2126

М.В. Цыгулева

ME AND MY WORLD:

MAKING ENGLISH A PART OF YOUR LIFE

Учебно-методическое пособие

Модуль 2

УДК 44

ББК 81.432.1

М 45

Рецензенты:

доктор филологических наук, профессор Л.О. Бутакова

(ФГБОУ ВПО «Омский государственный университет им. Ф.М. Достоевского»);

кандидат филологических наук, доцент И.Н. Ефименко

(ФГБОУ ВПО «Сибирская государственная автомобильно-дорожная академия (СибАДИ)»)

Работа одобрена редакционно-издательским советом академии в качестве учебно-методического для студентов

1, 2 курсов всех специальностей.

Цыгулева М.В.

М 45 Me and My World: Making English a part of your life. Модуль 2: учебно-методическое пособие. Омск:

СибАДИ, 2011 . – 56 с.

Учебно-методическое пособие «Me and My World» направлено на обучение навыкам устной и письменной речи. Задания, предлагаемые в пособии, построены таким образом, чтобы активизировать мыслительную деятельность обучаемых, оптимизировать учебный процесс за счет экономии времени, усилий педагога и правильной организации самостоятельной работы студентов. Учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов 1, 2

курсов высших учебных заведений.

Ил. 15 . Библиогр.: 23 назв.

ФГБОУ ВПО «СибАДИ», 2011

ENGLISH AS

A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

1.How long have you been studying English? Read the following ideas and decide which are true about you.

I study English … - for my future work; - it is obligatory;

- my parents want me to learn it; - so I can read foreign literature;

- so I can feel at ease when I travel; - so I can chat online;

- so I can surf the Internet;

- ’cause this language is beautiful;

- ’cause I need it as I want to live abroad.

2.What language is an international one nowadays? What language should English native speakers learn? Read what James says about the English language. Do you agree with him?

People say that English people are lazy when it comes to learning languages, and that when foreigners coming to England speak English, English people should return the favour. Fair enough! I think this is true, but what language should English people learn? Europe is linguistically quite diverse, so even if everyone in England spoke fluent German as well as English, no doubt the French and Spanish would think that we were unwilling or lazy for not learning their languages.

But, no doubt it won't be long before the international language changes again. Only 100 years ago, Latin and French were important languages, 50 years ago, English and Russian, and now only English. It is only a matter of time before another language takes over the role of international languages, and at this rate it looks like it will be Mandarin! The grammar of Mandarin is quite simple. In many cases its vocabulary is too. There are no articles, no genders. Numbers are all easily constructed (55 is five ten five) and dates are as well. The only difficulties lie in the tones. But anyone could pick them up with little practice and a musical ear.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

3. Find the words in the text (Ex. 2) that mean:

-the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill;

-a person not native to the country;

-concerning or belonging to all or at least two or more nations;

-spoken or written with ease;

-of various kinds or forms; multiform.

4. Use these words to complete the sentences:

1.India is quite ………………, both politically and religiously.

2.………………. another language widens your cultural knowledge about the world and the people who live outside the borders of your own country.

3.I can't speak a word of French so everyone can tell I'm a …………………….. as soon as I arrive in France.

4.I strongly disagree with Esperanto becoming an …………………… language as it has no chance of possessing the beauty of the language because all of its expressions and rules have already been spelled out for it.

5.He knows quite a lot of French, but he's not ……………………… yet.

5.Use the words from Ex. 3 to talk about the Russian language.

6.Match the words with their definitions:

7. Read other people's comments. Write a summary of each story. What’s your opinion? Jonathan:

English is I am told the "world language" in terms of trade and commerce and because so many people now speak it in many civilised areas of the globe it is hard not to become relaxed. However I am a Britishman living in Slovakia and my partner is Slovak with excellent English. I spent three years learning the Slovak language and found it really difficult but I knew I had to learn it to communicate with friends and family in Slovakia who don't speak my

language. All in all you can probably get around without ever speaking a foreign language but if you want to feel at home, understand a culture and have better employment opportunities then learning the countries local language or at least knowing another major world language does help. I also don't have to rely on my partner to assist me all the time!

is only 3yrs of mandatory learning, which takes place for two or three lessons per week. When the learning is over, many forget it because they have no use for it other than to order food when on holiday because whether you like it or not the English language is used everywhere, and often a foreign persons language skills are better than the English because they started at a very young age learning it. If you want to blame English speakers for being lazy for not learning then you should also blame yourselves for resorting to speaking English every time an English person is trying to speak to you in your language to get what little practice they can, I have found that every time I go to France that when I speak French they speak English back and even when I persist in speaking French they continue to speak English, you can't win!

have been unable to find any opportunity to put these languages to practical use. If I went to Germany, I'd be considered a typically lazy, ignorant monolingual Briton just because I can't speak German. A German who spoke only German and English would be well looked on. It's a double standard. English speakers would have to know 10+ languages to shake off the 'ignorant monolingual' tag.

