Поддубная Алнна

учащаяся 10 «а» класс

Руководитель Кириллова Елена Викторовна

учитель английского языка

КГУ «Школа –гимназия №35» г. Экибастуз

There are approximately 5000 different languages and many dialects or local versions of major languages in the world. The oldest written language is Egyptian, but now Egyptian is not a widely spread language. The most popular languages are Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish and Russian. I am going to prove it with my text. I would like to tell you where English comes from.

Somebody said: «English is a language that came from nowhere to conquer the world…». These words are really true.

English is a language of Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the West group of the German branch of the Indo-European language family. English is one of the most important international languages, the colonial policy of the British Empire in the XIXth century and world influence of the USA in XX-XXI centuries explain it. There are very many different dialects and sub-dialects in this language. It is only in the course of the last hundred years that English is become a world language In Shakespeare’s time it was a provincial language of secondary importance with only 6 million native speakers Nowadays English has-become the world’s most important language in politics, science. At present no other language on Earth is better suited to play the role of world language. People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learnt it as their native language, those who have learnt it as a second language in a society which is mainly bilingual and those who are force to use it for a practical purpose – professional or educational. Nowadays when science and technology are progressing so fast all kind of specialists need English in their work. As for me, English is a very important part of my life, I have been learning it for many years, I take part in many competitions and Olympiads and I want to connect my future life with this good language. But I am a good English learner. I always attend my English classes and I work hard.

So, I want to tell about education in the UK. There are more than 60 universities in the U.K. The leading universities are Cambridge, Oxford and London. English institutes differ from each other in traditions, general organization, internal government, etc. The approximate number of British universities is about 7-8 thousand students. Most universities have under 3000 students, some even less than 1500 ones. London and Oxford universities are international, because people from many parts of the world come to study at one of their colleges. A number of well-known scientists and writers, among them Newton, Darvin, Byron were educated in Cambridge. A university consists of a number of departments: art, law, music, economy, education, medicine, engineering, etc. After three years of study a student may proceed to a Bachelor’s degree, and later to the degrees of Master and Doctor. Besides universities there are in Britain 300 technical colleges, providing part-time and full-time education. The organization system of Oxford and Cambridge differs from that of all other universities and colleges. The teachers are usually called Dons. Part of the teaching is by means of lectures organized by the university. Teaching is also carried out by tutorial system. This is the system of individual tuition organized by the colleges. Each student goes to his tutor’s room once a week to read and discuss an essay, which the student has prepared. Some students get scholarship but the number of these students is comparatively small. There are many societies and clubs at Cambridge and Oxford. The most celebrating at Cambridge is the Debating Society at which students discuss political and other questions with famous politicians and writers. Sporting activities are also numerous. The work and games, the traditions and customs, the jokes and debates – all are parts of students’ life there. It should be mentioned that not many children from the working-class families are able to receive the higher education as the fees are very high (more than L1000 a year). Besides that special fees are taken for books, for laboratory works, exams and so on.

I want to know English because it is an interesting and beautiful language for me to learn about foreign countries, their culture, customs and traditions. English will be of great use in my future profession connected with this language. In conclusion I want to say that I absolutely agree with a great German poet Goethe, who once said that who doesn’t know any foreign language, doesn’t know his own language.