Re: "Special English" - should we limit vocabulary?

Wayne Barnes Ewell <countrymanto@...> wrote:
> Could it be that if we limited the English words we use to teach 
> that students would show faster progress?

Quite a few years ago I ran across the work og C.K. Ogden who developed what he 
called "Basic English." His aim was for it to become the main tool for global 
commuication thus allowing English, albeit in a short form, to become the 
lingua franca of the world. As an outgrowth of this VOA was established. the 
following comes from the 'Basic English Institute.'

VOA Special English is a simplified English language used by Voice of America 
in daily broadcast. The news is read slowly and using a limited wordlist of 
about 1500 words. Charles Kay Ogden recommended radio news be given in Basic 
English with the appropriate Basic special radio vocabulary add-on. VOA Special 
English, although intended for telling news around the world, has the 
additional benefit of allowing English to be learned and for pronunciation to 
be polished...

VOA "Special English" provides clear and simple news and information to 
listeners whose own language is not English. Using a 1,500 word vocabulary and 
a slow delivery, about 90 words a minute, Special English has helped tens of 
millions of listeners learn English since its first broadcast on October 19, 
1959. [source: http://www.basic-english.org/learn/voa.html]

I found all of this to be quite intriguing, including the arguments for and 
against it's use.

Since Tom brings it up, the use of phonetics as a teaching tool is also an old 
rag chewed over by many celebrated teachers and educationalists. For an 
interesting site on this topic check out Don Potter. His site: 
http://donpotter.net/ is a very interesting read. 

Regards,

Tsc Tempest DCA
__________________________
People's Republic of China
Zhuhai SEZ, Guang Dong




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