By Wang Zhigen

Beijing No 12 High School

Learning a Foreign Language: Twice as Hard?

Teaching aims:

1. To train students’ basic reading ability of an expository.

2. To get students to know about the characteristics of a successful language learner .

3. To learn how to gain the writer’s viewpoint and the evidences to support it in the context.

Teaching aids:

A recorder, a computer and a projector

Teaching procedures:

Pre-reading

What is our foreign language? What is our mother tongue?

Which do you think is more difficult to learn?

While -reading

Step 1 Scanning for the statement of the writer’s

Q: What is the writer’s opinion?

Where did you find it?

Step 2: Skimming for the main ideas of each paragraph (write them down individually then discuss them in pairs)

Q: What’s the main idea of each paragraph? (Ss can pick up the topic sentence from the paragraph or sum up in their own words. The topic sentence may be the first sentence, the last sentence or in the middle . Sometimes no topic sentence at all)

Para 1 How was it possible for us to acquire our mother tongue without receiving formal instruction?

Para 2 Language experts have different answers to this question.

Para 3 Learning a foreign language is different from learning one’ mother tongue.

Para 4 Successful language learners share a number of characteristics.

Para 5 It tells us the importance of confidence.

Para 6 It tells us the importance of the purpose of learning.

Step 3 Detailed reading for the evidences to support the writer’s statement.

1. Q: What are the differences in learning English and Chinese?(first do it individually ,then check it )

Mother tongue Foreign language

Learn from Parents Teachers, friends and books

When to learn it After we were born

When we are older

When to use it All the time In school

Characteristics Natural environment Created environment

2. Language learning theories (pair work)

Experts Theory

Some Be equipped with special ability i.e. language-specific part of the brain

Others Be born with general ability such as walking or solving problems

All agree Life is a very successful language school.

The sentence “Life is a very successful language school” means .

A. the key to learn the language well is to communicate with the people around us

B. we are equipped with a special ability to learn language

C. parents can give children language lessons

D. people can learn the language by themselves

3. Q: Do you think our English learning environment is good ? Can we learn English fast and easily?

4. Q: What is the writer’s opinion? Why does the writer think so?

The time The help

Mother tongue Waking hours , all day long, for five years ,an awful lot of hours parents

Foreign language A few hours a week and in a few years’ time you can speak it. Textbooks, teachers, classmates, study methods and skills

5. Read quickly the last three paragraphs and find out the answers to the following

questions. Discuss them in pairs of four.

1) How many characteristics do successful learners share according to the research?

A successful learner should be ____ ,_____,_____,_____and ________.

2) What are the two most important characteristics of the five according to the writer?

3) What should you do to be a successful learner?

Tick(√) some of the following points that the writer thinks are important.

( )set a clear goal in learning , ( ) evaluate our learning

( )make proper study plans, ( )have good pronunciation and intonation

( )have interest in learning, ( )understand English grammar

( )put what we know to better use , ( )memorize new words,

( )be active and patient , ( )form a good study habit

( )take risks and put ourselves in created learning situations

Post-reading

Step 1 Sum up the main idea of the passage.

Q: What is the purpose of writing the passage?

It tells us learning a foreign language doesn’t have to be twice as hard as learning our mother tongue and also some tips for language learning.

Step 2 A writing task

Q: Are you a successful English learner? If not, what should you do to be successful in foreign language learning?

(Write down at least three sentences about what you should do.)

Step 3 Reading Practice: a passage from the college entrance examination paper

Blackboard design:

Tips for a successful learner

Set a clear goal in learning and make proper study plans.

Be confident.

Form a good study habit.

be patient and brave.

Notes after teaching: