English in the Information Society S. Gramley, SS 2010 Vocabulary Simplified English has been suggested chiefly for teaching English as a foreign language: • Basic English, developed by Charles Kay Ogden (and later also I. A. Richards) in the 1930s, a recent revival has been initiated by Bill Templer • Threshold Level English, developed by van Ek and Alexander • Globish, developed by Jean‐Paul Nerrière • Basic Global English, by Joachim Grzega • Nuclear English by R. Quirk and G. Stein, but never fully developed. Basic English (Ogden 1930) An international auxiliary language BASIC = "British American Scientific International Commercial" • 850 words •only 18 verbs (operators) •few rules (easily learnable) • students to add 150 words for everyday work in some particular field plus a word list of 100 words from a particularly useful general field (e.g., science, verse, business, etc.), along with a 50‐word list from a more specialized subset of that general field, to make a basic 1000 word vocabulary for everyday work and life. To be found in Wiktionary's Appendix:Basic English word list Globish •an auxiliary language • 1500 words • supposedly culturally neutral Basic Global English (BGE) (Joachim Grzega) Goal: to allow learners to quickly acquire a level of global communicative competence characterized by tolerance and empathy Background: concept of English as a means of communication between people with different mother tongues. derived from observation of successful communication between non‐ natives. Language System: • only 20 grammar rules • basic vocabulary of 750 words (unbound to any specific single culture). another 250 words related to individual needs and acquired by dictionary work • word‐formation rules and other strategies to facilitate the denotation of things for which one of the communication partners doesn’t know the name • communicative strategies for the most basic situations Nuclear English (Quirk) Not a serious model since •not based on a native language norm •not based on an empirical basis •not culturally neutral •not conceived of in accord with principles of learnability / teachability International English might •English in general •in contrast with British English, American English, South African English, etc. • implicitly of the standard variety •for purposes of acquisition, use, and study of English as a global lingua franca Emphasizes: •words and phrases in world‐wide use •not localisms • culturally neutral • practically oriented •often centered on academic and scientific communities General Service List of English Words (West 1936, 1952) Academic word list The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) "defining vocabulary“ Also: The Oxford 3000 wordlist Common Core (Jenner 1989) World Standard Spoken English (Crystal 1997) The Lingua Franca Core (Jenkins 2000) The General Service List (GSL) (West. 1953) • 2000 words • intended to help learners • each is a headword of a word family • used in graded readers (easy readers) Layout: •each of the headwords appears alphabetically • includes definitions and examples of use • differentiated by different meanings •derivational forms are included under a single headword, effectively providing well over 2000 words all told. The General Service List : Headwords • represent whole families • assume knowledge of the non‐transparent forms • be: am, is, are, being, been, was, were • results may be dated since the data originally used came from the 1930s and 1940s. • shilling is included; plastic, television, okay, and drug are not • recent research (Billuroğlu and Neufeld 2005) see a need for revision, but still maintain the 80% coverage claimed for written English. Billuroğlu, A. & Neufeld, S. (2005). The Bare Necessities in Lexis: a new perspective on vocabulary profiling. 007 at: http://lextutor.ca/vp/BNL_Rationale.doc (retrieved Sept. 2007) The General Service List : Frequency • number of occurrences per 5 million words • not necessarily the most common 2,000 words • semantic criteria also used for selection purposes • claimed to cover • 90‐95% of colloquial texts • 80‐85% of written texts A remodeled list appeared in 1995 at: John Bauman Enterprise Training Group http://jbauman.com/aboutgsl.html Academic word list • developed by Averil Coxhead at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand • contains 570 semantic fields • selected because of frequency in a broad range of academic texts • does not include words in General Service List • many specific to academic contexts • also low frequency general‐use vocabulary, e.g. area, approach, create, similar, and occur • primarily for use by teachers (esp. teachers of English as a Second Language) for students at tertiary level • 10 sublists from most to least frequent • available on the Simple English Wiktionary. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) "defining vocabulary" • approximately 2000 words •used to define all other entries in this learner's dictionary Also: The Oxford 3000 wordlist The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been carefully selected by a group of language experts and experienced teachers as the words which should receive priority in vocabulary study because of their importance and usefulness. http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/oald7/o xford_3000/oxford_3000_list?cc=global The Oxford 3000 plus the following wordlists Business and finance words The 250 most common words in writing that deals with business and finance. Science words The 250 most common words in writing that deals with science subjects. Arts words The 250 most common words in writing that deals with arts subjects (literature, painting, music, etc.). Language study terms Knowing these 80 words will be useful in your study of English and will also help you to use the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary more effectively. It includes words to do with grammar, pronunciation and punctuation. Common Core (Jenner) Features: • pronunciation teaching priorities for non‐native learners •based on shared pronunciations of all native speaker varieties •no concern with a native‐like accent as a learning goal World Standard Spoken English (Crystal) Features: •based on native‐speaker norms • possibility of some non‐native features being adopted •not clearly worked out The Lingua Franca Core (Jenkins) Jenkins suggests in The Phonology of English as an International Language (2000) that there is a need for changing the goals (= standards) of pronunciation in an international context The main point is •not native‐like pronunciation but • successful communication Further factors are • teachability •regional appropriateness Crystal, D. (1997, 2000) English as a Global Language. 1st and 2nd ed. Cambridge: CUP. Jenkins, J. (2000) The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: OUP. Jenner, B. (1989) "Teaching English: An Alternative View" In: Speak Out! 21, 10‐14. McArthur, T. (2002) Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: OUP. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) (various years and editions) London: Longman. Ogden. C.K. (1968) Basic English. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trubner. Quirk, R. ((1982) "International Communication and the Concept of Nuclear English" In: C.J. Brumfit (ed.) English for International Communication. Oxford: Pergamon. West, M. (1953) General Service List of English Words. Harlow: Longman..