Цель: систематизировать и обобщить знания учащихся по изученной теме.
Урок 7 Unit 3 “Means of communication through the centuries” в 8 классе по учебнику “Happy English.ru” авторов К. Кауфман и М. Кауфман.
Задачи:
- с помощью ролевой игры обучать учащихся высказываться по теме «Роль английского языка в современном мире»;
- поддерживать интерес учащихся к изучению английского языка;
- развивать речевые умения, навыки говорения и способности формулировать выводы;
- систематизировать знания, полученные на предыдущих уроках и из других источников информации.
Ход урока
Teacher: “The theme of our lesson is: “Why is English so popular?”(слайд 1 приложение 3)
You know that there are a lot of languages in the world. Let’s remind some of them. Please, make the sentence longer: “People in the world speak English and…” P1, P2, P3,…(высказывается вся группа).
Thank you, but today we are going to talk about the English language. They say that English is the Latin of the 21st century. By the end of the lesson we must answer this question: “Why is English so popular?”
It is known that people have been learning foreign languages for thousand years. (слайд 2) In Egypt people learned Greek 2,5 thousand years ago. In the 16th century Europe began to study German language. In the 19th century French language was the most popular in the world. Throughout the history people needed a second language to understand each other. Nowadays English is the most wide spread in the world, because it is not just the native language of English-speaking countries like the UK and the USA. It is the language that people in many countries use today. Why is it so? I hope that the next information will help you to understand it.
I want you to listen to the text about the history of the English language and after the listening to the text you should check “true” or “false” for some statements.
(текст для аудирования – приложение 1, задание к тексту – приложение 2)
Ролевая игра
Teacher: “Good morning, Mr. Forbes, nice to meet you. Mr. Forbes is a Canadian journalist. He is going to write an article about the English language and he wants to know what people from different countries think about English and its popularity.”
Mr. Forbes: “Good morning, nice to meet you too. Dear friends, I would like to introduce my guests to each other. My guests today are: Mrs. Belova, a Russian translator, Mr. Bambridge, an English historian, Mrs. Brinks, a rich American business lady, Mr. Swarup, an Indian student and a group of Russian students – Elena, Edward, Sophia, Daniel and Victoria.”
Nowadays English is heard everywhere. Many people can learn lots of English words without any English lessons. Why is English so popular? What do you think, Mrs. Belova?”
Mrs. Belova: “That’s very true. At present no other language on earth is better suited to play the role of a world language. English is easier to learn than many other languages.” (слайд 3)
Mr. Forbes: ”Can you prove it?”
Mrs. Belova: ”Yes, of course. Let’s compare the plurals. You just have to add (s,-es) in the end. – Tables, books, trees. – Столы, книги, деревья.In Russian we have different endings. Genders are simpler: in English you use “she” for women, “he” for men and all other words are ”it”. In Russian we have tree (it), table (he), book (she), room (she). It’s very difficult for foreigners to study Russian. English words don’t change so much, but Russian change very often (cлайд 4)
– Я читаю.
Мы читаем.
Она читает.
Вы читаете.”
Mr. Forbs: “I think that’s true. English isn’t a very difficult language. Do you agree?”
Mr.Bambridge: “Yes, but to my mind, English is so popular because it’s like many European languages, it has words from other languages and that’s why it’s easy to learn for many people. In fact, English is a Germanic language. English grammar is still very similar to German. Let’s compare:
- Meine Freundin ist neun Jahre alt. – My friend is nine years old.
- Wir gehen in die Schule. – We go to school.
- Sie ist interessant. – She is interesting. (слайд 5)
There are a lot of French words in English, for example: country, court, crime, prison, prince, royal… You can find a lot of Scandinavian words in English: anger, cake, egg, get, give… They came from the times when the Vikings raided Britain.
The English alphabet came from Latin; there are some Celtic words in the names of places and rivers, such as Dover, Kent, Avon and the Thames.”
Mrs. Belova: “You are right. English easily borrows local words and phrases from other languages. For example: a lot of Russian words, they are pronounced in English practically like in Russian: matryoshka, samovar, pelmeny, sputnik, dacha, perestroika…That’s why, I think, English is very popular.” (слайд 6)
Mr. Bambrige: “I think so, too”
Mr. Forbs: “Thank you very much. And what is your mind, Mrs. Brinks?”
Mrs. Brinks: “I suppose that English is so popular because it’s the native language of my country and I’m very proud of this fact… The world has to understand America because it’s one of the biggest and strongest countries. Everybody wants to do business with the USA.”Mr. Forbs: “How can you prove it?”
Mrs. Brinks: “Oh, look here… (слайд 7)
Mr. Forbs: “Thank you, Mrs. Brinks”
Mr. Swarup: “I’m afraid that’s wrong. From my point of view, English is so popular because the United Kingdom used to have a big empire. The British had colonies all over the world, and all the people in the colonies had to speak English. Britain had the largest empire in the world, by the beginning of the 20th century, the British Empire had the population of 400 – 500 million people, and it was a quarter of all worlds’ population at that time. Some counties that used to be British colonies or territories are: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, large parts of Africa, the Caribbean, the Far East, the Middle East and some islands in Europe. (слайд 8)Nowadays 400 million people speak English as a mother tongue. It’s the native language of 12 nations and the official or semiofficial language of 33 nations. That means that one in every seven people in the world speaks English. That is 20% of the worlds’ population. That’s exactly what I wanted to say.” (слайд 9)
Mr. Forbs: “Thank you, Mr. Swarup. Do you think so, guests?”
Sophia: “Could I say something here, Mr. Forbs? I’m sure, English is so popular because it has become the standard language for all kinds of international communication. English is the language of the UNO, Green Peace, UNESCO, International Olympic Committee and others. Foreign political leaders usually speak to international journalists in English. All famous people know if you want to be popular around the world, you must speak English well. To my mind it’s the main reason to know English. A billion and half people in the world understand English.” (слайд 10)
Mr. Forbs: “Thank you very much. And what about other Russian students? What do you think?”
Victoria: “My name is Vika. I’m interested in reading. English is now the worlds’ top tongue. Besides, English is the language of the great literature. It’s the language of Shakespeare, Byron, Mark Twain, Conan Doyle, Dickens, Fennimore Cooper and Jack London. To enjoy wonderful books people should read them in the original. Literary translations can’t show the beauty of language and author’s talent.” (слайд 11)
Mrs. Belova: “I quite agree with you.”
Victoria:”Moreover, young people like English because it’s the language of rock, jazz and pop music. For example: Elton John, Madonna, Britney Spears and Paul McCartney. A good knowledge of English let you understand the words of all your favourite English songs. And, of course, you will be able to watch British and American films in the original. It’s cool. That’s why one billion people are learning English, that’s why it’s very popular.” (слайд 12)
Edward: “I want to add. We live in the information age. And we need more and more information. People who don’t know English have some problems to get the information, because most of the web sites on the Internet are in English. A billion! 80 % of all information in the worlds’ computers is in English. Most books in the world have English translation. 60% published information in in English. The most famous television networks – American CNN and British The BBC broadcast news to more than 210 countries faster and more professionally than smaller national networks. People can get the important news everywhere in the world.” (слайды 13, 14)
MR. Forbs: “Thanks. It’s a very interesting point of view.”
Daniel: “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I’d like to say, too”
Mr. Forbs: “Do, please”
Daniel: “Thank you, English is also the international language of business people, pilots and air controllers, diplomats, sportsmen, scientists, secretaries of big companies and many other professions. If a person knows English, he will get a good job and earn a lot of money. That’s why English is very popular now. I learn English, too and I’m sure it will help me in my future life.”
Mr.Forbs: “Good for you, Daniel”
Elena: “To my mind, English helps to communicate with other people. People can travel abroad without any problems, people can have friends everywhere and send them letters, make phone calls very successfully, because English gives them extra freedom and happiness, let them hobbies they like, choose the way of life and make people closer to each other in the world. It’s the main reason why English is very popular.” (слайд 15)
Mr. Forbs: “Do you agree with Lena? Thank you very much. Now, let’s finish our discussion. I appreciate your help. You have given me a lot of useful and important information, interesting facts for my article. Everybody convinced me why English is very popular now. Good bye”
Teacher: “Thank you for your role play. Everybody was super today. But let’s turn back to our question. Why is English popular?”
P1:” It’s easy to learn and has a lot of European words.”
P2: “It’s the language of the most developed and rich countries like the USA and the UK.”
P3: “It’s native language for many countries”
P4: “It’s the language of great culture, science and technology.”
P5: “It’s the most suitable language for communication and business.”
Teacher: “That’s right, students. Nice job. English is really very popular. We use a lot of English words in our everyday life and don’t think about it. Do you remember them? Can you give me examples?”
– Distance, instrument, politics, summit, organization, price list, business…
Teacher: “There are a lot of different languages in the world. Some of them are wide spread, look at the slide 16 , some of them are rare – (slide 17), some of them are difficult to learn, others are beautiful to hear. Any foreign languages train our memory, make us clever and our life easy, you may learn German, Spanish, French, Chinese, but you must know English.
Thank you for your coming and taking an active part in the lesson. I’m sure that your good knowledge of English will help you in your future life and you will never stop studying English and remember some clever words: “Language is the dress of thought”, “ The more languages you speak, the more times you are a human being”, “Learning a language has a beginning but no ending.” (слайд 18)
Используемая литература: текст учебный «The Development of English language»
Текст учебный «The world’s Top Tongue» учебник 9 класса «Happy English» автор Кузовлев В.П. , учебный материал учебника 8 класса «Happy English.ru» Unit 3 lesson 7 автор Кауфман К. и Кауфман М.