English 1-2 Reading Worksheet

Name(s): _____________________________________________________________________

Instructions:

 Responses answered at home must be TYPED. Remember to use your OWN WORDS to
answer the questions. If you copy a fragment from the chapter, don’t forget to include
quotations marks and an in-text citation.

 Remember to leave some blank spaces in case you want to complete your answers with
information from our class discussion.

 Completed worksheets must be handed in to your seminar teacher at the end of class, on
the day of the class discussion.

Chapter 2: Language Developments in British English

By David Crystal (2010)

In The Cambridge Companion to Modern British Culture

A. Select five words in the chapter that caught your attention and write down their
definitions and a Spanish or Catalan equivalent.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

B. Write short answers for each of the following questions and come prepared to
discuss your thoughts with the class.

1. At the beginning of the chapter Crystal says that “languages do not change at a steady
pace”. Read the paragraph carefully and summarize the main ideas he mentions in
relation to the ways languages change.

1
English 1-2 Reading Worksheet

Name(s): _____________________________________________________________________

2. Why does the author place specific emphasis on accent?

3. What is Received Pronunciation?

4. How has the use of accents on radio and television in Britain changed?

5. What is Estuary English? What are some of its features and what are some of the
reasons for its spread?

6. What are New Englishes?

2
English 1-2 Reading Worksheet

Name(s): _____________________________________________________________________

7. Explain the difference between a “stress-timed” language and a “syllable-timed”

language using your own words.

8. Why is it difficult to study lexical change in English?

9. What is “accommodation”?

10. Write down some of the effects that the Internet is having on the English language.