Урок английского языка "Scotland. Robert Burns"

Разделы: Иностранные языки, Информатика


Время проведения урока – 1,5 часа (сдвоенный урок)

В ходе урока проводится показ Презентации.

Geographical Position. Territory.   Слайды 1-6
    Включение aудиозаписи  (bagpipes, an informal anthem of Scotland)  Слайд 1
    The main historical information.          Слайды  7, 8, 9 
Traditions
    Languages                                         Слайды 10, 11, 12
    The Scottish national costume            Слайды 13, 14, 15, 16
    Scottish national food.                       Слайды 17, 18, 19
    Scottish bagpipes.                             Слайды 20, 21 
Robert Burns                                        Слайды 22-39
    Слайд 25 – декламация стихотворения на английском языке “My love is like a red, red rose…”
    Слайд 29 – включение аудиозаписи Auld Lang Syne
    Слайд 31 – декламация стихотворения на английском языке “Of a’the airts the wind can blow…”
    Cлайд 32 – декламация стихотворения на английском языке “My heart’s in the Highlands…”
    Слайд 34 – включение аудиозаписи  “Scots, wha ha…”
    Слайд 36 – включение аудиозаписи  “…a parcel of rogues in a nation”
The last slide in the presentation is 39.

Цели урока:

  • углубление и расширение (развитие) знаний по теме;
  • закрепление изученного материала  в ходе подготовки учащимися сообщений;
  • развитие навыков говорения на английском языке с применением монологической речи и  декламации стихотворений на английском языке;
  • развитие коммуникативных способностей с использованием английского языка.

Задачи:

  • в интересной форме обобщить, закрепить знания, полученные по теме;
  • научить видеть закономерность в зависимости географических, исторических, социокультурных  и лингвистических особенностей;
  • дать представление о роли национального языка;
  • ознакомить с некоторыми особенностями шотландского диалекта;
  • расширить кругозор у учащихся.

Оборудование: проекционный аппарат, экран, компьютер

Программное обеспечение: презентация с аудиосопровождением;

1. Geographical Position. Territory

Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba) is a part of  Great Britain and one of the countries of the United Kingdom which  occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. Besides the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles (the Orkneys and the Shetlands) and the Hebrides (Inner and Outer).

2. The main historical information

The earliest people living in Scotland were probably Iberians; the Celts invaded in the 7th century BC.  The Romans called these people the Picts (“painted”, compare “picture”). Scotland was called Caledonia by the Romans who battled early Celtic tribes and occupied southern areas from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD   but retreated behind Hadrian’s Wall (northern England) in the 2nd century AD. Scotland at that time was a nest of warrior tribes, each with its king who exercised the brief authority over a small area before being lain by his successor.
The name Scotland originated in the 11th century when the name Scotia was given to a southwestern tract settled by the tribe of Scots. The kingdom of Scotland was founded in 1018. The feudal system was established in the 12th century.
Scotland was invaded by Edward I of England in 1296, but the Scots resisted strongly. William Wallace and Robert Bruce both defeated English armies in1297 and 1314, respectively, and England recognized Scottish independence in 1328. Bruce’s daughter launched the tragic but tenacious Stuart dynasty of monarchs with whose misfortunes much of Scotland’s later history is associated.
With the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587), Scotland lost her independence. In 1603 the crowns of two nations, England and Scotland were united through the legislative union of the two kingdoms that was officially proclaimed only in 1707. In 1603 James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded to the throne of England as James I, and affected the Union of the Crowns. In 1707 Scotland received representation in the British Parliament, resulting of the former separate parliaments.
Its executive in the British cabinet is the Secretary of state for Scotland. Many Scots supported the risings of 1715 and 1745.Bonnie Prince Charlie’s defeat in 1746 marked the end of Stuart hopes. After the 1745 uprising the Clan system was destroyed. During the 18th and 19th centuries many Highland farmers were turned out of their farms in the “clearances”; sheep farms were turned into deer forests.

3. Traditions

 The national symbol of Scotland is the thistle and her patron saint is St.Andrew. This is how, according to the curious legend, the thistle came to be chosen as a badge, in preference of any other plant or flower. In very ancient times the Vikings (Norsemen) once landed somewhere on the east coast of Scotland with the intention of plundering and settling in the country. The Scots assembled with their arms and took their stations behind the river Tay. As they arrived late in the day, weary and tired after a long march, they pitched their camp and rested without expecting the enemy before the next day. The Norsemen, however, were near; noticing that no guards and sentinels were protecting the camp, they crossed the Tay, intending to take the Scots by surprise.  To the end they took off their shoes so as to make the least noise possible. But one of the Norsemen stepped on the thistle that made him shriek. The alarm was given in the Scots’ camp. The Norsemen were put to fight and as the acknowledgement of the timely and unexpected help from the thistle, the Scots took it as a national emblem.

4. Languages

There are three languages used on the territory of Scotland: English (the main language), Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Scottish Gaelic and Scots were recognized officially in 1992 by the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages, which was ratified in 2001 by the British Government.
The Scottish Gaelic Language is spoken by around 86,000 individuals primarily in the North of Scotland and in the Western Isles (Skye, Lewis, Harris). The vast majority of Gaelic speakers are bilingual Gaelic / English. Today there are very few people who do not speak English. Gaelic (or Scottish Gaelic) has much in common with the other Celtic languages, and is particularly close to Irish (or Irish Gaelic). Another variant of Gaelic is spoken in the Isle of Man called Manx Gaelic – practically extinct.
  Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, but with its own distinct dialects.
 Scottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. The main, formal variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English abbreviated to SSE.

5. The Scottish national costume

The Scottish national costume (Highland dress) includes a kilt – a knee-length pleated tartan skirt worn by men. For day wear a kilt is worn with a tweed jacket, plain long socks, a beret and a leather sporran, that is a pouch hanging from a narrow belt round the hips. For evening the kilt is worn with a fur sporran, tartan socks, an elaborate jacket and a frilly shirt. The Scottish beret– tam o’shanter – is a woolen cap without a brim but with a pompom or a feather on the top, traditionally worn pulled down at the side. It got its name  after Tam o’Shanter, the hero of Burns’s poem of that name.

6. Scottish meal

The famous Scottish saying "S mairg a ni tarcuis air biadh," ("He who has contempt for food is a fool.") describes precisely the attitude to the food and cooking of Scotland. The Scots have learnt over the years to make best use of the offerings nature handed to them in Scotland, from the rugged mountains, lakes, sea lochs and streams, to the fertile valleys and moorlands.

Some traditional Scotch meals

Scotch broth – a thick soup made from beef stock, chopped vegetables and pearl barley.
Scotch egg – a hard-boiled egg enclosed in sausage meat and covered in fried bread crumbs, eaten either hot or cold.
Scotch wood-cock – a savoury dish of hot toast with anchovies and creamy scrambled eggs, us. Eaten at the end of a meal.
Haggis – a sheep stomach stuffed with the lungs, the heart and various other parts of the inside of the sheep minced ad mixed up with oatmeal and boiled; haggis is eaten with mashed potatoes or turnips boiled until they are soft; at a proper Burns Supper a piper in full dress accompanies the haggis to the dining table;
Arbroath ‘smokies’ (smoked haddock)
Aberdeen-Angus steak – named after the former counties of Aberdeen and Angus famous for a black hornless beef cattle)
Scone – a cake made of flour or oatmeal, milk and very little fat and cooked either in the oven or on the griddle.

7. Scottish bagpipes

Bagpipes are not unique to Scotland. Various forms of bagpipe have evolved in countries as diverse as India, Russia, North Africa, and a number of countries in Europe (Ireland,   Finland, Germany, France, Spain) and  the Middle East. It was probably introduced to Scotland either by the Roman legions or by the Irish.
The Scottish bagpipe is unique in having three drones, and also by being used for military music by Scottish regiments.
References to forms of bagpipe date right back to the Greeks 2500 years ago, and the Romans used it 1900 years ago. The first British reference is a Northumberland pipe around 1200, and it was around this time that the instrument became very popular right across Europe. Most of these bagpipes, including the Scottish ones were similar, and had two tenor drones by 1500. The Scottish instrument developed its third drone, a bass drone, around 1700, and from then on the music for the bagpipe tended to be martial, as its main use was by Scottish soldiers.
Today's bagpipe has the following parts:

  • a chanter, which is the bit used to play the tune. It has 9 notes
  • three big drones, each of which plays a singles constant note (2 treble, one bass).
  • a leather bag held under the arm and filled with air by blowing into a pipe to the pipers mouth

The piper fills the bag with air, which causes the drones to skirl constantly, and the tune is played on the chanter. There is, of course, much scope for decoration of the bagpipe. The leather bag is covered with a decorative velvet cover. And the drones are made from quality polished hardwood. Silver decoration can be added to embellish the instrument.

