Е. В. Захарова язык и культура великобритании в условиях европейской интеграции предисловие данное учебное пособие
| Вид материала | Учебное пособие |
| Unit iv. time for change Ii. vocabulary focus Iii. interpretation Iv.speaking personally |
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UNIT IV. TIME FOR CHANGE
I. READING COMPREHENSION
A. Pre-reading Task. Answer the questions:
1) Do you think the present system of education needs modernizing?
2) Have there been any reforms in our educational system recently?
B. Now read and translate the text. Make use of the words and expressions given below:
Regiment – распределять по группам
Uniform – единый
Underachieve – учиться ниже своих возможностей, не дотягивать до своего уровня.
Disaffection – неудовлетворенность (работой и т.д.)
Embark – начать (трудовую деятельность и т.д.)
Apprenticeship – обучение (ремеслу)
Tier – ярус
Deny – отказывать, не давать
Bypass – обойти
Endure – выносить
Syllabus – учебный план
Socialize – общаться
Bully – запугивать, грубо обращаться
Tutor – репетитор, наставник
pre-eminence – превосходство
educators – педагоги
Establishment (the) – господствующая верхушка, влиятельные круги
Major recent educational changes have been: the imposition of a National Curriculum (as opposed to one agreed with local authorities and Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs); the introduction of pre-GCSE examinations; and the publication of league tables of schools’ performances. Opponents of a national curriculum felt it was closing down room for individual initiative and saw it as sinister in its regimenting of pupils. They referred to a French Minister of Education who boasted that he knew at any hour of the day which page of which book pupils would be turning. Supporters of a national curriculum promoted it as a necessary educational reform which would ensure uniform standards in schools.
Reform was necessary if only because of the underachievement and disaffection of many children in school. To the consternation of those working and studying in them, Tony Blair (educated at the Edinburgh public school, Fettes College) in 2001 referred to comprehensive schools as ‘bog-standard’. The School Standards Minister , StephenTimms, echoed this view in 2001, complaining of ‘one-size-fits-all’ educational provision. Because many children are bored by the GCSEs they are doing, the government is proposing to enable them to embark on apprenticeships two days a week at fourteen years of age, once forty thousand industrial placements have been found.
Previous such initiatives have failed amid complaints that firms exploited students on work experience as unpaid labour. Some see this leading to a divisive two-tier system where some children are denied good-quality education and others, with a privileged background are enabled to flower.
Some schools are considering offering the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to AS levels, particularly after the new sixth form curriculum’s chaotic first year. Traditionally the lower sixth year is one without examination, where pupils are given space to find their feet in independent study and develop a love of a subject. Instead the AS system placed them under great pressure to perform, and they had to endure public examinations three years in succession.
Schools matter to people because education is not just about the delivery of syllabuses. Primary schools in particular are the sites for the transmission from one generation to the next of shared culture. The culture is of the classroom, but also of the playground. Children socialize there. The playground is a place where children practice their games and learn, where society’s folk memories and myths are recycled through chants.
In choosing a school for their children, parents worry about potential academic progress, but also about the prevalence of bullying, the development of life skills and the kind of social, cultural and spiritual experience offered by the school. Furthermore, because schools are so important in the formation of shared cultural identity, people are interested in the way in which prominent public figures choose to educate their children and comment on their decisions. For example. Prince Charles was the first member of the royal family not to be educated by palace tutors. He was sent to Gordonstoun in Scotland. His own sons William and Harry were sent to Eton. For ordinary parents this humanized the Royal Family, who became subject to the same anxieties and uncertainties of sending children to school as they did. Conversely, people sensed hypocrisy when Prime Minister Tony Blair bypassed the state system and sent his sons to the exclusive Catholic public school, Brompton Oratory.
In choosing a school some parents also consider the availability of an ‘old school tie’ network, which may help their child to get a job and develop socially useful lifelong friendships. In Britain, as elsewhere, those who have shared experiences during their formative years forge a common cultural bond. The most famous of such networks may be the grouping of old Etonians, Harrovians and other public schoolboys, known as ‘the Establishment’. Girls’ schools offering access to this network would be Roedean, Benenden or Cheltenham Ladies College. Britain works on a system of contacts among people whose business, professional, sporting and social lives produce a shared cultural milieu. This is evident in the number and social status of clubs nominally representing various interests but in practice simply enabling members to socialize, for example, Rotary or Round Table, golf and sailing clubs. Cubs and Brownies, Scouts and Guides induct British children into this club mentality.
It has always been the case that pupils from single-sex schools have performed better them those at mixed ones – without the distractions of the opposite sex, so the argument goes. This has applied more to girls than to boys. Recently the trend in school and university education is that girls seem to be performing much better than boys. Various factors have contributed to their increased pre-eminence. Today more women in prominent jobs offer role models. Feminism has changed girls’ expectations and encouraged their ambition .A profound shift appears to be taking place where boys are ‘the weaker sex’, the ones who need encouragement and the raising of their self-esteem. This is one of the problems being addressed by educators.
The Labour government appears less doctrinaire than previous administrations. They are prepared to support grammar schools rather than the comprehensives which Labour introduced in the 1960s. They are also prepared to borrow ideas from private schools and in extreme cases to allow failing inner city schools to be managed by private companies. However, they are also putting less money into education than the OECD average, by a full percentage point.
C. Answer the following questions:
1) What major recent educational changes in Great Britain can you name?
2) What did Tony Blair call comprehensive schools in 2001?
3) Where was Tony Blair educated?
4) What alternative to AS level do some schools consider?
5) What do parents worry about when choosing a school for their children?
6) Who educated members of the royal family before Prince Charles was sent to Scotland?
7) What are the most famous of the so-called ‘the Establishment’ networks?
8) Where do pupils perform better: in single-sex schools or in mixed ones?
9) What is the recent trend in school and university education concerning boys’ and girls’ performing?
10) What schools does the Labour government appear ready to support?
II. VOCABULARY FOCUS
A. Translate the following word-combinations into Russian:
Prevalence; lifelong; to forge; to be bored; consternation; in succession; a chant; distraction; to induct; to humanize.
In which situations are they given in the text? Reproduce them.
- Find the English equivalents in the text:
Успехи в учебе; видные общественные деятели; введение программы; противники; личная инициатива; провалиться; доступ к чему-либо; комментировать что-либо; тенденция; глубокий сдвиг.
Think of your own sentences with these expressions.
C. Match the words which collocate with each other:
1. academic a. provision
2. national b. placements
3. local c. curriculum
4. educational d. progress
5. industrial e. authorities
D. Match the words which are close in their meaning:
1. sinister a. associate
2. privileged b. adverse
3. deny c. deep
4. socialize d. withhold
5. profound e. favoured
E. Match the words having the opposing meaning:
1. deny a. benevolent
2. sinister b. shun
3. socialize c. disadvantaged
4. profound d. grant
5. privileged e. shall
F. Match the words and their definitions:
| 1) a list of the main subjects in a course of study | a. tier |
| 2) to avoid dealing with someone or smth, especially because you think you can achieve smth more quickly without using them | b syllabus |
| 3) one of several levels in an organization or system | c. deny |
| 4) to frighten or hurt smb who is smaller or weaker than you | d. bypass |
| 5) not to allow someone to have smth | e. bully |
.
G. Translate the sentences into Russian:
1) Shakespeare’s always on the syllabus.
2) I bypassed the lawyers and filed the documents myself.
3) He was believed to belong to the bottom tier of society.
4) In one study 75 per cent of students reported having been bullied at school.
5) Doctors were accused of denying treatment to older patients.
H. Make up new words using prefixes (co-; inter-; dis-; un-; under; re-; pre-). Translate them into Russian.
1. eminence 6. paid
2. educational 7. agreed
3. necessary 8. national
4. achievement 9. cycle
5. affection 10. certainties
I. Insert prepositions where necessary (to; on; in):
1. to be interested __ smth 5. to have an access __ smth
2. to comment __ smth 6. to work __ smth
3. to be subject __ smth 7. to contribute __ smth
4. to bypass __ smth 8. to be opposed __ smth
9. to refer __ smth
10. to embark __ smth
J. Complete the sentences using the words in the box:
| individual initiative national curriculum disaffection academic international Baccalaureate underachievement alternative progress syllabuses bullying |
1) Opponents of a __ felt it was closing down room for___.
2) Reform was necessary if only because of the ___ and __ of many children in school.
3) Some school are considering offering the ___ as an ___ to AS levels.
4) “Education is not just about the delivery of ___.
5) In choosing a school for their children, parents worry about potential ___ but also about the prevalence of _
K. In which meanings are the following words used in the text:
1) to bypass
a. to avoid dealing with someone or smth, especially because you think you can achieve smth more quickly without using them
b. to avoid the centre of a town or city by using a road that goes round it
c. to perform a medical operation to make smb’s blood flow past a blocked or damaged part of their heart.
2) a tier
a. one of several rows or layers of smth with each one at a different height
b. one of several levels in an organization or system
3) to deny
a. to say that you did not do smth that someone has accused you of doing
b. not to allow someone to have smth
III. INTERPRETATION
A. Paraphrase and explain the following statements. Comment on them:
1) Opponents of a national curriculum felt it was closing down room for individual initiative and saw it as sinister in its regimenting of pupils.
2) The School Standards Minister echoed this view in 2001, complaining of ‘one-size-fits-all’ educational provision.
3) Traditionally the lower sixth year is one without examination, where pupils are given space to find their feet in independent study and develop a love of a subject.
4) The playground is a place where children practice their games and learn, where society’s folk memories and myths are recycled through chants.
5) For ordinary parents this humanized the Royal Family ‘who became subject to the same anxieties and uncertainties of sending children to school as they did.
6) Britain works on a system of contracts among people whose business, professional, sporting and social lives produce a shared cultural milieu.
B. Answer the following questions:
1) What are the main advantages and disadvantages of the National Curriculum as seen by its opponents and supporters? Does it have more positive or negative sides?
2) What do you think Tony Blair meant calling comprehensive schools ‘bog-standard’?
3) What is your idea of the prospects of embarking on apprenticeships at fourteen years of age? Do you know anything about the same practices in our country?
4) Do you think that having public examinations for a few years in succession is too strenuous for pupils?
5) What do schools matter to people in general in your opinion? What do parents expect of them?
6) What do you know about the system of an ‘old School Tie’ network in Britain? Does the same system exist in other European countries? What about this country?
7) How can you account for the fact that girls seem to be performing much better than boys at schools?
8) What is meant by the statement that the present Labour government appears less doctrinaire than previous administrations?
IV.SPEAKING PERSONALLY
Discuss with your fellow students the problem of secondary education in Russia as compared with that of other European countries and Great Britain.
When comparing them, use the following phrases:
a) … is very like; is similar to; is identical to; is much the same as; is comparable to; resembles; has a lot in common with; similarly; in the same way.
b) is quite different from; differs from; bears no resemblance to; has very little in common with; on the other hand; in contrast; conversely.