Topic 62

The topic we have chosen to develop is number ? and its name is "The Commonwealth, Cultural Diversity and Development of Linguistic Varieties. Intercultural Influences and Manifestations. The Novels of E. M. Forster, D. Lessing and N. Gordimer." First, we will provide an outline to guide the reader through the document so he/she can have an overall idea of the topic. This outline ab? by the Order of September 9th, 199?, whereby the official set of topics for the competitive exams for primary and secondary teachers are set forth. We will kick off the topic with an introduction that will give a general idea of the topic. Section ? will study the Commonwealth, its history, formation, and current situation. Section three will analyze the cultural diversity and linguistic varieties of the most important countries of the Commonwealth. In section four, we will go into different linguistic varieties, having English as a common language. Section five will see the cultural characteristics of the countries belonging to the Commonwealth that have in common. In section six, we will examine three authors who, due to their origin or their Commonwealth affiliation, can be easily associated with the Commonwealth. We will ​finish off with a conclusion and the bibliographical references used in the elaboration of this topic.

Before we continue with the development of the topic itself, we would like to point out why it is relevant to be written and read. The Commonwealth is the extension of what used to be the B? Empire (topic 49), an ass? that gathers together all the former col? that once belonged to Britain. Now, under a set of democratic principles, they cooperate, and their voices are amplified. These countries share English as their official language, hence, as English teachers, and from a sociocultural perspective too, it is extremely useful information. Three authors are studied in this topic, F?, L?, and Gord?. The three of them can be used in English as a foreign language for their graded readers and for the topics dealt with in their works, many of them key in the development of the 20th and the 21st century. Let us begin now with the development of the topic itself.

1. Introduction. The ? is an entity that has brought tog? different countries under the influence of British col? during the last 250 years. Most of these countries had their traditions, cultures, religions, and languages before the B? arrival. These societies were heavily influenced and changed under British rule, losing many feat? of their own identity and adopting new social and cultural models from their colonizers. They share many common ch?, the language being the most important one. The English language has provided a means of communication for the Commonwealth's peoples and has been the main language in which many authors belonging to these countries have expressed themselves, this being the case of Edward Morgan F?, Nadine Gord?, and Doris L?. After having introduced the topic, we shall move on to analyze the Commonwealth in more detail.

2. The Commonwealth. 2.1. INTRODUCTION. The Commonwealth is a loo? association of independent so? states, nearly all of them members of the United N?, scattered among the continents and adjacent islands. The Commonwealth includes a q? of the world's people in one-quarter of the world’s land area, including some of the richest countries and some of the poorest. The modern Commonwealth includes r? and other monarchies in addition to states headed by the K?. The K? is the Head of the Commonwealth. He is also recognized as Head of State in ? countries, including Canada and Aus?. (Source: www.thecommonwealth.org).

2.2. Formation and History of the Commonwealth. The tra? of the British Empire into a Commonwealth of inde? nations began, in part, in 1867 with the establishment of Ca? as a fully self-? country, still associated with B?. Australia and New Zealand followed. The new Commonwealth began in 194? when I? and Pakistan became independent. India’s membership of the Commonwealth was not affected by its decision three years later to become a r?. All the major colonial territories, in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, had become independent within ? years.

2.3. Structure and Activity. The Commonwealth differs from other international bodies such as the United Nations. It has no formal cons?. The members have no le? or formal obligation to one another; they are held together by sh? traditions, institutions, and experiences as well as by economic self-interest. Commonwealth action is based upon consul? between members, which is conducted through correspondence and occasional meetings. Each member country sends an emi?, called a high commissioner, to the capitals of the other members.

