УМК ин.яз.(английский) БТФ

to conduct (business deals, research) to give the opportunity

to be generally considered

to attend (international conferences, lectures, classes) a good command of English

to be vital to employ

to broaden the mind

to increase employability to enrich (sb culturally)

to give a vital edge (over others)

Reading Comprehension Tasks:

1 Are these sentences true (T) or false (F) according to the text. Correct the false ones.

1.English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers

2.One third of all business deals throughout the world are conducted in English..

3At least 35% of the content on the Internet is in English.

4. English is considered to be the lingua franca of the scientific community.

5.A good command of English is an increasingly useful skill.

6.The ability to speak English increases an individual’s employability.

7.Multinational corporations do not employ English-speakers in their offices around the world.

8.Learning languages broadens the mind and enriches all of us culturally.

2 Find equivalents to the following Russian word combinations in the text and write them down.

3. Find in the text the answers to the following questions.

•How many people in the world speak the English language today?

•Why is it said that English opens doors to academic world?

•What is a lingua franca?

4.Why is English considered a lingua franca of the scientific community?

5.Why is a good command of English considered a useful skill for journalists?

6.How can you prove that knowledge of English increases an individual’s employability?

4. Make up sentences using the table.

5. Which three reasons of learning English mentioned in the text do you think are the most important?

a) Write them down

I think it is necessary / important to learn English because (потому, что) first(ly), it is __________________________________________________

second(ly), ___________________________________________________

third(ly), _____________________________________________________

b)Write some other reasons important personally for you and explain why.

Personally, for me it is important to know English better because ___________

________________________________________________________________

I believe that a good command of English will increase my employability because

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

c)Have you decided on developing your English reading and speaking skills / improving your English? Now decide on the ways to reach your goals in learning English. You may begin as follows:

In order to (для того, чтобы) learn English (better), I’m going to ___________

________________________________________________________________

In order to improve (улучшить) my English, I’m going to _________________

________________________________________________________________

For ideas: to attend classes regularly (not to skip classes), to be active in class, to work hard between the sessions, to do my home assignments, to read and translate the texts, to learn words, to do my best.

1. Discuss the following questions:

1.How large should an active vocabulary be in order to communicate effectively?

2.How many people speak English?

3.In what spheres is English used most commonly?

4.What opportunities does the knowledge of English give?

5.How can you improve your English?

2.Join the sentences using the appropriate words because (потому,

что), therefore (поэтому), in order to (для того, чтобы). Different variants are possible.

•The British Empire expanded across almost a quarter of the world’s surface.

English has become used in many countries.

•The ability to speak English increases an individual’s employability. Today multinational corporations employ English-speakers in offices around the world.

•The knowledge of English increases career opportunities. You can get professional information first hand.

•English is the lingua franca of the scientific community. Roughly 80% of all journals are published in English.

•The number of people learning the English language is growing. The knowledge of English is vital in many professions.

•The students are studying English. They want to become highly qualified specialists.

•You want to improve your English. You should work hard.

3.Use articles where necessary

1.The knowledge of _____ English language is vital in many professions. You don’t have to speak _____ English to have a successful career, but it certainly helps. _____ English is the language of the technological revolution and the internet.

2._____ English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside _____ England. _____ English language was taken around the world by the sailors, soldiers, pilgrims, traders and missionaries of

_____ British Empire. The exporting of _____ English continued in

_____seventeenth century, with the first settlements in _____ North America. The fast growth of population in _____ United States, assisted by massive immigration

in _____ nineteenth and twentieth centuries has given _____ English language its present standing in the world.

3.The adoption of _____ English as the universal language of science is due in part to historical political and economic factors which favored _____ English language over other potential candidate languages such as _____ Chinese, French, German, Russian, or Spanish.

4._____ English language is the primary language of books and newspapers around the world. The ability to read and understand _____ English also opens up the possibility of enjoying the historical achievements of _____ English literature. Shakespeare, Dickens, Milton, Bronte, and Hardy are all far more enjoyable when read in their original language.

5._____ English is also the first language of organizations such as _____

European Union, _____ United Nations, _____ Commonwealth of Nations, and

_____ NATO.

4. Find the English equivalents

взаимопонимание; проводить (деловые сделки, исследование); обычно считаться, рассматриваться; обогащать (кого-то в культурном отношении), расширять кругозор, способствовать трудоустройству, дать важное преимущество (над другими), быть жизненно важным, хорошее владение английским языком, посещать (международные конференции, лекции, занятия).

ENGLISH AS A WORLD LANGUAGE

Read the article on English as a world language. What are the main characteristics of English as a world language?

SIMPLICITY OF FORM. Old English, like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections, and adjectives do not change according to the noun.

FLEXIBILITY. As a result of the loss of inflections, English has become, over the past five centuries, a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example swim, drink, walk, kiss, look, and smile. We can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers; time to go and to time a race; a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire; if clothes are dirtied, they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of golf, cards, or drinks.

OPENNESS OF VOCABULARY. This involves the free admissions of words from other languages and the easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and

the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian, and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.

THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It is the language of business, technology, sport, and aviation. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

1. Work in pairs.

Do you think the following statements are true or false?

