversity,
contributing to a knowledge base for language theory, and the idea that knowledge in and
of itself is valuable.

3.

Attempt some sort of language salvage, revitalization, or maintenance programme,

including language development strategies such as literacy, education, literature production,
translation etc. There are certain problems in prioritizing needs for such intervention.
Should we even attempt to save languages from extinction? Should we include even the
smallest groups? Should we consider cost efficiency and the number of people who might
benefit? Basically, what keeps a language alive is its social function; the only people who
can stop a language from shrinking or dying are the speakers of that language.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Edexcel will, if notified, be happy
to rectify any errors or omissions and include any such rectifications in future editions.

13

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Text 2: Endangered Languages Research Projects

About half of the worlds 6.500 or so languages are under threat of extinction, usually
because of the pressure on parents to ensure that their children grow up speaking the
language of some larger, culturally dominant group. This has prompted the School of
Oriental and African Studies in the University of London to set up a research project
dedicated to documenting threatened languages. The Endangered Languages Academic
Project, headed by Peter Austin, will train researchers to analyse and record such languages
and assemble an electronic archive of language samples.

The Volkswagen Foundation has created a multimedia archive at the Max Planck Institute
for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands that can house recordings, grammars, dictionaries
and other data on endangered languages.

The Ford Foundation helped with a master-apprentice program created in 1992 by Leanne
Hinton of Berkeley and Native Americans worried about the imminent demise of about 50
indigenous languages in California. Fluent speakers are paid to teach a younger relative
(also paid) their native tongue over six months.

Dozens of institutions around the world are setting up digital libraries for data on endangered
languages. However, the projects plan to use inconsistent data formats, terminology and
even names of languages. SIL International and many others have been working to bring
some order to this chaos by building an open language archives community (OLAC) to
smooth out these inconsistencies.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Edexcel will, if notified, be happy
to rectify any errors or omissions and include any such rectifications in future editions.

14

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4.

Task Four: You Speak What You Like

A fellow student gives you a magazine article on raising a bilingual child.
Read the article on Information Sheet 3 and complete the tasks that follow.
Task Four (a): (12 marks)
For each of the following statements, put a cross ( ) in the correct box to show whether
the statement is TRUE or FALSE according to the text.
If the statement is false, explain why on the line under the statement.
The first one is an example.
Example:

True

The colleague thought that the writers daughter shouldnt be

learning Japanese.
He thought the writer shouldnt speak in Japanese to her.
......................................................................................................

1.

The writer spoke Japanese to Alice primarily to make her

bilingual.
...............................................................................................

2.

The writer believes that allowing one language to dominate

helped Alice.
...............................................................................................

3.

The writer pointed out to his colleague that Alice was more
fluent than his son.
...............................................................................................

4.

He felt that speaking only English to Alice would not be in

her interest.
...............................................................................................

5.

Alice had little exposure to English from the beginning.

...............................................................................................

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6.

He felt Alice wouldnt confuse the two languages because

her English was weaker.
.............................................................................................

7.

He is concerned about Alices progress in English.

.............................................................................................

8.

He thinks his approach has implications for teaching in

general.
Q4(a)

.............................................................................................
(Total 12 marks)

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Task Four (b): (8 marks)

For each of the following words or phrases, find a word or phrase from the article that has
the same meaning. Write it in the appropriate space, as in the example.
(example)
approximately (paragraph 1)
about
.......................................
(a) criticised (paragraph 1)
.......................................
(b) learning (paragraph 3)
.......................................
(c) thought (paragraph 5)
.......................................
(d) reject (paragraph 6)
.......................................
(e) enter (paragraph 9)
.......................................
(f) get into difficulties (paragraph 10)
.......................................
(g) energetic (paragraph 11)
.......................................
(h) following (paragraph 12)
Q4(b)

.......................................
(Total 8 marks)

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Task 4
Information Sheet 3
You Speak What You Like

Im English, living in Japan and married to a Japanese woman. About four years ago, I
was ticked off by a French colleague, who had a child rather older than my daughter (who
was about two and half years old at that time), because I sometimes spoke to her in Japanese.
He had a policy of only speaking French to his child, in order to ensure that he would grow
up speaking both French and Japanese (which the child was learning by going to Japanese
nursery).

The central part of the answer I gave him was that I did it because I valued my relationship
with my daughter more highly than any theory of language acquisition. I also thought that, if
she liked me, she would want to speak my language, so I would win twice Id have a close
relationship with my daughter and Id succeed in raising a bilingual child.

I also said that, in Welsh-speaking parts of Wales, where bilingualism is the norm, the
aim is for children to be fully bilingual by the age of eleven, in which case we both had a long
way to go before we could claim success or admit failure, and pointed out that, if were talking
theories, its a fairly well-accepted theory that learning proceeds by relating the known to the
unknown, in which case it is perhaps not a good idea to bombard the child with equal doses
of different languages. It would make more sense for one language to lead and the other (or
others) to follow. That way, the child can make links and analogies between the stronger,
leading language that will facilitate his or her acquisition of the second language.

Finally, I pointed out that bilingualism is also the norm in many regions of the world
where there is a high level of illiteracy, where people havent been exposed to any academic
theories and succeed by just doing what comes naturally.