2.4. The Commonweatlh today. It has a secr?, and every year there is a me? of heads of government. Meanwhile, member of the Bristish R? family make their visits to member state and do much to keep alive the sym? links. The most serious difficulties of the 1980s arose over the statutes of the F? islands, 300 kilometers off the extreme south of Argentina, with an area falf the size of Wales. Although the old empire has almost entirely been dissolved, there is still a sense of duty to those small remaining pieces for which British responsibility continues. As Nelson M? said, "The Commonwealth makes the world safe for diversity". Now Commonwealth members have tra? agreements with the EU. Malta and Cyprus are memeber of both the Commonwealth and the EU; they remained in the EU even after Britain left in 20?.

3. The Cultural Models. D.E.S. Maxwell differentiates between the dis? society (in ex-? colonies) and the trans? society (in ex-s? colonies). The case of the C? is a mixture of both cultural models. Transplanted Societies (Ex-settler Colonies) The cultures of C?, Au?, and New Z? belong in this category. The majority of the population is of E? origin and has had to adapt to transform Old World cultural habits. They established a transplanted civ? that secured political independence while retaining a non-in? language. Disrupted Societies In this type of colonial process, the land was often densely populated before the a? of the colonizers. The primarily oral ancestral cultures of A? and the part-scribal, part-oral cultures of the I? subcontinent belong in this category. Mixed Model: The C? The product of both di? and tr?.

3.1 Canada. The first recorded non-aboriginal settlement in Canada was made by Jacques C? in the 1?th century. Linguistic Development>H?, Canadian English is difficult for us to dis? from some other North American varieties. The differences are mainly in voc? and pro?. Cultural Diversity>The largest ethnic group in Canada is B? (40%) followed by F? (2?%). Canadian culture has been colonized by A? culture, and this can be seen in the m? media. (R. H? 2012).

3.2 Australia. In 178?, a fleet of 11 B? ships anchored in Australia. Between 1810 and 1865, about a m? people left the British Isles and went to Australia. There was a mass European-wi? imm? from 1945 until 1974. Linguistic Development Australian English, famous for its air of nov?, is something of a liv? museum, preserving several ei?- and nineteenth-c? regional words from Cor?, Wessex, Midlands, Sc?, and Ireland. Cultural Diversity Australia is a world of con?. The cities remind us of the ? and the tra? evoke life in Britain. (R. H? 2012).

3.3 New Zealand. European settlement began in the late 1?th century. Linguistic Development: Big influence from the SC?. Cultural Diversity: New Zealand still has an att? to Britain that is un? of in Australia. (R. Hickey 2012).

3.4 Africa. The process of colonization was made systematically during the s? half of the 1?th century. Most of the European conquest of Africa had been accomplished b? World War I. Linguistic Development: P? English. Cultural Diversity: In all African countries, the maj? of the population is in?. Some Aftican countries belonging to the Commonweath have sig? European p?.

3.5 India Linguistic Development: By the end of the century, English had become the pr? language of India. More and more Indian w? were added to the English vocabulary. Cultural Diversity: Regional div? are reflected in the mos? of its myriad races, lang?, and religions. Indian art and culture have developed over many c?. (R. H? 2013).

3.6 The Caribbean. In the islands of the Caribbean, the arrival of the first wh? and then thousands of bl? slaves caused an extraordinary transformation of the region’s linguistic and c? geography. The making of the Caribbean Cre?. Linguistic Development: Of all the varieties of Caribbean English, J? English has attracted the most sch? attention. Cultural Diversity: The Caribbean, despite an appearance of uni?, is frag?. Each island has its strong loy? and traditions. (R. ? 2013).

4. Intercultural Influence and Manifestations. Mostly due to their history of British rule, many Commonwealth nations share certain id? traditions and cus? that are elements of a sh? Commonwealth culture. Although they are not universal within the Commonwealth countries, all of them are more common than anywhere else. Example include: -Sports such as c? and rug?. -Driving on the l?. -The Westminster system of par? democracy. -The use of British English s? conventions. There are also significant ed? links between members, as many British teachers travel over? and many students from Commonwealth members study in B?. Other cultural links include the Commonwealth G?, a sporting competition held every f? years. The Games are the Commonwealth's most visible activity, and interest in the operation of the Commonwealth increases greatly when the Games are held. Finally, we will study the li? connected with the Commonwealth.

