ENGelska 5 & 6
OUTLOOKS oN Eva Hallberg & Annika Backemyr Nyberg
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“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” Mahatma Gandhi
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” Alvin Tofler
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I TAKE OFF
L HOW DO YOU LEARN ENGLISH?
Agree or disagree with the following statements. Share, compare and discuss in groups. Try supporting your view using your own personal experiences.
• What is to be good at English?
Statements: • I learn something every day • I am a fan of learning • Learning is important • Knowledge equals power • I learn through reading • I learn through listening • I learn through discussing • I learn through googling • I learn through writing • I learn by combining school knowledge with ”leisure time knowledge”
Share your answers in class.
• What is your most efficient way of learning English? • What type of language work is best done at home/at school?
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THREE VOICES English is the official language in at least 75 countries around the globe. It is spoken by 375 million people as a first language and by another 375 million as a second language. One country far away and very different from Sweden is Namibia. In Namibia, which became independent from South Africa in 1990, there are at least 12 different languages and it was very difficult for them to decide which language should be the official one after gaining independence. In the end it was decided that English would be the official language. In this course book you will meet Namibians your own age and they will give you their perspective on various issues, very often far removed from yours.
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Ayesha
Ayesha is 16 years old and lives in a rural settlement in Okandja Park, Windhoek, Namibia. Her house lacks electricity and sewage and is constructed from corrugated iron, which makes it extremely cold during winter and extremely hot during summer. Ayesha lives with her mother, who is unemployed, and her cousin, whose mother died from aids four years ago. Ayesha’s dream is to become a nurse, but the obstacles are great despite the fact that she has good results from school, which in itself is very unusual if you live under circumstances like hers. Her mother cannot afford to pay for her tertiary education.
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LYVODIA
Here you see Lyvodia, 18 years old, whose mother died five years ago. She now lives with her three sisters in a shack in Katatura, Windhoek. Katatura is a settlement where many poor people live. Lyvodia’s dream is to become a singer or music teacher. She sings in a choir ten hours a week and the rest of the time she looks after her sister’s two young children. They struggle to make ends meet and often they have to go to bed hungry.
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GERSON
This is Gerson, 17 years old. He also lives in Katatura together with his mother, his three brothers and sisters and his three cousins, whose own mother passed away due to AIDS. He wants to finish school but struggles hard because of lack of means to pay the fees, lack of electricity and because he lives a very long way from school. Every day he gets up at 5.30 and walks the seven kilometres to school in order to arrive before 7.00, which is the official starting time for schools in Namibia.
For every topic in this book you will hear the opinions of Ayesha, Lyvodia or Gerson from their perspective. They are exactly like young people in Sweden, except that life has not been so kind to them.
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B ME AND MY ENGLISH Write a letter to your English teacher about yourself and your English. Tell about everything you think he/she needs to know. Be detailed and write about different aspects. You should try to include most of the items from the following list. About yourself: • Where you live • Your family • Your interests: music, sports, computers, leisure time etc. About your English: • If and when you speak English • English-speaking countries you have visited • How you feel about English, how confident you are • Reasons for learning good English • Your best ways of learning • Your strengths in English • What you need to practice more • Your expectations and misgivings about English 5 • What you personally want to achieve by studying English 5 • What you would like to do this year; ideas and suggestions Remember to follow the rules of letter writing. Start and end your letter in the proper way: Dear Mr./Mrs. XXXX, … … Kind regards, To learn more, see p. 291.
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N FORMAL AND INFORMAL ENGLISH Formal English is used in books, articles, business letters, news reports etc. Informal English is used in everyday conversation and personal letters and e-mails.
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LEARNING Gerson: “If you misbehave at school – maybe you are late, your uniform is not in order or you forget to bring a book – then the teachers punish you. There are different kinds of punishment, depending on what you have done. You might have to stay behind to clean a certain area of the school, you might get a warning letter, you might have to bring your parents for a talk and then you are suspended for a week. You can also be expelled. It is good that we have these consequences, because it means that most students behave in an appropriate way. Sometimes the lessons are very boring and seem extremely long. I think teachers should do some research before they teach. Sometimes they just read out loud from a book.” Ayesha: “School is very important to me. In one’s life, as they say, without education there is no future. It is a key to success. Just look around and see how many people are unemployed because they did not finish their education. In every lesson at school I try to pick up what is important and interesting and work on that. There are times when a lesson is boring and you feel sleepy, but that is just what happens to every student.”
K Retell the quotes from Gerson and Ayesha and give your personal comment about their content. What is the same and what is different compared to Sweden?
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I TAKE OFF Most likely you are in a new school, with new friends and new teachers, ready to take on new challenges. Now you are to read about an American exchange student’s first impressions of her meeting with the Swedish equivalent of American high school. What differences do you think an American high school student might encounter when spending a year in Sweden? What impressions of the American school system do you get when watching so-called high school movies?
N RELATIVE PRONOUNS Who, which or whose?
WITH FOREIGN EYES ON A SWEDISH SCHOOL BY SARAH OTTO I walked in on my first day at “Polhemskolan”. Big, basic buildings, rows of lockers lining the hallways, groups of friends meeting and chattering: it seemed just like a school back home. Then I went to my first class. The teacher came up and introduced herself by her first name. “So, should I call you Mrs. Annika?” I wondered. All the other kids filed in and sat at their desks. It was then that I realized I was the only one in the class with a backpack…awkward. (I would later find out I was the only one in the whole school.) Style is a much bigger factor in Swedish schools than American schools for sure. We got our schedules and I was immediately confused. Every single day was different: starting and ending at different times and different classes and number of classes. And when is lunch? There is so much free time here, students are trusted to take care of themselves and get to where they need to be on time. Breaks between classes can be anywhere from five minutes to two hours apart. You can choose any break you want to get lunch. Lunch here is also pretty different. Lunch is free for all students so everyone lines up with their plates and gets food. No one really complains about it, they just take what is served to them. Another difference is that lunch back home was like the social hour. Here, you sit with a group of people and have conversation but the main focus is the food.
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It seems like students here can basically do anything they want. If they come late, they can just walk into class. If they need to leave early they just walk right out. If they need to answer a phone call they just step outside for a bit. And if the students misbehave, the teachers can’t really do much about it. Other than being reprimanded, there’s not too much else that can be done. There is no detention or staying after class. Grades here are handled so differently. There is rarely a “daily grade.” Swedish students have to depend on tests and papers for their final grade, which isn’t a number. All grades are just a letter and the teacher decides what you deserve based on whether or not you met the pre-determined guidelines. I think it’s much more difficult to get straight A’s here in Sweden. I think there are pros and cons for both school systems, the Swedish and the American. For instance, going to a class every day for a school year instead of twice a week allows for much more instruction time and learning. After four years of a foreign language in an American school, you can have much more understanding than four years of that language in a Swedish school. Having more classes a week allows students to explore more outlets and gain a more well-rounded education. If the systems were to switch, I don’t think either student body as a whole would be able to handle it. American students would take advantage of all these newfound freedoms and Swedish students would likely rebel against the formality and structure.
N CAPITAL LETTERS Monday, December, Christmas, Swedish, Muslim, Aunt Mary, The Second World War, Game of Thrones
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SHOW YOUR UNDERSTANDING 1. Sarah Otto mentions several differences between the two school systems. What are they? 2. Reading between the lines, describe in as much
N THE VERBS “BE” AND “HAVE” IN ALL TENSES Lunch is free Lunch back home was like the social hour
detail as you can what it is like in an American
If the systems were to switch…
school.
Swedish students have to rely on tests
3. Which of the differences between the systems surprise you? 4. What do you think would happen if the systems were to replace one another? 5. So far, what are the main differences you have
N REGULAR VERBS The upper secondary school consists of
noticed between your old secondary school and
national programmes.
your new upper secondary school?
Grades here are handled so differently.
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When travelling around the world you are often asked about your country. As a Swede and an upper secondary student you are likely to meet people who are curious about the Swedish system. Here are some facts for you.
WHAT IS UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN SWEDEN? The upper secondary school is a voluntary school and free of charge, which young people can choose to attend after completing compulsory school. The upper secondary school consists of national programmes, introductory programmes and programmes that differ from the national programme structure. There are a total of 18 national upper secondary programmes. Each programme lasts three years and consists of upper secondary school foundation subjects, programme specific subjects, orientations, programme specialisations and a diploma project. Each national upper secondary programme covers: • Nine upper secondary foundation subjects – English, history, physical education and health, mathematics, science studies, social studies, Swedish or Swedish as a second language and religion. In the Natural Science programme, science studies are replaced by programme specific subjects, i.e. biology, physics and chemistry. In the Technology programme, science studies are replaced by programme specific subjects, i.e. physics and chemistry.
• A number of subjects specific to a given programme are chosen. • The different upper secondary programmes may be either vocational programmes or programmes in preparation for higher education. A vocational programme can also be taken as an upper secondary apprenticeship education. Skolverket
KA You are in Torquay, attending a language course. You are participating in a student–teacher meeting where you have been asked to present the Swedish school system. Prepare and give your presentation. Make sure you use the appropriate vocabulary. The very same night at the welcome party you meet new friends from Europe and now it is time to tell them about the Swedish school system. Do it!
BB Reflection: Were there any differences between your two presentations?
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I TAKE OFF
H ADJECTIVES Adjectives are used to describe nouns. What can
For you, as Swedish students, to fully understand the differences between the Swedish and the American school systems we asked Sarah Otto to share her knowledge of high school. Being in the middle of it herself, she gives a personal yet factual picture of school life in the US.
for example be said about a student? He or she
What do you already know about: • The American grading system? • Extracurricular activities? • The prom?
When to use –ly
What else can you add about American high school?
might be: ambitious, curious, intelligent, disrespectful…all those are adjectives.
N ADJECTIVE OR ADVERB She is an unusually ambitious student and therefore she studies extremely ambitiously.
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American
High School BY Sarah Otto
Starting in 9th grade, at 14 years of age, you enter the American high school. Some refer to it as “the glory years” while to others it is 4 years of a living nightmare, but regardless of how you view it, it is four years unlike any other four in your life. A compilation of school work, social events, being with your friends and finding yourself, high school is a time of personal growth and discovery. The person who walks in on the first day of freshman year is usually quite a different person than the one who tosses their hat into the air after graduation. Of course, you mature by the time you are eighteen but you also have four years of experience that have shaped and moulded this new you. Some flourish and go on to live great lives, others fall down a spiral in high school and can’t ever seem to escape it.
American high school consists of grades 9–12, ages 14–18. Some schools have special buildings for the freshmen while others just throw them into the mix with the rest of the grades. Every day you have seven classes, in seven different classrooms, with seven different teachers. School starts at the same time for everyone and when the bell rings everyone reports to their respective first period. Class sizes vary depending on the size of the school, but an average class has around 25 students. On the first day you sit wherever you like, next to your friends if you happen to get that class together. Most teachers will assign you to a desk permanently after that. The “cool” teachers let you stay in the ones you chose yourselves. The desks are usually arranged in rows up and down the whole classroom. In science classes you usually sit two
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and two at a lab table instead. The teacher will then lecture or give an assignment or test. You stay in that class until the bell rings and then everyone goes on to their second period. Different schools allow students different amounts of time to change classes. An average time would be about 5 minutes. Teachers always say that this is plenty of time to use the restroom, stop by your locker, get water from the fountains and make it to your next class on time. This is true, but when you want to stop and talk with your friends it’s sometimes difficult. The halls are always loud and full between classes. Usually people walk in groups. Boyfriends wait by their girlfriend’s class to walk her to her next. Big groups of girls go by gossiping about what happened that weekend or what’s happening this weekend. Guys walk in groups behind the girls to talk and check out the girls at the same time. Then you have those kids with the school-is-just-for-learning attitudes who are practically running down the hall even though there’s still three minutes to get to class. The rest of the day follows the same pattern. Go to class, wait for the bell and change classes. Everyone has to take the four main subjects: maths, English, history and science. Each year you advance a level in each subject so there’s a certain level of maths, English, etc. for each grade. The other three classes of the day are called electives and each student can choose any combination of these classes. Electives include everything from sports and woodwork shop to choir and child development. However, the school may have other requirements such as a certain number of physical education classes, fine arts classes, foreign language classes, speech and health. Most kids try to get these out of the way as soon as
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possible so that in their junior and senior years they really do get to choose all three electives. In the middle of the day you get a break from going to class for lunch. At most schools, lunch break lasts 30 minutes and there is normally more than one sitting because the whole school can’t fit in the cafeteria at one time. The lunch you go to is dictated by whatever lunch your teacher has. So you usually sit with the kids that are in that certain class with you and you hope your friends get the same lunch so you can meet them. A good portion of the students bring their own lunch from home. Others stand in line to purchase food. The cafeteria usually makes several different foods you can choose from and then there are snacks you can purchase too. Some kids buy nice, balanced meals but most live off one slice of pizza and a Gatorade soft drink. The cafeteria is always loud but it’s not a problem because you’re just focusing on the conversations at your table. After the first week of school, your lunch spot for the rest of the year is pretty much decided. The tables aren’t assigned but people just tend to go to the same spot with the same people every day. After the 7th period bell marking the end of the day, the school explodes with activity. Athletes report to the fields, gyms and pool for their afternoon practices. The marching band makes their way out to the practice field lugging their instruments behind them. Clubs of all kinds have meetings for various causes. Teachers open up their classrooms for after-school tutorials. People run to catch the big yellow school buses and the parking lots clog up so it takes forever just to back out of your parking spot.
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The level of classes you take dictates how much homework you have after school. As previously stated, there are four main courses everyone must take: English, maths, history and science. These classes can be taken at the regular or advanced levels. If you take the regular class it’s perfectly fine for graduation. You get credit for the class if you have a passing average at the end of the year and have less homework throughout the year. If you choose to take the advanced class, it helps you achieve a higher GPA (grade point average). A high GPA improves your class rank, which is important for getting into college. In advanced classes you have more homework, nearly everything is individual work, and the tests and material are at a higher level than the regular class. In your Junior and Senior years (grades 11 and 12) all core classes can be taken as AP (advanced placement) classes. AP is just like the advanced classes, except that at the end of the year you have the AP exam. You can score 1-5 on the exam. If you score a 3 or higher, you are awarded college credit as well as high school credit for the course. In addition to the core classes, you can also choose to take advanced and AP elective classes. You can take AP science, maths, and social study elective classes. Also, foreign languages can be taken at advanced level to boost your GPA or just provide yourself with a challenge. Grading in the U.S. is done using numbers 0-100 but grades are represented with letters. An A represents grades 100-90. B represents 89-80. C represents 79-70. If you receive less than a 70 it is an F and considered a failing grade. Every test, paper and assignment you turn in is graded individually. These grades go into your average for that term. Schools divide the year into two 18 week semesters. Each
semester is divided into three 6-week segments or two 9-week segments. At the end of each term you are given a progress report that lets you know your current grade in every class. At the end of 18 weeks, one semester, you are given your first report card. The grades you have received at that point in every class are final. Then, at the beginning of the next semester, all your grades start over. Again, at the end of each term you are given progress reports. At the end of the semester you take your final test. The grade you receive on the test accounts for 20 per cent of your final grade, while your average accounts for the other 80 per cent. The grades you receive at the end of each semester get averaged for your overall final grade. This number determines whether you passed or failed the class and this is the grade that will affect your GPA. Classes are either one full year or one semester. Core classes are always the whole year; electives vary on whether they are full-year or just one-semester classes. In order to graduate, you must receive 26 full credits. You receive 0.5 credits for a one-semester class and 1 credit for a full-year class. Credits will not be awarded if you fail the class or are absent from the class too many days. School dances, pep rallies, Friday night football games: these are all part of the high school experience. Every school across US has Homecoming. This is a time where alumni are welcomed back to their high schools but it is very much a big deal for the current students. Every school has a Homecoming dance and a big Homecoming football game, but it is not uncommon to have any of the following: school festivals, parades, bonfires, dress-up days and pep rallies. Homecoming is a
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week full of school spirit, concluded by the biggest football game of the season then a dance the next night. The level of formality of the dance depends on the school. In some places the Homecoming dance is very casual, while in others it’s a full-on dresses and limousine event. The main dance of your high school years is, of course, the prom. Some schools open the prom to both juniors and seniors, while others reserve it strictly for seniors. Either way, everyone goes all out for the prom. Limos, party buses, glitzy dresses, tuxedos, expensive dinners, a killer after-party; it’s all part of the experience. Pep rallies are events held in the gym to pump up the school spirit. Most kids are pretty excited just because classes finish early in order to make time for the rally. Cheerleaders and dance teams perform. Sports teams are recognized and the coaches try to convince the whole school to come out and support their team. Games are played and cheers are performed. The band plays the school song and then everyone is released, supposedly full of pep. Sports are a big deal at the school. It can be difficult to make the teams and you have practice or a game every single weekday and occasionally on Saturdays. Students love to go out and support the football team and basketball team, but sports such as swimming and golf don’t get as much love. Regardless of the number of fans, all the sports have district, regional and state tournaments, allowing students to excel and be seen by college recruiters. Sports scholarships are some students’ tickets to college, so high school sports are held in high regard in the U.S. It’s not uncommon to see athletes (especially the football team) parading down the halls in their jerseys on game day. Cheerleading is also a big American
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stereotype. No, they don’t wear their uniforms to school every day. They’re at every game on the side lines, leading the fans in cheers and keeping the spirit up. In some schools the cheerleaders just stand on the side lines while at others all the cheerleaders do flips and stunts. There are competitions for the cheerleaders, just like all the other sports. In all the movies, there are always the “popular kids” and the “losers”. Well, Hollywood does a good job of exaggerating things. It’s more like there are a bunch of different “communities”. There is the popular community, the band community, the athlete community, the theatre community, the art community and so on. Yes, each community has its own rung on the social ladder but everyone is usually more concerned with their own community than worrying about the others. You know everyone in your community and every community has its own drama and social system. Popular guys don’t throw nerdy guys into dumpsters or things like that. Popular girls are too busy backstabbing other popular girls to worry about picking on theatre girls. So, while it is divided, every community enjoys what they’re doing in such a way that it makes high school better for everyone. Of course, there are interactions between people of different communities, sometimes they’re nice and other times they’re not, but that’s part of life not just high school. After your four long years, you finally reach the time for graduation. You order your cap and gown and get all dressed up. Your family comes to watch as your principal calls your name and you receive your diploma and walk across the stage and into your future. And everyone has a different future in front of them. Most will go off to college: some on full rides
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to Ivy League universities and colleges, others down the road to community college. Some will go straight to work in the family business or with a trade. Some are heading off to represent their country in the military. But I think high school is a time everyone needs. A time to enjoy life before all of the realities of life come pouring down on you. At times it is a struggle, but one day when you’re looking at your kids and they want a story from your past, those four years is where you will find it.
K DISCUSS • What are the advantages and disadvantages of the American school system? • What are the advantages and drawbacks of the Swedish school system? • Would you like to be an American high school student? Why? Why not?
N REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS “A compilation of school work, social events, being
SHOW YOUR UNDERSTANDING
with your friends and finding yourself, high school
1. What subjects are compulsory?
is a time of personal growth and discovery.”
2. What is meant by “electives”? 3. In what ways do school lunches in the US differ from Swedish ones? 4. Explain GPA. Why is it important? 5. What is a progress report? 6. Explain Homecoming. 7. What is a pep rally? 8. What role do sports play in the American system?
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LEARNING
MORE WORDS IN LESS TIME! FACILITATE THE EXPANSION OF YOUR VOCABULARY! M Of course you want to learn and know how to use as many English words as possible and your goal is to be extremely efficient! Here you will be introduced to two ways of helping your brain to store and remember words: to learn words in word groups and to learn new words with the help of word formation. If you want more strategies go to p. 67.
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WORD GROUPS The first method you are going to try out is: Learning words in (semantic) word groups. To assort words into word groups facilitates remembering them. Â Example: Word groups
coat
boots
blouse
jacket
knickers
sweater
skirt
pants
cardigan
tie
cap
The same words in a word mix
coat
curious jacket
skirt
entertaining witty
tie boots
clever furious
knickers happy
caring
witty
sad
stubborn
clever
sulky
curious
furious
mad
entertaining
pants
run leap
cap blouse
jump stroll
sweater cardigan
walk rush
happy sad run
walk
crawl
leap
rush
creep
jump
hurry
move
stroll
sneak
race
hurry sneak
sulky mad
crawl creep
caring stubborn
move race
How would you choose to study and learn the words above? 1. Choose at least ten new, school related words from the text and write down your personal explanations. Learn the words. 2. Try finding one more possible word group (words that belong together) in the text about American high school. Write down the words and learn them.
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WORD FORMATION. Another method of assorting words is through using word formation. By understanding the way words are created, you will be able to learn groups of words that are related instead of one word at a time. It will also be easier for you to guess the meaning of a word you have not encountered before. The best way to explain word formation is perhaps to use examples: In the text entitled American High School, the word growth is used. Can you think of any related words? Word formation is mostly used to create another part of speech. Growth is a noun. What is the corresponding verb? Adjective? Adverb?
K EXERCISE WORD FORMATION 1. The following words are taken from the first paragraphs of Sarah Otto’s text. Check them out in their context. Write down the sentences. What part of speech are they? Choose between noun, adjective, verb and adverb.
1st paragraph: view, growth, discovery, mature, experience, escape 2nd paragraph: assign 3rd paragraph: gossip 4th paragraph: requirement, foreign
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2. For each of the words, try finding one more part of speech. Example: view – (in the text) verb; view – noun growth – (in the text) noun; grow – verb
View Growth Discovery Mature Experience Escape Assign Gossip Requirement Foreign
3. Choose four “word pairs” from the above. Write a sentence for each word in the word pair. Example: What videos do you prefer viewing on YouTube? / I prefer a room with a view when I stay at a hotel. Economic growth is important. / My friend has grown a beard.
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SHOW YOUR VOCABULARY
PARAGRAPHING This text is, as you already know, written by an American
Use the words from the box to fill in the gaps. You may
high school student. Mind her paragraphing!
have to change them to make them fit.
pour
competition
down
occasionally
trade
in order to
gown
affect
ladder
challenge
concern
throughout
K DISCUSS • What is paragraphing good for? Why is it important? • How many paragraphs are there in this text? Give each paragraph a suitable heading.
exaggerate
1. He lost his final
.
2.
I drink a glass of sherry.
3. The rain was
.
4. If you want me to fix the roof I will need a 5. I worked all night
. succeed.
6. After school, my boy, you have to learn a proper 7. I was
by the poor conditions.
8. She saved her best 9. Your worries are no 10. The foreign minister 11. To come up with a solution was her biggest 12.
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.
for the prom. of mine. the threats. so far.
history there have been wars going on.
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A
LC
Do you remember what was written about Namibia in the
Share and compare your results.
introduction?
KB Find out some important facts that might be useful when visiting the country.
MD What type of facts did you choose? Why did you pick this specific information? What sources did you use?
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To spend an exchange year abroad has become quite popular. Not only do we find exchange students in Sweden, Australia and the USA but also in more unheard of places. Some get the opportunity through various organisations, others are forced by circumstances.
Polar Opposites
The Namibian and Swedish
School systems BY HERMAN HALLBERG
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If you had asked me in spring 2011 where I would be spending the coming year I probably wouldn’t have answered Namibia. In fact, I wouldn’t even have been able to point it out on a map. So when my parents first told me that Namibia, a huge, desolate, distant country in the southern part of Africa, would be my home for the next year I came up with a myriad of reasons not to go. But on 15th August that’s exactly where I found myself, frightened, apprehensive and most surprisingly, in the southern part of Africa, cold. During my time in Namibia I studied at St. Paul’s college, a private catholic school with a reputation for being the very best in the country. Compared to my Swedish school, it was like night and day; where Swedish schools focus on questioning, discussing and creating independently thinking students St
Paul’s primary goal was to fill the learners’ heads with as much information as possible to ensure the best grades possible in the national end-of-year exams. This demanded a very effective learning environment and generally very strict teachers. A normal day would be as follows: Registration would start at 7:15 am and during registration all necessary notes would be handed to the students, as well as information concerning things like field trips or exams. After registration came the first lesson, the “constant”. The “constant” could be several things: assembly, in which the entire school would assemble and prizes and honorifics would be handed out by the principal; church service, in which all students would go to the school chapel to be fed their spiritual, Catholic sustenance; or a regular lesson.
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After the “constant” the day’s other lessons would follow. Each lesson lasted 45 minutes and there were only two breaks: one from 09:30 to 10:00 and another from 11:30 to 11:45. All lessons and breaks were held at the same time for all grades, which allowed for plenty of interaction across age groups. There was no school lunch; instead, students could either bring their own food from home to eat during the breaks or, as most students opted to do, they could buy snacks at the tuck shop. These snacks consisted of crisps, deep fried sausages and other unhealthy foods and were generally washed down by soda. However, what I still haven’t brought up was the actual workload. The Namibian system simply demanded more of its students than its Swedish counterpart. Tests were scheduled twice a week, so-called cycle-tests, and added to those tests was a multitude of assignments such as essays, pages
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and pages of maths and regular vocabulary tests for language classes. But the culmination of efforts to keep up with classes during the year came at the end of the last term: exams. Two weeks of school completely devoted to having hours upon hours of tests; tests that covered everything from the entire year on each subject. Half of your grade was based on your results in the exams and there was no opportunity for a second attempt, should you have been sick or otherwise unable to get to school. The pressure on the students was ridiculous. Of course, the students couldn’t live with all that pressure without having a bit of fun. Unlike in Sweden, where most socialising is done away from school, most students in Namibia have the majority of their in-week fun at after-school activities. These were activities organised by the school staff and could be anything from hockey and football to
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French club and debating. These activities were not mandatory, but in my experience students who did not attend at least one were viewed as slightly lazy. The activities were also of pivotal importance for your future prospects of getting into a good university. The principal was fond of telling a story at assemblies about a student from St. Paul’s who had achieved top grades. His marks averaged above 90%, which is absurdly good, but still he was not accepted into his desired South African university. Why, you may ask? Because he used all his time to study for his good marks, he didn’t have any time left to attend even a single after-school activity. There were both positive and negative aspects to the Namibian school system. On the one hand, the sheer amount of facts blasted into my head was ridiculous. From complex biology to Shakespeare, the Namibian system moved at a pace far greater than that of its Swedish counterpart. After that single year in their system I found I had outpaced my Swedish peers in all subjects I had taken in Namibia. As I was only gone one year, I also retained the skills that the Swedish system looked for: questioning and reasoning.
have been a nightmare, as it was often truly your own responsibility to keep up. If you had trouble doing this, there was no way to save you from falling behind. In conclusion, I believe that the ideal system would be some sort of middle ground between the Namibian and Swedish systems. A system where the gifted students would be allowed to continue onwards and the slower students would be helped on their way. Maybe that system is unattainable. I do not know. But I do know this: my year in Namibia helped me greatly on my path to achieving a complete education.
L DISCUSS • The writer concludes that “the ideal would be some sort of middle ground between the two systems”. What are your views? • How would you react if your parents told you that you would have to move to a very distant country next term?
Despite these advantages, I could see the flaws in the Namibian system. I am a fairly intelligent student and I have never had to work extremely hard to achieve my desired grades. This meant that in Sweden I was basically left to myself by teachers, as they had to focus on getting the weaker students to pass rather than giving me more challenges. In Namibia it was often the other way around. The system was perfect for me as it gave me ample opportunities to truly test my mettle. However, for students who did not find everything so easy the Namibian system must
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SHOW YOUR VOCABULARY Fill in the missing words: • There are (brister) in every system. • I am far behind my (jämnåriga) when it comes to French. • All after-school activities are (obligatoriska). • Maybe someone from the (personalen) can help you? • We have at least three (hemuppgifter) per day. • Despite the (fördelarna) I felt bored. • Every week (utflykter) are arranged. • (sammanfattningsvis) I prefer the Swedish system. • It was extremely difficult (jämfört med) my Swedish school. • All the teachers were (stränga). • They all (krävde) excellent results. • Namibia is a (väldigt) country. • The school had a good (rykte). • We want (oberoende) students. • You have to hand in the (nödvändiga) documents.
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H LINKING WORDS Linking words and phrases are used to show
K What linking words can you find in the text Polar Opposites? There are 12 different linking words. Some are used more than once
relationships between ideas. They can be used to join two or more sentences or clauses (a clause is
Use 10 of the linking words from the text in the gaps
a group of words which contains a subject and a
below.
verb) To add ideas you can use, for example, also, besides, as well as, in addition to. To contrast ideas despite, in spite of, while and whereas can be used. If you want to show a reason you might use as or since. A result can be shown by using because of or consequently. A useful list of linking words for English 5 is to be found on p. 297.
1. They excel at cricket rugby. 2. in the UK, the USA has cheap petrol. 3. The building was a fire hazard so it was closed down. 4. the fact that the company was doing badly they took on extra employees. 5. Blueberries are packed with vitamins C and E. they can protect your brain from environmental toxins. 6. I bought her some flowers she had been extremely helpful. 7. It was raining we eventually decided not to go to the beach. 8. She works hard. she doesn’t earn very much. 9. the best solution would be solar energy. 10. of bad weather the football match was postponed.
B MY DREAM SCHOOL Tell about your dream school. What are the lessons like? How are the days organised? What are the teachers like? The students? The buildings? And so on. You have to use the following linking words: however, as well as, despite, consequently, while, in conclusion. Compare in class.
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PARAGRAPH UNITY When writers want to write a book, article or essay about something, they:
a. Any good spotlight has a sturdy metal housing, a lamp socket, a reflector, a lens, a colour-frame guide, mounting attachments and some device for adjusting
1. Collect all necessary facts. 2. Draw up a skeleton in which all the main points are indicated. 3. Group all the facts and ideas under the main points to form paragraphs.
the focus. b. A striplight is composed of a series of lamps set into a narrow, roughly rectangular trough and is used as a source of general illumination. c. Some projectors are designed to use moving, circular discs on which images – such as rain, smoke, cloud
EXERCISE Imagine that a writer wants to write an article about stage lighting.
or fire effects – have been painted. d. Based on their use, striplights are often subdivided into footlights, border lights and miscellaneous striplights.
Firstly, all the ideas are arranged under four main headings: Paragraph 1: Introductory ideas Paragraph 2: Spotlights Paragraph 3: Striplights Paragraph 4: Special lighting equipment
e. Lighting instruments may be divided into a number of categories: spotlights, striplights and special lighting equipment. f. The most common piece of special effects equipment is the projector. g. Spotlights are designed to illustrate restricted areas with a concentrated beam of light.
Secondly, all the collected information has to be sorted and placed under the correct headings.
h. As the current leaps between the two sticks, a bright light – similar to that seen in welding – creates a realistic lightning effect.
In the following exercise this is what you will do. Write a list where you combine the number of the relevant paragraph with the appropriate facts.
i. Small strips may be used for backlighting of doors, windows and other small scenic units. j. Spotlights are used extensively in musicals when the light beam singles out a single singer or pair of singers. k. Carbon arc lightning may be produced by bringing two carbon sticks (to each of which an electrical terminal is attached) close together.
Key: a-2, b-3, c-4, d–3, e-1, f-4, g-2, h-4, i-3, j-2, k-4 42
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B A CHILDHOOD MEMORY N THE USAGE OF DO, DOES, DID
– A PERSONAL NARRATIVE
– Do you go to school in Sweden?
Now it is your turn to remember something from your
– No, I do not.
upbringing and write about it. A personal narrative is when
– Did you see the principal?
you write about your personal experiences; what they
– Yes, I did.
meant to you, why they were important to you and why you remember them. The experiences we want to share with others could be anything from extraordinary to amusing to horrible. The narrative could be about something that
N REGULAR PLURAL
happened to you, but also about a person who made an
One class – two classes
impact.
One hour – two hours Read more about Personal Narrative and Paragraph structure p. 292 and p. 86.
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Maybe you remember that English is spoken by an estimated two billion people around the world. About 400 million people are native speakers, another 400 million use it as a second language and then you have all those who learn it as a foreign language. Therefore English is sometimes called the first lingua franca, which means global language that unites people. By the way, did you know that 75% of the world’s mail correspondence is in English? (British Council)
B UNIT TASK MY CHOICE FROM THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD – A RESEARCH PROJECT This assignment will be based on your choice from somewhere in the English-speaking world and your task is to choose, present and compare one aspect linked to one of the following: • Social conditions • Cultural traditions • Ways of living • Political conditions • Technological conditions A great way to present your information is in a PowerPoint or Photo Story presentation (five minutes). Apart from interesting facts about your topic, you are required to compare your results to Swedish circumstances. Your presentation could be about for example: Tourist sights, How to dress, Leisure time, School system, Child care, Income, Food, Festivities, Music, Sport, Whatever you find interesting… A source page should be included.
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YOUR KNOWLEDGE REQUIREMENTS E
C
A
You discuss in basic terms some
You discuss in detail some
You discuss in detail and in a
features in different contexts and
features in different contexts and
balanced way some features in
parts of the world where English
parts of the world where English
different contexts and parts of the
is used, and can also make
is used, and you can also make
world where English is used, and
simple comparisons with your
well developed comparisons
you can also make well developed
own experiences and knowledge.
with your own experiences and
and balanced comparisons
knowledge.
with your own experiences and knowledge
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I TAKE OFF Try to explain the title! What is a battle hymn? What do you think defines a tiger mother? “You can only do your best and your best is good enough” is a common saying. Do you agree? In what situations are you at your best? How would you describe your own upbringing? Give at least three concrete examples of how your parents have tried to influence you with their views, for example concerning the difference between right and wrong, moral codes of your society, how to behave and/or how to make you do your best. Who is in charge of your school results?
Sometimes Europeans are afraid that they will be outpaced by Asians, who are thought to be more intelligent, more diligent and more ambitious, maybe due to their upbringing. On the next pages you have an extract from the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, published in 2011, a book that caused a worldwide debate about dos and don’ts when bringing up children. “At once provocative and laugh-out-loud funny, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ignited a global parenting debate with its story of one mother’s journey in strict parenting… Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother chronicles Chua’s iron-willed decision to raise her daughters, Sophia and Lulu, the Chinese way – and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her choice inspires. Achingly honest and profoundly challenging, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is one of the most talked-about books of our times.” Amazon.com, 27 December 2011
“Amy Chua reckons tough love is good for children. Terri Apter can’t wait to read their memoirs” The Guardian, 29 January 2011
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“Is it possible, for example, that Chinese parents have more confidence in their children’s abilities, or that they are simply willing to work harder at raising exceptional children than Westerners are?” Washington Post, 7 January 2011
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Battle Hymn of
the Tiger Mother
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The text is written through the mother’s point of view. Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can’t. Once when I was young – maybe more than once – when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me “garbage” in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn’t damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn’t actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage. As an adult, I once did the same thing to Sophia, calling her garbage in English when she acted extremely disrespectfully toward me. When I mentioned that I had done this at a dinner party, I was immediately ostracized. One guest named Marcy got so upset she broke down in tears and had to leave early. My friend Susan, the host, tried to rehabilitate me with the remaining guests. “Oh dear, it’s just a misunderstanding. Amy was speaking metaphorically – right, Amy? You didn’t actually call Sophia ‘garbage.’” “Urn, yes, I did. But it’s all in the context,” I tried to explain. “It’s a Chinese immigrant thing.” “But you’re not a Chinese immigrant,” somebody pointed out. “Good point,” I conceded. “No wonder it didn’t work.” I was just trying to be conciliatory. In fact, it had worked great with Sophia.
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The fact is that Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable – even legally actionable – to Westerners. Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, “Hey fatty – lose some weight.” By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of “health” and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image. (I also once heard a Western father toast his adult daughter by calling her “beautiful and incredibly competent.” She later told me that made her feel like garbage.) Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight A’s. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can say, “You’re lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you.” By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they’re not disappointed about how their kids turned out. I’ve thought long and hard about how Chinese parents can get away with what they do. I think there are three big differences between the Chinese and Western parental mind-sets. First, I’ve noticed that Western parents are extremely anxious about their children’s self-esteem. They worry about how their children will feel if they fail at something, and they constantly try to reassure their children about how good they are notwithstanding a mediocre performance on a test or at a recital. In other words, Western parents are concerned about their children’s psyches. Chinese parents aren’t. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently.
For example, if a child comes home with an A-minus on a test, a Western parent will most likely praise the child. The Chinese mother will gasp in horror and ask what went wrong. If the child comes home with a B on the test, some Western parents will still praise the child. Other Western parents will sit their child down and express disapproval, but they will be careful not to make their child feel inadequate or insecure, and they will not call their child “stupid,” “worthless,” or “a disgrace.” Privately, the Western parents may worry that their child does not test well or have aptitude in the subject or that there is something wrong with the curriculum and possibly the whole school. If the child’s grades do not improve, they may eventually schedule a meeting with the school principal to challenge the way the subject is being taught or to call into question the teacher’s credentials. If a Chinese child gets a B – which would never happen – there would first be a screaming, hairtearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A. Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn’t get them, the Chinese parent assumes it’s because the child didn’t work hard enough. That’s why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it. (And when Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.)
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Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is a little unclear, but it’s probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it’s true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud. By contrast, I don’t think most Westerners have the same view of children being permanently indebted to their parents. Jed actually has the opposite view. “Children don’t choose their parents,” he once said to me. “They don’t even choose to be born. It’s parents who foist
life on their kids, so it’s the parents’ responsibility to provide for them. Kids don’t owe their parents anything. Their duty will be to their own kids.” This strikes me as a terrible deal for the Western parent. Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children’s own desires and preferences. That’s why Chinese daughters can’t have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can’t go to sleep-away camp. It’s also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, “I got a part in the school play! I’m Villager Number Six. I’ll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I’ll also need a ride on weekends.” God help any Chinese kid who tried that one. Don’t get me wrong: It’s not that Chinese parents don’t care about their children. Just the opposite. They would give up anything for their children. It’s just an entirely different parenting model. I think of it as Chinese, but I know a lot of non-Chinese parents – usually from Korea, India, or Pakistan – who have a very similar mind-set, so it may be an immigrant thing. Or maybe it’s the combination of being an immigrant and being from certain cultures.
CONFUCIUS Chinese philosopher 551–471 B.C. Confucius principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He advocated strong family loyalty, ancestor worship and respect of elders by their children.
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A. SHOW YOUR UNDERSTANDING
KD
• What happened to the mother at the dinner party?
What are the pros and cons of the Western and Asian
• What, according to Amy Chua, happens when a
approach to upbringing? Write a list with arguments. Add
Chinese child gets a B?
to class file.
• How come Chinese parents can demand perfect grades? • In what way is the concept of debt within the parent-child relationship discussed in the extract? • Why do Chinese parents put so many restrictions on their children? • What are the differences between Western and Asian
H GENERALISATION When discussing controversial questions you often have to simplify to make things a little less complicated. This is called generalisation. An example of this is the notion of Western parents.
parents in how they regard their children? Try to find at least 4 differences.
JB Choose one conspicuous sentence from the text, suitable for discussion! Share in class. Add to class file.
L C. DISCUSS • How much pressure should parents put on their children? • How many hours do you spend doing focused homework each week? • How many hours are left for leisure activities? • Do your parents interfere with your school work? Your leisure activities? What is your reaction? • What is the role of praise when it comes to upbringing, parent–child? When it comes to education, teacher–student? • If a grade is lower than expected, who/what is to blame? According to you/Western parents/Asian parents? Share in class.
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K M PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES H PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
To create the opposite of a word you often use prefixes.
A prefix is a group of letters that is added to the
Some examples from the text are:
beginning of the word to change its meaning, e.g. tidy – untidy.
understand – misunderstand imaginable – unimaginable
A suffix is a group of letters that is added to the
respectful – disrespectful
end of a word to change the form of the word or
approve – disapprove; approval - disapproval
to create a different word, e.g. happy + ness =
credible – incredible
happiness. Make sure you know the meaning of the words above. Go to page 300 for a list of common prefixes and suffixes.
Now write the opposites of the following words using the prefixes in-, un-, dis-, sub-, mis- and non-: adequate – secure – grace – believable – standard – clear – obey – Chinese – To really learn the words, use them in sentences.
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By using prefixes and suffixes you create new words/new parts of speech. Below you will find some words from the text. Choose seven of the words below and enter them in the appropriate column. Write down the missing parts of speech to each word. NB: It is not always possible to fill in all the blanks! approve, fragile, behave, praise, anxious, fail, imagine, respect, damage, achieve, secure, challenge, demand, solution, obey.
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
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KA H PHRASAL VERBS
Here you see some examples of phrasal verbs:
A phrasal verb consists of a verb and a preposition or an adverb that modifies or changes the meaning
make out, look after, look for, look up, turn on/off, add up
of the verb. “I won’t put up with your behaviour when you put your clothes on the floor.”
Use the phrasal verbs above in sentences. Find ten more common phrasal verbs and be prepared to introduce and
Phrasal verbs are very common, especially when it
explain them to your fellow students.
comes to informal English.
KB Check out the following phrasal verbs in the text. Explain the meaning of them.
put in, get away with, call into (question), get someone wrong, give up, break down, point out, end up, try … best, get ahead, turn out
MC When learning a language you have to focus on learning new words but also new expressions. Try writing sentences where you use the following expressions from Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mothers. • Think long and hard • In other words • As a result
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I TAKE OFF Study the picture in detail and describe exactly what you see. Nothing more and nothing less. When you are satisfied with your description you start using your imagination. Who are the people in the picture? What has happened before, what will happen afterwards, why are they there, what do they think and so on. This is an article aimed at parents! What in this article could be of interest to you, participants in English 6? You tell when you have read the article.
"The truth is, a lot of times it’s the bad teachers who give the easiest grades, because they know by giving good grades everyone will leave them alone." RON Clark
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What Teachers Really Want to
Tell Parents Ron Clark has been named “American Teacher of the Year’ by Disney and was Oprah Winfrey’s pick as her “Phenomenal Man.’ This is an article of his that created a massive social media response.
WHAT ARE HIS OPINIONS? • He wants parents to trust teachers and their advice about their students • He says some teachers hand out A grades so parents won’t bother them • He claims that it’s OK for kids to get in trouble sometimes; it teaches life lessons
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HERE ARE RON CLARK’S VIEWS: “This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession. I screamed, ‘You can’t leave us,’ and she quite bluntly replied, ‘Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can’t deal with parents anymore; they are killing us.’ Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list ‘issues with parents’ as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel. Word is spreading, and the more negativity teachers receive from parents, the harder it becomes to recruit the best and the brightest out of colleges. So, what can we do to stem the tide? What do teachers really need parents to understand? 1. For starters, we are educators, not nannies. We are educated professionals who work with kids every day and often see your child in a different light than you do. If we give you advice, don’t fight it. Take it and digest it in the same way you would consider advice from a doctor or lawyer. I have become used to some parents who just don’t want to hear anything negative about their child, but sometimes if you’re willing to take early warning advice to heart it can help you head off an issue that could become much greater in the future.
2. Trust us. At times when I tell parents that their child has a behavior problem, I can almost see the hairs rise on their backs. They are ready to fight and defend their child, and it is exhausting. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I tell a mom something her son did and she turns, looks at him and asks, ‘Is that true?’ Well, of course it’s true. I just told you. And please don’t ask whether a classmate can confirm what happened or whether another teacher might have been present. It only demeans teachers and weakens the partnership between teacher and parent. 3. And if you really want to help your children be successful, stop making excuses for them. I was talking with a parent and her son about his summer reading assignments. He told me he hadn’t started, and I let him know I was extremely disappointed because school starts in two weeks. His mother chimed in and told me that it had been a horrible summer for them because of family issues they’d been through in July. I said I was so sorry, but I couldn’t help but point out that the assignments were given in May. She quickly added that she was allowing her child some ‘fun time’ during the summer before getting back to work in July and that it wasn’t his fault the work wasn’t complete. Can you feel my pain? 4. Some parents will make excuses regardless of the situation, and they are raising children who will grow into adults who turn toward excuses and do not create a strong work ethic. If you don’t want your child to end up 25 and jobless, sitting on your couch eating potato chips, then stop making excuses for why they aren’t succeeding. Instead, focus on finding solutions.
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5. And parents, you know, it’s OK for your child to get in trouble sometimes. It builds character and teaches life lessons. As teachers, we are vexed by those parents who stand in the way of those lessons; we call them helicopter parents because they want to swoop in and save their child every time something goes wrong. If we give a child a 79 on a project, then that is what the child deserves. Don’t set up a time to meet with me to negotiate extra credit for an 80. It’s a 79, regardless of whether you think it should be a B+. 6. This one may be hard to accept, but you shouldn’t assume that because your child makes straight A’s that he/she is getting a good education. The truth is, a lot of times it’s the bad teachers who give the easiest grades, because they know by giving good grades everyone will leave them alone. Parents will say, ‘My child has a great teacher! He made all A’s this year!’ Wow. Come on now. In all honesty, it’s usually the best teachers who are giving the lowest grades, because they are raising expectations. Yet when your children receive low scores you want to complain and head to the principal’s office. 7. Please, take a step back and get a good look at the landscape. Before you challenge those low grades you feel the teacher has ‘given’ your child, you might need to realize your child ‘earned’ those grades and that the teacher you are complaining about is actually the one that is providing the best education.
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8. And please, be a partner instead of a prosecutor. I had a child cheat on a test, and his parents threatened to call a lawyer because I was labeling him a criminal. I know that sounds crazy, but principals all across the country are telling me that more and more lawyers are accompanying parents for school meetings dealing with their children. 9. I feel so sorry for administrators and teachers these days whose hands are completely tied. In many ways, we live in fear of what will happen next. We walk on eggshells in a watered-down education system where teachers lack the courage to be honest and speak their minds. If they make a slight mistake, it can become a major disaster. My mom just told me a child at a local school wrote on his face with a permanent marker. The teacher tried to get it off with a wash cloth, and it left a red mark on the side of his face. The parent called the media, and the teacher lost her job. My mom, my very own mother, said, ‘Can you believe that woman did that?’ I felt hit in the gut. I honestly would have probably tried to get the mark off as well. To think that we might lose our jobs over something so minor is scary. Why would anyone want to enter our profession? If our teachers continue to feel threatened and scared, you will rob our schools of our best and handcuff our efforts to recruit tomorrow’s outstanding educators.
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10. Finally, deal with negative situations in a professional manner. If your child said something happened in the classroom that concerns you, ask to meet with the teacher and approach the situation by saying, ‘I wanted to let you know something my child said took place in your class, because I know that children can exaggerate and that there are always two sides to every story. I was hoping you could shed some light for me.’ If you aren’t happy with the result, then take your concerns to the principal, but above all else, never talk negatively about a teacher in front of your child. If he knows you don’t respect her, he won’t either, and that will lead to a whole host of new problems. We know you love your children. We love them, too. We just ask - and beg of you - to trust us, support us and work with the system, not against it. We need you to have our backs, and we need you to give us the respect we deserve. Lift us up and make us feel appreciated, and we will work even harder to give your child the best education possible.
JK A You will be assigned two paragraphs. Prepare yourself to rephrase and retell the advice given in your paragraphs, i.e. explain the advice using your own words. Get together in groups of five and through sharing your paragraphs summarise the article. This was advice from a teacher to the parents of his students. Now it is your turn to be given the opportunity to really tell your teachers the truth by giving them some useful advice. Create your own reflective list of advice in the same way as Ron Clarke. Heading: What students really want to tell teachers
JK B In groups of 3 or 4 – swop, compare and discuss your individual reflective lists. Try agreeing on one shared list. Add to class file or share in class.
That’s a teacher’s promise, from me to you.”
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H IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS A language consists of words but that is far from the whole truth; the words are put together in phrases such as fixed expressions, collocations and idioms. A fixed expression = a set phrase. For example: on the other hand, surf the web A collocation = words that usually go together. For example: have fun, do your best, highly unlikely An idiom = an expression where the words are used figuratively instead of literally. For example: All ears, break a leg, piece of cake
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B UNIT TASK ARGUMENTATIVE ARTICLE You have encountered a variety of opinions about children’s upbringing and successful parenthood. Now it is time to clarify your own view. A magazine focusing on relations wants adolescents to contribute in their coming issue dedicated to the topic “How to Rear a Child”. Take a clear stand and write an argumentative article about this issue. Remember to ponder on your thesis statement and to give arguments supporting your view. Go to page 296 for further advice. Write between 400–600 words.
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K The following expressions are to be found in the text What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents. Write down your own explanations of the word and phrases:
SHOW YOUR VOCABULARY Fill in the gaps in the sentences below using the words
Shed a light on
Hair rise on the back
in the box. NB: You might have to change the form of the
Be all over it
Pet peeve
word to make it fit
Kill
Make excuses
Throw in the towel
Can’t help but
Word is spreading
End up
Stem the tide
Set up a time
For starters
Straight A’s
A different light
Raise expectations
Take to heart
Hit in the gut
Head off
Two sides to
At times
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confused
sheer
claim
misbehave
assignment
issue
toss
strict
confirm
vary
garbage
couch
main
confidence
label
purchase
immediately
yet
improve
reassure
present
convince
performance
principal
demand
provide for
obey
multitude
similar
insecure
6
1. Children really ought to their parents. 2. The teacher told the students about next week’s . 3. Could you please the appointment? 4. As parents you need to your children. 5. Her returned when she was off-stage. 6. Chinese parents are too when bringing up their children. 7. It is urgent and therefore you must call back . 8. On the buffet there was a of dishes to choose from. 9. My boyfriend that he had been waiting for hours and hours. 10. So you have been shopping all day? Show me your please! 11. The entrance was locked so we had to use the emergency exit. 12. The girl who had had to go to the office to be punished. 13. During the graduation ceremony the students their black hats. 14. The results from the different surveys a lot. 15. If you spend too much time in front of the TV set, you will become a potato. 16. After being told off by her parents her behaviour . 17. After his failure he felt even more . 18. All the women were , not a single one was absent. 19. She was that there had been more than one burglar. 20. Too much is of me, cried the frustrated assistant. 21. I felt even more after reading the complicated instructions. 22. Please put the in the dustbin. 23. The artist’s last night was really poor. 24. They calmed me down and me that I was still the best player. 25. Since we have hobbies and interests we like spending time together. 26. Abortion is often a controversial . 27. We were overwhelmed by the volume of work. 28. They all their pictures with names and dates. 29. We had plenty of time and we were in a hurry.
Learning
63
Outlooks on är något så radikalt som ett heltäckande läromedel för både Engelska 5 och 6. Det står för en vid syn på engelskundervisning och innehåller de grundläggande hjälpmedel som krävs för att bli en självständig, långsiktig ”inlärare” av engelska. Det ger också tillfällen till väsentliga diskussioner där man får sätta sig själv som individ i ett större sammanhang, i Sverige och världen. Boken är indelad i fem temaområden vilka löper som en röd tråd genom båda kurserna. I urvalet av texter utmanas åsikter och uppfattningar, något som lockar till engagemang och ställningstagande. Outlooks on består av följande delar: • Lärobok, som vanlig bok eller e-bok • Lärarfil – med alla texter inlästa • Elevfacit • Alfabetisk ordlista medföljer boken medan vanlig kapitelordlista fås som PDF
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