- •1. Speak about the kinds of fast food that are popular and the eating places where British people can find it
- •2. Talk about English food and the qualities it is often criticized for
- •3. Talk about the problem of food additives in the world
- •4. Speak about going out to eat at a restaurant.
- •5. Shape the recipe for “Irish Oatmeal”
- •6. Speak about table manners as seen by the food editor Craig Claiborne
- •7. Talk about the difference between teenagers and adults in the attitude to shopping and in their tastes in clothes
- •8. Speak about the different ways of doing the shopping
- •9. Talk about children with exceptional intellectual abilities and various kinds of schools they can go to
- •10. Talk about the similarities and differences between the “Orientation Week” at an American University and the University you study at
- •11. Talk about the reasons people have for studying at the Open University
- •12. Speak about children’s attitude to school
- •13. Speak about England’s best known public school Eton
- •14. Speak about learning English in different countries, and about the English language as an international language
- •15. Talk about the relationships between the world’s climate and man’s activities
- •16. Talk about Jerusha’s first steps at college
- •17. Talk about Jerusha’s academic life in college: her failures and achievements
- •18. Talk about Jerusha’s winter and summer holidays
- •19. Talk about the relationships between Jerusha and her guardian
- •20. Describe Jerusha’s personality
14. Speak about learning English in different countries, and about the English language as an international language
To begin with, I’d like to say that in Shakespeare’s time English considered to be a “provincial language of secondary importance”. But nowadays it has got the world’s status. In fact, English has become the most important language in politics, science, trade and cultural relations. Moreover, in the number of countries it is used as one of the official languages or at least it is spoken as a second one. Even more widely English is used for communication across frontiers, listening to broadcasts, reading foreign books and newspapers, in commerce and international tourism. Besides, English is associated with technological and economic development of the great manufacturing countries.
I think in years to come there’ll be very few people who don’t speak English, not just few words but whole sentences. In many countries children start learning English when they go to school and then they complete their formal training later on but, in some countries they’re starting to teach English too much younger children and I think this will become more common around the world. Some countries have English lessons for six-year-old children. Let’s now analyze why it is so important to learn English. Well, as we all know, today one of the most burning problems for young specialists all over the world is getting a good and well-paid job. Usually it requires at least knowledge of one or sometimes several foreign languages. The more languages you know the bigger amount of information you can obtain, and the more educated and intelligent you are. Just imagine, if you have a good command of the English and Russian languages you’re capable of getting more than 70% of world’s information. And isn’t it pleasant to go to any country and be able to understand what is going on around you and to communicate with new people? Personally I think that knowing at least of one foreign language has a formative function, as it makes it possible to know various ways of thinking. Furthermore, it gives you an opportunity to become acquainted with a new culture and thus to enrich your knowledge.
However, English is not a simple language to learn. It only may seem easy in the beginning, but actually, to speak English fluently one must overcome numerous difficulties. Firstly, there’s a great problem of spelling and of a large number of exceptions to every rule. Thus, the bridge between basic knowledge and mastery takes a lot of efforts and a long time to cross. Generally speaking, there’re several main techniques that one should apply to learn English. These are listening, speaking and certainly writing. Through watching TV, listening to the radio and records you memorize more and more words and expressions that have been unknown to you before. Besides, you train your ear and memory, improve and correct the pronunciation. While speaking you develop the ability to communicate thoughts and express your feelings to other people. It’s for sure that there would be no progress in studying without regular reading. It is best to start with special texts in textbooks and only after that you may get down to reading literature in original to enrich your vocabulary. Writing is also a vital part of learning the language, because writing exercises, letters, essays are very helpful to memorize the spelling of words. In my opinion, applying all four techniques one can achieve good results in learning English, and I’m sure it will give them great satisfaction.
In my opinion, if someone wants to learn a language very quickly the best way is to enroll at a language school. As a rule, such school is able to provide you with a wide range of modern language-teaching facilities. For example, there’s always a good well-trained teaching staff that use only up-to-date methods of teaching. Secondly, it has well-equipped TV and video rooms and a good library. So, one has everything at their disposal that will help to concentrate on the studies and to be a success. However, there’s a considerable disadvantage about the language school: usually the price of studying in it is too high, and only few people can afford it.
I think obviously English is important, but your own language and your own culture and traditions are more important to you.