Period 4: Reading and Speaking Teaching Aims:
1) To get students to read and master the key words and expressions
2) To get students to practice reading skills and learn reading strategies: skimming, and scanning.
3) To get students to improve their cultural awareness and know about the differences between British English and American English. Teaching important points:
1)To train students’ reading skills and strategies.
2)To get students to master the key words and expressions in the reading passage. Teaching difficult points:
1)To get every student to be involved in the learning activities. 2) To get every student to be active in class.
Teaching procedures Step I. Warming up
1. Introduction: In China there’re so many dialects that the government encourages the whole nation to speak Putonghua, which is regarded as standard Chinese. 2. Role-play: Get students to work in pairs. Let one student be a Chinese and the other a foreigner. Role-play a conversation about the Chinese language to have them discuss why Putonghua has to be used in China. Step II. Reading
1. Get the students thinking about the topic of the text to predict what it is about. 2. Skimming:
Read quickly to find the topic sentence for each paragraph.
Para. 1: There is no such a thing as Standard English. Para. 2: American English has many dialects whose words and expressions are different from “standard English”. Para. 3: Geography plays a part in making dialects.
3. Scanning: Work in pairs. Read the text to locate particular information. 1). Do you know what Standard English is from the text?
2). What is a dialect? Why does American English have so many dialects? 4. Language focus:
1) believe it or not: used when you are going to say something that is true but surprising: Believe it or not, John cheated in the exam.
2). there is no such a …as: used to say that a particular person or thing does not exist: These days there is no such a thing as a job for life.
3). standard English: the form of English that most people in Britain use, and that is not limited to one area or group of people
4). dialect: a variant of a language spoken only in one area, in which words or grammar are slightly different from other forms of the same language
5). play a part/role in: be one of the causes that make something happen: Besides dieting, exercising plays an important part in losing weight. Step Ⅲ. Reading dialogues
1. Play the tape for the students to listen and ask them to mark the sentence stress and intonation. Then practice reading in pairs.
(The teacher brings the students’ attention to the British and American words that are different but have the same meaning.)
2. Make sure the students know that the word used for directions often vary depending on what kind of English the speaker uses. Present the list to the students:
Amy (American) Lady (British) subway underground left left-hand side keep going straight go straight on two blocks two streets right right-hand side
3. Prepare their role-play in pairs: Be sure that one plays a speaker of British English and the other a speaker of American English. Ask students to select actual streets and location in their hometown for giving directions. 4. Performance: Ask two pairs to perform their dialogue in class.
Sample version: S1: Excuse me, sir. But I can’t find the petrol station? S2: Pardon? S1: I said I couldn’t find the gas station. S2: Well, go round the corner on your right-hand side, straight on and cross the flyover. You will find it ahead. S1: Thank you very much. S3: What did he say? S1: He told us to go round the corner on the right, go straight on and then cross the overpass. The petrol station will be ahead.
Step Ⅳ.Summary
Get students to summarize what they have learned in the period. Give students some evaluation and encourage them to work better. Step V. Homework
Students try to think about the reasons why you are learning English, and write down three of them.