I also reflected, though I think I was tactful enough not to mention it to him, that his child
had been much slower in producing language than Alice. Alice was producing consecutive
sentences in Japanese at the age of twenty months, and by the time she was two she was
fairly fluent. By contrast, at the age of two my friends child appeared to understand what
was said to him, but said very little in response. I wondered if it might not be frustrating to
have to devote so much energy to acquiring receptive skills in (in his case) three languages
that productive skills were significantly reduced. Of course, boys are generally reckoned to be
slower at acquiring their first language than girls, and the disparity may perhaps have been due
to nothing more than that.

The idea that my relationship with my child should come first, is something I felt very
strongly even when she was a baby. If Id insisted on speaking English I ran the risk of being
an irritating distraction to her. She was getting on with the serious business of making sense
of the world around her a Japanese world and here was this weirdo coming along and
complicating the picture by refusing to be part of that world and imposing some other world
on her. I felt there was a very real risk that she might just decide I was too much trouble to
be bothered with and turn her back on me and devote herself to adjusting to the Japanese
environment she was living in.

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I think I was right about this; now, at the age of six, she gets quite impatient with me
sometimes when I dont understand something in Japanese, but at least shes generally got
enough time for me to slow down and explain. I think if I hadnt met her halfway when she
was small theres a very real risk she wouldnt be taking pity on my difficulty in following
her conversations in Japanese now, and that would create a gulf between us, especially in the
home, where she and her mother usually (but not always) speak together in Japanese.

Anyway, from the earliest days, I settled on using bits of English with her, but also a lot
of Japanese, especially when the content of what I wanted to say was more complicated. I
should add, at this point, that the main language my wife and I use when speaking together is
English, so there was a fair bit of L2 input (to use the jargon) at that level, and periodic visits
to English-speaking countries (especially to England, where Alice has a grandmother, an aunt
and uncle, and two cousins) were obviously an important boost.

My French friend was concerned that, because of my flexible approach, Alice might
become confused. He felt that his child would separate the languages out clearly in his mind
because they were associated with different people or situations (French = father, Swedish =
mother, Japanese = nursery). I didnt think this was a problem because Japanese and English
were separated radically for Alice by level of acquisition. She had been speaking in Japanese
for a long time before producing her first English sentence. Being so much more advanced in
Japanese I felt she would hardly muddle it up with English. I already had strong evidence that
I was right about this. There are frequent occasions when, even though Im speaking English,
certain Japanese words creep into my conversation. Even before the age of two, Alice would
laugh when I did this and say (in Japanese), Daddys mixing English and Japanese!

10

On another tack, several of my colleagues have spent a small fortune sending their
children to international schools here in Japan, only to discover when the child is in his or her
teens that the system has failed them, and the child is not fully fluent either in Japanese or
in English. These children can handle everyday conversation fluently in both languages, but
they dont have the language skills which would normally be required at, say, university level.
Theyd come adrift trying to read a Japanese newspaper or a Dickens novel. I know some
parents in cases like this who, in addition to not fully sharing a language with their children,
are also relatively estranged from them.

11 Alice is a couple of months past her sixth birthday now, and her Japanese continues to be
one jump ahead of her English. Her sentence structure and vocabulary are wider in Japanese
than in English, and she still has difficulty with some of the sounds of English but when she
speaks English shes lively and inventive and sensitive to nuance. One of my all-time favourites
is something she said about six months ago: Oh, mummy, youre so childish! Then, slyly,
and with a sidelong glance at me: You cant call me childish, can you? Because I am a child!
I cant guarantee that she will acquire complete bilingual fluency by the age of eleven, but I
think I can say that she is on track.
12

In conclusion, then, I would recommend the approach Im taking to anyone in a similar

position to me. It gives a good chance of being emotionally close to ones child and of leading
to full bilingualism, and a virtual guarantee that, if nothing else, ones child will at least have
native speaker fluency in one language. But I would go further than that and say that, in
general, it is probably wiser for teachers to make their relationship with their students a higher
priority than simply working through a programme or agenda. It is said that students will learn
best when given positive reasons to do so, but reasons based on logic (e.g., It will help you to
get a better job) dont on the whole cut as much ice as reasons based on affect (e.g., I really
like my teacher).
20

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Edexcel will, if notified, be happy
to rectify any errors or omissions and include any such rectifications in future editions.

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5.

Task Five: Writing (20 marks)

Your college tutor has asked you to write an essay on one of the following topics:
EITHER
A In some countries, the number of foreign languages taught is being reduced. Is this a
good thing? Discuss.
If you refer to information or ideas from other parts of the test, you should use your
own words as far as possible.
OR
B Some people think that the adoption of words from other languages has enriched their
culture whereas, in reality, its the first step towards a kind of linguistic imperialism. How
far do you agree with this statement?
If you refer to information or ideas from other parts of the test, you should use your
own words as far as possible.

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Put a cross (
A

) in the box next to the topic you have chosen.

B

Write 300350 words

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Q5

(Total 20 marks)
TOTAL FOR PAPER: 100 MARKS
THAT IS THE END OF THE TEST

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