5. Commonwealth Literature. 5.1 E.M. Forster E.M. Forster, in full Edward Morgan Forster, (born January 1, 1879, London, England—died June 7, 1970, Coventry, Warwickshire), British n?, essayist, and social and lit? critic. His fame rests largely on his novels A Room with a V? (1908), Howards E? (1910), A P? to India (1924), and M? (1971). A Room with a View was published in 1908. It was one of Forster's e? novels, and it has become one of his most fam? and popular. British social com? examines a young hero?'s struggle against strait-laced V? attitudes as she rejects the m? her family has encouraged her to mar? and chooses, instead, a socially unsuitable fellow she met on holiday in Italy. A classic exploration of pas?, human nat?, and social convention.

5. Commonwealth Literature. 5.1 E.M. Forster Published in 1910, H? End was E.M. Forster's fourth novel and served to strengthen his rep? as an esteemed author. The novel addresses some of life's most serious questions, including how people re? to each other and what kinds of val? one ought to live by. Howards End has been a powerful novel and an important sym? for this era's writing for nearly a century. E.M. Forster wrote A P? to India in 1924, the la? completed novel that he published during his lifetime. The novel differs from Forster's other major works in its ov? political content, as opposed to the li? tone and more subdued political subtext contained in works such as Howards End and A Room with a View. The novel deals with the political occupation of I? by the British, a colonial domination that ended after the publication of Forster's text and still during his lifetime. Maurice is a novel about h?. It was first published after several years of revision and work in 1971, a year after the death of its author. Forster understood that his homage to same-s? love if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only af? his death. It is an astonishingly frank and deeply aut? account of homosexual relat? in an era when love between men was not only stigmatized but also ill?. (N. Royle. 2018).

5.2 Doris Lessing. "Nothing that I write or say will be as truthful as my fiction." — Doris Lessing Doris Lessing, in full Doris May Lessing, original name Doris May Tayler, (born October 22, 1919, Kermānshāh, Persia [now Iran]—died November 17, 2013, London, England), a British writer whose n? and s? stories are largely concerned with soc? and literary up? of the 20th century. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her family was living in Per? at the time of her birth but moved to a farm in Southern Rh? (now Zimbabwe), where she lived for more than 2? years until she settled in England in 1949. In her early adult years, she was an active comm?. In Pursuit of the E? (1960) tells of her initial months in England, and Goin H? (1957) describes her reaction to Rh? on a return visit. In 1994, she published the first volume of an au?, Under My S?; a second volume, Walking in the Sh? appeared in 1997.

5.2 Doris Lessing. Following Elizabeth Mas? (2018) her first published book, The Grass is Singing (1950), is about a white farmer and his wife and their A? servant in Rhodesia. Among her most substantial works is the series Children of V? (1952-69), a five-novel sequence that centers on Martha Q?, who grows up in Southern A? and settles in England. The Golden Notebook (1962), in which a woman w? attempts to come to terms with the life of her ti? through her ar?, is one of the most complex and the most wid? read of her novels. The Memoirs of a S? (1975) is a pro? fantasy that explores psychological and social break?. A master of the sh? story, Lessing has published several coll?, including The Story of a Non-Marrying M? (1972) and Stories (1978); her African stories are collected in This Was the Old Chief’s C? (1951) and The Sun Between Their F? (1973).

5.2. Doris Lessing. Lessing turned to science fiction in a five-novel sequence titled Canopus in A?: Arch? (1979–83). The novels The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983) and If the Old Could... (1984) were published pseudonymously under the name Jane S? to dramatize the problems of unknown writers. Subsequent novels include The Good T? (1985), about a group of revolutionaries in London, and The Fifth Ch? (1988), a horror story to which Ben, in the World (2000) is a sequel. The Sweetest Dream (2001) is a semiautobiographical novel set primarily in London during the 1960s, while the parable-like novel The Cleft (2007) considers the origins of human society. Her collection of essays Time B? (2004) displays her wide-ranging interests, from women’s issues and politics to Suf?. Alfred and Em? (2008) is a mix of fiction and memoir centered on her parents.

