unit1.ppt

Unit  1        Studying English

Part  A                            

Communicative  Function

Greetings and Introductions

       People greet each other when they meet. And in meeting new people it is common to introduce oneself and be introduced by others. This exercise focuses on different ways to greet people and to make introductions.

Listen to the recording and complete the following conversations.

1.    Bill:    Hi, Mary.

       Mary:      Hi, Bill. How are you doing ?

Bill:     Good, thanks.  And you?

Mary:     Just fine, Bill. I’d like you to meet my classmate, Bob Smith. Bob, this is my friend, Bill Jones.

Bill:     Hello, nice to meet you.

Bob:           Nice to meet you, too.

2.  Linda:  Excuse me, are you Paul Johnson from London? I'm Linda Blake from Smith and Wells.

Paul:   Yes, I am Paul Johnson. How do you do, Miss Blake?

Linda:  How do you do, Mr. Johnson? May I introduce Charles Green to you ? He's our sales manager.

       Paul:    Pleased to meet you , Mr. Green.

       Mr. Green:      It's a pleasure to meet you .

3.    Jack:    Mum, I've brought one of my friends.

      Mother:  Ask him in, Jack.

Jack:    Come and meet my family, Tom. Mum, this is Tom, my roommate.

       Mother:  Hello, Tom. It's good to know you.

    Tom:    How do you do, Mrs. Brown?

       Jack:    And this is my sister, Jane.

Notes

1. Conversation 1 is more informal as it is between young friends. Conversation 2 is more formal as it is between strangers and, possibly, business partners. Conversation 3 is informal when Jack is talking to his mother but formal when Tom is addressing Jack's mother.

2. In introducing someone to others, it is customary to add a few words about that person's background. In Conversation 2, for example, Linda introduces Charles Green to Paul and adds that the former is the sales manager.

3.       Smith and Wells:  the name of a company

Useful Expressions

Useful Expressions for Greetings and Introductions 

Greetings      

l  Hello.       

l  How are you doing?

l  How’s everything?

l  What’s new?

l  How’s it going?

l  Good morning, Jack. How are you?

l  Hello, Paul.  I’ve heard so much about you.

l  You look great today. How are things?

l  Hi. How have you been?

l  Hey, great to see you.

l  Fancy meeting you here.

l  Hi, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.

l  How nice to see you.

l  It’s good to see you.

Making Introductions  

l  May I introduce (Mr. Wang) to you?

l  I'd like to introduce (Mr. Wang) to you.

l  Come and meet (Mr. Wang), our software engineer.

l  This is (Mr. Wang), my cousin.    

l  Hello. I’m (Wang Ling) from (Beijing).

l  My name is (Wang Ling).

l  I’d like you to meet the president of our company, Mr Wang Ling.

l  Good afternoon, I’m (Wang Ling). Very pleased to meet you.

Listening  Strategy

Detecting Incomplete Plosion

       In connected speech when a plosive consonant like /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/, /p/, /b/ is followed by another consonant, it is not fully pronounced. This is called incomplete plosion.

Listen and read after the recording, paying attention to the letters in italics. 

1.   Laura is one of the top students in Grade One.

2.   Ted likes to sing English pop songs

3.   Listening is not a big problem for me.

4.           Frank can speak six languages fluently.

5.           I’d like to read novels and short stories in English.

6.           Bob’s strong local accent makes it difficult for us to understand him.

Part  B                           

Pre-listening Task

Pair Work

Questions for Discussion

You are going to talk about your experience of studying English. Read the following questions and discuss them with your partner.

1.       When did you start learning English? How long have you studied it?

2.       Do you like English?  Why or why not?

3.       What do you think of studying English? Is it interesting or boring? Difficult or easy? Give reasons.

4.       Which accent do you prefer, American or British?

5.       What is your purpose of studying English?

Demo：

1. When did you start learning English? How long have you studied it?

       I started learning English when I was 9 years old. At that time, learning English was a fun. We didn't have any modern equipment like MP3 or radios and we didn't have a good English teacher either. In class we just repeated after the teacher who spoke English with a heavy accent. As she didn't know the International Phonetic Alphabet, she even asked us to use Chinese characters to mark the English sounds. Ten years has passed since I learned to speak the first English word.