Nicky:

I am English, living in Australia after all, but I have bothered to learn several languages. In answer to the question which other language to learn. Until the First World War we all learned German, then we moved over to French. When I was at school we did 5 years of Latin, here in Australia, the government encourages students to learn Mandarin and Japanese for trade reasons. Italian is hugely popular here because of the early influence of Italian settlers. Many schools working along the lines, of 'what is the most likely to be used?' have plumped for Indonesian given that so

many Aussies holiday in Bali. Likewise in the UK, French and Spanish would seem to be the most useful. I am a language teacher myself and my children between them have studied, French, Japanese, Italian, German, English, Creole, Russian, and Spanish. My next-door neighbours have done a variety of Asian languages and my mother studied Hindi and my uncle Greek and Hebrew. After consulting with many colleagues I have come to the conclusion it is quicker to study a language that has the same script, is not based on tones and so is pronounced in a similar way and that you are most likely to visit/use. It is universally recognised by linguist that the easiest language for an English native speaker to learn is Afrikaans, but how useful would that be?

Jane:

What language you learn depends on your life goals. If say you are an American whose only purpose for a secondary language is to be able to communicate better with your community it depends where you live, yet Spanish is on the increase. If you want to learn a language to develop in your career, then this also depends on what you want to do. If you are looking to go into social work, then Spanish is your answer. If you want to go into international business, then Spanish and

Chinese is good for you. If you are trying to learn another language in order to help your kids, then I suggest any and every language tutor or class that you can get your hands on (there is no loss here). Even if your child wants to learn Latin (although it is not very helpful in modern conversational language). But it will enrich you child's knowledge, and more than likely they will find a use for it (research, teaching, etc..) If you want to go into the FBI, CIA I would suggest Arabic. The right language to learn depends on each individual person and aspirations. Just make sure that the language you choose to learn is correct. Try and become fluent, but learn greetings in all and every language you can think of; here, it is the effort that you make in trying to please whoever you are dealing with that really counts, and this could give you the one up that the next person doesn't have.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1490463.stm

8. Read the text and supply the missing 40 word part.

English by no means the 'universal' language

Languages are not only communication tools, but in their dive__ __ __ __ __1) and ethnicity they a__ __2) also integral parts o__3) world culture. Communication a__ __4) development policies which a__ __5) not based on res__ __ __ __6) and support for a__ __7) languages amount to a de__ __ __8) sentence for the majo__ __ __ __9) of

stati__ __ __ __ __16) show that no mo__ __17) than ten percent o__18) the world’s popul__ __ __ __ __19) speak English as a nat__ __ __20) language. English is b__21) no means a ’universal’ ton__ __ __22) just yet - and i__23) my eyes it i__24) unsuitable as one, al__ __ __25) with all other nati__ __ __ __26) languages.

Personal experience wi__ __27) show that a person tal__ __ __ __28) in a second (non-native) lang__ __ __ __29) will never reach qu__ __ __30) the same level o__31) fluency as the nat__ __ __32).

The beauty of nati__ __ __ __33) languages is in th__ __ __34) differences, their complexities, t__ __35) subtlety of their tu__ __ __36) of phrase - but i__37) is these same trea__ __ __ __ __38) that make national lang__ __ __ __ __39) too difficult and t__ __40) non-neutral for intercommunication. This is a reason why an easy- to-learn, auxiliary language like Esperanto should be used to solve the language problem - speakers of all languages, large and small, should have a real chance of learning a second language to an expressive, highly communicative level.

Make the correct word boundaries and you will know the answers.

Diversityareofareandarerespectalldeathmajoritythegenerallythegreatestdiversityspreadstatisticsmoreofpopulationnative bytongueinisalongnationalwilltalkinglanguagequiteofnativenationaltheirtheturnsittreasureslanguagestoo

9. Is it difficult for you to study English? Why? Do you have your own ideas how to make the process of studying more interesting and easier? Brainstorm ideas!

Study

languages

10. Read the following tips and add them to your list. Become a child again!

Look at the language you are trying to learn as a totally new thing, accept new words and sentences in their context instead of trying to translate them word-for-word back in to English. Children don't question their native language as they're growing up and learning it, they just accept...

Make learning a part of your life

Make your learning an active part of your life. Recent research in adult learning shows that you're likely to remember 20% of what you read and 30% of what you hear ... and a staggering 90% of what you see, hear, say and do. So, practise by doing things like saying phone numbers out loud, making shopping and other lists, memorising orders in a bar or restaurant.

