МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ БЕЛАРУСЬ

УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«ГРОДНЕНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ИМЕНИ ЯНКИ КУПАЛЫ»

ИНСТИТУТ ПОСЛЕДИПЛОМНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

УЧРЕЖДЕНИЯ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

«ГРОДНЕНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ИМЕНИ ЯНКИ КУПАЛЫ»

С. В. ФЕТИСОВА

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК:

обсуждаем устные темы

Учебное пособие

для слушателей переподготовки

специальности П 02. 07. 00 П «Английский язык»

и Г. 02. 05. 00 «Современные иностранные языки»

Гродно 2004

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Настоящее пособие является частью учебно-методического комплекса по практике английского языка и предназначено для студентов специальностей П.02.07.00П «Английский язык» и Г.02.05.00П «Современные иностранные языки».

Цель данного пособия состоит в развитии умений устного иноязычного общения с акцентом на неподготовленную, инициативную, спонтанную речь.

Часто приходится наблюдать как обучаемые, научившись довольно свободно оперировать учебным материалом в процессе тренировочных упражнений, оказываются в затруднительном положении, когда им приходится использовать тот же самый материал в условиях естественного иноязычного общения, особенно если необходимо высказать свое собственное суждение и отстоять свою точку зрения, аргументируя ее.

Пособие основано на принципах коммуникативного метода обучения иностранным языкам. Система речевых упражнений позволит обеспечить достаточно высокий уровень речемыслительной активности, развитие умений ведения дискуссий и дебатов. Использование групповых и парных видов работ поможет преподавателю увеличить объем речевой практики каждого студента, сделать работу более мобильной, интересной, стимулировать заинтересованное обсуждение.

Учебный материал пособия объединен в 5 тематических циклов:

1.Family. 2.Leisure Time. Hobbies. 3.Shopping. 4.Character and Appearance. Relationships. 5.Food and Meals.

Каждый цикл состоит из двух разделов:

1 - Reading

2 - Follow-up Activities

Раздел 1 содержит тексты, чтение которых вводит обучаемых в атмосферу изучаемой темы, пробуждает интерес к ее изучению и является стимулом для обсуждения самых разных проблем.

Основная коммуникативная задача, которая стоит перед студентами, заключается в извлечении основной информации из текстов, с целью дальнейшего ее использования при обсуждении проблемных вопросов и оформлении собственного высказывания по предложенной тематике, а также в развитии умений трансформации и комбинирования текста, с целью успешного выполнения речевых упражнений из раздела 2.

Раздел 2 построен на основе пошагового выполнения коммуникативных заданий (Step 1, Step 2 etc), позволяющих обеспечить одинаковую последовательность работы в рамках тематического цикла. Выполнение упражнений пособия смогут способствовать созданию мотивации общения на иностранном языке в учебных условиях, а также развитию способностей обучаемых к эвристичности, незаученности высказывания, и умению осуществлять стратегию и тактику своего речевого поведения.

Step 1 предполагает обсуждение вопросов в парах с целью активизации знаний по данной теме.

Step 2 развивает умения соглашаться с мнением собеседника или опровергать его, строя систему доказательств своей точки зрения.

Step 3, 4 включают смысловые опоры (пословицы, поговорки, цитаты), которые только подсказывают идею и требуют самостоятельного поиска средств и способов речевого выражения.

Step 5 совершенствует речевые навыки и развитие способностей целенаправленного, логического и последовательного изложения материала по ситуации, предлагаемой в тексте.

Step 6 включает коммуникативные ситуации общения, предназначенные для развития навыков диалогической речи, речевого этикета, а также способности прогнозирования высказываний речевых партнеров.

Step 7 направлен на совершенствование навыков группового общения и актуализацию взаимоотношений его участников.

Step 8 предлагает обучаемым спорные утверждения по обсуждаемой теме с целью развития умений ведения дебатов, логически и критически мыслить, организовывать свои мысли, излагая аргументы и контраргументы.

Step 9 включает коммуникативные задания, направленные на совершенствование навыков письменной речи и творческого письма.

В заключительный раздел Supplementary Reading включены тексты, которые могут быть использованы для подготовки к дискуссиям, дебатам, написанию аргументированных эссе и других видов письменных заданий.

Материал пособия представлен в таком объеме, который обеспечивает возможность выбора речевых средств в зависимости от индивидуальных особенностей, способностей и уровня языковой подготовленности обучаемых.

CONTENTS

Предисловие………………………………………………………………………

Unit 1.

Family……………………………………………………………………………….

Reading.......................................................................................................................

Follow-up Activities....................................................................................................

Unit 2.

Leisure Time. Hobbies……………………………………………………………..

