a resource book on speech performance

for advanced students of English

O.Zaitseva

Department of West-European

Languages and Cultures

Real English series

Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University 2009

Introduction

A ‘Real English’ series is designed for intermidiate, upper-intermidiate and more advanced students of English. This book is meant for students who are interested in conceptual discussion, and who are developing the skill of critical thinking, which is an important ability to take in new information, adequately interpret it and apply it at another time and another place.

Possible variations of critical thinking are:

• making predictions,

• interpreting new ideas,

• recognizing cultural humour,

• supporting information,

• interpreting symbols,

• classifying information,

• considering both points of view,

• expanding the literal meaning of words,

• interpreting metaphors, etc.

This book provides teachers and students with authentic texts of problematic type; each containing introduction into the problem, argumentative ideas, facts and consideration. Humorous manner of relating makes it possible to view the problem from more or less serious aspects.

‘Open-up ideas’ and Close-up considerations sections follow the main communicative-cognitive tendency in teaching English, providing necessary discussion practice in class.

Before holding group discussion, it’s advisable to carry out a thourough ‘word study’ on the text to facilitate language acquisition of every part of it and thus not contributemuch into adequate interpretation of the massage.

‘Glossary’, containing pragmatic items, serves to fill in the gap between language competence and speech performance.

Suggested themes for discussion are of great interest for young generation, and the texts are full of good ideas. It’s an ideal material for holding real discussions in English.

Unit One

Open-up ideas

1. Everything is provided for us when we live at home.

2. Your parents’ reaction helps you understand what is good and what is bad.

3. Children try to avoid doing ‘bad’ things.

4. Living at home we are less exposed to the truthfulness of the outside world.

5. Young people have a strong feeling of security, when they live at home.

6. Parents always offer their help and protection when the need arises.

Text for discussion

When we are very young, the house where we live is our whole world. Everything is provided for us - food and shelter, warmth and love. We obey our parents without question, because if mummy and daddy say it, it must be right. Every experience we have, everything that happens to us, is classified as good or bad according to their reaction. We quickly learn to do those things which earn their praise, and to avoid those things which upset them and earn their disapproval. Even if we do not know why a certain sort of behaviour is said to be ‘naughty’, we accept that it is naughty and try to avoid doing it again, however enjoyable it might otherwise be.

As we grow older, we are more and more exposed to outside influence - school, friends and other adults - and we soon start to realise that there are other values which do not always coincide with those our friends hold. For example, your parents have told you that certain words like ‘bloody’, are ‘swear words’ and have forbidden you to use them. Yet, in your friend’s house, everybody - children and grownups alike - say things like ‘bloody hell’ when they are annoyed, and do not seem to think that there is anything wrong with it. You are bewildered, you wonder who is right, and you try to resolve the conflict of values between two lots of people - your parents on the one hand, and your friends on the other - for whom you have equal respect. Eventually what happens is that we start to lead double lives, reserving certain kinds of behaviour for the home, and other kinds for the world outside the home.

The real conflicts only start, however, when we are adolescent, and begin to question everything and everybody, including our parents and their values, as part of the process of establishing our own independent values. Unfortunately, as long as we are living at home and are dependent on our parents, we cannot lead our own lives or live according to our own views of right and wrong. The trouble is that if our parents give us more freedom, we are bound to make some mistakes, and they may well begin to wonder if they have given us too much freedom. On the other hand, most parents realise that if they allow too little freedom their teenage children are likely to become sullen and resentful, or hostile and rebellious. At one extreme, a father may become like a dictator, arguing that he will make all his children’s decisions for them, because they are not yet mature enough to make their own.

At the other extreme, he might allow an anarchic sort of freedom, where the children are left to their own devices without any help or guidance whatsoever. In the latter case, some of the mistakes his children make could have very serious consequences, for example when choosing a career, or deciding to live away from home. Somewhere between these two extremes it ought to be possible to find a sort of democratic alternative, which allows them the freedom to grow up and to make their own decisions and even mistakes, but which also offers them help and protection when the need arises.