Greetings and Introductions

Exercise 9. Read the dialogue in pairs. Act out your own dialogues choosing some expressions from the list below.

H: Hello, Mary! How are you?

M: I am fine, thanks. And you, Helen?

H: Not so bad. Mary, I want to introduce you to my boyfriend.

He is on business here.

M: What is he?

H: He is a computer engineer at a bank. He is coming. Alex, this is

Mary.

A: Hi, Mary? Nice to meet you.

M: Nice to meet you too. Are you a university graduate, Alex?

A: Yes, I am. I graduated from this university last year.

M: Do you like your job?

A: I like it very much. It’s been my idea of a job since my school days.

1. I am glad to meet you. 2. You are welcome at our university. 3. Let me introduce her/ him to you. 4. She/ he is my close friend. 5. How do you spell your name? 6. What’s your first/ last name?

READING

Practise reading the following words from TEXT B giving special attention to the pronunciation of sounds in stressed position.

varieties style revise science private precise	phrasal conversation native communication change situation	vocabulary language	vary area

Remember the following negative PREFIXES of the words in the right hand column:

f ormal informal

d irect indirect (taxation)

l imited unlimited (company)

s ocial unsocial

a greement disagreement

v oting nonvoting (shares)

Introductory Note

TEXT B contains many INTERNATIONAL WORDS, such as FORMAL – формальный, EMOTIONAL – эмоциональный. International words are easy to recognize and their meanings are easy to guess in context. Remember: they have often several possible translations. E.g. “formal politeness” – формальная вежливость, “formal language” – официальный, сухой язык, “formal agreement” – официальное соглашение.

Text b

Read TEXT B quickly. Try to guess the meaning of the underlined

International words.

Varieties of English

English is not a single language, it varies according to forms of communication (spoken – written), speech situations (formal – informal), functional styles (language of science – literary language), geographical areas (British English – American English).

In writing we usually have time to plan our message, to think about it carefully and revise it if necessary.

The language of science belongs mostly to formal written communication, it is usually objective, precise and unemotional. Some of the common features of the language of science are passive constructions, sentences beginning with introductory “it” (e.g. It is important to remember).

Formal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for example, in official reports and business letters. Informal language is the language of private conversation, of popular newspapers, of personal letters. In English there are many differences of vocabulary between formal and informal language. Much of the vocabulary of formal English is of French, Latin and Greek origin. Many phrasal verbs are characteristic of informal style:

t o discover to find out

t o investigate to look into

t o educate to bring up

English is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people. The varieties of English used in Great Britain and the USA are the most important in terms of population and influence.

English presents a great difficulty for a learner because of disagreement between pronunciation and spelling. There are many suggestions to simplify English by changing the spelling system. But people think that there are too many problems connected with the change of the spelling rules.

Exercise 10. Working in pairs say whether the following statements are true or false. Express your agreement or disagreement. Give the correct answer.

1. There are three varieties of English.

2. The language of science is emotional and not precise.

3. In private conversation we use informal language.

4. More than three hundred million people speak English as a native

language.

5. It is easy to change the English spelling system.

WRITING TASK

Give a one-page written account of your view on learning English. Describe the learning techniques which especially help you when you learn English. While doing the task make use of some expressions and sentences below.

1) I began learning English at the age of ...

2) to use an English-Russian/English-English dictionary

3) to underline words I don’t know

4) keeping a vocabulary book helps me ...

5) I’ve got a small notebook to copy ... ... into it

6) learning new words by repeating them silently is ...

7) to work hard at my pronunciation

8) to try to guess the meaning of a word

9) I check my homework for mistakes

10) I don’t miss the opportunity to practise English

11) I begin to revise several days before the test

12) learning from mistakes

13) to improve my English I ...

14) to have a good/terrible memory

15) to learn the language by circumstances

SPEAKING TASK

1. Working in pairs discuss the following questions under the headings I – V.

2. Give a talk in class on the topic “The English We Learn for Professional Purposes” making use of TEXTS A and B as well as

WRITING TASK.

I. English is an international language.

Is English one of the most widespread languages on Earth?

Why English is considered an international language?

In what spheres of life is English used?

II. Difficulties of the English language.

How many words does the English vocabulary have?

Why does learning English seem easy in the beginning?

What problems are there in learning English?

Why does English present a difficulty for a Russian learner?

III. Varieties of English.

What are the varieties of English?

What kind of English do students of economics study at university?

What are the common features of the language of science?

Where is formal language used?

What type of language do people use in private conversations?

What are the most important varieties of Standard English?

IV. English for specialists.

Why is it important for a specialist to know a foreign language?

What's your purpose of learning English?

V. My English learning techniques.

When did you begin learning English?

What are the best ways of learning English in your opinion?

What special ways of improving your English do you often use?

What are the most difficult things for you in learning English?

What do better language skills depend on?

INDEPENDENT READING

When tested by the teacher on your independent reading you should be prepared to answer what information from TEXTS 1, 2 and 3 is new and interesting to you. When translating the texts make use of NOTES and an ABBYY Lingvo Electronic Dictionary.

TEXT 1