Investigating English [antikvár]

Introduction Awareness-raising about English is the main purpose of this book. We might actually talk about 'awareness' - readers can become aware of their own attitudes towards English and the use of language in society in more general terms, for example. They can also become more aware of the way in which English 'works': its systems and organization. Alternatively, one can become more aware of how users draw upon the systems of English to create meaning. Language may be regarded both as a means to a social end and as an object of study in itself. Studying the system Careful study of how language works, the rule-governed systems that it utilizes and realizes (and the seemingly inevitable exceptions to these rules) will repay the reader with insights into the systems of the language and its use by speakers and writers. As I write these words now, for instance, I am consciously aware that I am weighing up my options - for example, grammatically, lexically and in the way that I am structuring my message. I want you, the reader, to understand what I am trying to say, and I am using the system to try to create the best possible message. There is no guarantee I will succeed. Choosing from the multitude of choices I am faced with as a writer is not normally a conscious matter, although being more consciously aware of what we do with language might be an advantage. (I could have written 'with which I am faced . . .', for example, or said 'confronted' instead of 'faced with', but I have decided to be slightly 'informal' in this introduction. I do not want to frighten you off with a string of jargon-ridden sentences which do not appear to end.) The aim of many of the activities in this book is to make explicit to the reader some of the unconscious processes which we tap into when using English. While insights into the system of English may not lead to your becoming a better speaker or writer of English as such, they may assist you in understanding English, or teaching English better, if you are or wish to become a teacher. In an era when information is such a valuable commodity, and when so much is carried by language, we need to be in control of language, to understand its subtleties - the nature of the medium as well as the messages it carries.