After-class Reading

A brief discussion based on your pre-reading tasks

Passage I Five New words at a Time

Task: conclude the difference that the author learnt English in the two stages (before his mother talked to him and after)

Is that story inspiring to you?

Good sentences sharing

Passage II Misunderstanding

Task: find out the 3 cases of

misunderstanding and misunderstood words in each case. You are going to tell us your answers next time / later

Case Study

Assumed words

Case 1 There’s a bum in the restroom.

Actual words

There’s a bomb in the restroom.

Consequence

driver radioing police

police searching bus

highway closed

15-mile-traffice jam

Case 2 Ockland

(CA, US)

Auckland

(New Zealand)

got on a wrong flight

(See the last sentences)

Case 3 Did you get up late? Did you get a plate. Confused

Why misunderstood?

Assumed words

Case 1 There’s a bum in the restroom.

Actual words

There’s a bomb in the restroom.

Case 2 Ockland

(CA, US)

Auckland

(New Zealand)

Case 3 Did you get up late? Did you get a plate.

More

(para4)Did you say seventy or seventeen?

Did you say you can come or you can’t?

How to avoid (this sort of) misunderstanding

• Intonation • Pronunciation

More examples: Ar diz man zuh temp tu wim pru van nay cher (mp3 00:43—00:47)What did you hear? ---Art is man’s attempt to improve on nature.---Are these man’s attempts to improve on nature?

Movie episode:

Up in the Air

Words reading

A language can fly if you give it wings.

intonation Bad intonation: flat, mechanical, unhappy, negative,

misleading

Good intonation: (not great) Musical, passionate, positive, effective

Word connections make the high way for the language to drive through, and intonation is the musical notes of this “singing” language. Pronunciation alone makes only half of this language.