План к итоговой исследовательской работе по английскому языку на тему "Базовый английский и его использование"

BASIC ENGLISH AND ITS USE

ОвсенёвАндрей

Российская Федерация, Липецкая область, Липецк, МБОУ гимназия №12, 11А класс

RESEARCH PLAN

THE ISSUE:

Today, English is the most widely-spoken language in the world (1500 million people use it, 850 million of them are non-native speakers), but it wasn’t so popular in the past. After the WW1 a lot of people felt the need for truly global language, which everyone could easily speak and understand. In 1930, in his book «Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar», linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden came up with the idea of simplified English language, which vocabulary has only 850 core words, and grammar has only a few rules, so it could be learnt in a month (40 hours). Still, 1.5 billion people are only a part of Earth’s population. So why not spend 40 hours to make Basic English the best instrument of global communication?

HYPOTHESIS:

·         850 words can do 90% of work for 25000 words, so they are sufficient for everyday life, work, communication, etc.

·         Basic English is easier to learn than any artificial language

·         English (in its simplified form, like Basic English) can be a worldwide, global language

·         Basic English vocabulary and grammar should be the first step in learning standard English

DESCRIPTION:

General information about Basic English was obtained by reading Simple English Wikipedia articles (simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page), which are mostly written in Basic English. Further reading and studying of Charles Ogden’s books and magazine articles with both praise and critique helped to create linguistic background of the research.

The second part of the research was a survey. Total number of participants (mostly students, also teachers, and adults of different age and occupation) is 106. They were given questionnaires with 5 questions and one task in them. Survey results were made to simple diagrams for easier presenting and better understanding. They helped to form public opinion towards Basic English (as an international second language), to prove hypothetical statements about it, to make a summary and a conclusion.

REFERENCES (WORKS CITED):

·                    Ogden, Charles Kay.Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar. – Paul Treber & Co., Ltd. London, 1930

·                    Ogden, C.K. The ABC of Basic English. – Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, 1932.

·                    «The Value of Basic English». Article from «The Times», London, June 12, 1935.

·                    Article from «TheNew York Times», NY, July 5, 1935

·                    Ogden, C.K. Basic English and Grammatical Reform. – The Orthological Institute, Cambridge, 1937

·                    Ogden, C.K. General Basic English Dictionary. –Evans Brothers Limited, London, 1940

·                    Flesch, Rudolf. «How Basic is Basic English?» Harper's Magazine,NY, March 1944.

·                    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_English

·                    simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simple_English_Wikipedia

·                    ogden.basic-english.org