4. Which accent do you prefer, American or British?

    Well, I don't have any preference. When I speak English, I don't have to sound like an American or British. All I have to do is speak clearly, so that people can understand me. Actually, young people in Britain find the American accent attractive while young people in the US like British accent. In this aspect, movies play an important role. Many young Americans like to imitate the accent through movies. They think the most appealing aspect of an English man is his accent. For example, many American girls watch Harry Potter movies over and over again just to listen to the actors speak.

Language Focus    

Here are some useful sentences and structures that you might find handy in discussing the above questions:

n  I've studied English for about / more than nine years.    

n  I started learning English five / several years ago / in primary / high school.  

n  I find English rather difficult / interesting / useful / quite different from Chinese.

n  I find English grammar rather confusing / difficult to understand / beyond me.

n  I prefer an American accent to a British accent / I like the British accent better.

n  English is an international language / one of the most widely used languages in the world.

n  A good command of English will help me greatly in my study and work.

n  Good English means more chances and opportunities in the job market.

n  With English I can get access to a huge amount of useful information.

Listening Tasks

A   Passage                Talking about Studying English

Word  Bank

l.    freshman            n.  a student in his first year at a university or college  大学一年级学生

2.    major                  v.   to specialize (in)   主修                                                             

n.       a student specializing in a certain subject  主修某科目的学生

3.  nervous             a.   worried or slightly frightened  紧张的

4.  overcome           v.  to get over         克服

5.  shyness             n.   the state of being timid or uncomfortable 害羞                  

6.  official             n.     authorized        官方的

7.  fluent              a.   able to speak a language easily and without many pauses 流利的

8.  article              n.    a piece of writing on a particular subject 文章

Language and Cultural Notes.

1. Background information  Listening, speaking, reading and writing are known as the four skills in learning English. Among those listening and reading are regarded as receptive skills while speaking and writing are productive skills. However, it does not follow that listening and reading are passive activities. Take listening for example, To understand a listening text, we need to rely on our knowledge of the sound system, vocabulary, syntax and our ability to infer, to predict, to summarize, etc. The four skills are closely related to each other. So if we want to improve our listening we must improve the other skills as well, especially skills in reading because it is through reading that we get the most language input. 

2.  Freshman  A first-year university student. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are respectively second, third, and fourth year university students.

3.    Singapore  A country in Southeast Asia with a population of about 3.4 million. It has four official languages: Malay, Chinese, Tamil and English. The National University of Singapore is one of the two universities in the country, the other being Nanyan Science and Technology University.

4. A library science major  A university student whose main field of study is library science.  The word "major" can be used both as a noun and as a verb.  For example, we can say: "What's your major?" and "I major in English." 

Script

                  Talking About Studying English

At a gathering of students from China and some other countries, Yang Weiping

and Virginia Wang, both first-year college students, are talking about their learning

of English.    

       Hello, my name is Yang Weiping. I’m a freshman at Beijing University and I’m majoring in Chemistry.

       At college we have to study a foreign language. I chose English because I like listening to English programs on the radio and TV. I also like British and American pop songs. Some day I hope to visit Britain and the United States.

       I started learning English several years ago and I’m getting better at it. My favorite activity is listening, especially listening to songs and stories. My big problem is, however, speaking. I feel nervous whenever I speak. And I never seem to know what to say when people talk to me. But I’ve decided to overcome my shyness and learn to speak English by speaking as much as I can.

Hi, my name is Virginia Wang. I'm a library science major at the National University of Singapore.  In our country, English is important. It is one of the official languages and you have to be fluent in English to get a good job. 

       I've been studying English since high school. I'm good at reading because I like learning about new things and new ideas. There are so many books and articles written in English. Our textbooks at the university are in English, too. I know writing is also very important, but I find it really difficult.

       When I graduate from the university, I would like a job in the city library where I can read all kinds of new books.

Exercise 1: 

Listen to the recording once and choose the right answer to each question you hear.

1.    Which of the following would be the best title for the two talks?

       a. School Life

       b. Studying English

       c. Why Learn a Foreign Language?     

       d. Difficulties in Learning English

2.    Who are the speakers?

       a. English majors. 

       b. Senior students at college.

       c. Beginners in English study.      

d. Non-English majors at college.

Exercise 2

Listen again and then complete the table according to the information you get from the recording.

Speaking   Tasks

Pair Work

Listen to the conversations and repeat after the recording. Practise the conversations with your partner, playing the role of A or B. Then work with your partner to create your own conversations by replacing the underlined parts with your own words.

Substitution Exercises: