Plural or Uncountable Noun Is the noun definite?

YES: Use "the" c) The technical reports that I gave you are top secret. (plural and definite)

• Reports, is plural (note that it ends in -s) because we are talking about more than one report. It is definite because the following phrase, that I gave you, makes it clear to the reader/listener which reports you are referring to (reason 4, above).

d) The wool that is produced in Scotland is used to make sweaters and other garments. (uncountable and definite)

• Wool is uncountable (you cannot say one wool). It is definite because the following clause, that is produced in Scotland, makes it clear which wool you are referring to (reason 4, above).

NO: Use 0 (no article) e) Long reports are difficult to write. (plural and indefinite)

• Reports is plural (note that it ends in -s). The lack of an article in front of it means that the speaker/writer is talking not about particular reports that are known to the listener/reader, but about all long reports in general.

f) Scotland's major exports are wool and oil. (uncountable and indefinite).

Wool and oil are both uncountable nouns (you cannot say one wool or one oil in this context). They are indefinite because they refer to these two substances in general, not to particular shipments of wool and oil that are known to the reader/listener.

Grammar review

Exercise 1. Make the Direct speech into Reported speech:

1. “I am sleeping”-

2. “We are contemplating”-

3. “She was speculating” –

4. “Lucy is focusing on the material”-

5. “We are not visiting Paris during our trip”-

6. “I am not convening Julie” –

7. They were pondering over this issue

Exercise 2. Finish the sentences using Reported speech. Always change the tense, although it is sometimes not necessary:

Example: Peter: “Did John clean the black shoes yesterday?”

Peter asked me________________________________________

Answer: Peter asked me if John had cleaned the black shoes the day before.

1.Mandy: “Are the boys reading the book?”

Yesterday Mandy asked me______________________________________

2.Jason: “Who gave you the laptop?”

Yesterday Jason wanted to know___________________________________

3.Robert: “Is Tim leaving on Friday?”

Yesterday Robert asked me________________________________________

4.Daniel: “Will it rain tomorrow?”

Yesterday Daniel asked me________________________________________

5.Jennifer: “Where do you play football today?”

Yesterday Jennifer wanted to know__________________________________

6.Nancy: “Why didn’t Nick go to New York last summer?”

Yesterday Nancy wanted to know___________________________________

7.Barbara: “Must I do my homework this afternoon?”

Barbara asked me________________________________________________

8.Linda: “Did Max fly to London two weeks ago?”

Linda wanted to know_____________________________________________

9.Grandmother: “Where are my glasses?”

Grandmother asked me____________________________________________

10.Aman: “When does the train to Liverpool leave?”

A man asked me__________________________________________________

Exercise 3. Read reported statements. What words did the speakers actually use in each case:

8. My friends all said it was really easy to use.

9. Most of the music shops in town said they’d never even heard of the band.

10. I said I’d go and visit her next year if I could.

11. They say they are losing sales because people like me aren’t buying as many CDs.

Exercise 4. Answer the questions:

1. What usually happens to verb tenses in reported speech?

2. How is sentence 4 grammatically different from the other three sentences? How does this discrepancy affect the meaning?

Exrecise 5. Report these statements made by some other people on the program:

1. “I’ve stopped getting a daily paper”.-

2. “I’m having regular chats with my older brother who’s in Thailand.”-

3. I’ve even met one of them who still lives quite neat here.

Exercise 6. Read these examples of Reported questions. What other changes, in addition to verb tense changes, do we need to make when we report questions?

a/ “Have you got the CD in stock?”

Mick asked if they had the CD in stock.

b/ “When did you orderthe new CD?”

My friend asked me when I had ordered the CD.

Exercise 7. Rewrite sentences in direct speech:

1. She told Bob she was leaving the next day.

2. She told Bob to leave her alone.

3. She asked Bob why he had done it.

4. She asked Bob to leave his keys.

5. She warned Bob not to try and get in touch.

6. Alan advised Bob to try and forget her.

7. She suggested talking it over.

8. They suggested that we should leave.

Exercise 8. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first. You must use between two or five words including the word given. Do not change the word given.

1. Carol: Could you be a little quieter, Peter?

Such

Carol told Peter … noise.

2. Sue: If I were you Richard, I ‘d take the train not the bus

Instead

She advised Richard … of the bus.

3. The doctor advised me to take more execise.

Idea

The doctor told me it … to take more execise.

4. Robin advised me to buy shares in Sony.

I

Robin suggested … shares in Sony

5. He told me it was the first time he had ever flown.

Never

“I ……………..,” he said

6. Porter: Sorry, the train left five minutes ago.

Missed

He told them they … five minutes.

7. “I’ll deliver the puppy the day after tomorrow,” he promised.

In

He promised to deliver … time

8. “Do you know where my tennis racquet is, Mum?” Sharon asked.

Seen

Sharon asked her mother … tennis racquet.

Exercise 9. Fill in the gaps with the right form of the verbs given to make the first and second conditionals:

1.If you…to the party, you will see Mary. (go)

2.The children … happy, if their mother allows them to go to the party.(be)

3.If I win the lottery, I …a big house (buy)

4. My mother will be angry, if I … home late. (come)

5. If it …, we can have a picnic. (not rain)

6. If I… you, I would go to the doctor. (be)

7. If Mary had insurance, she…pay for the damage to her car (not have to)

8. Jesica … angry, if you told her the truth.(not be)

9. Will she come if Jason …her? (call)

10. Tom will be amazed if you … him the picture you drew. (show)

Exercise 10. Correct these sentences:

1. If it will rain , we will not play tennis

2. If he has a haircut, he would look nicer.

3. If had have phoned you, I would have told you.

Exercise 11. Change the verbs in brackets into the most appropriate form to make conditional sentences:

1. What you (do) if you (be) in my situation?

2. Behave yourself, Lucy. If you (do) that again you (have) to go to bed.

3. Their marriage only lasted three months. If he (be) less mean, she (not leave) him.

4. Good, everybody’s ready. If we (leave) now, we (miss) the rush hour traffic.

5. If you (smoke) less , you (have) a lot more money. But I don’t think you ever will.

6. If we (close) the car window, we (not give) them the opportunity to break in.

7. When Alice (get) here, you (show) her to her room?

8. I know it’s a delicate situation, Inspector, but what you (say) if I (give) you a little present?

9. If you (press) that button, a receptionist (come) to help you.

10. The film was marvelous. If you (come) with us, you (enjoy) it too.

11. Imagine, darling. What we (do) if your husband (have ) a little accident?

12. If I (be) the prime minister, I (bring back) capital punishment.

Exercise 12. Fill in the blank with a (an), the if necessary. Put an X where none is required:

1. I still keep wondering if I was doing … right thing when I asked my father for … permission to leave school.

2. We needed … house to live in when we were in London.

3. There are some things … gentleman can’t do, Tom.

4. You are … only person whose opinion is of any value to me in present regrettable circumstances.

5. He told me he hated …doctors.

6. She had … laughing eyes and … most charming mouth.

7. We talked about …books. Charles had just finished … last volume of Proust.

8. I went into … room quietly and sat down opposite him without …word.

Exercise 13. Complete the short text with the articles a, an,or the, or leave the spaces blank where no article is needed.

At sixty-three, I was unexpectedly made redundant from my job of forty years. Not wanting to retire yet, I decided to look for …new job to take me up to … retirement age and to prevent me from just sitting at … home all day. Finding one, however, turned out to be … most difficult task I’ve ever faced, since … elderly are often viewed negatively by… employers. After a year and nearly … hundred applications, I was invited to … interview in Scotland. I was nervous but I needn’t have been.

… interview was very relaxed, and … interviewer was impresses by my experience and took me on. I couldn’t believe my luck. It’s … brilliant job. I’m working as …activity organizer on …cruise ship for older people in … West Indies. Sailing round … Caribbean is not my idea of … work at all.

Список основной и дополнительной литературы

Основная литература

1. Аракин В. Д. Практический курс английского языка. 4 курс. Владос, 2007. – 336 с.

2. Аракин В. Д. Практический курс английского языка. 5 курс. Владос, 2003. – 232 с.

3. Advanced Grammar in Use.   Martin Hewings. A self-study reference and practice book for advanced students of English. With Answers. Cambridge University Press: 1st. edition, 1999-2002 - 340 с.

4. В. Л. Каушанская, Р. Л. Ковнер и др. A Grammar of the English Language. М: Айрис-пресс, 2008 – 384 с.

5. Меркулова Е. М., Филимонова О. Е., Костыгина С. И., Ивано­ва Ю. А., Папанова Л. В. Английский язык для студентов университетов. Чтение, письменная и устная практика. Серия «Изучаем иностранные языки».— СПб.: Издательство Союз, 2000.— 384 с.

Дополнительная литература

1. A Guide to Exams. Cambridge preliminary English test (Pet)

2. FCE Cambridge first certificate in English

3. Cambridge certificate in advanced English (CAE)

4. Колыхалова О. А., Макаев В. В. Английский язык: Учебник для студентов и аспиран­тов гуманитарных специальностей вузов. - М.: Изда­тельский центр «Академия», 1998. - 463 с.

5. Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. New York: Longman, 1985. (Folsom library PE1106 .C65 1985)

6. World English. "The 500 Most Commonly Used Words in the English Language". http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-14. 

7.Lawrence, Erma (1977). Haida dictionary. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. p. 64. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED162532&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=ED162532&_nfls=false. 

8. English for professionals, L.Dmitrieva. Moscow 2005

9.Simon Haines, Barbara Stewart. First Certificate. Masterclass, Student’s book, Oxford University press 2004.

10.Jon Naunton, “Think”. First Certificate. Longman Group Limited 1996

TESTS FOR SELF-CONTROL

Vocabulary:______Find the "odd one out"

 There may be more than one answer. Give your reasons.

LANGUAGE LEARNING

Vocabulary:______Find the "odd one out"

There may be more than one answer. Give your reasons.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Vocabulary:______Find the "odd one out"

Задания для самостоятельной работы обучающегося с указанием трудоемкости и методические рекомендации по их выполнению:

Недели 1-2 – 6 часов

СРО: Make up a list of essential vocabulary

1.Answer the following questions:

1. What in your view are specifically English features of school life as can be judged by this extract? 2. What are the most important problems of the current educational system in Great Britain? (Speak of secondary education.) 3. Can you suggest the lines of improve­ment in the system of Kazakhstani secondary education?

3. Prepare a list of specific features of English school system and school life that would be of particular interest to schoolchildren of Kazakhstan.

4. Prepare yourself to speak on the points of teacher’s job at your class level. Use pictures, charts, slides or filmstrips to illustrate the material. Use the following expressions of classroom English:

1. The slides will be presented at a moderate speed with taped/ live voice sound. 2. I'm going to provide "live" commentary. 3. And now we'll go over it again. That was the first round. 4. I want your attention, please. (May I have your attention, please!) 5. I want ab­solute silence! 6. Let's go forward, shall we? 7. Will you help me to handle the projector?

Reminder: in the picture/still, in the foreground/background, on the left/right, to the right/left of smth. (also: at left/right).

Dialogue: learn it by heart._learn

A: What kind of education would you choose for your child?

B: For a start, it would have to be a mixed school and not a boarding establishment.

A: What have you got against single sex schools?

B: Clearly, a coeducational environment promotes understanding between boys and girls. It's far more natural.

A: Don't you think they distract one another when they become teenagers?

B: Well, maybe they do, but they've got to learn to live together. I'm against all forms of segregation.

A: How about boarding schools? Don't they teach children how to live together?

I'd have thought they'd be very useful for children without brothers and sisters.

B: But "only children" can still find friends in their neighbourhoods or local day schools. Why have we got to create large institutional families? If people decide to

have children, then they should value family life.

A: Would you prefer your child to be educated privately or by the state?

 B: To be honest, that's a very difficult question, because if the state schools in my town were very bad, then I might be tempted to pay private fees. I hope that wouldn't be necessary.

A: Would you consider sending your child to a grammar school?

B: Again, that depends on the alternatives. I prefer the comprehensive system, but I wouldn't want my child to be in mixed ability classes for all subjects. There'd have to be some form of streaming.

A: What's wrong with mixed ability teaching?

B: The reality is that people learn subjects such as languages and mathematics at

different speeds. It's a nonsense to keep everybody at the same level regardless of

their progress.

Diverse exercises for Reported speech

Texts: clarifications

This is another teacher led-activity that also focuses on listening skills. It uses an oral text generated by the teacher. For this activity you need to prepare the following:

• a short anecdote (2 minutes long) that you can tell – hopefully related to the topic that you are already doing in class (e.g. if you are doing holidays, make it about holidays)

• four or five sentences that contradict things in your anecdote.

Write the sentences on the board. Read them out to the students. Now explain that you are going to tell a story, but that some of the facts in the story are different. The students must listen carefully. When they hear a fact that is different from those on the board, someone must interrupt you and seek clarification, using the following structure:

Excuse me, but didn’t you say that…? (and include what you had said earlier, the facts that are on the board).

Here is an example: T writes on the board:

• I live in a big house.

• I’m married.

• I don’t have any children.

The teacher reads out the sentences and then she gives the instructions for the activity. She begins the story:

• T: Well, the other day I was in my flat. It’s a small flat in the city centre…

• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you lived in a big house?

• T: Ah yes, I did say that. So, it was in my big house. My boyfriend was at work…

• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you were married?

• T: Of course. I’m married, I meant to say my husband was at work and the baby was crying…

• S: Excuse me, didn’t you say you didn’t have any children?

• T: That’s right. It isn’t my baby, it’s my sister’s baby.

Texts: reported interview

For this activity, search around the internet for an interview. This kind of activity works best if the interviewee is someone that your class is interested in, or at least someone they have heard about.

1. Select some of the interview from the webpage and paste into a word document. Make copies for every two students in the class. In class, divide the students into pairs.

2. Distribute the interview and ask them to work together and make a reported version it.

3. Give them a word limit (150 words). When they have finished their draft report, have them swap reports with another pair. Ask them to reduce the report now to 100 words. Circulate and help.

Texts: reporting back – famous interview

In this activity, students create the interview themselves. Divide students into groups. Tell the groups that they must do the following:

1. Decide on a famous person (living or dead) who they would like to interview.

2. Nominate ONE person in that group to be the famous person.

3. Once groups have nominated their famous people ask those people to come up to the front and form a new group.

4. Explain that the famous people are all on a panel to be interviewed by the class, who are journalists.

5. Give the journalists some time to think of questions. During this time the famous people can talk about what they are going to say.

6. When the journalists are ready, begin moderating the interview by asking for questions.

7. Once all the famous people have answered the questions send them back to their original seats.

8. Now ask everybody to write a report with at least two things they remember from the interview. They should include examples of reported speech in their report. Ask students to compare their reports in pairs.

9. Circulate and help. At the end, ask different pairs to read out their reports.

Texts: the news

Prepare for this activity by going to a *news website and looking around for short news stories with examples of reported speech. Don’t worry about not finding any, there are usually lots*.

1. Select examples of these texts and create a small worksheet. First ask students to read the excerpts and tick the stories they already know about.

2. Then ask them to speculate as what the direct speech was. Tell them to write in direct speech the reported speech. They can add more detail if they like.

3. At the end, have different students read their quotes and ask the others if they can see what story it came from.

* A quick look on today’s news brought up the examples below. For a worksheet, I would include more of the text in each case so that students’ get a better idea of the story.

The Indonesian foreign minister said that the summit was held not only as an ordinary meeting to commemorate old memories of cooperation among members of the two continents, but to help create a better future.

The gallery's 16th century curator Dr Tarnya Cooper said the fake image of Shakespeare could be found on the cover of a number of Shakespeare editions found in book shops.

Sitting in the place where Pope John Paul II lay in state following his death, Benedict thanked the cardinals for their support and faith.

Hamish Hamilton and The Rude Corp claim that Madonna owes them $175,000 (£91,000) in directing and production fees.

Judge Garzon says Spain was a key base for hiding, helping, recruiting and financing al-Qaeda members.

Analysis: shades of meaning 1

The choice of whether or not to 'backshift' the tenses in reported speech often has to do with the reporter’s interpretation. You can ask students to compare the meanings between two examples of reported speech (minimal pair sentences).

For example:

He said he’s hungry vs. He said he was hungry.

She said she would come vs. She said she will come.

See the section on tense choices in reported and reporting clauses for further examples that you could use and explanation of the differences in meaning.

Analysis: shades of meaning 2

You can also do the above exercise with examples from the news stories. Give the example and ask students to speculate why the tense was chosen. For example, with some of the excerpts above:

Hamish Hamilton and The Rude Corp claim that Madonna owes them $175,000 (£91,000) in directing and production fees.

Why not …that Madonna owed them…?

Judge Garzon says Spain was a key base for hiding, helping, recruiting and financing al-Qaeda members.

Why not … Spain is a key-base…?

Analysis: what I think and don't think

This activity is a dictation activity. Prepare some sentences that are opinions on a certain topic that you’ve covered recently in class. There should be a mixture of affirmative and negative sentences. Here are some examples on the topic of ART for an intermediate class (some of these are stronger opinions – you may want to change them to reflect your own opinion).

• A lot of modern art isn’t very good.

• Art galleries are great places for conversation..

• There aren’t many famous painters from my country.

• Graffiti isn’t art.

• Art shouldn’t be only for rich people.

• Some art is worth far too much money.

Explain that you are going to dictate these sentences, but that the students must write down a report of each one beginning with The teacher thinks… or The teacher doesn’t think… (see grammar explanation on negatives in reporting for when to use which stem). The above sentences would give the following:

The teacher doesn’t think a lot of modern art is very good.

The teacher thinks art galleries are great places for conversation.

Ask students to compare their answers in pairs, and then decide if they agree or disagree with you. Ask different groups to report back and have a short open class discussion.

Analysis: reacting to the news

Prepare a series of slips of paper each with a sentence beginning You’ve been asked to… or You’ve been told to… Prepare a mixture of good and bad things. For example:

1. You’ve been asked to work next Saturday morning.

2. You’ve been told to not drink any more wine.

3. You’ve been asked to present an award at a film festival.

4. You’ve been told to go the principal’s office.

5. You’ve been asked to participate in a television show.

6. You’ve been told to stay in bed for three weeks.

Pre-teach common social expressions for reacting to good or bad news, for example:

• That’s great!

• Congratulations!

• That’s good news

• That’s too bad.

• Oh dear. Oh no.

• That’s terrible!

Distribute the slips of paper to the students and ask them to read them silently. Then tell them to move around the class and 1) tell other students what they’ve been asked or told to do. 2) react to what other students tell them.

As a follow-up you could ask them to work in groups and transcribe what they think was probably originally said.

Analysis: conspiracy theories

Prepare a small handout with the following 'claims' on it.

Moon hoax? It is said that Neil Armstrong didn’t walk on the moon.

Elvis lives? It’s claimed that the singer Elvis is still alive today.

UFOs and the US government? It’s believed that the American government knows, and is hiding, information about extraterrestrials.

Think of four or five other conspiracy claims that you could add (you can add local ones too). Include one or two which are more 'believable' than the others (maybe even true ones). Write them in a similar style (i.e. headline, then the sentence stem It is claimed/said/believed that…). Make one copy of this handout for every three or four students in the class.

Divide students into groups and give each group a card. They must read the card and then assign a score (0 to 5) to each theory 0 = we don’t believe this at all to 5 = we believe this is true. Do some feedback at the end, then collect the handouts. Ask students to try and rewrite from memory what the theories were, paying attention to the reporting structure.

Analysis: drill sergeant

This is another simple drill for reporting orders. Explain that you are going to be a drill sergeant: you are going to give four different students orders and then ask someone to report back what was said. Give short simple orders to different students in a brisk, sergeant-like voice. For example,

• Put down your pen!

• Listen to me!

• Pick up your bag!

• Answer your mobile phone!

The students must carry out the orders. Once you’ve given orders to four students, ask a fifth: What did I just say? The fifth student must report the orders (e.g. You told Maria to put down her pen, you told Giovanni to listen to you…). If they can do it correctly, they become the drill sergeant.

Note

This is a drill but with a role play element (that of being the sergeant) – to make the role even more effective you could use a prop, like a ruler or some kind of stick to wave around. You then give the prop to the next drill sergeant. Make sure nobody gets hit with the prop though!

Analysis: things I was asked/told to do

To provide more practice in reporting structures with ask/tell, ask students to make a list of things they were asked or told to do in different situations. For example:

• when they were a child

• when they first started learning English

• in their first job

• on their first day at school/university

Tell students to compare with each other once they have written their lists. Then ask different students to report back.

Analysis: survivors mingle

This is a group role play, where students imagine that they have survived a plane accident and are stranded on a desert island. Prepare a series of cards/slips of paper, each with a different suggestion for the situation. Here are some examples:

• We should just wait for someone to come and find us.

• Why don’t we explore the island?

• Let’s get wood for a fire.

• We should all stay together. There are dangerous animals around here.

• I think you and I should try to escape together.

• Let’s build a boat.

• We should try and fix the plane.

(you can make your own. Begin with Why don’t we… Let’s …. We should…) Create enough cards so that each student has one. You can repeat the same sentences on other cards.

Explain that you want the students to role play the situation described above (to make it more 'real' you could elaborate on the story of how they got there). Everybody must circulate and talk to each other. They must say what is on their card and as little else as possible.

After five minutes (or however long it takes for most students to have spoken to each other) tell everyone to sit down again. Ask people to report back on what other people told them, using one of the following reporting verbs: suggest, advise or recommend.

Variation

Here is a variation which lets the students choose more of the language. Set up the scene, then give the students the sentence stems: Why don’t we… Let’s …. We should… and ask them to write a suggestion. Give them one of the above as an example. Then continue the activity.

Analysis: election pledges

To practise the structures following verbs like promise and offer, you can ask students to imagine they are speechwriters for a candidate for President or Prime Minister of their country. They must prepare a very short speech. You could give them the following outline to help:

• I know that…

• So I promise to…. and to…

• If we are elected, my government pledges* to…

• My opponent has promised to…

• But we all know that…

• Together we can…

* pre teach pledge – it has the same reporting structure as promise, or offer

Students can write this in groups. Then have different students read out their election speeches. Who is the most convincing?Anchor Point:bottom

Sometimes you need to tell people about your conversations and change direct speech into indirect speech. When you do this, you need to make sure that the tenses are correct. For example, Karen says to Peter: "My job is very interesting." Peter then wants to report this conversation to Sarah a week later. He says: "Karen said that her job was interesting."

When you report a conversation, the tense changes:

"My job is very interesting" becomes: She said that her job was very interesting.

Недели 3-4 – 6 часов

СРО: Take up problem-solving situations. Discuss them in class.

In the course of the discussion try and answer the following questions:

1. Do you think that only certain types of personality make ideal teachers?

2. What do you think is the best explanation of personality: that it is basically fixed, or that it develops and changes?

3. What do you think of the view that we exhibit different aspects of our personalities in different situations, e.g. teaching different age groups?

4. Do you think that a good teacher is the one who has an inborn gift for teaching or can the skill of teaching be taught?

Discussion questions: ask and answer

1. Would you prefer to send your child to a mixed or single sex school?

2. Is day school always a better alternative to boarding school?

3. Should rich people be permitted to buy educational advantages by sending their children to private schools or should all schools be run by the state?

4. Do you prefer a system where children are put in fast and slow streams or is it better to create mixed ability classes?

5. Should corporal punishment be permitted in schools?

6. Which system do you favour for measuring children’s progress -final examinations or continuous assessment?

7. Do the "three Rs" (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) make up the mostimportant part of the school curriculum?

Project: Make up a slide-show Presentation in Power Point ( 10-15 slides) on the topic “Learning languages may be fun” using the topical vocabulary and illustrating students’ life by means of proverbs. Point out the role of the English language in the genealogical classification of languages, Germanic languages in particular.

Недели 5-6 – 6 часов

СРО: Define the value of good features

Discuss the following points:

1. The role and place of a teacher in our society Note: Consider the following:

The social role of a person in the society depends upon the amount of esteem, admiration and approval we get from our immediate so­cial group, as well as society in general. It also depends on such cri­teria as well-being and intelligence. In the course of the discussion try and answer the following questions:

1. Is the social status of a teacher high in our society?

2. Do you think that the ability to speak a foreign language con­ fers a high status on an individual in our society? What do you think of your own status as a language teacher?

3. What is the role of a teacher in the upbringing of the younger generation?

2. The personality of a teacher

Note: Consider the following:

Our personality fundamentally affects our reactions under differ­ent circumstances. Some individuals tend to be attracted by certain roles which they hope will satisfy their personal needs, such as a desire for.power or caring for others. A typical description of per­sonality types might include the following:

Authoritarian: shows tendency for liking authority and exercis­ing power

Affiliative: shows tendency for preferring to form close relation­ships with others

Conformist: shows tendency for wanting to think and act as oth­ers do

Aggressive: shows tendency towards aggressive behaviour in or­der to achieve aims

Co-operative: shows tendency to work closely with others in per­forming tasks

Achieving: shows tendency towards wanting to achieve status, power, success.

Недели 7-8 – 6 часов

СРО: Write the essay on the topic “The achievements of science we use nowadays”

Annual report on spaceship earth

Passengers of Earth:

1. As you know, we are hurtling through space at about 107,000 km/hr on a fixed course. Although we can never re­turn to home base to take on new supplies, the ship has a marvelous and intricate life-support system.The system uses

5 solar energy to recycle the chemicals needed to provide a rea­sonable number of us with adequate water,

air and food.

2. Let me briefly summarize the state of our passengers and our life-support system. There are about 4 billion of us on board, with more than 150 nations occupying various sections

10 of the craft. About 25% of you have inherited the good-toluxurious quarters in the tourist and first-class sections, and you have used approximately 80% of all resources available this past year. In fact, most of the

15 North Americans have the more lavish quarters. Even though they represent only about 5% of this year’s resources.

3. I am sad to say that things not have really improved for the 75% of our passengers travelling in the hold. Over one-third of you are suffering from hunger, malnutrition, or both,

20 and three-quarters of you do not have adequate water or shel­ter. These numbers will certainly rise as your soaring popula­tion wipes out any gains in food supply and economic devel­opment.

25. 4. However, the overpopulation of the hold in relation to available food is only part of the problem. There is a second type of overpopulation that is even more serious because it threatens our entire life-support system. This type is occurring in the tourist and first-class sections. These sections are overpopulated in

30 relation to the level of resource consumption and the resultant pollution of our environment. For example, the average North American has about 25 to 50 times as much impact on our life-support system as each

35 passenger travelling in the hold, because the North American consumes 25 to 50 times as much of our resources and causes 25 to 50 times as much pollution. In this sense, then, the North American sec­tion is the most overpopulated one on the ship.

