What Variety of English Should We Learn?，本文主要内容关键词为：Variety论文,English论文,Learn论文，此文献不代表本站观点，内容供学术参考，文章仅供参考阅读下载。
During the 21st century,contact,communication and exchangeof information and knowledge between people of differentcountries will be part of everyday life.For this a languageknown to many people in every country,or an international language,is required.
English is generally regarded as such a language.It is thenative language of England,the United States,Canada,Australiaand New Zealand;it is the official language of lndia,Pakistan,Singapore,South Africa,and some other countries;it is widelyused in international organizations and conferences,in foreigntrade and tourism,in scientific and technological publications;and it is the most important computer language.As a foreignlanguage it is learned and used by more people than any otherlanguage.
So it is good to learn English.As learners we shouldremember that English is a general term and that there are manyvarieties of the language.A certain variety of English may bevery useful to some people but it may not be useful to others.For instance,legal English is useful to lawyers and students oflaw,but other people find special terms of a certain branch ofscience or technology are usually difficult to those outsidethat field.
Then the question arises:what variety of English should thecommon learner learn?
There is a clear answer to this question,The common learnerof English should learn what may be called"common English"
It refers to English that is used in daily conversation andin writing about daily life and general knowledge,such asstories,news reports,history,popular science,etc.Whateverprofession one has,one talks about and reads these things everyday.
It also refers to pronunciation,grammmar and commonwords—or what linguists call the "common core"of the Englishlanguage.Common words include pronouns,prepositions,conjunctions,articles,numerals,and most useful nouns,verbs,adjectives andadverbs.There are approximately 5000 such words.It would beimpossible to talk or write about anything without using someof these words.It follows that learners of English should firstof all learn pronunciation,grammar and these common words.
English,like Chinese,has been changing over the ages.Todaythe people of the English-speaking countries of course talk andwrite in modern English,though they read classical literature.It is clear that up-to-date English is most useful to foreignlearners if they learn the language for practical purposes.
While reading English books or magazines,the common foreignreader naturally expects to get new information and knowledgeabout the world.He hopes to kill two birds with one stone:toimprove his English and to increase his knowledge.
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