Unit 5

Part Two

Listening I

Every culture has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. These are the living speech of a people. The "soap" expressions in English are just one example.

Soap operas are radio and television plays about the problems and emotions in human

relationships. They are called soap operas because the first programs—years ago—were paid for by soap-making companies.

Like musical operas, soap operas are not about real people. And critics charge that they do not represent a balanced picture of real life. They note that almost everyone in a soap opera has a serious emotional problem, or is guilty of a crime. And there are several crises in every program. Yet, soap opera fans do not care about what the critics say. They love the programs and watch them every day.

Such loyalty has made soap operas very popular in the United States. In fact, a few programs are so popular that they have been produced with the same actors for many years.

Another expression that uses the word "soap" is "soap box".

There was a time when soap and other products were shipped in wooden boxes. The boxes were small, but strong. You could stand on one to see over the heads in a crowd or to be seen in a crowd. Soap boxes were a simple, easy way to make yourself taller if you wanted to give a public speech. Such soap box speeches usually were political and one-sided. The speakers shouted their ideas to anyone who walked by. Many talked for hours, refusing to get off their soap boxes.

Today, you don't need a wooden box to make a soap box speech. Anyone, anywhere, who talks endlessly about a cause, is said to be on a soap box.

Another quieter way to win support or gain influence is to "soft-soap" a person. This means to use praise or other kind words to get the person to do what you want.

Exercise 1

1. plays/ real people/ real life/ emotional problem/ loyalty/ popular

2. public speech / make themselves taller/ political one-sided

3. soft-soap/ praise/ kind

Exercise 2

1. F 2. F 3. T 4. T 5.T 6.T

Listening II

Interviewer: Do you think learners should aim to speak English with a native-speaker

pronunciation?

Interviewee: That's a difficult question to answer. I think the most important thing is to be

understood easily. For most learners, it's not necessary or desirable to speak like a native speaker. For some learners, for example, those who eventually want to teach English, or be interpreters perhaps, a native-speaker pronunciation is the ultimate goal. At least, that's what I think.

Interviewer: Children often do not want to speak English with a native-speaker pronunciation. Why not?

Interviewee: In general, children are splendid mimics and imitate strange sounds very easily and well. However, it is true that most children do not want to sound "English" when they are speaking English. This may be partly due to shyness but I think the main reason is that most children want to belong to a group—they dress alike, listen to the same music, share the same opinions and hobbies. Even if a child can speak English like a native speaker, he or she will usually choose not to—unless, of course, the rest of the group speaks with a native-speaker pronunciation too.

Interviewer: What is the main reason why adults find pronunciation difficult?

Interviewee: Numerous reasons have been offered for the difficulties which many adults find with pronunciation and, no doubt, there is some truth in all of these. It seems to be the case that children are better mimics than adults. But if an adult really wants to achieve a native-speaker pronunciation, then he or she can. It is NOT the student's own language that prevents him or her from achieving a native-speaker pronunciation in English. It is the fact that the adult student has a strong sense of national identity. In other words, he or she wants to be identified as a German or Brazilian speaking English. In my opinion, this sense of national identity is more important than other explanations, such as the greater anxiety of adults or the effect of their own language habits.

Exercise 1

1. C 2. A 3. D

Exercise 2

1. be understood easily 2. necessary/ desirable

3. splendid 4. prevents from achieving

5. anxiety / effect

Part Three More Listening

Practice One

Receptionist: English Language Center. May I help you?

Caller: Yes. I'm calling to find out more information about your program.

Receptionist: Well, first of all, the purpose of our program is to provide language-learning

opportunities for our part of the U.S. [Uh-huh.] For example, some students need to learn the basic functional language skills for their jobs. Others need intensive English so that they can enter a U.S. university.

Caller: Okay. I'm calling for a friend interested in attending a U.S. university.

Receptionist: We have a variety of courses that can help her, from basic communication courses to content-based classes such as computer literacy, intercultural communication, and business English.

Caller: Great. What are your application deadlines for the next semester?

Receptionist: Well, we ask applicants to apply at least two months before the semester begins.

[Uh-huh.] This gives us time to process the application and issue the student's I-20.

Caller: What is an I-20?

Receptionist: Oh, an I-20 is a form giving our permission for a student to study in our program. The student will have to take this form to the U.S. embassy in their home country to apply for the F-1 student visa.

Caller: I see. What's the tuition for a full-time student in your courses?

Receptionist: It's two thousand thirty dollars.

Caller: How does one apply?