5. In addition to these matters, I am concerned at the lack of cooperation and the continued fighting

40 among some groups, which can destroy many, if not all, of us. Only about 10% of you are American and Russian, but your powerful weapons and your unceasing threats to build even more destructive ones must concern each of us.

6. Passengers of Earth: we are now entering the early stages of our first major spaceship crisis — an

45 interlocking crisis of overpopulation, pollution, resource depletion, and the danger of mass destruction by intergroup warfare. Our most thoughful experts agree that the situation is serious, but certainly not hopeless. On the contrary, they feel that it is well within man's ability to learn how to control our population growth,

50 pollution and resource consumption, and to learn how to live to­gether in cooperation and peace. But we have only about 30 to 50 years to deal with these matters, and we must begin now.

Zero, first, second, third, mixed conditional - test

1. Exercise 1

1. If you ............(press) that button, the light.........(go on). 2. I ............(visit) you today if you ...............(tell) me yesterday. 3. If you ........(not/eat) it, you ............(be) hungry. 4. If I .........(be) you, I ............(not/be) so sure of that. 5. If the day ..........(come), the sun ............(rise). 6. If I................(not/destroy) your computer last week, I ................(use) it yesterday 7. Jack ..............(kill) that man if he.............(be) more careful. 8. If we .................(live) in this country in 1994 we................(have) a beautiful house now. 9. If Bob .............(listen) to my advice he .........................(have to) come back home. 10. The cat...........(die) if you .................(not/feed) it. 11. We..............(go) home by bus if  we ............(buy) tickets. 12. Unless the child..............(be) ill, he ...........(not/cry) all night. 13. If I .............(visit) my doctor last week, I ...........(have) all the needed medicines now. 14. You teeth .............(not/hurt) you if you...........(wash) them as a child. 15. If she............(take) the aspirin, the headache............(go by). 16. Unless we ..........(burn) the chicken, we...........(have) a delicious dinner. 17. If the mayor .............. (not/invite) that singer, the concert...........(not/take) place last summer. 18. If my daughter ...........(wear) a sweater in the morning, she............(not/be) cold now. 19. I ............(use) that ointment if I...........(be) sure it works. 20. If you .............(put on) that dress, you...........(look) nice.

2. Test 1

1.The dog...............you if it .............. you running through that garden.

a. bites/sees          b. would bite/saw         c. will bite/sees

 2. They ............ you if you....... them the truth.

a. didn't arrested/tell         b. will not arrest/tell     c. would not arrested/tell

 3. All the flowers........... if they .......... water regularly.

a. dies/aren't     b. will die/aren't      c. die/aren't

 4. I.............. you last night if I ........... you help today.

a. would have called/needed            b. had called/needed    c. will call/need

 5. He .............. a doctor if he.............. interested in medicine.

a. will become/will be    b. became/were        c. would become/were

 6. If I ............ that film last time, I............... the assignment better.

a. saw/wrote      b.  had seen/ would write    c. had seen/would have written

 7. If you ........... the green button, the computer.............

a. press/goes on      b.  will press/goes on   c. press/will go on

 8. Unless I .............. the passport, I ............. to Gdansk for holiday.

a.  get/will not drive    b. get/don't drive        c. gets/don't drive

 9. If you ............... all the medicines the doctor gave you, you........ in bed for so long.

a.  took/wouldn't have stayed  b. had taken/stayed    c.  had taken/wouldn't have stayed

 10. If I ......... rich, I ................ you a diamond ring.

a. am/would buy  b.  am/will buy    c. were/would buy

 11. If I ............ money in the past, I .............. now.

a. had inherited/wouldn't work       b. inherited/wouldn't work    c. had inherited/would have worked

 12. You .......... if he......... to you.

a. die/shoots      b. will die/shoot      c. would die/shoot

 13. If I............. about the whole matter, I ........... my time here.

a. know/wasted      b.  knew/wouldn't waste         c. knew/wouldn't have wasted

 14. They .............. that house for sure if they............ money for the renovation.

a. will sell/don't have       b.  sell/don't have       c. would sold/don't have

 15. Kate............. that beautiful song on your last birthday if you .......... her.

a. would have sung/had asked        b. would sing/had asked    c. sang/asked

 16.I............ fit now if I........... more in the childhood.

a. were/practised     b. would be/practised       c. would be/had practised

 17. If we............. to here some time ago, we............. that takes for the second time.

a. listened/ will not correct     b. had listened/wouldn't correct      c. listened/didn't correct

 18. The criminal ............. in 1978 if the police............ him better.

a. wouldn't have run away/had guarded b. would run away/guarded   c. would run away/had guarded

 19. I................... a taxi every day when I go to work if I ........... more money.

a. took/earned       b. took/would earn      c. would take/earned

 20. If you .......... salt, the food ......... salty.

a. adds/becomes    b. added/becomes     c. add/becomes

Недели 9-10– 6 часов

СРО: Make up exercises for making a memory retentive

Japanese education

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

by Thomas P. Rohlen

1. Contemporary Japan is about as developed and organized a society as one can find in the world today. It is a society where educational credentials and educated skills are central to employment, to

5. promotion,and to social status in general. It is not a society with a privileged traditional class, nor is it one divided between a small, educated elite and the masses. Rather, the modern sectors of Japan's economy require the skilled participation of nearly all Japanese. Furthermore, Ja­pan is a «meritocracy» shaped by an

10. educational competition that enrolls nearly everyone. And this is fitting, for Japan is a nation that, lacking natural resources, must live by its wits, by social discipline, and by plain hard work.

2.It is not surprising, therefore, to discover that during the last twenty years Japan has quietly been

15. establishing a new, higher set of educational standards for the world. On a whole raft of international tests of achievement in science and math, Japanese students outperform all others. Japan's newspaper readership

20. level is the world's highest. A considerably larger percentage of Japanese (90 percent) than Americans (75 percent) or Europeans (mostly below 50 percent) finish the twelfth grade, and greater proportion of males complete university B.A. degrees in Japan than in other countries. Japanese children attend school about

25. fifty more days each year than American students, which means that, by high-school graduation, they have been in school somewhere between three and four more years than their American counterparts. Added to this is the fact that requirements in all basic subjects are heavier in Japan and that elementary-level education in art and music is univer­sal and quite advanced. No one now denies that this is a most

30. impressive portrait of national achievement. Japan has suc­ceeded in holding very high standards for virtually its entire population, standards typical of elites in Western countries. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in many respects the upper half of Japan's graduating high-school students possess

35. a level of knowledge and the analytic skills equivalent to the average American graduating from college. Until several years ago, we hardly noted these accomplishments, and the Japa­nese themselves never

40. boasted of them but rather emphasized the costs incurred in achieving such success. One simple fact cannot be ignored: Japanese education to the college level has been made into an extraordinarily efficient engine for eco­nomic and social advancement. Japan's standards are becom­ing ours through the agency of free trade.

3.Consider the following sobering comparisons:

45. 4.What explains this level of accomplishment? In the background most certainly are such things as the long-standing respect for education held by the Japanese and the traditional view that diligence in school is a path to greatness. It is also true that Japanese society contains fewer social problems of the kind that

50. make mass public education difficult. The country has few immigrants and few minorities. The divorce and unemployment rates are quite low. Drug problems are mini­mal, and juvenile delinquency is not as serious a problem as in this country. Such profound social differences raise the ques­tion of whether our schools and

53. teachers might not produce results equal to Japan's if only they had the same kind of student population. In my opinion, the gap in results between the Japanese and American system would shrink considerably. Acknowledging this, however, does not change the fact of Japan's challenge, nor does it remove from

60. serious consideration the question of whether there is much to be learned from Japan's approach.

5.Another explanation for the success of Japanese schools centers on the firm hand of the national

65 Ministry of Education in setting standards and curriculum for the country. Standards serve as foundations for the entire effort, and the standards applied are equivalent to those used for elite education in the United States and Europe. I will return to this topic when we consider what might be learned from Japan.

70. 6.Very important, too, is the motivation that stems from the nation's very competitive university entrance exams. Pick up any of Japan's national newsmagazines in early spring, and you are certain to find the lead story to be about these exami­nations. For a brief time each year the ordeal of getting into college surpasses

75. political scandals, international economic problems, and gossip about entertainers as the matter most inter­esting and important to the reading public. Imagine Time and Newsweek each publishing thirty or so pages of statistics docu­menting the secondary school origins of new entrants to hun­dreds of universities, along

80. with details of the tests, competition ratios, and no table study techniques. All this attention (and anxiety) attests to the centrality of entrance examinations to Japanese society. Schooling is geared to it, jobs are based on it, and families are preoccupied with it. The obsession with entrance exams' is like a dark engine

85. powering the entire school system. High national standards and entrance exams combine with a great popular thirst for the benefits of education.