Keep a check on your progress

Keep a check on your progress. If ever you feel you're not learning fast enough, you may be underestimating how much progress you're actually making. Go back every so often to something you did early on to prove to yourself how much you've learnt.

Set short-term goals

Be realistic and don't expect miracles. Language learning takes time and commitment - don't expect to be fluent overnight and don't be hard on yourself when you can't remember everything you've learnt.

Set yourself some short-term goals - the thought of a visit in a few months' time to a place where the language you're learning is spoken is a real incentive to learn.

Don't worry about mistakes

Don't worry too much about mistakes. It's a normal part of the learning process, and you'll learn much more quickly by having a go at speaking than by saying nothing until you're word perfect. Generally, people are only too pleased to hear you trying to speak their language and make allowances if you don't get it exactly right.

Repeat activities

Don't feel you must always forge ahead with new material. Repeating activities is an excellent way of building familiarity with the language. So if you're tired and your mind is wandering, instead of giving your language learning a miss do some activities you've done before and which won't require as much concentration.

If you find your concentration wavering, remind yourself of why you wanted to learn in the first place. This helps to keep you focused.

Listen to native speakers using audio and video clips

If your ambition is to speak the language, you need to train yourself to listen without always seeing it written down. You might find this hard at first but it pays off when you come to speak it. You won't always be trying to pronounce it like English.

Improve your accent and your confidence by listening to speakers on the audio and video clips over and over and imitating them closely - out loud. The more you do this, the more you'll find yourself becoming comfortable with the sounds of the language.

Don't let grammar worry you

Don't let grammar worry you - but don't go out of your way to avoid it either. Grammar is simply the term for the mechanics of a language, and basic knowledge of the rules of grammar will allow you to say what you want to say instead of having to rely on set phrases.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/learning_tips.shtml

11. There are at least 20 hidden words. Find them!

12.Find the words from Ex. 11 in the text above and ask questions to the sentences they are in.

13.Reorder the words to make questions and answer them.

1.which / will / language / one / over / role / of / take / the / an / international?

2.it / are / people / languages / lazy / when / to / English / learning / comes?

3.it / script / study / to / the / a / language / that / quicker / same / is / has?

4.to / the / on / choice / of / right / the / what / language / learn / does / depend?

5.beauty / what / the / the / of / language / is?

14. Do you agree with the following statements? Why?

1)Having mastered one foreign language, second and subsequent ones can be learned with much less pain and effort.

2)Esperanto (an artificial language invented in 1887 by L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician and philologist, and intended for international use which is based on word roots common to the major European languages.) should be taught in more places.

3)Any language is divided up into so many different components - one cannot be equally good in all of them. Having a boy/girl friend or spouse who speaks another language does not automatically mean that you will learn it quicker.

15. What is TOEFL:

-Teacher Of English For Learners;

-Translation Of English Fiction Literature;

-Teaching Of English as a Foreign Language;

-Test Of English as a Foreign Language?

16. Read the text about TOEFL and find the paragraphs about:

1.The TOEFL test gives you more choices about where you want to study.

2.The TOEFL test gives you the skills you need to communicate in real-life, academic situations.

3.The TOEFL test gives you more convenience and flexibility.

4.The TOEFL test is fair and accurate.

The TOEFL® test measures your ability to communicate in English in colleges and universities. Accepted by 6,000 institutions in more than 130 countries, including almost every university in the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, that rely on TOEFL scores for admissions, scholarship and graduation decisions. It is the most widely accepted English-language test in the world.

The entire test is taken in one day, which saves you travel time and costs. And, there are more than 4,000 test centers to choose from.

You can retake the test in just 7 days, if you want to improve your scores.

In the classroom and on campus, you will be able to communicate your ideas effectively, listen to lectures, read textbooks and online research, write academic papers and e-mails, and speak with other students and professors.

All test takers have a similar test-taking experience, which eliminates the inconsistency of interviews that could negatively impact your scores.

Scores are objective and unbiased. Tests are scored anonymously by ETS-certified experts.

http://www.toefl.org

18. What things listed above do you think should be brought on test day? Read the following information and compare it with your answer.

What to Bring on Test Day

You must bring the following documents, information and supplies with you on test day:

1.A valid ID with your name, signature and photograph. The name on the document(s) must be the same name you used when you registered. ID will be checked before you are admitted.

2.Your admission ticket with your registration number and the codes for the institutions you select as score recipients.

3.Your signed photo-file record, with a recent, recognizable photo.

4.3 or 4 sharpened No. 2 or HB pencils and an eraser. Mechanical pencils are not permitted.

Please arrive at least 30 minutes early. If you are late, you may not get in and could lose your test fee.

Do not bring any of the documents listed below.

These documents will NOT BE accepted on test day:

Any expired ID

Birth certificate

International driver's license

Draft classification card

International student ID

Credit/debit card of any kind