Theme: Lanuages
Lexical area: Learning languages

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This Essential UK lesson looks at language learning. The British have a very bad reputation for not speaking foreign languages and according to a survey published in February 2006 by the European Commission the reputation is totally justified. The results of the survey state that the British are officially the worst language learners in Europe!

Task 1 is a simple vocabulary task on languages and Task 2 is a mingle task to find out how students feel about learning foreign languages. Task 3 looks at the results of the European Commission’s report on ‘Europeans and their languages’ and Task 4 is a reading task about the popularity of learning Chinese Mandarin. Task 5 offers some discussion statements and Task 6 is a light task for students to match fifteen languages to their corresponding worlds for ‘hello’.

1. Link languages
Write ENGLISH on the board then add a few more languages to it in a cross-word style. Then put students into groups and see how many different languages they can add. For example:

Task 1 Link languages
How many other languages can you link to ENGLISH?

2. Find somebody who…
This is a mingle activity to get students asking each other questions about learning languages. With low level classes make sure they can form the questions and get them to write the questions beforehand if necessary. Then set a time limit for students to speak to as many different people as possible. Make a rule, that they have to put different people in the name column so they can’t use the same person for more than one. Before you start ask students to complete the last space in the table with something they want to find out.

Task 2 Find somebody who…
Complete the last row with something you would like to find out about your classmates and remember to ask an extra question to get some extra information.

3. Europeans and their languages survey.
This task is based on the results of a survey carried out by the EU. Ask students to guess the answers, tell them you don’t expect them to get the answers all right, just to have a good guess. Then go through the answers together. Then discuss the questions below.

1. 62% of people surveyed can’t speak any other language apart from English.

2. 38 % of Britons speak at least one foreign language, 18% speak two and only 6 % of the population speak three or more.

3. The European Union average showed that 56% speak at least one foreign language, 28% speak at least two and 11 % speak three or more.

4. The survey confirmed that English was the most widely-spoken foreign language. 51% of EU citizens can have a conversation in English.

Task 3 Europeans and their languages survey.
The European Commission has recently carried out a survey in Europe to find out which countries speak different languages. Can you guess which country had the worst results? Read the statements and try to put the correct numbers into the gaps to make the statements true.

1. ____ % of people surveyed can’t speak any other language apart from English.

2. ____ % of Britons speak at least one foreign language, _____ % speak two and only ____ % of the population speak three or more.

3. The European Union average showed that ____% speak at least one foreign language, ____% speak at least two and ____ % speak three or more

4. The survey confirmed that English was the most widely-spoken foreign language. ____% of EU citizens can have a conversation in English.

• Are you surprised by any of this information?
• Why do you think the British are generally such bad lanugage learners?
• How would your country compare to the UK in the same survey?

4. Speaking Mandarin – Reading task
If you are an assistant in China you will need to adapt the introduction! However, your students should be especially interested in the reading text and could be used to lead on to an interesting discussion.

Before your students read the text ask them to look at the statements in the table and guess if they are true or false. Get students to fold the text over if you think they’ll cheat. Then unfold the text to read and check their guesses.

Answers:

• Most UK children don’t study a foreign language before the age of 11 – true
• Many students stop studying foreign languages when they are 18 – false, most stop when they’re 14.
• More British children study Mandarin than German – true.
• 1000 schools in the UK now teach Mandarin – false. 100 schools teach Mandarin.

Task 4 Speaking Mandarin – Reading task
Did you know that Mandarin Chinese is spoken by 867.2 million people worldwide? Mandarin Chinese has eight categories of dialects and it’s the official language of China and Taiwan. It’s a difficult language to learn because there are four and a half tones, so a single word can have many different meanings.

Before you read the text decide if these statements are true or false. When you have read the text complete the third column.

5. Let’s discuss languages.
Cut up the statements and use them to provoke a discussion about languages. Add some statements of your own if your students have specific language issues they may want to discuss. Put students into groups of four or five and give each group a statement. Let them discuss the statement for a few minutes while you monitor and feed in any language they need. Then rotate the statements around the group.

Task 5 Let’s discuss languages.
Discuss these statements in groups.

6. Say ‘Hello’ to the world.
This is a light activity for all levels. Ask students how many languages they can say ‘hello’ in. Put them all up on the board. Then give students the table and see if they can match up the languages with the word for hello. Alternatively cut up one table for the whole class and give out to students. Students can mingle around and find their partner. When students finish, check the answers then go around the class greeting each other in the new languages that they like best! Answers:

Source: http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/hello/


Task 6 Say ‘Hello’ to the world.
Do you know how to say ‘hello’ in lots of different languages? Match the words on the left with the language on the right and learn to say ‘hello’ in fifteen different languages.

If the pronunciation is very different to how the word is written I’ve put the pronunciation in brackets after th word to help you.

Internet links

Britons at bottom of table for learning a foreign language - an article from the Independent, Feb 06.
http://education.independent.co.uk/news/

Britain lags behind on languages, BBC Feb 06.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4737610.stm

Do Britons lack je ne sais quoi? An article from the BBC, April 05.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4444103.stm

Why Britons are language barbarians. BBC, July 04.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3930963.stm 

LearnEnglish is a free site from the British Council that helps learners and teachers of English. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish.htm

This site was the source for task six.
http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/hello/ 

By Jo Budden