7.Economic prosperity has greatly bolstered the demand for education — and the level of

90. competitiveness — beyond the imagination of Americans. Accession rates to Japanese high schools and universities have increased rapidly over the last quarter century. In 1950, only 43 percent of all fifteen-year-olds were going on to high school, whereas by 1975 the figure had risen to 98 percent. In 1950, only 7

95. percent of college-age Japanese enrolled in higher education; today more than 40 percent are going on to universities or junior colleges. The university population has swollen from about half a million in 1950 to nearly two million. Universities are clearly overcrowded and the quality of education has suffered greatly.

100. Only at the levels of higher and graduate education does our system stand out as comparatively strong.

8.Despite such problems, the ratio of candidates to open­ings at almost any Japanese university starts at 3 to I and rises to an average of 5 to I. Many private universities attract eight or nine candidates per opening,

105 and competition to gain entrance to departments that lead to degrees in medicine regu­larly reaches a ratio of 20 to 1. The national total of applicant, furthermore, annually exceeds the number of university open­ings by approximately 200,000. The competition has grown excessive.

110. 9. Many who fail to enter the school of their choice decide to try again. They join a particular category of students who have graduated from high school but have not yet entered col­lege. The main occupation of

115. this group is cramming for the next annual round of entrance examinations. (As with the ancient Chinese exam system, there is no limit on how many times one may try and no age limit on applications). Known as ronin because they are akin to the wandering, disenfranchised warrior-heroes made familiar by samurai

120. movies, these stu­dents are very largely male and usually academically talented. Attracted to the best universities, they prefer to persevere even for several years rather than to accept a place at a lesser univer­sity. Their lonely pursuit of fame and glory is often romanti­cized, but, in fact, it is a dreary, expensive

125. existence. The annual ronin population is estimated at 140,000 young people, and approximately one in every five male high-school gradu­ates is fated to join this particular detour in the system. At the prestigious Tokyo University, roughly half of the successful applicants enter on the first try, one-third on the second,

130. and 10 percent after three or more tries. Each year someone succeeds on his sixth or seventh attempt.

10.What kinds of examinations are involved? Composed almost entirely of multiple-choice and short-answer questions, the exams are designed to test (1) the comprehension of math­ematical (highschool math

135 goes beyond trigonometry) and scientific principles (physics, chemistry, biology, and earth sci­ences are required), and (2) the mastery of enormous bodies of factual material. Economics, geography, history (European, Japanese, Chinese, and United States), and English (six years) are required subjects. Every

140 question has but one correct answer. Interpretive skills are not tested, but skills in math and science problem solving are important, and the degree of de­tailed knowledge required can be astounding. The level of fac­tual knowledge necessary in the history sections of the exams for the best universities would tax

145 American graduate students. In sum, the exams are of the kind for which a capacity to grind away for years in preparation makes a difference. Intelligence is quite necessary, but self-discipline and willpower are equally essential. Furthermore, only the exam results count toward admission. Highschool grades,

150 extracurricular activities, teachers' recommendations, and special talents play virtually no role, except in a very small percentags of experimental cases. It is hard to estimate just what percentage of all the energy ex­pended is wasted on useless cramming, but it is consequential.

155. 11. Nothing better illustrates the pressure to begin preparations early than the popularity of cram schools, or juku, which today enroll one in three middle-school students and one in four upper-elementary-school students across Japan. In Tokyo and other large cities, fully two-thirds of all seventh, eighth, and ninth

160. graders are either attending cram schools or being tutored at home. Juku are privately run, after-school acad­emies designed to supplement public education. There are juku for slow students, juku for average students, and juku for bright students, in part because the public system has no gifted pro­grams, eschews

165. tracking within schools, and offers no individually paced learning. The typical tutoring establishment in­volves instruction for a couple of hours a few days a week, but the more aggressive and fast-paced cram schools hold classes more regularly, even on weekends and during vacations. Juku, like tactical weapons in

170. an escalating educational arms race, have become a booming growth industry complete with fran­chising and educational conglomerates. Private entrepreneur-ship, parental anxiety, and exam pressures combine to create an unprecedented phenomenon that critics feel threatens to make Japanese childhood nothing but a

175. tightly scheduled existence shuttling from home to school to juku, with no time for friends or play.

12.Is the effort to enter a top university worth it? Clearly, the extraordinary thirst for educational

180 success is based on the knowl­edge that good jobs and adult success hinge greatly on one's alma mater. What is crucial is getting in. In fact, most humanities and social science students, upon gaining entry to a university, take a one- or two-year holiday from serious study as a reward for com­pleting the entrance exam ordeal. No one flunks out.

185 13. Just how dominant the top schools have been in supplying the country's managerial elite can be seen from a few notable statistics. Tokyo University, which accounts for less than 3 per­cent of all university graduates, alone pro duces nearly a quarter of the presidents of Japan's leading companies. The picture of

190 elite dominance is even more pronounced in the upper level of the national bureaucracy, where Tokyo graduates have occupied the majority of jobs and nearly all the top positions during the last century. Much the same picture emerges from the nation's elected representatives. In the Lower House of the national Diet,

195 one in four is a Tokyo graduate. The point should be clear that success on entrance exams is associated with career success, and ulti­mately with power and status. Even if it takes a few extra years as ronin to finally enter a top school, the opportunities and ultimate rewards make the sacrifices worth the effort.

200. 14.The powerful engine of exam preparation is fueled by this rather tight calibration between academic and career suc­cess. Those wishing to reform Japanese education realize that they must ease the tight relationship with employment before the exam system's hold will be weakened. Many privately fear,

205. however, that without future employment as the driving motive of entrance exam competition, students, parents, and schools would slacken their efforts, and the present high stan­dards in basic subjects would begin to fall.

15. Competition requires equal opportunity to be inclusive. Up to high school, the Japanese system

210 offers a greater basic equality than American reformers have dreamed possible. This is accomplished primarily by a system of prefectural and na­tional financing that equalizes salaries and facilities. Schools are not tracked by ability, and the number of private schools is small. At the point of high-school entrance,

215 however, the separation of students by ability begins in earnest. High schools, like universities, are entered by examinations. This produces and perpetuates a system of school ranking that is more thor­ough than anything in American public education. The ques­tion of where the ablest students go, where the least able

220 go, and all of the fine shadings in between can be recounted by any student or parent of the region, for each city or prefecture has a single totem pole. In a number of areas, private schools have risen to the top as a result of the greater latitude they enjoy in collecting the best students and gearing singlemindedly to

225 success on the university exams, yet in most areas public schools remain very strong. Successful applicants to Tokyo University are now equally divided between public and private schools. After nine years of equal

230 opportunity, the system is differentiated and competition produces an elaborate hierarchy. The system has the character of a true meritocracy.

16.The ranking of schools becomes a sensitive yardstick to measure the degree to which family

235 background factors influ­ence educational outcomes. My own studies reveal a trend toward a greater role for family factors in educational out-235 comes. Entrants to the elite national Japanese universities in the early sixties came from a broad cross section of the popu­lation with little relationship between income and success. Private universities (more expensive and easier to enter), on the other hand, were filled primarily

240 by students from families in the upper half of the income scale. By the mid-1970s, a significant shift was perceptible, with fewer and fewer students from poor families entering the elite universities. A major rea­son, I think, is the rising significance of privately purchased advantages in the preparation process

245 namely, juku and elite private high schools.

17. I recently investigated five Kobe high schools chosen as representative of five distinct levels in that city's hierarchy of secondary schools. So that the reader can better appreciate the quality represented by

250 each of the five schools, let me add that the private elite school I studied sends more than one hundred of its two hundred and fifty graduates to Tokyo University each year, whereas the second and third-rank public academic high schools (each considered quite good locally) send but a handful of their students to

255 any national university. Very few vocational school students go on to higher education at all. Dropout rates for the night school are about 25 percent. The results of my study indicate a number of very strong associations between school rank (and, therefore, academic achieve­ment as measured by entrance exams) and a host of such family background factors as parents' education and occupation, the number of siblings,

260 and family income. Family qualities may be influential from an early point in the child's schooling, but only with high school entrance does the overt sorting take place. Japan, like the United States, has a school

265 system that partially replicates the status and class system of its adults, but it does this without residential segregation.

18. Not only does the school system at the high-school level reflect difference of family backgrounds,

270 but, by its very organi­zation, it undoubtedly extends and elaborates these differences through the creation of distinct, stratified school sub-cultures. Delinquency rates, for example, correlate closely with the aca­demic rank of high schools. Entrance exams thus serve some­thing of an analogous function to residential

275 segregation in the United States. Japanese cities remain residentially heterogeneous, but the competitive entrance-exam system (and its parasite — the cram system) supersedes residential location (and thus housing expenditures) as the key to climbing the social ladder.

