torsdag 7. april 2016

The British Empire

By: Mariell Bergh Sæbø

The British Empire had many colonies all around the world, and at its peak, they ruled 25% of the land mass in the world (Nagel, n.d.). Some of the countries under the rule of the British Empire was Canada and India. The British Empire was the biggest empire in history at that time, and it lasted from the 15th century until the end of world war two (The Victorian school, 2015). After the war, the colonies became independent and struggled greatly to find their own rules and politics. 
I believe that the British Empire is the reason for the world being an English-speaking world. I believe this because of how many people who actually speak English today. Approximately 340 million people speak English in today’s society; some has it as their primary language, some as their second language and other’s as their lingua franca (Ethnological languages of the World 2016).

According to Niall Ferguson (Jackson, 2013), “the Empire made the modern world and left a host of beneficial legacies“. I believe that this is about both the economy and the Britain/world being multicultural societies. This is something I believe because of everything I have heard about England. In addition, Britain is still a crucial part in the trading market, and many still wants to buy merchandises from them. After world war two, there was a mass immigration to Britain. Meaning, people from different sides of the world started flooding into Britain. The immigration might have led to a multicultural Britain.

With the British Empire making colonies all over the world, the British society had to be more open to foreigners coming to their country. If we look at Britain in today’s society, we can see that it is a society with a lot of diversity in colour of skin and cultures. Even though there is a lot of diversity in Britain, many speak the same language, English. I think this is because of the urbanization that happened when the British Empire existed, they took control over many different parts of the world and some of the citizens of the colonies chose to immigrated to England. I think this result of the British Empire has been good for the modern British society. In my opinion this might have led to their current society being more open to different cultures and to Britain being a multicultural country.

According to Jackson (2013) some of the colonies the British Empire had control over, were material producing colonies. For instance, they had many colonies in India, and they managed to bring back many different materials to Britain. Jackson also says that the British Empire was an inter-territorial trading zone where people came to trade. I believe that because Britain was a well-known trading zone before, I might have helped being a popular trading place today.
When the British Empire ruled, it resulted in a classification system. This classification system has remained existing after the empire was resolved. These class systems are: upper class, middle class, and working class. This is something that has affected the modern British society. BBC News writes in 2013 about a survey done in the UK, where they say that there are 7 different social classes in the UK today (BBC News 2013).

During The British Empire era, the economy England was greatly affected. In some ways it was a good thing. With all the trading happening in England during this era, the country got richer by being a trading zone where everyone came to trade. The middle class was rising and getting more money. On the other hand, the working class struggled more. They got less money and less to do because of the country being a technological and industrial superiority, as well as the new citizens and slaves getting their jobs. This might have led to much unemployment in today’s society.

Why use this topic in a teaching situation?
Pupils need to know how England could be if the British Empire did not exist. As well as they need to have knowledge on how the British Empire affected the world and why so many in the world is using English as a lingua franca. I believe that this would help the pupils understand the reason why we learn English in Norway.

How could we teach about the British Empire in a Norwegian class?
The British Empire is a topic, which I feel is easy and important to implement in a classroom situation. Mostly I think it is easy because it is an open topic where you could do many different tasks. You could for instance have everything from a dramatization to writing and researching. In addition, I think this topic would be interesting and fun for the pupils to learn about. It tells a story about have England became what it is today.

An important part of the British Empire was the colonies. Therefore, I feel it would be good for the pupils to research where the colonies were and find some facts about them. After the pupils have researched the topic, they could be divided into groups and be asked to do a roleplay. In the roleplay, some pupils could be the people living in the colonies, and other pupils could be the British. A fitting competence aim for this task could be; “narrate about people, places and events in English-speaking countries” (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2006).

Another task the students could do, is speaking English in different dialects. I have tried this task at my university and it was a challenging and fun task. I would consider using this task in the upper primary classes, because I believe it might be too difficult for the lower classes. In the task the pupils speak different dialects of English; Jamaican English, Italian English or British English. By doing this type of task, the pupils get an insight to some of the varieties in the English language, and it could help the pupils understand more about the colonization in the British Empire.  

It is possible to have a discussion in class about why Britain is a multicultural country, and talk about the British Empires influence on this matter. After doing this, they could research and find out when the empire resolved and what happened after it had resolved. It could be possible to discuss the immigration in England compared to the immigration in Norway. For instance, the teacher could ask; did the immigration to England start sooner than the immigration to Norway?  A fitting competence aim for this task is; “read and understand different types of texts of varying length from different sources (Utdanningsdirektoratet 2006)”.

Another possibility would be to find a movie about the empire and show it to the pupils. Children learn a lot through watching movies, because it’s different and exciting. The teacher could have tasks that the pupils do before, during, and after watching the movie. After the movie they could for instance talk about what happened, write down the facts, discuss specific details and so on. In addition, they could relate dramatization to the movie or they could read texts and write stories. During the movie, it is also a possibility to stop and ask questions about the content. By doing this the pupils might understand more of the topic.  

Conclusion:
The British Empire has affected the British society and the world in many ways. Especially it has affected the world language, and made English the most used language in the world. It is important to teach pupils about the British Empire and give them an insight in why we speak English and why English is the world’s largest language. I think this might make the pupils more interested in learning English.

Sources


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