David Crystal talks to Andi White and Rob Lewis about his newest release, 'A Little Book of Langauge'. How does one go about writing a history of language for a 12 year old - and what happened to John Wayne?
I would like to thank you for this most interesting, particular interview with an outstanding figure of Linguistics touching upon the latest international developments affecting TEFL.
May I point out here though that Greece is not a bilingual country and Greeks do not use English in their everyday encounters.
Judging by the majority of greek nationals, the average greek person's upbringing and formal education are in Greek.
With the exception of imigrants, this is obvious from routine observations made in public places and social gatherings, in urban but also agricultural areas.
Still, it is common practice, for a good number of Greek citizens, to make an effort to create rapport and be friendly by employing any knowledge they may have of any other language such as French, Italian, German, English etc, depending on their interlocutors' nationality. Therefore, how could a small proportion of native inhabitants (Greek TEFL teachers in this case here) shape a new culture-specific variation of 'colloquial' English?
Thank you very much indeed for this opportunity and for making it possible for us to access the interview and the content of the conference, which we appreciate indeed.
10 April 2010
2 years 6 weeks
I would like to thank you for this most interesting, particular interview with an outstanding figure of Linguistics touching upon the latest international developments affecting TEFL.
May I point out here though that Greece is not a bilingual country and Greeks do not use English in their everyday encounters.
Judging by the majority of greek nationals, the average greek person's upbringing and formal education are in Greek.
With the exception of imigrants, this is obvious from routine observations made in public places and social gatherings, in urban but also agricultural areas.
Still, it is common practice, for a good number of Greek citizens, to make an effort to create rapport and be friendly by employing any knowledge they may have of any other language such as French, Italian, German, English etc, depending on their interlocutors' nationality. Therefore, how could a small proportion of native inhabitants (Greek TEFL teachers in this case here) shape a new culture-specific variation of 'colloquial' English?
Thank you very much indeed for this opportunity and for making it possible for us to access the interview and the content of the conference, which we appreciate indeed.