В своей практике преподавателям нередко приходится обучать английскому языку студентов, прямо в языке незаинтересованных и посещающих занятия “по академической необходимости”. Таким студентам можно долго и упорно объяснять согласование времен, страдательный залог в различных временных формах, а также распространяться о проблемах эллипсиса, асимметрии лингвистического знака и предикации. Но вот вопрос: нужны ли им эти знания? На наш взгляд, ответ очевиден.
Именно поэтому мы, во-первых, предлагаем обучать студентов наиболее функционально значимым и распространенным в речи грамматическим явлениям на базе уже знакомой лексики; а во-вторых, сделать занятия по английскому языку максимально интересными и полезными, ориентировав их на сферу профессионального общения.
Такой подход позволяет:
- Разнообразить уроки, отойдя от привычных рассказов про Винни-Пуха и Пятачка и повысить мотивацию студентов;
- перейти на совершенно новый уровень общения, профессиональный, когда не только преподаватель назидательно читает лекции, но и студентам есть что рассказать (при этом не важно, на каком языке, поскольку цель таких уроков – общение, взаимный обмен информацией, а не вызубренные списки слов столбиком и прочно привитая неприязнь к изучению каких-либо языков);
- формирование словарного запаса в сфере профессиональной лексики, что позволяет студентам чувствовать себя на порядок выше по сравнению с теми, кто заново принялся штудировать школьную программу;
- сделать процесс работы с текстом познавательным с точки зрения будущей профессии студентов, а работу с лексикой – увлекательной, внеся элемент соперничества.
Конечно, обучение английскому языку включает не только формирование лексического запаса, но и постановку произношения, изучение грамматики. Все это требует огромных усилий и времени, поэтому мы хотим начать с малого – организовать процесс формирования словарного запаса профессиональной экономической направленности так, чтобы студенты “максимальное количество раз повторили одно и тоже слово и при этом не заскучали”. Для этого мы предлагаем разнообразные индивидуальные и групповые задания (напр. аssociation game) различных направлений:
- логические (напр. find the odd one and explain your choice);
- головоломки (напр. word search, arranging letters so as to make up words. Arranging words so as to make up sentences);
- развивающие память (напр. divide into two teams and name as many words related to the read texts as possible) и многие другие.
Итак, в данной статье мы приводим примеры текстов и упражнений для формирования словарного запаса в сфере профессионального общения у студентов экономических специальностей.
Text 1
Bank is a financial establishment aimed at accumulating financial resources and savings to allow credits and provide other services customers need.
Like any business, a bank is after a profit, above all. Money is the commodity it sells. To put it simply, a bank seeks to “buy” money cheaply (not necessarily from the Federal Reserve Bank), at an annual six-percent rate, for example, and to sell it dearly (as, say, credit to a building company) at an annual interest rate of 11 percent.
Naturally, banks put their money where it brings then the highest profit. That is why they always keep up to date with the market situation. By shifting money of various “costs” from sphere to sphere, from one geographical region to another, the banks activity stimulates progress in industry, construction and agriculture.
Banks are interested in keeping most of their money in circulation so that it should bring them profit. They seek to reduce their lending rates in order to attract buyers.
In their pursuit of high profit, banks sometimes get involved in risky operations fraught with bankruptcy. Therefore the federal government takes measures to minimize the danger of banks going broke: commercial banks are obliged to place a part of their assets on the Central bank deposit. These assets form a reserve. Different kinds of obligatory reservation are accepted. Thus in Russia for example an obligatory reserve constitutes 20%, in England – 2%.
Such an obligatory reservation is due to the necessity of control but it does not form a kind of insurance fund in case of bankruptcy. The Central bank is to police any commercial bank ability to allow credits. Reserves are favourable to exceed obligatory ones. This exceeding forms surplus reserves that enable banks to make new money on two levels. The process of making new money goes on limitlessly. It won’t end until the potential credit sum gets equal to 0.
Owing to such a system, any commercial bank makes money allowing loans in correspondence with the surplus reserves available at the moment. Should we view the bank system as a whole, we must admit its abilities in making money to be much wider.
Moreover every bank is obliged to take out insurance against robbery or bankruptcy lest the clients should lose their money in any case.
Text 2
The value added tax is a simple-to-collect tax imposed on consumption. Popular in Europe, VAT is imposed at every stage of the production process. It is paid by the purchaser of goods and services and is levied as a percentage of the selling price. Manufactures pay VAT on their input and then charge it on their sales. They hand over to the government the tax that they have collected, net of the tax that they have paid. So the Internal Revenue Service ends up, in effect, collecting the tax on the value added at each stage of the manufacturing process. Yet the burden of paying the tax actually falls on the consumer.
Different rates of VAT apply to different goods and services. Some things, like books and children’s clothes, may be “zero rated” ( that is there is no VAT on them at all). Within the European Community strenuous efforts are being made to harmonize rates of VAT, and what is or is not zero rated.
Text 3
Bank rate is understood as rate of interest set up by the Central bank that allows credits and loans from the reserves available. Whose most frequent and usual consumer is commercial banks.
