Welcome to the second roadmap for the C2 Development Course. Below, you’ll see the guiding question for this week – you’ll be reflecting on this through the various tasks, as well as in our live sessions. You then have three tasks to introduce you to the topic and text(s), as well as an optional task. It is recommended that you complete the first three tasks before you attend the live session. Although the tasks are designed to be completed in order, you can skip to the main text task if you are short on time.

Guiding question one: how powerful is English in your life?

Task one: track your interactions

Make a table with three columns: who I was talking to, purpose of the interaction, language we used. Then fill the table with everything you can remember from the past seventy-two hours. For example:

Details of the interaction	Purpose of the interaction	Language we used
My students	Teaching	English
Customer service	Complaining about a missed delivery	Spanish & English
José at the café	Ordering breakfast!	Spanish
Lottery seller	Changing a €50 note	Spanish
The Uber Eats guy	Giving him a tip	Spanish
My flatmate	Chilling out	English

Task two: what trends can you spot?

My table only covers the last 24 hours, so it’s probably a bit shorter than yours. Have a look at what languages you’re speaking, and why. What trends can you spot? Are these interactions typical of the ones you normally have during the week, or was there something unique about them? Are there domains where you typically use one language over others?

Task three: the main text

You’re going to watch an interview with the linguist Jennifer Jenkins, who’s talking about the concept of English as a Lingua Franca. First, decide if you think these statements are true or false (and why)?

1. A high score on the IELTS exam is a reliable predictor of a student’s success in an English-speaking university.
2. The majority of English conversations in the world today take place between non-native speakers.
3. Native English speakers are often better at international communication than non-native speakers because they have a larger vocabulary. (False)
4. English teachers should focus more on helping students sound exactly like native speakers to ensure they are successful.
5. One reason language testing is slow to change is that the major testing boards are highly profitable and have little incentive to risk their current model.

Video reflection

Watch the interview again, making notes on what you think are the most relevant ideas. To what extent do you agree with these ideas, and why do you have this opinion? Try to be as detailed as you can.

Language analysis questions

Jenkins mentions that she moved away from studying Old English and Old Icelandic because they weren’t terribly relevant to modern life.

• Meaning: How does Jenkins feel about the word relevant?
• Form/Use: In this context, how does the adverb terribly change the tone of her statement compared to saying they were not relevant?

At the beginning of the interview, Jenkins mentions accommodation theory in relation to her students.

• Meaning: Based on the context of the rest of the interview, how would you definite this term in your own words?

Jenkins uses the phrase native-like to describe the English often used as a benchmark.

• Use: How does the suffix -like function here, and what does it imply about the relationship between the learner and the target model?

Optional extension

These two videos are thematically linked to our topic this week and last, and will help you develop your understanding of the themes of this week. Repeat the video reflection task with one or both of them to help you get the most out of them.

Want to go further?

In our live session this week, we’ll be exploring to what extent English as a Lingua Franca fits your goals and expectations about language learning, and whether exams are – as Jenkins puts it – irrelevant.

Start analysing the texts, finding any words or expressions which are new or interesting for you. You can also think about what grammatical structures are being used in the texts, and why the speakers have chosen them.