Abstract:

Today to many students of humanitarian departments not directly connected with History (e.g. International Journalism, Public Relations, International Communications, etc.) History might seem a second-range aspect. This does not concern native history since students perceive it as part of their own identity. However, they sometimes fail to understand the importance of studying history of the country of their second or third language, claiming that emphasis must be placed only on the up-to-date language itself, without ‘wasting’ their time on what they consider a thing of the past. This is a misconception. In fact, studying history of one’s second or third language is essential not only for becoming a rounded personality. Research carried out among university students of International Journalism Department (English as a second language, level B2+ - C1) proves that those who studied history can cope with understanding articles from high-profile English-language printed media much better than those who did not. The objective of the study was to find out how the knowledge of British history helps to understand and correctly interpret information from British press (The Guardian, The Independent) with certain historical allusions. Among these allusions there was Magna Carta, ‘no taxation without representation’ principle, Luddites, and others used in a modern context. The group which had not studied British history faced more difficulties than the one which had. The study reveals that students from the former group can deal with well-known phenomena but are less precise than their counterparts from the latter group in virtually all cases; however, without proper knowledge of British history they fail to understand the implied sense of certain more specific national historical allusions. This confirms the necessity of studying history of the country of a second language.

Keywords:

ELT, history of English-speaking countries, press, historical allusions