The History of the English Language in 10 MINUTES (honest)!

Have you wondered about how English evolved over the centuries? The route to the 21st century is full of delightful twists and turns. Many languages have contributed to our over 650,000 word vocabulary (some sources have the number of words as high as 1,000,000). Add to that the language contributions of Shakespeare. Yes, English has the largest vocabulary of any language (German comes in second at 130,000) and it is still growing (look at all the internet related vocabulary).

When teaching ELLs in any subject area at any grade level, teachers must keep in mind that English is full of inconsistencies. For example, MAN is singular, but MEN is plural. Try explaining this to ELLs who just learned that adding an -S to a noun makes it plural. Then what do you say after explaining that adding -ED to a verb makes it past and yet PUT only has one form. The list here of irregularities goes on and on:)

If you would like a quick refresher on the development of English over the years, watch these quick humorous film clips (10 minutes total). You will enjoy your journey!

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN TEN MINUTES




Denise

ELL TEACHER PROS