If bank rate goes gradually up, the whole amount of loans gets consequently reduced and as a result commercial banks stop allowing credits or decrease their amount. As far as a commercial bank customer is concerned, he gets the so-called “expensive” credit due to the bank policy to increase rates of interest.
All bank rate changes are considered to be no regulation mechanism but something that indicates the now policy the Central bank is making.
Thus any bank rate growth comes to designate the Central bank restrictive policy (i.e. the Central bank is willing to modify the money supply). As a result , on the bank credit market rates of interest tend to g o up and commercial banks skyrocket their rates of interest on loans given to legal entities and physical persons.
Text 4
The history of money goes back to ancient times of Greece and Rome. First notes appeared in China in 1260, then in America (1690), France (1701), Russia (1769). The main reason for their appearance is lack of gold to make coins and forged coins. Now there are different kinds of money: notes, coins, cash, cybermoney (less liquid) and bills of exchange (among legal entities).
Money mass includes all circulating media at the given moment. One can speak about liquid funds when assets can be easily and immediately converted into cash with no risk of their value loss.
Speaking on money market one cannot but mention the key elements of it: money demand, money supply, rate of interest.
Money demand is an amount of all circulating media that the population and businesses are willing to have at the given moment.
Money supply is an amount of money that is in circulation.
As for money market itself it represents a supply and demand interconnection.
Text 5
Monetary policy is one of the main macroeconomic mechanisms that relies upon monetary policy ability to influence money and credit supply and rate of interest on money market as well. It is the Central bank that makes the policy. The policy object is money supply and demand. The aims are the following: economic growth, stable balance of payments, money mass control, rate of interest and exchange rate control etc.
Monetary policy resorts to some mechanisms. They are: 1.obligatory reservation change. This mechanism is rather powerful and rough due to its reference to and influence upon the bank system as a whole. This mechanism is but seldom resorted to in states with market economy. 2. bank rate change. 3. operations with the funds. This mechanism of monetary policy is now the main one in countries with market economy. If the Central bank aims at withdrawing money surplus from circulation it starts selling the funds to other banks and the population. As soon as the funds supply gets going up, their value is getting reduced and their rate of interest is visa versa getting higher and higher, thus they attract much more buyers. The population and banks are in hurry to buy them. As a result bank reserves and money supply get reduced.
Text 6
Bank system is a unity of banks and establishments interconnected. Now in industrial countries one can observe a two level bank system according to which the Central bank occupies the top of the system and coordinates all the existing commercial banks activity that are on a lower level.
Types of commercial banks differ in accordance with the operations carried:
Multi-purpose (different operations are carried)
Special: savings bank that operates with physical persons; investment bank the main function of which is to fund; bank of issue; clearing bank; credit bank; discount bank; land bank; joint-stock bank.
There are as well other types of banks: drive-in bank; pet bank; people’s bank; state bank; bank for Foreign Trade of Russia; postal savings bank.
Bank operations are divided into: passive (passive operations are those carried to mobilize monies, to attract deposits, loans, emission) and active (allowing credits and loans to be returned with interest).
There are three reasons for people to bank money:
- transaction motive (they save money for future transactions that they are able to predict);
- precaution motive (people make a kind of reserve for a rainy day);
- speculation motive is due to the wish to escape losses.
1. Fill in the gaps (there can be more than one right variant):
- Banks allow credits on the basis of ________________.
a. your creditworthiness b. debts you have c. your illicit income - An amount of all circulating media that the population and businesses
are willing to have at the moment is_____________.
a. money demand b. money supply c. rate of interest - The Central bank increases bank rate when it is willing __________.
a. to restrict money supply b. to hot money supply c. to have some fun - During the period of recession the Central bank______________.
a. buys the funds b. sells the funds c. issues more funds - A real purchasing power of income, received with interest is_______.
a. nominal rate of interest b. real rate of interest - Gold is kept in______________.
a. portfolios b. bullions c.bars - The factors determining investment demand are as follows:
a. taxes b. equipment expenditures c. income d. advertisment - One’s wish to escape losses is regarded as a _____________motive.
a. speculation b. transaction c. precaution - Portfolio is____________.
a. what money is kept in b. what you keep your papers in - VAT is_________.
a. value added tax b. vitamins assisted therapy c. vote against Tories.
Ex. 2. Find the odd one. Explain your choice.
- the funds, securities, shares, loan
- bank roll, financial resources, current account, monies
- bank of issue, joint-stock bank, to bank, credit bank
- economic growth, obligatory reservation change, bank rate change, operations with the funds
- money demand, money supply, restrictive policy, rate of interest.
Ex. 3. Arrange the letters so as to make up words.
E.g. n – k – a – b a – t – r – e = bank rate
| 1. B – e – t – u – d – e – n – e – r | d – b – o – n | |||
| 2. W –a – p – n | ||||
| 3. E – l –i – n | ||||
| 4. B –r – o – w – r – o – r – e | ||||
| 5. C – l – i- t – o – c u- n – r –a – i | ||||
| 6. i – j – n – o – t | c – s – o – t – s | |||
| 7. n – j – u – k | n –b – o – d | |||
| 8. p – o – r – e – c – e – s – d | ||||
| 9. x – e – e – p – s – n – v – i – e | c – e – r – i – d – t | |||
| 10. m – n – o – t – e – r – a – y | p – i –l – o – y – c | |||
| 11. p – a – r – i – c – a – t – c – b – e – l | i – c – n – o – m – e | |||
|
||||
| 13. n – b –a – k | r – a – d – t – f | |||
| 14. M – o – y – e – n | p – s – u – l – p – y | |||
| 15. G – a – l – l – e | e – y – t – n – i – t | |||
| 16. A – l – n – o | ||||
| 17. N – b – k – a | t – e – r – a | |||
| 18. E – r – i – c – t – v – e – s – r – t – i | c – p – l – o – y – i | |||
| 19. D – t – e – c – r – i | ||||
Ex. 4. Enlarge the scheme (association game)
Ex. 5. Draw the lines so as to separate the words:
Credit/physicalpersoncirculationmoneydemandbankratedepositloancashforgedcoinscybermoneyl egalentitymoneymassbillsofexchangeassetsreservesliabilitiesbankruptcysumskyrocketbalanceofpaymentswithdraw
Ex. 6. Look through the texts and find all the words that are similar to Russian ones in sound or spelling and easily recognized and understood, for example: population, credit etc.
Ex. 7. Translate the following words and find them in the word search:
Активы, портфель, ограничительный, заемщик, денежное предложение, инфляция, ликвидные ценные бумаги, баланс, учетная ставка, платежные средства, спрос, аудиторская проверка, доход, золотые слитки, земельный банк, договор в двух экземплярах, дебитор, номинальная стоимость, налог на добавленную стоимость, срок уплаты платежа, залог, спекуляция, облигации, прибыль.
| b | o | p | k | y | t | i | r | u | t | a | m | a | q | c | e | k | l | e | l | i |
| a | y | u | t | a | s | q | x | r | p | w | u | z | v | j | k | d | o | z | n | o |
| i | h | i | n | b | a | l | a | n | c | e | l | m | a | b | l | m | a | f | y | v |
| d | w | l | s | q | a | e | v | i | t | c | i | r | t | s | e | r | k | a | p | s |
| e | p | p | x | b | a | n | k | r | a | t | e | c | u | t | s | n | k | c | l | n |
| m | q | v | g | j | n | p | k | k | t | f | n | a | b | o | a | f | r | g | b | o |
| g | e | c | l | i | q | u | i | d | f | u | n | d | s | b | r | h | s | h | y | i |
| n | i | h | g | n | w | c | y | v | e | m | a | u | d | i | t | t | r | a | i | l |
| i | u | t | o | c | d | t | d | r | m | p | f | z | b | n | q | m | z | d | o | l |
| t | d | u | x | o | s | t | e | s | s | a | o | n | l | b | a | i | d | n | t | u |
| a | y | k | w | m | b | e | m | o | n | e | y | s | u | p | p | l | y | r | a | b |
| l | s | r | g | e | x | p | a | j | f | w | e | q | i | c | e | o | d | o | g | d |
| u | j | z | h | e | b | o | n | d | s | r | x | i | n | t | a | x | g | t | s | l |
| c | b | v | j | m | a | r | d | q | m | h | p | c | d | e | j | n | b | b | l | o |
| r | p | q | y | t | d | t | z | g | d | f | a | c | e | v | a | l | u | e | x | g |
| i | v | l | p | r | o | f | i | t | n | h | t | y | n | x | l | d | z | d | b | m |
| c | x | f | s | o | w | o | b | y | a | n | o | i | t | a | l | f | n | i | v | j |
| r | n | o | i | t | a | l | u | c | e | p | s | g | u | c | s | f | u | j | p | w |
| w | s | f | o | r | z | i | t | i | r | e | w | o | r | r | o | b | k | y | c | s |
| q | h | d | a | u | k | o | e | u | i | m | t | i | e | u | h | c | x | v | q | z |
Ex. 8. Insert the prepositions where necessary.
- Commercial banks are obliged ___ place a part ____their assets ____the Central bank deposit.
- Commercial banks skyrocket their rates ___interest___loans given ___legal entities and physical persons.
- Money supply is an amount ___money that is ___circulation.
- The population and banks are ___hurry to buy the funds.
- If the Central bank aims ___withdrawing money surplus___circulation it starts selling funds___other banks and the population.
- Nominal rate of interest is a common alternative cost set___ ___ banking and keeping nonprofitable money.
- People make a kind ___reserve ____a rainy day.
- Most of innovations are financed ____accordance ____the profit receivable.
- If equipment expenditures go up, an expected rate ___profit will slide____.
- Corporate bonds may be secured___ a lien___real estate.
- Indenture is an agreement___ the borrower and a trustee acting ____ the bondholders.
- The borrower promises to pay interest ___the debt ___a stipulated percentage.
- Investment is capital expenditure___physical productive assets.
- A productive sector turns___incapable___meeting surplus demand.
Ex. 9. Divide into two teams and name as many words related to the read texts as possible. The one who names the word the last wins.