English is the study of the English language. The goal is to improve communication skills by practicing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and understanding language rules like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
The emergence of a standard dialect produces the phenomenon known as ‘accent’ which is quite different from dialect. In the process of learning a foreign language, it is normal to transfer the patterns of an indigenous language to those of the foreign language. With time, however those of form and most of orthography and phonology gradually get eliminated. This is because these can easily be identified and corrected. They are easy to correct because they do not involve patterns of muscular movement. It is necessary to correct them because otherwise they could seriously impair intelligibility.
With phonetic patterns, on the other hand, there is a great deal of intelligibility tolerance because muscular patterns are involved thus making correction difficult when observed. Besides, phonetic patterns do not impair intelligibility much. Hence the transference of phonetic habits from one language to another is both easier to tolerate and more difficult to avoid than transference at the lexico-grammatical level. It follows that a speaker who is learning a second dialect does so with an accent since the muscles of his speech organs would have crystallized in response to the phonetics of his native language which he learnt first. The speaker therefore speaks the second dialect with the phonetic features of his native dialect. The learning of a standard language is simply the learning of a second dialect- that which has been standardized.
Members of a language community control at least two dialects and use both dialects in different situations. In the rural areas, the native dialect is used in most situations since there is less movement. Therefore, rural dwellers tend to be parochial and maintain the homogeneity of their dialect. In the urban community, on the other hand, there is more demand on the standard dialect than on the rural one. This is because people from different regions converge here. In order to ensure mutual intelligibility resulting from the pressure of communication, a great deal of demand is made on the standard dialect which now becomes the lingua frenca amongst them.
Choose the option opposite in meaning to the underlined word(s).
The man drew a sword as people congregated round him?
Options:In the question below choose the phrase or word which best completes the meaning of each sentence:
There was a fire in the market last week which resulted _____ a terrible destruction of property
Options:Answer the question below and choose the option nearest in meaning to the word or phrase underlined.
As a journalist, Bala has always had a nose for stories.
Options:In the question below choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap(s):
Let's have a cup of coffee, _____
Options:The Save the Children Fund (SCF) was first started in London on 19th May, 1919 by an English woman named Miss Jebb. It is now a worldwide organization, dedicated to helping needy children everywhere. The SCF of Malawi was formed in 1953, under the patronage of His Excellency the Life President Ngawazi Dr. H. Kamuzi Banda. “Our job in Malawi is to give those unfortunate children the rights that are deprived of through no fault of theirs. These are internationally recognized as the ten rights of children and includes protection, care, food and accommodation, and relief, a spokesman for the Fund explained.
One of those who benefited from the help of the Fund is Samuel Mpetechula, a graduate of Chancellor. His sponsorship started in 1967. The SCF of Malawi found him sponsors. They were Mr. and Mrs. Sutton of Australia who paid is school fees and continued to help him financially throughout his University education. Mr. Mpetechula said, ‘They even built a house for me at home and looked after my family while I was a student. They were really helpful to me, and the thought that there were these sponsors caring, for me from thousands of kilometres away from here was an encouragement for me to work hard at college.
Another important function of the work of the SCF is in the field of nutrition. With the help of the Australian Government, the SCF established two nutrition rehabilitation centres for children; one at Mpemba and another in Mulanje’. The object of the Centre’s, explained Mr. Petre Chimbe, the Executive Secretary of the Fund, ‘is to combat malnutrition in children, by giving them the proper food’ .
In question 14 and 15 choose the meaning which best fit the underline phrases taken from the passageCombat malnutrition means
Options:Fill the gap with the most appropriate option from the list following the gap.
The police _____ happy about the dwindling crime rate.
Options:Choose the option nearest in meaning to the underlined words :
After completing half of the journey, all the travellers could do was trudge along
Options: