Personal computers in the life of modern student

Разделы: Иностранные языки

The goals: Развитие коммуникативных навыков учащихся. Формирование лексических навыков говорения.

The objectives:

  • образовательная – продолжить обучение навыкам аудирования, устной речи, расширять словарный запас;
  • развивающая (коммуникативная) –
    1. развивать коммуникативные навыки и умения через индивидуальную и парную работу;
    2. формировать навыки пользования справочной и вспомогательной литературы и электронными носителями информации;
    3. выражать свое мнение, давать оценку фактам;
    4. учить выполнять упражнения с функциональными опорами;
  • воспитательная – правильно оценивать свои возможности в личной жизни и будущей профессиональной деятельности, свои успехи и неудачи, развивать внимание к собеседнику в процессе общения.

Materials and equipment.

Тексты Интернет-сайтов.

Проектор, ноутбук.

Раздаточный материал – ксерокопии, бейджики.

Procedures.

As you can see from the topic of our lesson, we are going to continue our talk about the role computers in our life.

Today we’re going to begin with the reading the text and discussing the story.

Then we’ll do vocabulary exercises and do languages work.

After that we’ll listen to the advertisement on the tape-recorder. Discuss pluses and minuses of the computers and finally present the competition of inventors.

1. First let’s brush up your phonetics. Read words and word-combinations.

  1. powerful — мощный
  2. to solve a problem — решить проблему
  3. in seconds — в считанные секунды
  4. to occupy — зд. занимать (пространство) (The meaning of the word depends on the context.)
  5. to be pleased with — быть довольным
  6. creation — детище, создание
  7. to choose (chose, chosen) — выбирать to choose a date — наметить дату
  8. to introduce smth. to smb — представлять что-либо кому-нибудь
  9. to be astounded — быть изумленным
  10. to predict — предсказывать, прогнозировать
  11. ability — способность
  12. a complete year — весь год
  13. to be delighted — быть в восторге
  14. to grow quieter — становиться тише
  15. silence — тишина
  16. to flash — мигать, сверкать
  17. in a deep voice — низким голосом
  18. to reply — отвечать

2. Pre-reading task. Work in pairs. Exchange information.

  1. When did you first get to know about computers?
  2. What technological developments in the home do you enjoy?
  3. How much time a day do you spend in front of your computer?
  4. What technological developments do you think there will be over the next twenty or thirty years?
  5. Do your parents use computers at work? Do they find it convenient?
  6. Would you say you are computer – literate?
  7. What software programmers are you familiar with?

The Computer

A group of international scientists decided to design and build the largest and most powerful computer in the world. These scientists believed that such a computer would solve all the complex problems of science and mathematics in seconds. It took twenty years to build the computer. It was so large that it occupied a building of thirty floors. The scientists were very pleased with their creation. They chose a date on which to introduce the computer to the world and they invited famous scientists to come along and test their computer.

An Italian mathematician had spent five years working on a difficult mathematical problem. When he gave the problem to the computer it answered in two seconds. The Italian mathematician was astounded. "It's correct," he shouted and left the room. A British scientist had spent his life trying to predict British weather without much success. The ability to predict the weather in Britain is important so that tourists will know the best time to come on holiday. The British scientist gave the computer a lot of facts about the climate in Britain and after ten seconds the computer produced a detailed description for a complete year. The scientist was delighted.

Problem after problem was given to the computer. It solved all of them easily. Soon the voices of scientists grew quieter and quieter until there was silence in the room. The scientist had no more questions to ask.

At that moment the lady who was serving tea and coffee shouted to the computer, "Is there a God?" The computer's lights flashed and flashed and flashed. They continued for one minute, then another. The computer had never taken this long to answer. After ten minutes the lights stopped flashing and in a deep voice, the computer replied; "Now there is."

3. Answer the questions about the text.

  1. What did a group of scientists decide to create?
  2. What problems did they hope to solve with the help of the most powerful computer?
  3. How long did it take to build such a computer?
  4. How large was the computer?
  5. Were the scientists pleased with their creation?
  6. Who did they invite to the presentation of the computer?
  7. Why was the Italian mathematician astounded after he gave the problem to the computer?
  8. What problem had a British scientist been trying to solve? Was he successful?
  9. Why was he delighted?
  10. Did the computer solve all the problems given to it easily and in seconds?
  11. Who was the last to give a problem to the computer? What question did she ask?
  12. How long did it take the computer to answer the question?
  13. Why did it take the computer so long to reply?
  14. What was the reply of the computer?
  15. Who and what did the computer mean by the answer?
  16. Can a computer really solve all the problems?

4. Discussion.

I. What are the most important inventions for you:

  • at home?
  • at university?

II. Exchange opinions.

  • Why can't we imagine our life without a computer?
  • In what spheres of activity can we use a computer?
  • How does a computer make our life easier?
  • Can a computer substitute people in such spheres as medicine, education, sports, etc?
  • Advantages and disadvantages of computers.

5. From the list below classify the vocabulary according to the following criteria:

а) First of all (hardware), and then (software).

1) program, 2) drive, 3) printer, 4) device, 5) keyboard, 6) root directory, 7) floppy disk, 8) memory, 9) hard diskette, 10) key. 11) character, 12) mouse, 13) error message, 14) computer, 15) file, 16) command, 17) screen, 18) display;

6. Choose the English equivalents of Russian words

а) клавиша

 1. port, 2. key, 3. root, 4. drive, 5. mouse

b) память

 1. error, 2. message, 3. memory, 4. mouse, 5. name

c) имя

 1. port, 2. key, 3. name, 4. mouse, 5. character

d) порт

 1. keyboard, 2. drive, 3. mouse, 4. port, 5. file

e) корневой

 l. hard, 2. floppy, 3. personal, 4. root, 5. display

f) дисковод

 1. disk, 2. diskette, 3. drive, 4. port, 5. screen

g) экран

 1. display, 2. keyboard, 3. memory, 4. error,5. screen

h) ошибка

 1. root, 2. error, 3. port, 4. printer, 5. message

i) программное обеспечение

 1. program, 2. hardware, 3. software, 4. command, 5. character

j) символ

 1. error, 2. command, 3. name, 4. character 5. message

7.Fill in the gaps with an appropriate word. Form verbs from these nouns by means of conversion and translate both.

  1. to print печатать printer печатающее устройство
  2. to use-…………. user пользователь
  3. to drive- вести ……. ……………..
  4. to compute…….. computer компьютер, вычислитель
  5. to program программировать programmer -…………
  6. to command отдавать команды commander -…………
  7. to err…….. error -ошибка
  8. to operate -………… operater-…………

8. Make the following words negative by adding prefixes “un-”, “in-”, “non”- and translate both. Legal, correct, valid, consistent, finite, sufficient, recoverable, suitable, usable, removable.

9. Combine the matching words from the left and the right columns and translate them:

available
bootable
compatible
usable
suitable
removable

keyboard
character
printer
disk
selection
partition

10. Guess the words. I’m going to read the definition of one of the word you have chosen, and cross it out.

Case, CD-ROM, mouse, keyboard, floppy disc, hard –drive, monitor.

  • a large metal box is called the system unit which protect the electronics inside
  • A set of keys that operate a computer or typewriter
  • A small device that is moved by hand across a surface to control the movement of the cursor on a computer screen. It has buttons on it for entering commands.
  • TV device, that usually sits on the top of the computer display text characters and graphics
  • A flexible disk for recording and storing data in a form that a computer can read.
  • Compact disk read - only memory (for displaying stored data on a computer screen)
  • A sealed magnetic storage device linked to or fitted inside a computer on which large amount of data can be recorded.

11. At our University you have a special subject – “Computer science” – where you learn to use computers properly. You also use computers while studying other subjects. Yesterday I asked you who you would like to say a couple of words about the computers you work on at our University. Let’s listen to your comments. Present information on:

  • the make and model of the computer you use;
  • the type and number of drives it has;
  • the volume of memory;
  • the type of extras;
  • the kind of monitor;
  • what machines it is compatible with;
  • what programs you can use with it;
  • the advantages and disadvantages this computer has.

12. Listening. You are interested in the information about a desktop personal computer. Now, we’ll listen to the tape. It is someadvertisement. Be careful; you are going to fill in the chart given on the slide.

The Fantasy X22 Computer.

Personal Computers or simply PCs are a common feature of our life. We use them to do calculations or prepare a text; we turn to them to present data with the help of graphs or diagrams, or just to relax playing computer games.

Do you know anything about the Fantasy X22? The Fantasy X22 is a truly modern desktop computer. It has a disk drive and a colour monitor. The dimension of the monitor is 14 inches. The main feature of the Fantasy X22 is that it comes with a printer for word processing. The Fantasy X22 is a great machine and has many advantages. It is compatible with most other machines. The price of the computer is $ 800 which includes the printer. There are many programmers available for it. They are listed in the catalogue. It has two floppy disk drives: for 3.5 and 5.1/4 inch disks. A CD ROM is also available if necessary. The computer has a keyboard of 101 keys. The hard disk has 840 megabits of memory space. The computer has 640K of base memory and 8 MG of extended memory. [1, с.285 -308].

Make or model of the computer

Type of monitor

Kind of extras available

Compatible with

Price

 

 

 

 

 

13. Discussion. More and more people are using computers in their work. Some of them cannot imagine their lives without this invention of the 20th century. Children find computer games very interesting.

Let’s discuss the question: Are computers one of the greatest or the most dangerous inventions? Look at the following statements and write one or two sentences of advice for each of them.

Computers are one of the greatest inventions

Computers are one of the most dangerous inventions

1. They save a lot of time.

1. They are dangerous for your health.

2. They can do calculations and other things which people do not find interesting.

2. People waste a lot of time playing computer games.

3. They help you to process information.

3. You can lose your work if something goes wrong with the computer.

4. You can learn many things using a computer as a tutor.

4. Some people live in a virtual reality not in the real world

5. You can relax playing computer games.

5. Children cannot do the simplest arithmetic sums because they rely on computers.

Say whether the following statements are true or false. Here some expressions you may need:

I quite agree with

I agree entirely ……

I don’t think so…

I can’t agree with (that)…

In my opinion…

As for me…

14. MANUALS

1. Вы собираетесь использовать в своей профессиональной деятельности прикладные программы, функционирующие в среде MS DOS. Основываясь на информации текста "Before you begin", определите, что вы должны для этого приобрести, отметив необходимое оборудование и предметы в прилагаемом списке.

а) персональный компьютер с объемом памяти 64 килобайта;

b) персональный компьютер с объемом памяти 512 килобайт;

c) 2 гибких диска;

d) 2 жестких диска;

e) 1 жесткий и 1 гибкий диск;

f) два дисковода;

g) 1 винчестерский диск и 1 дисковод для гибких дисков;

h) справочник пользователя MS DOS;

i) учебное пособие для пользователя MS DOS;

j) дискета с операционной системой MS DOS.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Before you begin using this MS-DOS User's Guide, you should have

  • A 16-bit personal computer that runs MS-DOS and has at least 256K bytes memory
  • Two disk drives (either two floppy disk drives, or one hard disk drive and one floppy disk drive)
  • An MS-DOS master disk
  • The MS-DOS User's Reference

2. Вы распаковали новый компьютер типа Notebook. Слева представлены распакованные предметы, справа описание полного комплекта. Проверьте, всё ли на месте, и если нет, отметьте в описании отсутствующие предметы.

Hardware

Six items:

  • MBC-17NB computer (with battery pack removed)
  • Removable battery pack
  • AC adapter
  • Power cord for AC adapter
  • Printer
  • Mouse

Software

Four floppy disks:

  • MS-DOS INSTALL disk
  • Operating disk, including GW-BASIC
  • MS-DOS Shell disk
  • Utilities disk

Guide books

Four books:

  • This MBC-17NB Instruction Guide
  • MS-DOS 4.01/GW-BASIC Handbook
  • MS-DOS Shell User's Guide
  • MS-DOS Version 4.01 Installation Guide Installation Guide

15. TV COMPETITION OF INVENTORS. Role Play.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! DEAR FRIENDS!

WE HAVE GATHERED HERE TO SHOW YOU THE LATEST MODELS OF COMPUTERS.

260 PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS FROM …WILL TAKE PART IN OUR COMPETITION. Inventors from different countries are taking part in the competition. The programmer is broadcast in foreign countries and its official language is English.

LET ME INTRODUCE the participants of our competition.

I am…the CHAIR OF THE JURY. I am from ...

Our members of the JURY – reporters of the Russian computer journal "Chip" and “Hard and Software” and computer inventors from … .

The inventors should make reports describing the model of the computer they have built and illustrate them with sketches or diagrams. They must be ready to answer the questions of the jury, the press and the audience. [1, 328 -331].

Registration card

Surname ……………………….

First name ………………………

Age …………………………..

Country………………………….

Address …………………………….

Profession or field of study ……………………..

THE LIST OF PRIZES AND CRITERIA

1. For the most realistic model.

  • materials available from current manufacturers;
  • power module
  • use of equipment produced by the computer industry at present;
  • low costs.

2. For the most imaginative model.

  • originality of design;
  • type of power available only in the future;
  • use of revolutionary new technology;
  • use of materials of the future.

3. For the most complicated model.

  • complexity of the design;
  • complexity of the car-manufacturing process;
  • complexity of the equipment used.

4. The prize for the most industrious inventor.

  • the inventor must not work in the computer industry;
  • the model must take the most time to produce;
  • the inventor must have overcome a lot of difficulties to find the necessary materials and - equipment, a place where he could work at his model, etc.

Discussion and prize-awarding ceremony. Closing of the competition.

Evaluation. Unfortunately, we are out of time so far. Will you sum it up, please? So now I give you the marks for your work.

Список литературы.

  1. Учебник ” Английский для инженеров Т.Ю. Полякова, М., Высшая школа, 2003г. с.285 -308, 328 -331.
  2. Т.Ю. Полякова Достижения науки и техники ХХ века: Учебное пособие по английскому языку для студентов технических вузов. - М.: Высшая школа, 2004.-287с., с.88 -132.