1 Communicate/Planner Tick (✓) when done A Word Warm-up Discuss Read and Enjoy: OIC Speak Looking at the text Useful words – speech Verbs to do with speaking Idioms to do with speech Act it out: Carry on talking! Listening: Talking Cockney Read and Enjoy: Cockneys Warm-up Listen and react The Ambassador’s Dandruff Warm-up Looking at the text Vocabulary: Words of similar meaning ‘When in Sweden, do as the Swedes do’ Use of English: Sentence-changing Read and Enjoy: Japanese etiquette I Remember … Discuss Vocabulary: Fill in the missing words Similes Writing Vocabulary Expander: British and American English I Never Knew That! Why Do We Say That? Reflect Projects Books to read and enjoy Resource Section: How to Study p. 128–130, Learning a language see: www.studentlitteratur.se/progressgold Extra speaking activity: Group Challenge – What if…? p. 286 17

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1 Communicate Objectives At the end of unit 1 you should • be able to talk about sociolects • know more about communication • know some vocabulary differences between American and British English • be able to use irregular nouns • know when to use the definite article In this unit you are going to read and/or listen to A Word, Speak, The Ambassador’s Dandruff, I Remember and listen to Talking Cockney.

A Word This short poem was written by Emily Dickinson, one of the greatest poets of her time. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. She never cared about money and fame. At the age of 23 she withdrew from social contact and followed her own feelings and wrote about things she cared about. Only seven of her some 1800 poems were published in her life time. In 1886, on her death bed, she told her sister to burn all her poems but after her death her sister had her poems published. Activity 1 Read/listen to the poem A Word. Then turn to p. 156 in Progress Gold and do exercise 005. Merriam-Webster, America’s foremost publisher of language-related reference works, asked people what their favourite words were. They received thousands of submissions. These are the three words entered the most often: defenestration serendipity onomatopoetica

a throwing of a person or thing out of a window the phenomenon of finding valuable things not sought for the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it, e.g. buzz.

A most surprising result – don’t you agree? Activity 2 Now turn to exercise 006 and discuss the questions with your partner(s). Then read and enjoy the poem OIC (exercise 007) and write it out in words.

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Speak Born into the same world, men and women still seem to communicate in different ways. Numerous research articles have been written on this subject and there have been many attempts to explain the gender differences in communication with heredity and environment at the top of the list. Activity 3 Read/listen to the text and work with the vocabulary on the CD-ROM. Don’t forget the spelling exercise. Then turn to p. 156 in Progress Gold (exercise 008) and discuss the questions with your partner(s). What does it mean to be “fluent” in a language? There does not seem to be a universally agreed-upon definition of fluency in the general public, but fluency certainly means that one feels comfortable speaking the language, can communicate easily with native speakers, read newspaper, listen to the radio, watch TV and understand native speakers from different regions. Thinking in the language is an important sign of fluency. A fluent speaker may have some gaps in vocabulary but is capable of figuring out these terms in context. Activity 4 First expand your vocabulary with some words on p. 157, 158 and 159 in Progress Gold (exercises 009, 011 and 012) and then turn to exercise 010 on p. 157 and discuss the questions with your partner(s).

& women’s minds (p. 13 line 22)

As you probably know there are a few nouns in English with irregular plural forms, e.g. man – men, woman – women. Activity 5 Do the grammar exercises on your CD-ROM, exercise number 2.

& find life more difficult (p. 16 line 19)

The noun ‘life’ in this phrase is an uncountable. When uncountables are used in a general sense, they do not take the definite article ‘the’. Activity 6 Now do the grammar exercises on your CD-ROM, exercise number 6. Activity 7 Use your imagination to make up the end of the dialogues on p. 159 in Progress Gold (exercise 013). Be creative, dramatic …!

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Talking Cockney (listening) Whereas the term “dialect” refers to the language of a particular region, the term “sociolect” reflects social background in terms of such things as occupation, education and social class. The term Cockney refers to both the sociolect and to those people who use it. It is generally agreed that to be a true Cockney, a person has to be born within hearing distance of the bells of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London. The origin of the word ‘Cockney’ has long been discussed and disputed. One explanation is that ‘Cockney’ literally means cock’s egg, a malformed egg such as sometimes laid by young hens. It was originally used when referring to a weak townsman, opposed to a tougher countryman and by the 17th century the term came to mean a Londoner. Today’s natives of London, especially in the East End use the term with pride. Activity 8 Now turn to p. 160 (exercise 014) and read more about Cockneys. Then discuss the questions in exercise 015 with your partner(s). Activity 9 Listen to Talking Cockney and work with the vocabulary on your CD-ROM. Don’t forget the spelling exercise. Then correct the mistakes in exercise 016. you have access to the Internet, use a search engine to find more information about : IfCockney.

