Unit Five Learning a Language

★Part I Listening and Speaking Activities

★Part II Reading Comprehension and Language Activities

★Part III Extended Activities

1 Brainstorming

accent, (regional) dialect, standard English, RP (Received Pronunciation), British / American /Australian English, rhythm, stress, tone, grammar

1. Expressions for language:

2. Expressions for assessing language behavior: appropriate, suitable, out of plac

e, over-polite, informal, doesn't sound right, doesn't feel fight, doesn't look right, beautifully / well written, poorly written, fluent, accurate, precise, to the point, readable, (in)comprehensible, make (no) sense

3. Verbs expressing the use of language:

speak (language, accent, dialect), write in (English / German / French, etc.), listen, read, communicate, translate, interpret, paraphrase

4. Expressions for forms of language use: poems (poetry), verse, nursery rhyme

s ( 童谣、歌谣 ), stories, novels, theses, papers, nursery rhymes, lines (in poems), scripts (of dramas, plays, films, songs, recordings, etc.), lyrics (of songs), letters, memos (memoranda), compositions, notes, posters, forms ( 表格 ), speeches, documents, announcements,

5. Expressions for types of language users:

speaker, listener (audience), writer, author, poet, reader, translator, interpreter, pen-friend, scriptwriter, playwright, copywriter, reporter, radio / TV announcer, journalist

6. Expressions for language learning

memorize, learn something by heart, rote learning, understand, use, review, revise, make notes, take down notes, repeat, practice, make oneself understood, memory fails one, be rusty

2 Listening

At an early age, Li felt that he had a talent for language and he has always been fascinated by language. Although he now shows doubts about his talent and decision, he has become more interested in learning a new language.

1.Why is li studying a foreign language?

2.What,according to li, is the most difficult aspect in learning English? and why?

Li finds that English idioms are the most difficult aspect in his English learning because, although they consist of familiar words, idioms are not easy to understand and there are too many of them for the learner to remember.

3.How does li define the term “idiom”?

An idiom is a group of words combined together, but its meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of the individual words.

4.Which aspect of language is li going to study in the future?

Li is interested in “cultural studies”, which he thinks is a neglected but very important area, because he believes that it is mainly the cultural aspect of language rather than the other aspects that determines suc-cessful communication.

3. SpeakingA.how to Learn English?

Talking w

it

h fore

igner

s

Enjoy English films

Part II Reading Comprehension and Language Activitie

discussion:Learning to drive a car VS Learning a language

Learning to drive a car

Learning a language

difference

similarities

Notes:

1.Studying any language is, in fact, an endless voyage:

The writer uses a metaphor here to compare studying a language to a sea journey. Notice the metaphor is extended in the same paragraph to other related concepts: It begins its career… (the beginning of the journey); … collide with a special kind of old French … (meeting, contacting others in the seafaring); several waves of Latin …; …flood of Greek … These words and expressions help to bring out the similarities between language learning and a sea voyage, though they are different in nature.

2.The English language is just such a hybrid:

The English language is just such a mixture of many different languages. and Japanese.

3.The history of the English language.

The English language has developed into its present form due to the contributions of several of other languages. Old English originated from old German. In fact, the English language is a member of the Indo-European (or Indo-Germanic) language family. When the two tribes (Angles and Saxons, tribes from Holland, Denmark and Germany) -- belonging to the Germanic race -- crossed the English Channel and settled in the British Isles in the 5th century,

their language came into contact with the native Celtic language which was much influe

nced by Latin under the Roman Empire. With the Norman Conquest in 1066, Old French established itself as the official language in Britain; hence a large number of French words flew into English which had also assimilated a lot of Greek words. In addition, the English language has been greatly enriched by many o

ther languages such as Italian, Spanish, Dutch and even some Oriental languages such as Chinese, Indian, and Japanese.

4.collided with: come into (violent) contact with, encounter, e.g. The two vehicles collided with one another in the narrow street.

5.several waves of Latin: This refers to the influx of Latin when Julius Caesar marched his Roman armies into England. And Latin (and also Greek) appeared again in AD 597 when Saint Augustine brought Christianity to Britain.

6.there are several men missing in the chess set: In this context man is a playing piece that we can move in a game of chess.

7.this slight “misuse” of words: slightly deviant, but probably more creative, use of words as it is not in strict accordance with the conventional, time-honored meaning of the words.

8.after all: this set phrase can be used (1) to introduce a reason or opinion that relates to the previous statement, e.g. He can make a sensible decision. After all, he is not a boy any more; (2) to state that something is / might be the case despite what has happened, or been said, e.g. He didn’t do well in the work. After all, it was his first try.

9. flower boy: (sometimes flower child) it refers to a hippie especially in the 1960s. Hippies advocate peace, love and simple idealistic values. They were so called fortheir practice of carrying flowers as a symbol of their belief and distributing flowers.

A Summarize the story The article discusses three aspects of language learning, while trying to clear up three related misconceptions, which are; language can be learned systematically with clear ultimate success; words have clear-cut and fixed meanings; people of the same language background speak the same variety everywhere. The message of the article is that learners should be aware that language is not a fixed unchanging thing, therefore learning a language is, in fact, a lifelong task.

Part III Extended Activities 1 Dictation

2 Read more

3 Enjoy the pictures from the myth of Geece

Good-by

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