1. Ask general questions about Sweden and their visit.
While listening to the answers note down pronunciation and grammatical features of interest, not forgetting intonation.
• how long have you been here ?
• what is the aim of your visit?
• where do you hope to visit during your stay?
• have you visited England before?
• if so, what interested you / what were your impressions?
• what are the main differences you notice between Sweden and England?
• what are your impresssions of this school?
• how does this school compare with schools in Sweden?
2. Ask your visitor to read the following short passage.
Listen carefully to the pronunciation and grammatical features of interest, not forgetting intonation.
“Until the 1930’s Sweden was ethnically homogeneous; but following the Second World War there was a large influx of refugees. There are around a million people from non-Swedish backgrounds - about 10% of the population. There is an active bilingualism policy. Foreign children may have some educational instruction in their mother tongue, if their parents request it.”
Then read it yourself, asking your visitor to listen carefully.
Now discuss differences between your pronunciations and intonation patterns.
For your intonation when reading the passage and for your visitor’s, draw two graphs indicating the rise and fall of intonation for each sentence plus the place of main stress. Discuss together the differences and possible reasons for this.
3. Ask your visitor what they believe are significant differences between the English and Swedish languages. Note down any examples.
Don’t just mention vocabulary, look at structure, word order, prepositions, inflexions, sounds etc.
4. What does or has your visitor found difficult in learning English?
• ask about pronunciations - which sounds are unusual, vocabulary - where words may be “false friends” or not clearly match up with their equivalents in the other language.
• you might ask about the sound in the Swedish word “sjö” or the meaning of the word “lagom”. You might suggest that "th" as in "then" and as in "thin" cause problems, also the "v" as in "vegetable".
Note down all the examples you come across.
5. Learn a Swedish sentence or a couple of useful short phrases. Ask your visitor to suggest the example, to contain, if possible, typical Swedish sounds and constructions.
What difficulties, if any, did you have?
6. By now you should have collected quite a few notes on the Swedish language and next lesson I shall ask you to tell the class your findings under the following headings:
• differences in pronunciation when a Swede speaks English
• any grammatical features which seem non-standard
• differences in intonation when a Swede speaks English
• the significant differences between Swedish and English
• in summary, what are the main characteristics of Swenglish? |