Unit 1 Part I A
1. Oxford / commitment / academic record 2. oldest/ largest / reputation / research / science 3. first / Australia / 150 years / excels 4. excellence / 17.000 / location
5. largest / 1883 / situated / 26,000 6. 1636 / enrollment / 18,500/ schools 7. awards / degrees / 20,000 8. located / 135 / third B
1. 2,700 languages / 7,000 dialects / regional / pronunciation 2. official / language
3. One billion / 20 percent
4. Four hundred million / first / 600 million / second / foreign 5. 500,000 words / Eighty percent / other 6. Eighty percent / computers 7. African country / same 8. 1,000 / Africa
9. spaceship / 1977 / 55 / message / the United States C 1 – (a) 2 – ( c) 3 – ( d) 4 – (b )
All right, class. Today we’re going to be looking at different language learning styles. You may be surprised to find that there are different ways of going about learning languages, none of which is necessarily better than the others. Researchers have identified four basic learner “types” – the communicative learner, the analytical learner, the authority-oriented learner and the concrete learner. Communicative learners like to learn by watching and listening to native speakers. At home, they like to learn by watching TV and videos. They like to learn new words by hearing them. In class, they like to learn by having conversations. Now, concrete learners like to lean by playing games, by looking at pictures and videos in class, talking in pairs, and by listening to cassettes at home and school. Now, authority-oriented learners, on the other hand, like the teacher to explain everything. They like to write everything down in their notebook, and they like to have a textbook. They like to learn new words by seeing them. And finally, we have analytical learners. These learners like to learn by studying grammar. At home, they like to learn by studying English books, and they like to study by themselves. They like to find their own mistakes. Now, of course, it’s unusual for a person to be exclusively one “type” rather than another. Most of us are mixtures of styles. What type of learner do you think you are? Part II A3
GCSE examinations students / higher education
student/ second year / high school / college general exam / School Certificate sitting University Entrance Examination bachelor’s degree: 3/ 4 years master’s degree: another year or two doctorate: a further 3-7 years
Well, in Britain, from the ages of five to about eleven you start off at a primary school, and then from eleven to sixteen you go on to a secondary school or a comprehensive school and at sixteen you take GCSE examinations. After this, some children take vocational courses or even start work. Others stay on at school for another two years to take A levels. And at the age of eighteen, after A levels, they might finish their education or go on to a course of higher education at a college or university, and that’s usually for three years.
Well, it depends on what state you’re in but most kids in the United States start school at about six when they go to elementary school and that goes from the first grade up to the sixth grade. Some
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kids go to a kindergarten the year before that. Then they go on to junior high school, that’s about eleven, and that’s the seventh, eighth and ninth grades. And then they go on to senior high school around age fourteen starting in the tenth grade and finishing in the twelfth grade usually. Some students will leave school at sixteen and they’ll start work, but most of them stay on to graduate from high school at age eighteen. In the first year at high school or college students are called “freshmen”, in the second they’re called “sophomores”, in the third year we call them “juniors” and in the fourth year they’re called “seniors”. Now a lot of high school graduates then go to college or university and they do a four-year first degree course. Some of them might go to junior college which is a two-year course.
Well, in Australia, well most states anyway, children start their primary education at five after perhaps a brief time in kindergarten. They will stay at primary school until they’re about eleven, then they’ll either stay there or go to an intermediate school for a couple of years. Then they start high school usually twelve or thirteen, which you start in the third form. Now, after three years at high school you sit a general exam, some states call it School Certificate and that is a sort of general qualification and that if a sort of general qualification. After that you can leave school at sixteen or you can go on and sit your University Entrance Examination, which then gives you entrée into a university or it’s another useful qualification, and from then on you go to various sorts of higher education.
Education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, but schools are administered by local school boards.
Kindergarten is for children who are four or five years old. Children begin formal full-day schooling in Grade 1, when they are about six years old. They must stay in school at least until they are sixteen. However, most students continue to finish high school. Some go to college or university. Each year of schooling represents one grade. (The school year extends from the beginning of September to the end of June.) Elementary school includes kindergarten to about Grade 8. Secondary school (or high school) may start in Grade 8, 9, or 10 and it usually continues until Grade 12.
In Canada, students may go to university or to a community college. If they want to learn skills for specific job, they attend college for one or four years to get a diploma or certificate. For example, lab technicians, child-care workers, and hotel managers go to college. Universities offer degree programs as well as training professions, such as law, medicine, and teaching.
Universities offer three main levels of degrees. Students earn a bachelor’s degree after three or four years of study. A master’s degree can take another year or two. A doctorate may take a further three to seven years to complete.
B1 Idioms / vocabulary / French / spelling / pronunciation B2 1. F 2. T 3. F
I – Interviewer P – Professor
I: And now we have an interview with Professor J. T. Lingo, Professor of Linguistics at Chimo University, who is here to talk to us about the growing business of teaching English. Good morning, professor Lingo. P: Good morning.
I: I understand that teaching English is becoming “big business” all around the world. P: It seems that language schools are springing up everywhere. I: Why is that?