5.3 Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer, (born November 20, 1923, Springs, Transvaal [now in Gauteng], South Africa—died July 13, 2014, Johannesburg) was a S? African novelist and short-story writer whose major th? was ex= and ali?. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 199?. Gordimer’s first book was Face to F (1949), a collection of short stories. In 1953 a novel, The Lying D?, was published. Both exhibit the clear, controlled, and unsen? style that became her hall?. Her stories concern the devastating effects of ap? on the lives of South Africans—the constant tension between personal isolation and the commitment to social justice, the numb? caused by the unwillingness to acc? apartheid, the in? to change it, and the refusal of ex?.

In 1974 Gordimer’s novel The Cons? (1974) was a joint winner of the Boo? Prize. Later novels included Burger’s Daug? (1979), July’s People (1981), A Sport of Nat? (1987), My Son’s Story (1990), The House Gun (1998), and The Pickup (2001). Gordimer addressed envi? issues in Get a Life (2005), the story of a South African ec? who, after receiving thyroid treatment, becomes r? and hence dang? to others. Her final novel, No Time Like the P? (2012), follows veterans of the battle against apa? as they deal with issues facing modern South Africa. Gordimer wrote several volumes of short stories, including A Soldier’s Emb? (1980), Something Out There (1984), Jump and Other Stories (1991), and Loot and Other Stories (2003). Living in Hope and History: Notes from Our Century (1999) is a collection of essays, correspondence, and reminiscences. (D. Brahimi. 2012).

6. Topic Implications. At classroom level, the information in this unit connects with S? Aspects and Intercultural Aw?. Lexical contents refer to the varieties of English spoken all over the world. In the classroom, different accents, pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammar differences can be worked on by taking advantage of the characteristics that all these different English varieties provide. From the point of view of activities: all the different strategies to exploit a text (E.M. Forster, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer, the two last ones being w?, which incorporates another interesting element to exploit and analyze several Women who made their living out of writing in English). According to LOMLOE ?/2020, where the Spanish Education System is regulated and ?/2022 (autonomous community decree), where the curricula for CSE & Bachillerato are established in Murcia, the content of this topic highlights mainly sociocultural aspects. It is stated that students have to be able to be familiar with the culture whose language they are learning, hence, the content of this topic would be of great help. In that sense, it would also be connected with a minimum content block of "in?" found in Royal Decree 217/2022. The content of this topic also promotes cultural awareness and expression and it is connected with competence descriptors CAE?, CAE?, and CA?, following Royal Decree 21?/2022.

7. CONCLUSION. We will complete this topic by saying that it has been a de? to develop a topic like this one, about a period of recent history where history and literature are so intimately connected. The Commonwealth is a consensus-based, inter? organization with many objectives, including economic development, democracy-building, free trade promotion, poverty reduction, healthcare programs, and cultural exchange. Despite these actions, some analysts have highlighted the Commonwealth’s w? institutional structure, as it has few concrete mechanisms to influence its members’ behavior and often relies on peer pressure and mor? authority. E.M. Forster, D. Lessing, and N. Gordimer are three exemplary writers of how what once was known as the British Empire exerted a great influence on different nations and cultures around the globe. Their experiences and, ultimately, their themes are representative of all that literature produced outside of England and have contributed to making English literature more appealing and diverse. As teachers, this topic seems like a little gem. Since the number of sociocultural to?, lin? varieties, and grad? texts that can be explored in the fore? language classroom is endless.

LINK THE AUTHORS WITH THEIR WORKS. E.M Forster. Doris Lessing. Nadien Gordimer.

MNEMONIC- C.F.S.T- C? Formed S? Ties.

MNEMONIC- "C? Canaries Always N? After Int? Caribbean.