Receptionist: Well, we can mail an application form which can be mailed back to us, or a person can fill out our application form that's on our Web site.

Caller: And are there other materials my friend would need to send besides the application form? Receptionist: Yes. She would need to send in a $35 non-refundable application fee [Uh-huh], a sponsorship form indicating who will be responsible financially for her while studying in our program, and a bank statement showing that she or her sponsor has sufficient funds to cover tuition expenses and living costs for study.

Caller: And how can she send these materials to you?

Receptionist: She can either send the application packet by regular mail or she can fax it. Caller: And the application fee?

Receptionist: We accept money orders, traveler's checks, or credit cards.

Caller: All right. I think that's about it. Thank you for help.

Receptionist: You're welcome.

Caller: Goodbye.

Exercise 1

1. D 2. A 3. B 4. A 5. B

Exercise 2

1. permission / apply for 2. application form / Web site

3. regular mail / fax 4. traveler’s checks/ credit cards

Practice Two

The ability to speak or write two languages well is called bilingualism. Bilingual education is generally a matter of public policy. In a country like the United States that has what may be considered a national language—English—bilingual education means teaching English to those who were brought up using other native languages. On the other hand, there are nations such as Belgium, Canada, and Switzerland that have two or more national languages. This does not mean that all citizens of these countries speak two or more languages, but they are entitled to

government services, including education, in the language of their choice. Some South American countries, like Peru and Ecuador, have large populations of Indians who speak various tribal tongues. There are government programs to teach the Indians Spanish, the national language in most of Latin America.

Bilingual education in the United States dates back to the first half of the 19th century, when

millions of immigrants who arrived needed to learn English in order to make economic and social adjustments to the way the majority of the population lived.

In countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Holland, whose languages are spoken by relatively few foreigners, bilingual education has long been a part of the school curriculum. Educated persons in these countries normally learn a second language such as English, German, or French for use in international communication.

Exercise 1

2. 3. 5

Exercise 2

1. T 2. F 3. F 4. T 5.T 6.T

Exercise 3

1. other native languages 2. two 3. more 4. of their choice

5. Spanish 6. Indian Spanish 7. English 8. German 9. French

Practice Three

Identification of the factors that lead to fast, effective foreign language learning has become

increasingly important because of the large number of people who are anxious, as adults, to learn a new language for a very specific purpose: travel, business, study, or international friendship. The requirements for effective language learning may be examined in terms of the learner, the teacher, and the curriculum.

The learner must be personally committed to investing the time, applying the concentrated effort, and taking the emotional risks necessary to learn a new language. In addition to motivation, the learner should have at least minimal language-learning aptitude. While it is likely that nearly everyone can learn a new language if he or she is given enough time and effort, the ease with

which you are able to acquire the language is related in part to specific language-learning aptitude. Other psychological factors that are important in picking up a new language include a sense of curiosity and a sensitivity to other people. Expectations also play an important role in determining the ease and speed with which you will learn your second language. Another factor is the learner's goals. If you are a serious adult language learner you need to write and clarify your goal in each specific area: understanding, speaking, reading, and writing.

Clearly, the learner and teacher are far more important than techniques, texts, and program design. The most crucial factor involved in determining a language teacher's effectiveness, however, is probably his or her attitude toward the students, toward the language and toward the program. On the other hand, the language used in the classroom should be up-to-date and authentic. You need to learn not only words and structures but how to use them in a way acceptable to people from a different background. A good language curriculum will include practice in the nonverbal aspects of communication as well as discussion of cultural differences and similarities.

Exercise 1

1. learner/ teacher/ curriculum

2. aptitude/ expectations/ goals

Exercise 2

1. T 2. F 3. T 4. F 5.T

Practice Four

Talk Show Host: Welcome to today's program! Our guest is Dr. Charles Adams, language

learning specialist. His book, Learning a Language over Eggs and Toast, is on the bestseller list. Welcome.

Dr. Adams: Thank you.

Talk Show Host: Tell us about the title of your book.

Dr. Adams: First, it is important to establish a regular study program, like planning a few minutes every morning around breakfast time.

Talk Show Host: But, I took Spanish for four years, and I didn't become a proficient speaker of it. Dr. Adams: Well, we can't become fluent speakers in a matter of a few minutes here and there. We should follow a regular course of study and remember that there is a difference between native fluency and proficiency in a language. I propose the latter.

Talk Show Host: What are the basic keys you suggest?