Reading………………………………………………………………………………

Follow-up Activities…………………………………………………………………

.

Unit 3.

Shopping……………………………………………………………………………..

Reading……………………………………………………………………………….

Follow-up Activities…………………………………………………………………..

Unit 4.

Character and Appearance. Relationships………………………………………..

Reading……………………………………………………………………………….

Follow-up Activities…………………………………………………………………..

Unit 5.

Food and Meals..........................................................................................................

Reading……………………………………………………………………………….

Follow-up Activities…………………………………………………………………..

Supplementary Reading…………………………………………………………….

References……………………………………………………………………………

UNIT 1

FAMILY

READING

Read the texts below attentively in order to immerse into the atmosphere of the topic under discussion and be able to use information and ideas from them in the activities following afterwards.

Text 1.1.

The Family in the Past and Present

A hundred years ago there was only one acceptable model of a family: the father, the mother and children. A man was the head of the family and the most important person in the home. He was the master and the ruler who treated his wife and children as his private property. A woman was financially dependent on her husband and had little to say. Her only role was to bear and rear children. The children, in turn, were brought up in discipline and obedience. Still, their situation was much better than that of those who were born out of wedlock. In the past single unmarried mothers with illegitimate children were stigmatized and barely tolerated in society.

The situation improved a lot with the Liberation Movement which started at the end of the 19^th century. Women were given more rights and their role in society was strengthened but at the same time the traditional family pattern began to change.

Nowadays we can forget the stereotype of the bread-winning father and the child-raising mother. The term “traditional” or “typical” applies to fewer and fewer families. Although still the most common type of household is the couple with one or two children, more and more people decide not to get married claiming that legislation is unnecessary to prove their love. This more “informal” family pattern is particularly popular in Sweden which in 1997 had the highest percentage of children born out of wedlock in Europe – fifty four percent. Another common family structure today is the single mother, either unwed or divorced, who raises one or two children. There has also been an increase in the number of men who are being granted custody after divorce, especially in the United Kingdom.

Over the last twenty years the percentage of European children living in single parent households has nearly tripled, and in 2000 amounted to nearly ten per cent. A recent hot issue was giving homosexual couples the same legal rights as heterosexuals in the Netherlands. Now lesbian or gay couples can adopt children and raise them together – something unthinkable even a generation ago.

To sum up, the structure of the European family is changing drastically. A married couple with children, once the model, is being replaced by all kinds of different relationships, not necessarily based on marriage. Although governments hope to encourage the traditional nuclear family made up of two parents and their children, there isn’t much they can do. They have to adapt to the new realities by legally recognizing and giving certain rights to nontraditional families instead of telling people how they should live together.

Text 1.2.

Family Life

The English are a nation of stay-at-home. “There is no place like home,” they say. And when the man is not working he is at home in the company of his wife and children and busies himself with the affairs of the home. “The Englishman’s home is his castle,” is a saying known all over the world. And it is true.

A “typical” British family used to consist of mother, father and two children, but in recent years there have been many changes in family life. Some of these have been caused by new laws and others are the result of changes in society. For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of divorces has increased. In fact one marriage in every three now ends in divorce. This means that there are a lot of one-parent families. Society is now more tolerant than it used to be of unmarried people, unmarried couples and single parents.

Another change has been caused by the fact that people are living longer nowadays, and many old people live alone following the death of their partners. As a result of these changes in the pattern of people’s lives, there are many households which consist of only one person or one person and children.

You might think that marriage and the family are not so popular as they once were. However, the majority of divorced people marry again, and they sometimes take responsibility for a second family.

Members of a family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – keep in touch, but they see less of each other than they used to. This is because people often move away from their home town to work, and so the family becomes scattered. Although the family group is smaller nowadays than it used to be, relatives often travel many miles in order to spend the holiday together.

In general, each generation is keen to become independent of parents in establishing its own family unit, and this fact can lead to social as well as geographical differences within the larger family group.

Relationships within the family are different now. Parents treat their children more as equals than they used to, and children have more freedom to make their own decisions. The father is more involved with bringing up children, often because the mother goes out to work. Increased leisure facilities and more money mean that there are greater opportunities outside the home. Although the family holiday is still an important part of family life (usually taken in August, and often abroad) many children have holidays away from their parents, often with a school party or other organized group.

Who looks after the older generation? There are about 10 million old age pensioners in Britain, of whom about 750,000 cannot live entirely independently. The government gives financial help in the form of a pension but in the future it will be more and more difficult for the national economy to support the increasing number of elderly. At the present time, more than half of all old people are looked after at home. Many others live in Old People’s Homes, which may be private or state owned.

Text 1.3.