standard English and dialects

Read the passage quickly and underline the topic sentence of each paragraph.

What is standard English? Is it spoken in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, India and New Zealand? Believe it or not, there is no such thing as standard English. Many people believe the English spoken on TV and the radio is standard English. This is because in the early days of radio, those who reported the news were expected to speak excellent English. However, even on TV and the radio you will hear differences in the way people speak.

When people use words and expressions different form “standard language”, it is called a dialect. American English has many dialects, especially the Midwestern, southern, African American has many dialects. Even in some parts of the US, two people from neighboring towns speak a little differently. American English has so many dialects because people have come from all over the world.

Geography also plays a part in making dialects. Some people who live in the mountains of the eastern US speak with an older kind of English dialect. When Americans moved form one place to another, they took their dialects with them. So people from the mountains in the southeastern US speak with almost the same dialect as people in the northwestern US. The US is a large country in which many different dialects are spoken. Although many Americans move a lot, they still recognize each other’s dialects.

questions

1 Do you think the English spoken on TV or the radio is Standard English? Why?

2 What is dialect?

3 Do people from neighboring towns all speak the same dialect.? 4 Why does American English has so many dialects.

5 Who speak with an older kind of English dialect?

6 Which two areas speak with almost the same dialect?

Homework

1 Believe it or not : what I sad is true but that may surprise people

2 There is no such thing as : thus thing does not exist.没有这样的事情 3 especially [i'speʃəli] adv. 特别，尤其，格外 4 all over the world =around the world

5 Play a part in=play a role in to have an effect on something 6 from…to… 7 a large country

Now that there is no such thing as standard English in the world, then we should not be afraid of speaking our poor English when we are learning English. Although we speak poor English, people still understand us more or less. Then from today, we should try to speak English of our own more and more.

That' all for today! Thank you for listening!