19.The issue of inequality between the sexes is also very interesting. Slightly more women than men

280 now enter institutions of higher learning, but this is explained largely by the rapid growth of junior colleges whose enrollments are 90 per­cent female. The percentage of women enrolled in four-year universities did increase from 16.2 percent in 1965 to 21.2 percent in 1975, yet the fact remains that in higher education

285 three of every five females are atten ding a junior college, whereas nine of every ten males in higher education are in four-year universities. Furthermore, in Japan's top universities the per­centage of women has remained very small. Only about 6 per­cent of those accepted to Tokyo University are women. None of

290 this, it must be emphasized, stems from overt discrimina­tion in the admission process. The simple fact is that many fewer women apply. In 1975, only 17 percent of the women graduating from high school applied

295 to universities, whereas 52 percent of the men applied. Only an understanding of the cultural attitudes prevalent in Japanese families can explain this pattern.

Let me summarize what I see to be the advantages and disadvantages in the above portrait. What

300 distinguishes Japa­nese education is a very high average level of accomplishment. This seems to stem above all from diligence and organization, from an orderly single-mindedness, and an exceptional educa­tion «fever» centering on exams — the very same qualities that characterize Japanese industrial process. Initial

305 equality and well-organized and well-supported schools are followed by a competitively determined sorting process that, by our stan­dards, comes early. Preparing for exams creates a narrowness of focus in learning and emphasizes rote processes. The meritocratic process has few exceptions and offers too few sec­ond

310 chances. It is tough to be a loser. As we might expect, education and society share some of the same deficiencies. To us Japan seems like an anthill, busy, well-organized, and com­petitive, but unable to foster individual expression or to sup­port idiosyncratic or uncommon talents. Both society and edu­cation suffer

315 from very rapid growth and from an obsessive preoccupation with success as measured by rather mechanical «output» standards. Their very efficiencies mask problems of unattended spiritual values and national identity.

From: The American Scholar. 1986.

Недели 11-12 (6 часов)

СРО: Prepare a “micro-lesson”, use expressions

1. Topics for Written Composition

1.Teaching foreign languages. What should it be like?

2.What makes a good language teacher?

Недели 13-14 (6 часов)

СРО:Make up the monologue on the topic “Applying for a study abroad”

Write an essay about youth problems. What sort of problems does young generation face? What role does misunderstanding and lack of parent’s attention play? Is alcoholism, drug addiction and smoking the problem of youth or government? Why people start drinking, smoking or using drugs?

Give free translation from Russian into English.

Обычно употребление наркотиков молодыми людьми списывается на изначальную развращенность молодого поколения, неопытность, глупость. На самом деле, все не так просто. Можно выделить ряд причин, по которым люди употребляют в немедицинских целях наркотики.

Первое – фактор "аномии", довольно основательно исследованный в американской социологии. Аномия как социальное явление вызвана тем, что в культуре существуют общественно одобряемые ценности, как правило, материального характера, которые очень трудно достигнуть дозволенным путем. В итоге человек либо использует недозволенные способы, либо отказывается как от доминирующих ценностей, так и от дозволенных способов. Употребление наркотиков для него очень удобный способ забыться. Наша современная культура, по мнению многих специалистов, очень сильно аномична. Не секрет, что успеха в нашем обществе достигнуть очень трудно. Поэтому нечего удивляться постоянному возрастанию наркомании.

Второе, на чем хотелось бы остановиться, – это наркотическая субкультура, со своими стойкими мифами. Наркотики – очень легкий способ самоутверждения. Для молодого человека и, особенно для подростка, употребление наркотиков может означать "вхождение в мир взрослых" либо "протест против общества, которое мне не нравится", либо "познание себя", особенно когда об этом постоянно разглагольствует авторитетный старший товарищ.

Одна из самых важных причин употребления наркотиков – проблема проведения свободного времени. Во-первых, в наше время молодому человеку очень трудно найти возможность полноценно отдохнуть. Современные дискотеки и кафе сегодня недоступны большинству молодежи. Сидеть дома с родителями очень скучно. И когда знакомые предлагают бесплатно попробовать наркотики – это выглядит, как правило, очень заманчиво. Во-вторых, в обществе сильна традиция пассивного проведения досуга, основанная на употреблении "легального наркотика" – алкоголя. И очень часто молодой человек еще в семье перенимает установку расслабляться с помощью химического вещества.

А так как алкоголь – это уже "не модно", то, естественно, молодежь втягивается в употребление наркотиков.

Articles

Skimming of extra-material:

An article (abbreviated art) is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and (in some contexts) some. 'An' and 'a' are modern forms of the Old English 'an', which in Anglian dialects was the number 'one' (compare 'on', in Saxon dialects) and survived into Modern Scots as the number 'ane'. Both 'on' (respelled 'one' by the Normans) and 'an' survived into Modern English, with 'one' used as the number and 'an' ('a', before nouns that begin with a consonant sound) as an indefinite article.

In some languages, articles are a special part of speech, which cannot easily be combined with other parts of speech. It is also possible for articles to be part of another part of speech category such as determiner, an English part of speech category that combines articles and demonstratives (such as 'this' and 'that').

In languages that employ articles, every common noun, with some exceptions, is expressed with a certain definiteness (e.g., definite or indefinite), just as many languages express every noun with a certain grammatical number (e.g., singular or plural). Every noun must be accompanied by the article, if any, corresponding to its definiteness, and the lack of an article (considered a zero article) itself specifies a certain definiteness. This is in contrast to other adjectives and determiners, which are typically optional. This obligatory nature of articles makes them among the most common words in many languages—in English, for example, the most frequent word is the.^[1]

Types

Articles are usually characterized as either definite or indefinite.^[2] A few languages with well-developed systems of articles may distinguish additional subtypes.

Within each type, languages may have various forms of each article, according to grammatical attributes such as gender, number, or case, or according to adjacent sounds.

Definite article

A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be something uniquely specified. The definite article in English, for both singular and plural nouns, is the.

The children know the fastest way home.

The sentence above refers to specific children and a specific way home; it contrasts with the much more general observation that:

Children know the fastest way home.

The latter sentence refers to children in general, perhaps all or most of them.

Likewise,

Give me the book

refers to a specific book whose identity is known or obvious to the listener; as such it has a markedly different meaning from

Give me a book

which does not specify what book is to be given.

The definite article can also be used in English to indicate a specific class among other classes:

The cabbage white butterfly lays its eggs on members of the Brassica genuine

Indefinite article

An indefinite article indicates that its noun is not a particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener. It may be something that the speaker is mentioning for the first time, or its precise identity may be irrelevant or hypothetical, or the speaker may be making a general statement about any such thing. English uses a/an, from the Old English forms of the number 'one', as its primary indefinite article. The form an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound (even if spelled with an initial consonant, as in an hour), and a before words that begin with a consonant sound (even if spelled with a vowel, as in a European).

She had a house so large that an elephant would get lost without a map.

Before some words beginning with a pronounced (not silent) h in an unstressed first syllable, such as hallucination, hilarious, historic(al), horrendous, and horrific, some (especially older) British writers prefer to use an over a (an historical event, etc.).^[3] An is also preferred before hotel by some writers of British English (probably reflecting the relatively recent adoption of the word from French, where the h is not pronounced).^[4] The use of "an" before words beginning with an unstressed "h" is more common generally in British English than American.^[4] American writers normally use a in all these cases, although there are occasional uses of an historic(al) in American English.^[5] According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, such use is increasingly rare in British English too.^[3] Unlike British English, American English typically uses an before herb, since the h in this word is silent for most Americans.

The word some is used as a functional plural of a/an. "An apple" never means more than one apple. "Give me some apples" indicates more than one is desired but without specifying a quantity. This finds comparison in Spanish, where the singular indefinite article 'uno/una' ("one") is completely indistinguishable from the unit number, but where it has a plural form ('unos/unas'): Dame una manzana" ("Give me an apple") > "Dame unas manzanas" ("Give me some apples"). However, some also serves as a quantifier rather than as a plural article, as in "There are some apples there, but not many."

Some also serves as a singular indefinite article, as in "There is some person on the porch". This usage differs from the usage of a(n) in that some indicates that the identity of the noun is unknown to both the listener and the speaker, while a(n) indicates that the identity is unknown to the listener without specifying whether or not it is known to the speaker. Thus There is some person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to both the listener and the speaker, while There is a person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to the listener but gives no information as to whether the speaker knows the person's identity.

Partitive article

A partitive article is a type of indefinite article used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite articles. The nearest equivalent in English is some, although this is considered a determiner and not an article.

French: Voulez-vous du café ?

Do you want (some) coffee? (or, dialectally but more accurately, Do you want some of this coffee?)

See also more information about the French partitive article.

Haida has a partitive article (suffixed -gyaa) referring to "part of something or... to one or more objects of a given group or category," e.g. tluugyaa uu hal tlaahlaang 'he is making a boat (a member of the category of boats).'^[6]

Negative article

A negative article specifies none of its noun, and can thus be regarded as neither definite nor indefinite. On the other hand, some consider such a word to be a simple determiner rather than an article. In English, this function is fulfilled by no, which can appear before a singular or plural noun:

No man is an island.

