Communicate!

Whistling in
La Gomera
An anciem language of whistles that enabled long- djstance
comnHmic:uion long befo re the invention of the mobik
phone will bt• sawd from t•xcinction on a volcanic island ofr
the wesr coast of Africa. TIK· island is part of the Camry
lshlnds and is called La Gonwra.Thc: language, Silbo Gomero,
which sounds ]jkc: birdsong, was ust·d bv the: pcopk o n the
isl:tnd to communic:ue up to three kilonwtrcs across the deep
valleys that r.1diar~· f"rom La Gomera's ccmraJ volcanic peak.

W ith the opening of the island t(> tourism and the arrival

1 The pictures show different methods of

communication. With a partner:
• put them in order of how often you use them
• say what you last used them for.
EXAMPLE: I use text messaging most. I last sent a text
message to tell my friend where to meet me.
Reading
t spot
There is a lot to read in both the General Training and Academic
Reading Modules (between 2,ooo and 2,750 words) and you only
have one hour, so you may need to improve your reading speed.
By the end of this course, you should be able to read up to 300
words per minute. Time yourself and use the approximate word
count given with this symbol 0 to work out your reading
speed, dividing the number of words by the time taken. Keep a
record, so you can see what progress you are making.
10 or th e telephone. Sil bo (;omc:ro had started to die Ollt.
Luckily; the isbnd authorities realised what they wt•re losing
before it was too late- and, since '1999. Silbo Gomem has
been part of the school currirulum for ch ildren up to the
age of 14. About 3.000 smdent~ spend 25 minmes a week
, ., learning it. which is eno ugh to understa nd the basics. The
name, Silbo Gomcro, comes 6·om the Spanish verb 'silbar·
n1eaning to w histle ;md 'Gomao' meaniug 'romin{! from
the island of La Corn cra ·.
The languagt• is madl· up of fi>t1r vowels and UlUr
zo consonants, which cur be whistled co make more than
~.000 words. In the past, duldrc n leamt it frorn their parentS
but as fewer and fewer adults were teaching their c hildren.
it becallle nccess;u·r for the govcrnmcm co takt· over.
According ro Eugenio Darias, a teacher of Silbo Comero
;15 and directOr of thc islalld's Silbo programme. 'There arc few
really good silbadorcs, fluent whistlers of the l:wguagc. so
f.1r. but lot~ of smdcnts ar(' learning to use it and understand
it. We've bct'll wry pleased with the results:

2 Read the text opposite as quickly as you can and

say where you wouJd find this tex-t. This type of
reading is called 'skimming'. We skim a text in
order to get a general idea of what it is about. Don't
worry too much about words you don't know.
0 about 500 words
3 Read the text again to find the following
information. This is ca11ed 'scanning'. We 'scan' a
text to search for specific information.
1 the year schoolchildren started learning Silbo
Gomero
2 the countries Gomerans went to live in
3 where Sil bo Gomero came from originally

~ UN IT 1

An importallt step towards s:wing the
language was the hrsc lntc rnation:Jl
Congress of Whistled Languages. w hich
was held in L1 Gomcra in 2003. Silbo-likc
whistling has been fim nd in pam of
G reece, T urkey, China and Mexi co, but
none is as developed as Silbo ( ;omero.
R esearch will now be carried out in
Venezuela, C uba :md Texas - all places to
w hich Comt'ntns have crad i ti o n :~ll y
e migrated and wh e re traces o r the
bngttage srill surviw.
Dr Franc isco R ivero is ;t researc her at La
Laguna Un iversity in Sa111..1 C ru z de
l i:nerifc. 'Historicall y, fron t the earliest
settlers up nnril qu ite recentl y, rhe Silbo
Comero Jangttagc was the mobile pho ne .:s
of the period . It allowed peo ple to
c om ntun it::ltt' across g rc:lt dista nces
because its freque ncy allo wed t ht• sou nd
to be transm itted .· Al t houg h S ilbo
pro b;tbly o r ig inated 111 t he Atlas
Moun tains o f North AtTica 2 ,500 years
ago. it was adapted to La G om e r:~ by
ado pting Spanish spe ec h patte rns. ' It
relics 011 vowds rathe r t han consonan ts;
explains Dr Rive ro. 'These are whistled "
at d iflc rcm frcqu t•nc ies, using Spanish
grammar. I f. we spo ke English, we'd usc
an Eng lish str ucwre for w hislling. It's not
just di:~joi n ted words it flows, and yon
c an q ui te easiJ y have :1 pro pe r
conv<.'rsation with someone.'
'Silbo Go mero is tht· most important
prc-H ispa'nic cul tura l heritage we haw.
It is un iq ue and has many v:tlues -
histo rical, linguistic, antltmpo logical and •
:testlwtic,' says Mo iscs Plasenc ia, Director
of th e Ca na ry Isla nds' I listorical
Heritage department. Seiior Plasencia
has b q~un wo rking to pt'rs uade
U N ESC O to suppo r t La C o mna's
d forts to save t he island's lang mgc.
t spot
True I False I Not given tasks test understanding of factual information, and the
quest ions are always in the order in which the answers occur in th e reading
passage. It's a good idea to underline the part of the text where you find the
answer. This will help you to see if an answer is Not given ....;:· TF 1 (This means:
Look at Test f older 1 for more information.)
4 Scan the text to do the following task.
JO
Read the article about Silbo Gomero. Do the following statements
agree with the information in the reading passage? Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
x• NOT GIVEN i f there is no information on this
t=xample:
0 Silbo Gomero was only used face to face.
Answer: False (The information giving the answer is underlined in the text.)
.~o 1 Silbo Gomero began to disappear with the introduction of more
modern technology.
2 Schoolchildren in La Gomera enjoy learning Silbo Gomero.
3 Schoolchildren on the island have a 25-minute lesson in Silbo Gomero
once a day.
4 Eugenio Darias is the best teacher of Silbo Gomero on the island.
5 Having an international conference on the island is believed to be a
good thing for the future of Silbo Gomero.
6 It would be impossible to adapt Silbo to English.
5 In the IELTS Test, the questions often do not repeat words from
t he text, but say the same thing using d iffe rent words. Th is is
called paraphrasing. It is important to be able to recognise and
understand paraphrasing.
Find words or phrases in the text which have the same or similar
meaning to t he words or phrases below. Use an English- English
d ictionary to check your answers. The relevant paragraph number
is given in brackets.
the summit or top (1 ) 6 im migra nts (5)
2 to begin to disa ppear (2) 7 came from (5)
3 the essentials or 8 was changed to suit
ftmd<tmentals (2) d ifferent cond itions (5)
4 consists of (3) 9 depends on (5)
5 some evidence of (4) 10 not well connected (5)
Part 1
t spot
The first part of t he Speaking Module t akes about four to five m inutes. It is t he
same wh ether you do the General Training or t he Academic M odule. You will be
asked general quest ions about yourself, your home and fam ily, your j ob or studies
or your interests. ••.;:. TF 9
6 With a partner, ask and answer these questions. Make sure you don't
just say Yes or No. Always ex11and your answer.
Do you have a la rge o r small famil y?
2 Who do you talk to most in you r family? Why?
3 What problems do you have when you talk to someone in a
second language?
COMMUNI CATE ! 9