Dr. Adams: People must organize their study by setting realistic and attainable goals. Some

people think they can learn a language in 30 days and become discouraged when they can't. Small steps are the key. Learning five new words a day and learning to use them actively is far better than learning 30 and forgetting them the next day.

Talk Show Host: [Um-hum.] You mentioned individual learning styles. Can you explain what you mean by learning styles?

Dr. Adams: Sure. People have different ways of learning. Some are visual learners who prefer to see models of the patterns they are expected to learn. Others are auditory learners who favor hearing instructions over reading them. Our preferences are determined by factors such as personality, culture, and past experiences.

Talk Show Host: What is your learning style?

Dr. Adams: I learn by doing.

Talk Show Host: What do you mean by that?

Dr. Adams: I know it might sound unusual, but moving around while trying to learn material helps me. While I cut up tomatoes and onions for my breakfast in the morning, I might recite aloud vocabulary to the rhythm of the knife.

Talk Show Host: What is my learning style?

Dr. Adams: You're going to have to read my book to find that out.

Talk Show Host: Okay. Thanks for joining us.

Dr. Adams: My pleasure.

Exercise 1

1. C 2. C 3. A 4. B

Exercise 2

1. Eggs and Toast 2. realistic/ goals/ far better than/ forgetting

3.determined/ personality/ culture 4. unusual/ recite aloud

Part Four Testing Yourself

Section 1

Language is the most important development in human history. The arts, sciences, laws, economic systems and religions of the world could not exist without language. Humans haven't changed biologically very much for some 40,000 years. However, our ability to communicate has led us from the cave all the way to the moon.

Little is known about the birth of language. Written records that are more than 4,000 years old have been found, but scientists studying human beings agree that humans were probably speaking thousands of years before that.

Today, most of us learn to talk by the age of three, and for the rest of our lives we rarely stop. Even while we are reading or just thinking, we are in a sense "talking", if only to ourselves. Language is so much a part of human existence that we will be talking as long as we inhabit the earth. As linguist David Thompson notes, "when language dies, so will man."

1. religions 2. exist 3. 40,000 4. cave 5. moon

6. birth 7. records 8.agree 9. by 10. sense

11. ourselves 12. inhabit

Section II

Once upon a time there was an old man who had three sons. Calling them together, he said, "Sons, my end is near. To my oldest son I give half my camels, to my second one-third, and to my youngest one-ninth." Soon afterwards he died.

Now, the old man had seventeen camels, and the three brothers were puzzled to know how to

share them as their father had said. They thought a long time about the problem, and it seemed that they must either kill some of the camels and cut them into pieces, or disobey their father. At last they went to see their father's old friend and asked his advice. As soon as he heard their story, he said, "I will help you. I honored your father. I am old. I have only one camel, but take it—it is yours."

Gratefully the three sons took the old man's camel, finding that it was now easy to divide the camels as their father had wished. The oldest took half—that was nine camels; the second took one-third, which was six; and the youngest took one-ninth, which was two.

Only when each had received his share of camels did they discover that there was a camel to spare. So, out of gratitude to their father's friend, they returned the camel.

1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5.F 6.T 7.T 8. T

Section III

Teacher: Before we start our regular lesson today, we're going to take about 20 minutes for a short listening test. (Students all groan.)

Student 1: Dr. Stark, why do we have to do it?

Teacher: That's a good question, and I have a good answer. You see, I belong to the TESOL organization—organization of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. I also occasionally help evaluate possible questions that might be on a TOEFL test.

Student 2: Do you mean you try to be sure they will be difficult questions? (Students laugh.) Teacher: Not at all. We try to be sure that they are fair. And we want the questions neither too hard nor too easy, and as much like standard English as possible.

Student 1: Well, after we answer the questions, what will you do?

Teacher: I'll look at your answers, note which ones too many of you miss, and then perhaps give my opinion if I think it's a bad passage or dialog. All of your answers will go to ETS, the

Educational Testing Service and there they'll decide which questions can possibly be included in a future test. OK, are you ready? Do you have any questions?

Student 1: Do you get paid for doing this?

Teacher: That's not considered a polite question in the U.S., but I'll answer it. No, I don't. I do this because I want to help to make good tests for international students. Now, no more questions. Let's listen.

Questions:

1. Where did this conversation most probably take place?

2. How did the students respond to the teacher's suggestion of a listening test?

3. What does TESOL refer to?

4. What was the purpose of the test?

5. How would the teacher deal with the students' answers?

6. Which of the following is the most appropriate word to describe the students' attitude towards the test?

1. A 2. D 3. C 4. D 5. B 6. A