1.English was already important world language four hundred years ago.

2.It is mainly because of the United States that English has become a world language.

3.One person out of seven in the world speaks perfect English.

4.There are few inflections in modern English.

5.In English, many verbs can be used as nouns.

6.English has borrowed words from many other languages.

7.In the future, all other languages will probably die out.

2. Continue the sentences according to the text.

•Today English requires an effort of …

•English is a world language because of its establishment…

•There are three groups of people who speak English, they are…

•Over the past five centuries, as a result of the loss of inflections, English has become…

•Openness of vocabulary involves the free admissions of…

•Geographically, English is… .

Are You a Good Language Learner?

1) Dicussion:

What ways would you prefer to learn the English language successfully? What are you particularly keen on studying English? Have you ever had any chance to practise your English? What do you think are the qualities of a good language learner?

Put a number next to the qualities which you think are relevant (1 = most relevant) and add any others you can think of.

•intelligence

•a certain kind of personality (what kind?)

•motivation/enthusiasm

•a good memory

•ability to work hard

•other (what?)

____________________________

____________________________

2)Discuss your choices in pairs and see if you can agree on the four most important qualities. Discuss what you

a)have to be/have

b)don't need to be/have

c)should be/have

3)Read, and make a note of the four main points he refers to.

Point one:________________________________

Point two:_________________________________

Point three:_________________________________

Point four:__________________________________

4) Which does he regard as the most important? Do you agree?

You are going to read a lecture on The Good Language Learner', given by the Principal of a language school to a group of foreign students who have come to study English in England.

The topic I'd like to deal with this morning is what makes a good language learner. This is an eternal problem, and one to which there's no real solution. I would however like you to think about the situation of learners outside the classroom because in many ways it would be true to say that there are more people in the world who speak a foreign language or a second language who didn't learn it in a classroom than there are who did and I think this awareness of the success of out-of-classroom learning provides us with a key to how in-classroom learning can be successful.

Let us look then at the characteristics of a good language learner. I think motivation is certainly going to be very high on our list. Obviously there are different kinds of motivation; there is what we call instrumental motivation, this is the kind of motivation which in theory persuades a school pupil to learn a language in order to pass an examination - it's external motivation, something which is imposed on the learner. The opposite of this is integrative motivation, the kind of motivation which gets an immigrant in a country or someone who's married to a speaker of another language to master the tongue much more rapidly than someone learning in a classroom. Arguably most people possess mixed motivation although it would appear from research that integrative motivation does give much better results, certainly as far as speed of learning goes.

Personality is obviously another major factor to be borne in mind - not necessarily, I'm not necessarily saying that you need - er how shall I say? - extroverts to learn a foreign language, but someone who has the confidence to make mistakes is always going to learn much more quickly than someone who is afraid to experiment.

Intelligence isn't a factor, I feel, in language learning - I would prefer to use the term learning skills. Learning skills are those abilities which make one person progress at a much faster speed than the others; they include having a

good ear, efficient revision, being able to monitor your own speech, suitable organisation of learning generally.

However, if we go back to our starting point, which was the great, the much greater number of speakers of languages who have learnt outside classrooms I think it gives us the key to what I believe is the most important factor, and that's independence. A learner who frees him or herself from the tyranny of the teacher and the classroom and who makes use of twenty-four hours a day for learning, who, in a word, accepts responsibility for learning, is always going to be not just a good language learner but the best. Conversely, someone who won't accept this responsibility is always going to remain at what we call a plateau - they've failed to make progress and blame their teachers. In reality it is themselves that they should blame.

•Match 1-6 with their definitions.

1)instrumental motivation

2)external motivation

3)integrative motivation

4)ability

5)skill

a)the kind of motivation which gets an immigrant in a country or someone who’s married to a speaker of another language to master the tongue much more rapidly than someone learning in a classroom;

b)the kind of motivation which in theory persuades a school pupil to learn a language in order to pass an exam;

c)something which is imposed on the learner;

d)something, esp. of trade or learner; technique, requiring special

training;

e)natural capability; pi. special talents.

2 Answer the questions.

What types of learning does the Principal mentions? What kinds of motivation does the lecturer describe?

What does he prefer intelligence or learning skills? What learning skills does he mention?

WRITING

Read the text again, and make the text summary.

The Good Language Learner

Classroom learning could be much more effective if we thought more about how people learn languages successfully 1_____________________________________________

What is a good language learner? 1 Different types of motivation

Instrumental (or 2__________) motivation opposite. Integrative motivation

3Learning skills Abilities include:

•8________________________

•revising efficiently

•monitoring your 9_______________________

•10________________________________

4Independence

(11____________________ factor, according to him)

Very important to be independent of the 12___________________and

FROM THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH

Discuss the following questions:

When was language first written down? When was the first alphabet developed? How many languages are there in the world? Which are the five most spoken languages in the world? How many words are there in English? Which are the most common words in English? Which languages do the words ketchup and shampoo originally come from? Which country has got 13 languages on its bank notes?

Read and check your answers.