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P: With the move toward a global economy, English has become the most widely used language in the world. It is the language of business, aviation, science and international affairs and people find that they must learn English to compete in those fields. I: And do people find English an easy language to learn?
P: Well, every language has something about it that other people find difficult to learn. English is such a hodgepodge of different languages – it’s essentially Germanic but a lot of its vocabulary comes from French, and technical words stem from Latin and Greek. This feature makes English fairly adaptable – which is a good thing for a world language – but it causes irregularity in spelling and pronunciation.
I: English spelling baffles me, too.
P: English also has the largest vocabulary. Often there are words for the same thing, one is Anglo-Saxon and one from the French – like “buy” which is Anglo-Saxon and “purchase” which is from the French. The French word often has more prestige. I: Anglo-Saxon?
P: That’s the word for Old English. The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought the French language to Britain and helped English evolve into the English it is today. I: Is there anything else particularly difficult about English?
P: Well, the idioms in informal English pose a problem for some students. I: Informal English?
P: As with any language, there are different varieties: slang, colloquial. Formal, written, as well as the different dialects – British, American and Canadian English.
I: And how is Canadian English different from American and British?
P: Canadian English is closer to American in pronunciation and idiom. Some of our words and our spellings do reflect British usage, however. We wouldn’t use the British term “lorry” for truck, but we have kept the “o-u-r” spellings in words such as “honour” and “colour”.
I: This has been very interesting. I’m afraid we’re out of time. It has been a pleasure talking to you.
Part III University Life A1 I. Age / Foreign student population II. 15 hrs (+2 or 3 for lab) / Discussion group: 15-20 / much smaller / informal, friendly / 2-3 hrs: 1 hr
Today I’d like to give you some idea about how life at an American university or college might be different from the way it is in your country. To be sure, the student body on a U. S. campus is a pretty diverse group of people. First of all, you will find students of all ages. Although most students start college at around the age of 18, you will see students in their 30s and 40s and even occasionally in their 60s and 70s. Students on a U.S. campus come from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Many students work at least part-time, some of them work full-time. Many students live in dormitories on campus, some have their own apartments usually with other students, and others live at home. Some colleges and universities have a very diverse student population with many racial and ethnic minorities. Some schools have a fairly large foreign student population. So you can see that one meets all kinds of people on a U.S. college or university campus. Now that you have some general idea of differences in the student population, I’d like to talk a few minutes about what I think an average student is and then discuss with you what a typical class might be like.
Let’s begin my talking about an average student entering his or her freshman year. Of course, such a person never really exists, but still it’s convenient to talk about an “average” student for our
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purposes. Foreign students are often surprised at how poorly prepared American students are when they enter a university. Actually, at very select schools the students are usually very well prepared, but at less selective schools, they may not be as well prepared as students in your country are. Schools in the States simply admit a lot more students than is usual in most other countries. Also, most young American university students have not traveled in other countries and are not very well-versed in international matters and do not know a lot about people from other countries. Foreign students usually find them friendly but not very well-informed about their countries or cultures.
What kind of academic experiences will this so-called “average” student have? The average undergraduate student takes five classes a semester and is in class for 15 hours a week. If her or she takes a class that has a laboratory, this will require tow or three more hours. Many introductory undergraduate classes are given in large lectures of 100 or more students. However, many of these classes will have small discussion groups of 15 to 20 students that meet once a week. In these smaller groups, a teaching assistant will lead a discussion to help classify points in the lectures. Other kinds of classes – for example, language classes – will be much smaller so that students can practice language. In general, American professors are informal and friendly with their students, and, as much as possible, they expect and invite participation in the form of discussion. A large amount of reading and other work is often assigned to be done outside class, and students are expected to take full responsibility for completing these assignments and asking questions in class about those areas they don’t understand. As a rule of thumb, students spend two to three hours preparing for each hour they spend in class. American professors often encourage their students to visit them during office hours, especially if the students are having problems in the class.
A2 II. Examinations / quizzes
III. Graduate school / Seminars / some area of interest / a research paper
Let’s move on now to discuss student obligations in a typical American class. These obligations are usually set down in the course syllabus. A syllabus is generally handed out to students on the first or second class meeting. A good syllabus will give students a course outline that mentions all the topics to be covered in class. It will also contain all the assignments and the dates they should be completed by. An average university course of one semester might have three examinations or two examinations and a paper. The dates of the examinations and what the examinations will cover should be on the syllabus. If a paper id required, the date it is due should also be in the syllabus. The professor may also decide that he or she will be giving quizzes during the semester, either announced or unannounced. For students coming from a system where there is one examination in each subject at the end of the year, all this testing can be a little surprising at first. By the by, maybe this would be a good place for me to mention the issue of attendance. Another real difference in our system is out attendance policies. Perhaps you come from a system where attendance is optional. Generally speaking, American professors expect regular attendance and may even grade you down if you are absent a lot. All this information should be on your syllabus, along with the professor’s office number and office hours.
I have only a couple of hours left, and I’d like to use them to talk about how graduate school is somewhat different from undergraduate school. Of course, it’s much more difficult to enter graduate school, and most students are highly qualified and high motivated. Students in graduate school are expected to do much more independent work than those in undergraduate schools, with
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