8. Robert Burns

For Scotsmen Robert Burns is an institution as well as a poet. He united his countrymen in a
sentimental bond. Everyone, or at least, every Scotsman, has his own image of Burns, whether it be untutored plough-boy poet, the hard-drinking womaniser or simply as an icon of the Scottish democratic spirit. His birthday is celebrated once a year with copious amounts of wisky on 25th  January by misty-eyed Scots from Hong Kong to Alberta wearing a distinctly inappropriate conventionalised  form of Highland dress.
Burns was born on 25th January 1759 in the small village Alloway in the house with the walls of clay and under the thatched roof. It was a very good house at those times : there was even a window with thick blebby glass, that considered to be splendour. That house was built by his father, William Burns, the son of the ruined farmer, who had arrived from the North of Scotland. For several years he had served to some rich people, trying to rent a piece of ground and to get a family of his own. But only after his father’s death he was able to rent some ground and to build his own house. There he brought his young wife, black-eyed Agnes Brawn.
William Burns realized that only a good education could help his children to make their way in the world. He taught his sons Arithmetic and Reading, trained them to speak correctly. Then he and his neighbours engaged a young real educated man. That was John Merdock, who acquainted them with the works of Milton and Shakespeare, explaining all difficult places to them.
During long winter evenings Robert heard his mother sing old songs and ballades in native Scottish dialect. He also heard the stories and tales, that one old woman told him in the same dialect. None in the world knew so many songs and tales about the devil, ghosts, fairies, witches, mermaids, goblins, werewolves, house-spirits and vampires. Those old songs and tales made such a deep impression on young Burns’s imagination that he could become nobody, but a poet of his Motherland – Scotland.
Since the age of 13 Robert has to work hard in the field, to thresh the corn with his own hands to help his father and his family .Then his first love came. That was Nelly, the girl, who helped him during harvesting.
In one of his youth diaries Burns says: “No doubt there is a direct connection between love, music and poetry…  I had never had an idea of becoming a poet until I fell in love… And then rhyme and melody became the voice of my heart.”
In 1781 Burns went to Irvin to train as a flax dresser. It was a disastrous venture compounded by unsuccessful love affair and Burns began to take solace in public houses and wild companies. He was suffering of one of the many bouts of deep melancholy. But then he met a young sailor, Richard Brown, the noblest and well educated young man, who had seen both light and dark sides of life during his voyages. He was the first to make Burns believe in himself as a poet.
In 1784 Burns moved to Mossgiel and again tried to make a living as a farmer.
During that period he met his future wife, Jean Armour, but because of the objections of her father, the marriage was not yet to be. Burns decided to emigrate to the West Indies. Luckily, for literature his fortunes changed with his first collection “Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect”, which was published in Kilmarnock in June 1786, and Burns decided to stay. The volume contains come of his most popular early songs as well as “To a Mouse’, “To a Mountain Daisy” and many others.
Although Burns received more than 20 pounds for it, the book was of huge popular success, being admired by everyone from plough-boys to the literati of Edinburgh, some of them began patronizing him as a rustic prodigy.
After the second edition of the poems in 1787 – which brought Burns sufficient financial security to allow him to return to Ayrshire in 1788 – he was to write two of his best loved works “Auld Lang Syne “ and “ Tam o’Shanter” – his last work and masterpiece. “ Auld Lang Syne “ is always sung at parties.
By that time he was married to Jean Armour and having lost all his money had to take up a position as an Excise Officer. Many of his songs and ballades are devoted to his loved wife Jean. One of them she loved to sing the best.
By 1790 Burn’s health began to suffer, partly as a result of rheumatic  heart disorder, probably first contracted in his youth, and partly because of the strain  of constantly travelling on behalf of the Excise, for whom  he was working more-or less full time. In that year “Tam o’Shanter’ was published and Robert continued working for “Scots Musical Museum”.
In winters of 1794 and 1795 he was ill with rheumatic fever, although he managed to work for the Excise. However the illness continued  through the winter and spring of 1796 and he died on 21 July 1796.
At daybreak they brought him his four sons to bid farewell to their father. On the day of his funeral Jean gave birth to the 5th son.
Just after his death Scotland realized whom she had lost. Burns was buried with martial honours and his coffin was carried in their arms for a whole mile.
Jean and her children were taken care of by their friends – they gathered rather a big sum of money. The children had a chance of getting a good education and Jean, who lived till the age of 80, was always proud of her educated sons.

Burns’s glory spread all over the world. Many great English poets considered him to be their teacher. Even in the library of Pushkin there was a volume by Burns, but it was cut only to page 23 – probably it was difficult to the poet to read Burns’s poetry in Scottish dialect.

The main is the following – in the second half of 18th century the great national poet was living and creating in Scotland and he managed to tell people about the best, the most human feelings and experiences of ordinary people, as their friend and brother, as impassioned life-lover. Here is the mystery of his charm.