Learning a Language

Text A A Language Teacher’s Personal Opinion

(6 periods)

Proverb: 1. He alone is poor who does not possess knowledge.

没有知识，才是贫穷。

2. Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much are the three pillars of learning.

见识多、遭难重、钻研深是学识的三大要素。

3. The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance. 学得越多，就越发觉自己无知。

4. Activity is the only road to knowledge.

— George Bernard Shaw, British dramatist

行动是通往知识的唯一道路。

——英国剧作家 G. 肖伯纳

5. Grammar must be learned through language, and not language through grammar.

— Johann G. Herdor, German philosopher

必须从语言中学习语法，而不是从语法中学习语言。

——德国哲学家 J. G. 赫尔德

6. Hold what you really know and tell what you do not know; this will lead to knowledge.

— Confucius, ancient Chinese educator and philosopher

知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。

——中国古代教育家、哲学家孔子

7. Education is that which remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

— Albert Einstein, American scientist

教育是在学校所学知识遗忘后剩下的东西。

——美国科学家A. 爱因斯坦

I. Objectives:

Students will be able to:

1. grasp the main idea and the structure of the text; 2. appreciate the cultural background of the text;

3. master the key language points and grammatical structures in the text;

4. conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking and writing activities related to the

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theme of the unit.

II. Time Allotment

1 1 st period: Pre-reading (warm-up questions; listen and respond; background information)

2. 2nd period: Pre-reading (background information; optional classroom activities)

3. 3rd period: While-reading (content questions and extended questions; language points and grammar structure,)

4. 4th period: While-reading (content questions and extended questions; language points and grammar structure,)

5. 5rd period: After-reading (useful expressions; Synonyms; Exercises in the text;)

6. 6th period: After-reading (enhance language awareness; fast-reading exercises; Theme-Related Language Learning Tasks;)

III. Teaching Steps:

A. Pre-reading tasks (2 periods) Step 1 Warm-up activities:

1.---- Do you think it is necessary to learn another language besides your mother tongue? ---- How long have you been learning English? Do you think English is very difficult to learn?

---- If possible, what other foreign languages do you want to learn? Why?

---- Speaking from your own experience, what effective ways would you like to suggest to help others learn English?

Step 2.listen and respond (p2-3)

Step 3. background information (Shakespearn and Dickens---Ss: PPT) Eg. 1. Life of William Shakespeare（PPT） 2. Plays of William Shakespeare（PPT）

3. Shakespeare Quiz: Test your knowledge of Shakespeare. （PPT） B. While-reading task (2 periods) Step 1.Questions about the text Para. 1

1. What do advertisements for English learning always claim?

2. Why do those advertisements also refer to famous woriters like William Shakespeare or charles Dickens?

3. What is the writers response to such advertisement?

4. Why does the writer say that he doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he sees the advertisements?

5. What does the word “claim” mean? Why does the writer use it? Para. 2

1. Is there a perfect way of teaching English in every possible situation?

2. Does the author feel satified with the fact that every teacher has his or her own way of teaching English?

3. What is meant by “every teacher is an individual with his own personality?

4. If you all feel that your teacher’s way of teaching is good and acceptable, does it mean that everyone in your class can learn English well enough? Para. 3

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1. What are the two extremes concerning the beliefs of language learning?

2. Does the writer support the idea that a language is best learned where it is spoken? Do you agree with the writer?

3. Do you think English can be mastered just by teaching yourself with the help of dictionaries? Give your reasons.

4. Could you give some examples to show that “it is wrong to assume that each word in English has a precise equivalent in another language and vice versa”? Para.4

1. Do you know anything about behaviorist psychology?

2. what would teachers who believe in behaviorist psychology encourage students to do in the language learning context?

3. Why do many theorists consider it “a pity” that we are not “parrots or chimpanzees”? Para.5

1. What is the author’s opinion about learning a new language?

2. What distinguishes human beings from parrots and chimpanzees according to the writer?

3. What do you think can be said about the role of interst in terms of language learning? Para. 6

1. What does the writer emphasize towards the end of this essay? 2. Why does the writer repeat the word “real” in the last sentence? Step 2. language points and grammar structure Words and Expression

1. personal: adj. concerning, belonging to, or for the use of a particular person; private * My personal view is that the students should be doing more work outside the classroom. * When I went to her room all her personal belongings had gone.

2. advertisement: n. a picture, short film, song, etc. which tries to persuade people to buy a product or service

* a television/newspaper advertisement for a new car

* They put an advertisement in The Morning News, offering a high salary for the right person.

* The organizers of the concert had taken out a full page advertisement in The New York Times.

Collocation:

answer an advertisement 应广告之聘 put an advertisement in/on 在……做广告 run an advertisement 做广告

buy things from/in advertisements 购买广告上宣传的商品 3. claim:

1) vt. state that sth. is true, even though it has not been proved * All parties have claimed success in yesterday’s elections.

* The company claims that their product “makes you thin without dieting”. 战斗结束后, 双方均宣称获胜。

(= After the battle both sides claimed victory.)

2) n. a statement that sth. is true, even though it has not been proved * They made claims they couldn’t live up to.

她对这块土地产权提出的要求最终得到法庭的认可。

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