(I = Interviewer; KT = Kim Thomas)

I: ... so, if we could turn to the origin of language? Um, do we know when, where and how language originated?

KT: Ah, that's a difficult question to answer, or rather the answer is no one really knows. What we do know is when language was first written down.

I:Ah hah, and that was ...

KT: That was about five and a half thousand years ago, in about 3500 ВС. The Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia, were the first people to write down their language. They used symbols called pictographs to represent everyday objects - a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphics - and the first actual alphabet was developed around 3,500 years ago by the Phoenicians, who lived on the eastern coast of what is now Syria. Today there are around 65 alphabets in the world. Interestingly, the shortest of them, the one used in the Solomon Islands, has only 11 letters.

I:Hah, hah. And the longest?

KT: Er, the Cambodian, I think. I believe it's got 74 letters.

I:So, how many languages are there in the world today?

KT: Somewhere in the region of 4,000.1 don't think we'll ever find out the exact figure.

I:Um, and which of these are the most spoken?

KT: Well, Mandarin Chinese has about a billion speakers. English is next with about half a billion speakers and Hindi, Spanish and Russian are not too far behind. These five languages account for half of all the conversations in the world!

I: Hah, hah, hah. And is it true that Mandarin is the biggest language? I mean the one with the most number of. words.

KT: Again, it's difficult to say, but the latest thinking is that English is actually the biggest, largely due to the number of technical and scientific words it contains. There are at least a million words in English. Most native speakers only use about 10,000 words, that's one per cent of them.

I:Hah. Only 10,000?

KT: Yeah, and can you guess which are the most common of these? The most used words in English.

I:Huh. Let me think. Um, maybe 'be'?

KT: Well, according to recent research, where tens of thousands of hours of conversation have been fed into computers and analysed, the most common word is 'the'.

I:Oh, and 'be'?

KT: Well, 'be', we think, is the most used verb in English. But of course there are different forms. Er, what do you think the most common noun in spoken English is?

I: Mm, The most common noun? Erm, maybe something like ... er, oh, I've no idea. You're going to have to tell us.

KT: Hah, hah, hah. Well, you just said it, actually. Apparently it's 'thing'.

I: Mm. Hah ... OK ... hah. What about the origins of words? Where does English come from?

KT: Well, modern English, which is about 500 years old, is a mixture of mainly Roman and Germanic languages. Greek and Arabic have also provided English with many words. Er, did you know 'sugar' comes from Arabic? And, surprisingly, so does 'alcohol'. In fact many, many words have been 'borrowed' from other languages. For example, did you know that 'coffee' comes from Turkish and that 'chess', the game, is a Persian word?

I:Oh, no.

KT: Where do you think 'ketchup', as in tomato ketchup, comes from?

I: Er, I've never really thought about it. I've no idea. Hah, hah, hah. America?

KT: Hah, hah, hah. It's from the Malay language. A traditional Malaysian sauce I believe.

I:Ah.

KT: How about 'shampoo'?

I:Mmm, it sounds a bit oriental to me. Maybe Japanese?

KT: It's actually a Hindi word, from India. The list is endless.

I: Er, you mentioned India just then. Isn't that a country with hundreds of languages?

KT: Well, I don't know about hundreds. I think Papua New Guinea has got the most with over eight hundred and fifty separate languages, but India has got dozens of languages. The bank notes there have got thirteen languages written on them. I suppose they're the main languages. Um, most people there speak at least two or three languages.

I: Um, talking of which ... and one final question. To speak two languages fluently is difficult enough, but have you any idea what the highest number of languages spoken by one person is?

KT: There is, or was, a Frenchman, I, er, can't remember his name, but he spoke 31 different languages. All of them fluently!

I: Oh. On that note, Professor Thomas, we'll say thank you very much and, er, au revoir, auf Wiedersehen, arrivaderci, or, sayonara, adios ...

Writing and speaking

Write ten questions about the interview. Ask some classmates your questions.

Giving opinion

Discuss the following questions:

Is it English easier than other languages? Do you think that learning classical languages is a waste of time? What dead languages do you know?

Is there any relevance of learning any language in a classroom?

ANTHONY: Well, it seems to me that some languages are easier to learn than others. I mean, what about if you had to learn Japanese? I don’t really think that as an English speaker I could learn to speak Japanese as easily as I could learn...er...say Italian. I mean for a start I’d have to learn a completely new writing system, and there’d be hardly any words which are the same in English and Japanese. Do you see what I mean, Sally?

SALLY: Yes, but at least Japanese is a living language - ha...I mean millions of people speak it in Japan. So I think it’s true to say that learning it would be useful and relevant. But Latin or Ancient Greek are languages that nobody speaks. I mean, don’t you agree that learning a dead language is a bit of a waste of time? Some students find them interesting, but I don’t really believe that there’s any practical value at all in learning classical languages, do you, Bill?

BILL: Not really. But you know what I think? I think that if you learn a foreign language in your own country, it's quite difficult to appreciate the relevance of any language. I think this is particularly true if you’re learning a language at school, where...er...studying languages sometimes doesn’t seem relevant - any more than history or literature seem relevant. And don’t you agree that...if your only contact with the language is in the classroom and you only