The Ambassador’s Dandruff The world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different cultural backgrounds. We communicate in a variety of ways, through talk, silence and animation. Different cultures place different emphasis on these traits and, therefore, have different expectations as to how each will be used. Some linguists think that language and culture are so intertwined that the term languaculture should be used rather than the two terms separately. This brings us to a very important question. How can communication be made as constructive as possible, so that all misunderstandings can be avoided? Dictionaries and grammar books are certainly useful when we are learning a new language, but they don’t usually help us if we for example want to know how to say “no” to an offer of more food or how to behave if a delay or interruption occurs. The key to effective cross-cultural communication is of course knowledge of how communication and different cultures are related. Even though we possess highly developed language skills, we are still capable of communicating significant messages without the use of a single spoken word, a fact that is clearly demonstrated in this text.

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Activity 10 Turn to p. 161 in Progress Gold (exercise 017) and discuss the questions with your partner(s). Activity 11 Read/listen to the text and work with the vocabulary on the CD-ROM and on p. 162 (exercise 019). Don’t forget the spelling exercise on your CD-ROM. Then turn to exercise 018 in Progress Gold and discuss the questions with your partner(s). Correct manners are very important among the Japanese. A visitor to Japan should therefore be familiar with at least the most basic rules. On p. 163 in Progress Gold there is some interesting information (exercise 021). There are of course also some basic Swedish rules that a foreigner should be familiar with. Activity 12 Turn to p. 162 (exercise 020) in Progress Gold and discuss the questions with your partner(s). Activity 13 Now it’s time to practise some grammar. Turn to p. 314 in Progress Gold and do exercise 1 (Sentence changing 1).

I Remember This text was written by Margaret Atwood, who was born in 1939 in Ottawa. Throughout her thirty years of writing, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards. She is the author of more than twenty-five volumes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, e.g. The Edible Woman, Cat’s Eye and The Handmaid’s Tale. Her work has been published in more than thirty languages. This text is also about male-female differences in ways of communicating. Activity 14 Read/listen to the text and work with the vocabulary on the CD-ROM and on p. 164 (exercise 023). Don’t forget the spelling exercise on your CD-ROM. Then turn to exercise 022 in Progress Gold and discuss the questions with your partner(s). Activity 15 When we compare two things that are similar, we may use a simile, e.g. “as dead as a doornail” – a colourful expression, a “word picture”. Turn to p. 165 and do exercise 024.

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corn (p. 16 line 5) & husking Each area of the English-speaking world has developed its own special characteristics. British and American English have both changed a good deal in the last three hundred years or so, and naturally they have not developed in exactly the same way. The major difference between British and American/Canadian English probably lies in the choice of vocabulary. In British English ‘corn’ usually means any of various grain plants, chiefly barley, wheat, oats and rye, while the American word ‘corn’ means ‘maize’. Activity 16 Turn to p. 294 in Progress Gold and do the exercise British and American English.

What to do now? There are a few more activities for you to carry out before you have finished Unit 1. Where does the word salary come from? And why do we say checkmate? Have you ever thought about that? If you don’t know the answer, see exercises 027 and 028 on p. 167 in Progress Gold. If there is time left, do the exercise on p. 286 (Group Challenge – What if) with your partners. Activity 17 It will soon be time to complete TMA 1 on page 23 in this Study Guide. You will be asked to write an essay in English, so turn now to p. 142 in Progress Gold, where you will find some help with how to write an essay.

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! TMA 1 (Tutor Marked Assignment) Please always leave space in the margin for your tutor’s comments.

Writing A Your first task is exercise 025 in Progress Gold (p. 166). Choose one of the alternatives.

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Writing B Which text gave you the most interesting information on communication? Give reasons.

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TMA 1 Self-Assessment Before going on ask yourself: How well did I succeed in achieving the objectives of Unit 1? (See p. 18 in this Study Guide). Write down your thoughts below or in your logbook. Remember – putting your thoughts on paper will help you to learn better. Look at p. 168 (exercise 029 Reflect) and deal with the sentences in italics.

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