What strategies can increase your range of language?
Английский язык. Язык политики
English Language. The Language of Politics.
(English Language for the students of “International Relations” Department)
Ask not what your country can do for you-
Ask what you can do for your country.
John F. Kennedy
English is the language the sun never sets on.
Randolph Quirk
Task1:
Give answers to 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 these of your classmates.
1. Do you have any English-speaking friends? Where from?
2. Do you know any nice places for meeting English –speaking people? Where?
3. Have you ever written a letter to someone in English? Who to? Why?
4. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? Which one? When?
5. Have you seen a film in English this year? Which one?
6. Have you read a book, a magazine or a newspaper in English this year? Which one?
7. Have you seen a TV program in English this year? Which one?
8 Have you got a favorite song in English? Which one?
9. Why are you learning English?
10. What do you like about learning English?
11. What do you dislike about learning English?
Unit 1.
Some steps to improving your academic and political writing
Enriching your vocabulary.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
George Santayana
A. Reflection
Look at the following groups of words, which are considered synonyms.
What is the difference between the words in each group?
1. colleague; mate; acquaintance; comrade; ally
2. handicapped; crippled; person with a disability; disabled; differently abled
3. sick; under the weather; ailing; nauseous
B. Contextualization
Read through these sentences, each of which includes a synonym for the word research.
In each case, identify the problem with the synonym the student has chosen.
Sentence
Stoddart’s investigation into the matter was extremely thorough.
Problem/ Reason………………………………………………….
The 2004 forensic analysis by Sowton is considered the first major paper on the subject.
Problem/Reason…………………………………………………………
Her legwork into this topic is extremely detailed and accurate.
Problem/Reason………………………………………………………….
The seekwas generously well – received, although some criticize its methodology.
Problem/Reason…………………………………………………………………
It was an extremely successful piece of study which sent shockwaves through the establishment.
Problem/Reason…………………………………………………………………
Thein’s exploration of the topic was particularly interesting.
Problem/Reason………………………………………………………………….
What strategies can increase your range of language?
Strategy1: Using synonyms. “Synonym does not mean ‘having exactly the same meaning’ but ‘having a similar meaning’. This difference is extremely important. Although words may have the same denotation (core meaning) they will almost certainly have a different connotation(secondary, suggested or implied meaning) For example all these words have the same denotation, i.e., friend, but the connotation is very different:
-colleague: ‘someone who you work with’
-male: informal term for ‘friend’
-acquaintance: ‘someone you have met (often a “friend of a friend”) but do not know that well
-comrade: ‘a member of he same communist or socialist political party; fellow-soldier’
-ally: ‘a country that has agreed to help another country, especially in a war; a person who supports someone in a difficult situating, especially a politician’
A similar pattern may be seen for the other synonyms. When deciding how similar one word is to another, there are four criteria which should be considered.
1. Context: when and with whom you would use the word, e.g., is it a word in general use or is it a piece of jargon.
Investigation: suggests a piece of work done by the police
2.Formality: is he word formal or informal?
Legwork: this is quite informal and more appropriate in a spoken context.
Forensic analysis: conversely, this is too formal for the context.
3. Value judgment: does the word have any bias or additional meaning (e.g., criticism)?
Exploration: whereas research is a neutral word, exploration is more positive in tone.
4. Collocation: are there any particular words which go together to consider?
Piece of study: although study and research have the same meanings, study does not collocate with piece of.
In addition, a common mistake is to substitute a word with one from the wrong word class. Research, for example, is both a noun and a verb.