No dogs are allowed here.

Zero article

The zero article is the absence of an article. In languages having a definite article, the lack of an article specifically indicates that the noun is indefinite. Linguists interested in X-bar theory causally link zero articles to nouns lacking a determiner.^[7] In English, the zero article rather than the indefinite is used with plurals and mass nouns, although the word "some" can be used as an indefinite plural article.

Methodical instructions

GUIDELINES FOR SUMMARY WRITING

1. Read the original text carefully.

2. Identify the controlling idea and the relationships among the major supporting ideas.

3. Decide which examples are necessary for a clear under­standing of the text.

4. Try to use your own words rather than merely quot­ing from the text, except when you are referring to techni­cal or professional terms that have a special technical mean­ing. In that case, you might wish to use the original term and then indicate, in a few words of your own, what it means.

5. Write a first sentence which includes the source of your summary and the controlling idea.

6. Indicate whether the author is certain or uncertain of the facts he presents and whether the point of view is his personal one, or one he identifies as belonging to a school of thought.

7. Omit trivial and redundant material. (The writer may express the same idea more than once, and in more than one way, but in your summary the idea should be presented only once).

8. Wherever possible, substitute a general term for any list or items which that term would include (regardless of whether or not the writer has used that general term). This is one way to delete more detailed facts and ideas without ignoring them.

9. Avoid making comments about or adding information to the text. Or, if you wish to add information, a judgement, evaluation, etc. label it specifically as your own opinion, for example: «The author conludes that ... but I don't think the evidence presented really supports this conclusion».

Exercise:

1. Write a long summary of one of the texts in this book, providing the answers to the four questions listed above, and including all of the essential facts (i.e., those necessary to fol­low the argument); and some of the examples used to illustrate these facts and to provide supporting evidence.

2. Write a short summary of one of other texts in the book.

Common cues for the reader (Devices That Further Coherence)

CUES THAT LEAD THE READER FORWARD

CUES THAT MAKE THE READER STOP AND COMPARE

CUES THAT DEVELOP AND SUMMARIZE

Appendix esl / efl Teaching - Glossary of Terms

Some useful phrases for future teachers

Answer your names, please.

I’ll call out your names.

What was your homework for today?

Take out your books/ put away/

Open your books at page…

Begin/ start reading.

Begin reading from the second paragraph/ fifth line from the top (bottom) of the page

Read as far as the bottom of the page.

Read till the end of the paragraph.

Read a little louder (slower, quickly).

Read the text aloud (to yourselves).

Don’t read/ go so fast, you are reading very/too fast.

Go on reading until I tell you to stop.

Go on reading from where she left off.

Carry on.

Now, turn over the pages /turn to page…/

That will do/ that’s enough, thank you.

What can’t you understand? What’s the matter?

Did she make any mistakes in her reading?

Translation: translate/ there are 2 variants/ to translate word for word.

How do you translate…?/ What is the English (the Russian) for….?

Variants in translation (not versions) / Who has a different variant?

Look up the new words in the dictionary.

Working at the blackboard.

Come to the blackboard! Clean the blackboard! Write on the blackboard!

I am going to write the new words on the blackboard. Divide the blackboard into 2,3,4 parts, columns.

Draw the line down in the middle of the blackboard! Look at the blackboard!

Wipe off the blackboard, wipe off the word, and use it correctly.

Use the duster; don’t use your fingers!

Correct – incorrect

Write down in abbreviated form, not fully.

Copy something down.

Spell out the word (orally)

Stand aside (at the blackboard, don’t leave)

Step aside – (go to the place)

Go to your place /seat/ - (when one is at the blackboard)

Asking the task.

I’m going to…

Ask questions on(about) the text /Answer some questions to the text

Answer some questions in turn / Don’t answer out of turn

Repeat- (what has been said before) / Say it again ( if a mistake was made)

Say it all together (not in choir)

Speak up / a little louder (I can’t hear you)

Listen how I say it (listen to me)

Don’t interrupt her (not interfere-physically mostly)

Stop (don’t) prompting her

To leave cut (of articles, prepositions)

To use the wrong word

Be careful, you are still making the same mistake

Hang up (put up) the picture on the wall

Look at the picture! What can you see in the picture?

Written test

Take out your copy-books

Write (put) the date, your name

Leave a wider margin

Distribute – collect

Hand in – hand out

Home-work (from the text-book) /Task- (smth. additional to work on)

Assignment- (some informational, individual task –outside class-room, smth. additional)

Evaluation – end-of-term evaluation

Average- (above-, below-)

You are not up to standard

Mind your pronunciation, intonation, spelling

Be careful with your…

Your mark (for today) is only “a three”

You’ve got “a three” today

Discipline.

Sit (stand) still, don’t fidget, quiet, please

You are very noisy today

Don’t look out of the window, look into your book

Don’t all speak at once

Wait till it is your turn

Try harder

You haven’t been (are not) listening to what I’ve said

Put up your hands/ raise your hands

Take it down/ write down / put down

Don’t call out

To check (up) homework / go through

Plug on (switch on) the tape-recorder at the main socket ( wall socket)

Empty/spare disc

Number of the tape

Head/ ear phones

Turn up (down) the volume ( sound)

The sound needs adjusting/ regulating

Play back

Wind/ rewind the tape onto its disk

The tape is twisted

Straighten out the tape and rewind it

To break the tape. Get the glue and join the tape

Press-buttons – stop-buttons

Switch over to the loud-speaker

Punctuation *

* based on MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2nd ed , 1984

1. Apostrophes (')

Apostrophes indicate contraction (do not = don't) and possessives (John's).

Apostrophes are also used to form the plurals (p's and q's; A's, B's. C's).

2. Colons (:)

A colon indicates that what follows will be an example, explanation, or elaboration of what has just been said.

He was in the midst of a dilemma about his career: he wanted to stay, but he preferred the job in Florida.

Colons are commonly used to introduce quotations (He said: «Where are you?») and to separate titles from subtitles (Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays).

3. Commas (,)

Commas are required: (a) between items in a series; (b) between coordinate adjectives; (c) before coordinating conjucnctions joining independent clauses; (d) around paren­thetical elements; and (e) after fairly long phrases or clauses preceding the main clauses of sentences.

(a) The experience demanded blood, sweat, and tears.

(b) We listened to an absorbing, frightening account of the event.

(c) Congress passed the bill by a wide margin, and the president signed it into law.

(d) The invention, the first in a series during that decade, completely changed people's lives.

(e) After carefully studying all the available historical docu­ments and personal writings, scholars could come to no defini­tive conclusion.

Commas are also used in dates (June 23, 1983), names (Cal Ripken, Jr.) and addresses (Rosemary Brady of 160 Can-oil Street, Brooklyn, New York).

3. Dashes (-)

The dash may be used: (a) around parenthetical elements that represent a break in the flow of thought; (b) around par­enthetical elements that require a number of internal commas; and (c) before a summarizing appositive.

(a) The rapid spread of the disease — the number of reported cases doubled each six months — helped create the sense of panic.

(b) Many twentieth-century American writers — Faulkner, Capote, Styron, Welty, to name only a few—come from the South.

(c) Computer chips, integrated circuits, bits, and bytes — these new terms baffled yet intrigued.

4. Exclamation marks (!)

Exclamation marks follow the words of an exclamation (i.e., an expression of sudden strong feeling).

«I'm hungry!» she exclaimed.

5. Hyphens (-)

Hyphens are used to connect numbers indicating a range (1-20) and also to form some types of compound words, par­ticularly compound words that precede the words they modify (a well-established policy, a first-rate study). Hyphens also join prefixes to capitalized words (post-Renaissance) and link pairs of coequal nouns (poet-priest, scholar-athlete).

6. Italics (and/or underlining)

Some titles are italicized (underlined in typing), as are let­ters, words, or phrases cited as linguistic examples, words re­ferred to as words,* and foreign words in an English text. Ital­ics are sometimes used for emphasis (I never said that).

* The word Heartfelt is composed by joining heart and felt.

7. Parentheses ()

Parentheses enclose parenthetical remarks that break too sharply with the surrounding text to be enclosed in commas. Parentheses sometimes dictate a greater separation than dashes would, but often either set of marks is acceptable, the choice depending on the other punctuation required in the context.

8. Periods (.)

Periods end declarative sentences.

9. Quotation marks (« »)

Quotation marks should enclose quoted material, certain titles and words or phrases purposely misused or used in an ironic or other special sense (e.g., Their «benefactor» was ulti­mately responsible for their downfall).

10. Semicolons (;)

Semicolons are used: (a) between items in a series when some of the items require internal commas; (b) between closely related independent clauses not joined by coordinating con­junctions; and (c) before coordinating conjunctions linking independent clauses that require a number of internal com­mas.

(a) In one day the indefatigable candidate campaigned in Vail, Colorado; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; and Teaneck, New Jersey.

(b) On the one hand, demand is steadily decreasing; on the other, production keeps inexplicably increasing.

