Task 1:

Give answers in the following questionnaire. If you say "yes" to the first question give as much information
as you can dealing with the second half. Compare your answers with those of your classmates.
1. Have you seen a film in English this year? Which one?
2. Have you read a book, a magazine or a newspaper in English this year? Which one?
3. Have you seen a TV programmer in English this year? Which one?
4. Have you got a favorite song in English? Which one?
5. Do you have any English-speaking friends? Where from?
6. Do you know any good places for meeting English-speaking people?Where?
7. Have you ever written a letter to someone in English? Who to? Why?
8. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? Which one? When?
9. How long have you been learning English?
10. Why are you learning English?
11. What do you like about learning English?
12, What do you dislike about learning English?

Task 2:
Read an extract from David Crystal's well-known book "English as a Global Language. Translate it into
Russian. Prepare to do the tasks that follow

The Right Place at the Right Time

What are we to conclude, after this wide-ranging review of the way English has come to be used in the
modern world? Is there a common theme which can help us explain the remarkable growth of this
language? The evidence is that it is a language which has repeatedly found itself in the right place at the
right time Ip the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries English was the language of the leading colonial
nation - Britain. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was the language of the leader of the industrial
revolution- also Britain. In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth it was the language of the
leading economic power- the USA. As a result, when new technologies brought new linguistic
opportunities, English emerged a first-rank language in industries which affected all aspects of society the
press, advertising, broadcasting, motion pictures, sound recording, transport and communications .At the
same time, the world was forging fresh net- works of international alliances, and there emerged an
unprecedented need for a lingua franca. Here too, there was a clear first choice. During the first half of the
twentieth century English gradually became a leading language of international political, academic, and
community meetings.
By the 1960s, the pre-eminence of the language was established, but it could not at that time have been
described as a Since then, however, two events have together ensured its global status. The first was the
movement towards political independence, out of which English emerged as a language with special status
in several new countries In most of these, the role of English had come to be so fundamental that no other
language could compete, when the moment of independence arrived. The other event was the electronic
revolution, where here too English was in the right place (the USA) and the right time (the 1970s).
The development of twentieth-century computers has been almost entirely an American affair. As Michael
Specter puts it, in his New York Times article: "The Internet started in the United States, and the computer
hackers whose reality has always been virtual, are almost all Americans. By the time the net spread, its
linguistic patterns – like its principal architecture and best software- were all Made in the USA". Although
computer languages are not like natural languages, being very restricted, they have inevitably been greatly
influenced by the mother tongue of the programmers - and this has largely been English. The first computer
operating systems automatically used English vocabulary and syntax, as can be seen in such instructions
as "Press any key when ready" and "Volume in Drive B has no label" These are examples from MS
(Microsoft) DOS, the system developed in 1977 by US computer entrepreneur Bill Gates, and which was
adopted by IBM in 1981 for its range of computers. The more recent operating systems, replacing DOS,
have displayed English influence too, though alternatives in a few other languages are now available
(where the commercial advantages have justified the development costs, as in French and German).And it
seems likely that the influence of English will remain, as programs become increasingly sophisticated and
allow users to make more natural-sounding commands.
It is difficult to predict the future, with something so dynamic as the Internet. In a few generations' time, the
Net will not be like anything we know today. Automatic speech synthesis and recognition will be routine,
and more use will be made of automatic translation. The arrival of high- quality immediate translation
facilities will have a major impact on the use of English (or any lingua franca) on the Net; but these are a
long way off. For the near future, it is difficult to foresee any developments which could eliminate the
significant role of English on the information super highway. The biggest potential setback to English as a
global language, it has been said with more that a little irony, would have taken place a generation ago if
Bill Gates had grown up speaking Chinese.

Task 3:
Answer the questions based on the text.
1. How did English develop in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
2. How did Britain contribute to English becoming the world language?
3. How did America?
4. In which areas of life did English emerge as a first-rank language?
5. Which two events insured the global status of English?
6. How did the movement towards political independence contribute to the special status of English?
7. What impact did electronic revolution make on further promotion of English?
8. Why has the Internet been so influential to the future of English?

Task 4:
Discussion points:
1. David Crystal often uses the phrase "lingua franca. "Macmillan Dictionary defines "lingua franca" as a
language people use to communicate when they have different first languages. Show justification that
English is a lingua franca.
2. In his book "English Gates had grown up speaking Chinese the future of English would have been
different. "How do you understand this? Give your comments.
Task 5:

Read the text below about the English language and do the task that follow:

English is losing its political and cultural associations and becoming the property of all cultures. Over 70
countries in the world use English as the official or semi-official language, and in 20 more English occupies
an importer position. It is the main foreign language taught within most school systems Worldwide, many
newspapers are published in English and it is the language of much radio and television broadcasting.
English is the language of international business, the main language of airports, air traffic control and
international shipping. It is the language of science, technology and medicine, and i is estimated that two
thirds of all scientific papers today are first published in English. It is the language of diplomacy and sport;
it is one of the working languages of the United Nations and the language used by the International
Olympics Committee. International pop culture and advertising are also dominated by English.70 % of the
world's mail is written in English, and 80% of al information in electronic retrieval systems is stored in
English.
Task 6:
Choose the most appropriate title for the text
1. Learning English
2. Working with English
3. A World Language
4. Language Sandwich
Task 7:
Find the answers to the questions in the text
1. How many countries use English as the official or semi-official language?
2. In how many countries is English important?
3. How many of all scientific papers are first published in English?
4. How much of the world's mail is in English?
5. How much of all the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English?