English Icons
What images represent England to you?
What icons represent your country? What do you think a British person would put as the top 5 icons of your country?
England: Do you know your statistics?
Read the statements about England and try to put the correct number in the gap.
1. More than ____ languages are spoken in London.
2. More than ____% of secondary school children in England don’t have English as their first language.
3. The population of the United Kingdom is almost _____ million.
4. The population of England is just over _____ million.
5. Britain has more people aged over ______ than under _____.
6. The currency of the UK is the pound. _____ pence make one pound. 60, 60, 250, 50, 100, 16, 9
Reading Task : Diverse society, Football and food
Read the text and then discuss the questions in groups:
What’s the first country you think of when you think of the United Kingdom?
What’s the difference between England, the United Kingdom and Great Britain?
Have you, or any of your classmates, ever visited any of the cities mentioned in the text?
Which other famous people do you consider to be English icons?
Diverse Society, Football and Food - Living in England
England is perhaps the country most people first think of when they think of the United Kingdom. It borders both Scotland and Wales and almost 50 million people live in there, which is over 80% of the UK’s total population. Major cities include London (the capital), Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, and Manchester. London is one of the most well-known cities in the world and for many is representative of the whole of England, if not the whole of the UK. Other icons include football, actors Jude Law and Kate Winslet, Bridget Jones, pubs and beer. But for most these represent the whole of the UK, not just England.
Many of the people in our survey, either English by birth or now living here, commented that it was very difficult to distinguish between English and British culture and identity. People found that they often identify more with other things than with England as a country. These other things include: the place or region in which they live, whether it be a major city or one of the English counties such as Yorkshire, Devon or Northumberland; the UK as a whole; or the religious or ethnic community they are from.
"Close your eyes and imagine you are on an aeroplane. You look out of the window and see the clouds. The plane is arriving at the airport and you feel a little bit nervous as you land. You get out of the plane and follow the signs to get your suitcase. You get your suitcase and walk out of the airport. You can’t believe that you are in London at last. You decide to catch a taxi to your hotel in the centre of the city. What does the taxi look like? You arrive at your hotel and leave your bag in your room. You look out of your bedroom window. What can you see? You look up at the sky, what colour is it? What’s the weather like? You decide to go for a walk outside to start exploring the city. There are lots of people on the street. What do they look like? What are they wearing? You see buses on the street. What colour are they? What colour are the post boxes? You feel hungry so you stop for something to eat. What do you eat? You decide to start your sightseeing of the city. Where do you go?…..” (continue for as long as you think your students are concentrating and involved.)
When you have finished say to students, "OK. Open your eyes.” Then ask students to draw or write about what they saw. When they have all put some of their images on paper, ask them to explain some of the images. Use their pictures to lead on to task two or on to talking about England. Who’s been there? Who’d like to go there? Etc. etc. (Be ready for anything -when I did this with my class I got the twin towers, the Empire State Building and the Pyramids!)
1. More than 250 languages are spoken in London.
2. More than 9% of secondary school children in England don’t have English as their first language.
3. The population of the United Kingdom is almost 60 million.
4. The population of England is just over 50 million.
5. Britain has more people aged over 60 than under 16.
6. The currency of the UK is the pound.100 pence make one pound.