(c) The overture begins with a brooding, mournful passage in the strings and woodwinds, one of the composer's most passionate statements; but the piece concludes with a burst of lively, spirited, almost comic music in the brass and per­cussion.

11. Square brackets ([])

Square brackets are used: (a) for a parenthesis within a pa­renthesis where necessary to avoid two pairs of parentheses;

(b) to enclose interpolations in quotations; and (c) to indi­cate missing or unverified data in documentation.

PHRASAL PREPOSITIONS

LEARNING HINT #2: One of the most common mistakes that non-native speakers make with articles is using a or an with plural or uncountable nouns (a students and a research would be incorrect). But consider that the articles a and an are derived from the word one. Thus, it is illogical to use a or an with a plural noun, isn't it? It is also illogical to use a or an with an uncountable noun--After all, how can you have one of something that is uncountable?

An easy way to eliminate a lot of mistakes is to look through your writing for every occurrence of a and an. Then examine the noun that follows each a or an. If the noun is either plural or uncountable, then you have made a mistake, and you should refer to Table 3 to determine whether to use the or 0 instead.

LEARNING HINT #3: Often mistakes occur not because a writer has used the wrong article (e.g., a or an instead of the), but because the writer has used no article at all for a singular noun. Notice in Table 3 that every singular noun must have an article in front of it.

LEARNING HINT #4: Notice that every definite noun takes the article the, regardless of whether it is singular, plural, or uncountable. Therefore, if you cannot decide whether a noun is singular, plural, or uncountable, go on to the next step and ask yourself whether it is definite (known to both the writer/speaker and the reader/listener) or not. If it is definite, then use the.

Using Articles with Proper Nouns So far, we have been talking only about using articles with common nouns. The rules for proper nouns are more complex.

Proper nouns are names of particular people, places, and things (John F. Kennedy, New York City, Notre Dame Cathedral), and for that reason they are inherently definite. Nevertheless, the definite article is not used with most singular proper nouns. For example, if you are referring to your friend George, you wouldn't say "The George and I went to a movie last night." The only times "the" is used with a name like this are: a) when you want to be emphatic, as in "the Elizabeth Taylor" (to emphasize that you are talking about the famous actress, and not about another woman with the same name), and b) when you are actually using the name as a common noun, as in "the George that I introduced you to last night" (the real meaning of this phrase is "the man named George..."). Plural names, on the other hand, are always preceded by the: the Johnsons, the Bahamas, etc.

Singular geographical names are very irregular with respect to article usage. For example, singular names of continents (Asia, Africa), mountains (Mount Fuji), and bays (San Francisco Bay) do not take the article the, but regions (the Crimea), deserts (the Sahara), and other geographical entities do.

Indeed, the use of articles with singular proper nouns is complex and hence difficult to learn, as indicated by the examples below. For this reason, the best thing to do is to memorize whether the proper nouns that you use frequently are used with or without the.

Examples:

State Street the Empire State Building Delaware County Great Britain the Soviet Union the University of Virginia Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute the United Nations (the U.N.) the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (but "OPEC," not "the OPEC")

"A" Versus "An" This last topic is undoubtedly the easiest, because most non-native speakers already know about the difference between a and an. They are simply two variations of the indefinite article. A is used before words that begin with consonant sounds (a rock, a large park) and an is used before vowel sounds (an interesting subject, an apple).

However, note that the choice of a or an depends on pronunciation, not spelling. Many words that begin with the vowel -u- are preceded by a instead of an because the -u- spelling is often pronounce -yu-, as in useful ("a useful idea"), and uranium ("a uranium isotope"). In addition, in a few words borrowed from French, the initial consonant -h- is not pronounced: an heir to the throne, an hour-long lecture, an honorable agreement, etc.

A Strategy for Success Keep in mind that native speakers of English seldom use articles incorrectly; therefore, any errors that you make are very noticeable and distracting to them. That is why you should make an effort to use articles correctly.

Study this handout--particularly Five Sources of Definiteness, Table 3, and the Learning Hints. Memorize the definition of definiteness ("known to both the writer/speaker and the reader/listener"). Then try the Exercise toward the end of this handout; the correct answers are provided on the following page so you can check your work.

In the future, whenever you write in English, you will need to proofread your writing carefully and to apply the rules for article usage very deliberately. Then come to the Writing Center and ask a tutor specifically to correct any remaining errors in your article usage. With practice, you can learn to use articles correctly--not only in writing, but also in speech!

Exercise Instructions: Fill in each blank with the appropriate article. If no article is required, put a "0" in the blank. The nouns that the articles go with are in italics.

1. _______(a) Decline and Fall of ______(b) Roman Empire

2. ________(a) complexity of _______(b) problem of ______(c) decline and fall of the Roman Empire is made evident by _______(d) wide variety of causes that are emphasized in varying degrees by _______ (e) different authors.

3. Fortunately, ________(a) concise formulation of Edward Gibbon serves as _________(b) widely accepted basis for _______(c) modern discussion of _________(d) problem.

4. According to Gibbon, _________(a) empire reached its peak during _______(b) administration of ________(c) two Antonines.

5. After that, however, ________(a) extent of ________(b) Roman conquest became too great to be managed by _______(c) Roman government, and _______(d) decline began.

6. ______(a) military government was weakened and finally dissolved as ______(b) barbarians were allowed to constitute ______(c) ever-growing percentage of ______(d) Roman legions.

7. ______(a) victorious legions began to dominate and corrupt _______(b) government, weakening it at ______(c) time when it most needed ______(d) strength to overcome _______(e) other problems.

Answers and Explanations to the Exercises NOTE: The explanations refer to reasons given in the section on "Five Sources of Definiteness."

1. a) The -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of the Roman Empire). b) the -- singular; definite because of the preceding adjective: Roman. This is not one of the five principal sources of definiteness, but in this case, "Roman empire" is very specific (especially since "Roman" is derived from the proper noun, "Rome"), and the reader would be expected to know that there was only one empire that is known as the Roman empire in English.

2. a) The -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of the problem...). b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire). c) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modfication: of the Roman Empire). d) the or a -- singular; could be either definite or indefinite. Even though a long string of modifiers follows the noun, the reader still might not be familiar with the variety of causes that the writer is referring to. e) 0 -- plural; indefinite because the reader has no way of knowing which different authors the writer is referring to.

3. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of Edward Gibbon). b) a -- singular; indefinite because there could be more than one widely accepted basis for modern discussion of the problem (the modification is not sufficient to make the noun unique). c) 0 -- uncountable; indefinite. can be either countable or uncountable; here it is being used in the abstract, uncountable sense. It is indefinite because there could be more than one modern discussion of the problem (the modification is not sufficient to make the noun unique). d) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).

4. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned). b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of the two Antonines). c) the or 0 -- plural; could be either definite or indefinite. The writer's use of the indicates that there were two and only two Antonine emperors. Use of 0 would indicate that there were more than two Antonine emperors.

5. a) the -- singular; definite because of reason 4 (following modification: of the Roman conquest). b) the -- Conquest in this context is uncountable, meaning "the area or territory which was conquered." Because the preceding adjective, Roman, is derived from a proper name (Rome), it makes the following noun unique in this context. c) the -- singular; definite. As in 5b, the preceding adjective, Roman, makes it clear which government is referred to in this context. However, note that in another context, it might be necessary to add a following modification in order to make the noun definite (e.g., "the Roman government of the third century A.D.") d) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned).

6. a) The -- singular; definite because of reasons 1 and 5 (Roman government was previously mentioned, and it is clear from the context that military government is also referring to the Roman government). b) 0 -- plural; indefinite (not previously mentioned, nor is there any other source of definiteness). c) an -- singular; indefinite. There could be more than one group, other than the barbarians, who constituted ever-growing percentages of the Roman legions; thus, modification is not sufficient to make the noun definite. d) the -- plural; definite. As in 5b and 5c, the preceding adjective, Roman, is sufficient to make it clear which legions are being referred to in this context. In another context, additional modification might be required to make the noun definite (e.g., "the Roman legions that invaded Britian in 6 B.C.")

7. a) 0 -- plural; probably indefinite. The author is not necessarily referring to any particular group of victorious legions; moreover, even though legions have been mentioned before, victorious legions have not; thus, the criterion of previous mention does not apply. b) the -- singular; definite because of reason 1 (previously mentioned). c) a or the -- singular; If we interpret when it most needed... as modifying time, then time is definite because of reason 4. However, most native speakers interpret both at a time and when it most needed... as adverbial modifiers modifying weakening, so the the noun would be interpreted as being indefinite. d) the or 0 -- Strength can be either uncountable (the abstract quality of strength) or singular (a particular instance of that abstract quality). So it is either singular and definite because of reason 4 (following modification: to overcome other problems), or uncountable and indefinite. Both would be equally acceptable, so it just depends on how the writer is thinking. e) 0 -- plural; indefinite (other problems have not been mentioned previously, and there is no other source of definiteness)