English as the eu language

• Lesson 1

• Tasks

• I. Answer the questions below.

• 1. How many official languages are spoken in the EU (European Union)?

• Languages of the European Union

• Official languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish

• Semi-official languages: Basque, Catalan, Galician, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh

• 2. How many of them can you name?

• English, French, German, Italian,Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish

• II. Read the articles and find the answers to the questions below.

• 1. Who is Joachim Gauck?

• Joachim Gauck (born 24 January 1940) is the President of Germany, serving since March 2012. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.

• 2. What percentage of people in Portugal and Hungary speak no English?

• Hungary- English-1,589,180 (16.0%)- Foreign language

3. What language are EU policy documents planned in?

As part of its efforts to promote mobility and intercultural understanding, the EU has designated language learning as an important priority, and funds numerous programmes and projects in this area. Multilingualism, in the EU’s view, is an important element in Europe’s competitiveness. One of the objectives of the EU’s language policy is therefore that every European citizen should master two other languages in addition to their mother tongue.

• 4. Which company has published a book about language and creativity?

Ronald Carter - Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk

• 5. Which German words are regularly used in English?

• Hamburger,

• 6. Who recently published a report titled 'Language Rich Europe’?

• III. Match each of these multi-word expressions in the left-hand column with the best definition in the right-hand column.

• to get by a.to use something for a particular purpose

• to elbow someone / something out b. you can’t dispute that something is true

• at all costs c.to have just enough of something

• no denying the fact (that ...) d.to make something go away

• to make use of e. to use something for a particular purpose

IV. Match the key words to their meanings and find them in the article to read them in context.

• Article A

• 

• the fact that very different people or things exist within a group or place

• political control or influence, especially by one country over other countries .

• a mixture of different things or styles

• the activities of buying and selling goods or services

• a high degree of ability or skill in something

• ideas, behaviour or statements that are not true or sensible

• people in general

• to write something such as a legal document, speech or letter that may have changes made to it before it is finished

• the condition of being able to speak, write or use just one language

• introducing something and forcing people to accept it

• Article B

  asset	encourage	evolve	fundamental	legacy
  plurilingualism	prestigious	prosperity	slipping on	whiff 1

• something such as a tradition or problem that exists as a result of something that happened in the past

• a slight (possibly bad) smell

• the situation of being successful and having a lot of money

• to gradually change and develop over a period of time