Situations for improvisation

I. Make up monologues on the suggested situations:

1. You are an educational official of GB. You are eager to speak on the advantages

of the British education system.

2. Give all the pros and cons of British state educational establishments and private

ones.

3. You are an anxious mother who is not quite pleased with the progress of her son at

school.

II. Make up dialogues on the suggested situations:

1. One of you is a representative of the British educational authorities, the other is

interviewing you on the British education system.

2. You are two British parents. You discuss what school to send your children to:

private or state.

3. You are two British school children. You discuss what you are going to do after

16.

Presentations

Make a presentation of our department and its subdivisions as part of our university.

Networking

• Find the e-mail addresses of schools, colleges and universities in other countries. Send them e-mails asking them to reply giving an honest impression of what they think about their institutions.

• Go online to foreign newspapers and try to find articles about the education in our country.

• Collect information and find the ideas and impressions that regularly occur.

If you find the impressions amusing or inaccurate, write a reply, giving a more realistic account of the problem.

Trying your hand at translation

I. Act as an interpreter. Translate the sentences from Russian into English and from English into Russian.

Mary: You know that children start their informal educa­tion in primary schools at the age of five. More formal teaching begins at seven and goes on till the age of eleven.

Bob: Затем следует средняя школа. Почти все средние школы сейчас общеобразовательные, в которых соблюдаются одинаковые стандарты.

Mary: The old practice of "streaming", or teaching children in class separated according to ability has become unfashionable but it is still used.

Bob: Кроме академической программы, много внимания уделяется развитию личности ребёнка. Для детей недостаточно просто впитывать и помнить информацию. Они должны уметь оценивать и критически рассматривать информацию, которую они получили. У них также должны быть навыки работы на компьютере.

Fedotov: It is believed that education should be relevant to real life.

Bob: Правильно. Однако в 80-х годах соотношение учеников получивших обычные сертификаты и сертификаты повышенного уровня в 16 или 18 лет было довольно низким; большинство детей уходили из школы с довольно низким уровнем грамотности.

Mary: In the late 1980s a new law of education was passed. For the first time a basic national curriculum was established, with the main priority given to Mathematics and English and at least one foreign language, usually French.

Bob: Существуют также современные школы, предоставляющие образование со значительным уклоном к практическим навыкам.

Fedotov: You are speaking about the state sector, aren't you? And what about the private sector?

Mary: Private-sector schools are called public schools, because many centuries ago when they were founded they were open to anyone who could pay. There are about 250 of them. This term has now become absurd and nowadays they are referred to as boarding or residential schools.

Bob: Большинство их учеников приходят к ним из маленьких подготовительных школ в возрасте 11 лет или из государственных начальных школ на основе отборочных экзаменов.

Mary: These schools have now become wholly independent. Some of them have great reputation for academic excellence from other countries. The fees there are very high.

Fedotov: Are these schools always boarding schools?

Mary: No, some of them take day pupils too. These are mainly for children aged 13-18.

Fedotov: I've heard a lot about Eton. It's the best known school in the world.

Bob: Вы правы. Среди британских премьер министров много бывших учеников Итона, уже не говоря о судьях, директорах банков и страховых компаний, консерваторов членов парламента, хотя менее 2% мужчин получили образование в таких школах.

Mary: Contacts made at schools may open the way to good jobs. These schools are reserved mainly for the well-to-do including many pupils sent to them from overseas.

Fedotov: It's quite obvious that public schools provide privileged education and emphasize class division.

Bob: Да, действительно.