THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Language in Use can be related to any aspect of the work of the department. The following paragraphs merely take four major concerns common to all departments and suggest how particular units can be drawn upon to make up part of the total pattern of activities pursued.
Competence
An individual's linguistic competence is his ability to produce language that is both appropriate and adequate to the situations in which he finds himself, and units in all themes are able to contribute to its growth.
Theme A offers Al 'Words and actions', or A8 'Words and diagrams', both of which relate language to things outside itself. A2 'Reading and understanding' and A3 'Judging your audience' concentrate on the relationship between writer and audience. Exploring levels of formality in language would follow naturally from this through BI 'Formal and informal' or K7 'Letters'.
A selection of units from theme C, such as C1 'Speech and writing', C6 'Intonation' or C8 'Words and gestures', would enable a class to explore the relationship between speech and writing which could then be followed by a selection from theme D to carry further the exploration of particular aspects of written language.
In theme E, E5 'Abstract, general, and particular' looks at one important feature of the kind of language demanded by learning in school, while E7 ' "Write me an essay" ' looks at one small area of this language and its effects upon pupils' ideas about school work. G8 'Technical terms' and G9 'The language of school subjects' deal with the perennial problem of 'jargon' and the proper use of a technical vocabulary.
Units from Part III develop confidence in using language by looking at the linguistic aspects of relationships and their social settings. Apart from the 'social' units of theme H, JI I 'Taking messages', K I 'Schools and colleges' and K2 'School traditions', which use pupils' experience and knowledge of school, are directly relevant.
Literature
Nineteen units provide directly for an exploration of some aspect of literature. Some take literature as their subject matter, like B7 'Fact and fiction', E2 'Birds and beasts', E8 'Fiction and reality', E9 'Fiction and documentary', F5 'Attitudes from fiction', and J2 'How adults see teenagers'.
Others are concerned with aspects of the writer's technique: A2 'Reading and understanding' and A3 'Judging your audience' deal with the relationship between writer and reader; C1 'Speech and writing', C2 'Making a script', and F11 'How writers exploit regional speech' with the problems of representing speech convincingly in writing.
There are also a number of units which provide for an examination of the ways in which the topic of the unit has been handled in literature. These include A5 'Language and the Law', F I 'Nice/nasty', F4 'National characteristics', H3 'Playing many parts', H5 'Keeping up appearances', K5 'Starting work. G12 'Reviewer and audience' and G13 'Language and art' offer a special opportunity for looking at the problems of writing about literature for a wide audience.
Drama
A great many of the units require the preparation and enacting of sketches by small groups within the class, sometimes with a script, sometimes without, but always with a clearly defined objective that is related to the aim of a particular unit or theme. There are thirteen such units in Part 111; H3 'Playing many parts', H5 'Keeping up appearances', H6 'Being natural', H8 'Keeping one's distance', H9 'Being tactful', J1 'Belonging to a group', J4 'Social talk', J8 'Being interviewed', J9 'Interviews on television', J10 'Talking on the telephone', JI I 'Taking messages', K3 'Negotiating', and K6 'Communicating'. Parts I and 11 offer A5 'Language and the Law', BI 'Formal and informal', B3 'Reading the News', C2 'Making a script', and F4 'National characteristics.
Language outside the classroom
Many units require the exploration of language outside the classroom, either by asking the class to observe particular aspects of language like A9 'New words' and F8 'How we use slang', or by taking as their starting point public or social uses of language. Some of these concern themselves with newspapers, like A6 'Reporting Parliament', B5 'Front page', G3 'Slanting the news', or G4 'Making predictions'; some with radio like A13 'Sports commentating' or B3 'Reading the News' some with television, like E9 'Fiction and documentary', or J9 'Interviews on television'.
Others again require the collection and examination of actual usage like B4 'Notices', D7 'Expecting the usual', D9 'Names in the High Street', and F8 'How we use slang', or attention to the way in which people actually speak, like C3 'Distinctive voices, C4 'Accent', or C5 'What is speech?'