Chapter 1 Tasks – Role of the Teacher

TASK 1

Task 1 will be completed online in Moodle in quiz format. You will receive an automatic grade on the quiz. Please
log in to Moodle (www.TEFLAcademyOnline.com) to complete Task 1 for Chapter 1.

TASK 2 - Essay

Discuss the roots of English. Then explain the role of English as a world language and how it influences
communication worldwide today. Write approximately 400 words.

To complete your essay, you are expected to use outside resources not found in the course material.

Katherine Lipp

Kenny Capps

TEFL Academy

October 2nd, 2018

English Language:
The Evolution of Englisc

English, as we now know it, has come a long way from its’ first form known as Englisc. The modern day

English is compromised of several languages, “predominantly Latin and French” but also Greek, German, proper

names, and a small amount from unknown languages. Many specific words such as “cappuccino: it’s diminutive

form of cappuccino, which means hood in Italian. Wondering what the link is between (little) hood and cappuccino?

One must look no further Capuchin monks, whose hooded habits were a dark, oak brown similar to the color of a

good cappuccino” (Gusano, 2016). However, to reach our current lingua franca, English did not deal with just with

specific word tweeks; it withstood four major historical evolutions.

The four major periods were Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Late Modern

English. The Old English period took place in 450 when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, Germanic tribes, invaded

England. They brought with them their mother tongue, Englisc, a primitive form of English without j, k, v, or w. As

the tribes continued to invade England until approximately 1100. “The event that began the transition from Old

English to Middle English was the Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy

and, later, William I of England) invaded the island of Britain from his home base in northern France, and settled in

his new acquisition along with his nobles and court (Mastin, 2011). Then the Great Vowel shift, a series of events

that led to the shortening of vowel sounds, occurred during Early Modern English period, 1500 to 1800s. Noah
Chapter 1 Tasks – Role of the Teacher
Webster’s first spelling book, which demonstrated the slight spelling differences in American English from British

English, was published in the 1700s pushing English into its’ final evolution, Late Modern English (1800- Present).

The last major changes to English were “ the addition of new invention words such as train, electricity, telephone,

and sewing machine and scientific words such as oxygen, nuclear, biology, and vaccine”(Nkouaga, 2018).

English continues to be a top language because it is also the medium for an estimated 80% of the

information stored in the world's computers, accounts for three-quarters of the world's mail, and is used in half of the

world's technical and scientific periodicals (Brown, 2009). It is also the most commonly spoken language by native

and non-native speakers/second-language speakers greatly influencing business, education, and politics. Therefore,

English must continue to be studied and shared among the world and its’ people for its’ own economic benefits.
Chapter 1 Tasks – Role of the Teacher
Works Cited

Brown, K. (2009). Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics, Second Edition (COPE).  Oxford, UK:
Elsevier Ltd.

Gusano, Cristina. “An Introduction to Etymology: Eight Great Word Origins.”, 15 June 2016,
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/an-introduction-to-etymology-eight-great-word-origins.
Accessed 2 October 2018.

Mastin.“Middle English: How English went from an obscure Germanic dialect to a global
language.” The History of English, 2011. http://thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html.
Accessed 2 October 2018.

Nkouaga, Jesica. History of English III & IV. International TEFL Academy, September 2018,
https://youtu.be/5TTuRLIbQ_8. Accessed 2 October 2018.