TapeSCriptS from mary Spratt

Unit 1

4 Student language 1

Woman:

Oh if, if you can (mm) um what hobbies you would like to start?

Man:

Yes, I like er so much the, to play the piano (ah, play piano), it is one of my, my dreams (dream, ah your dream, ah, yes) because when I listen (yes) the piano music (yes) I, I imagine, I imagine a lot of things (ah) beautiful things (yes, ah I see) a um I like so much the, the piano (play piano) play the piano (yes). And you?

W: Um, yes, er, I want to, I want to learn (to learn) to dance (to dance) um flamenco (flamenco) yes (Spanish flamenco) yes flamenco. When I finish my school I maybe, I'll go to Spain (mm) to learn (to learn flamenco) yeah, yes flamenco (mm) yes and then .. . would, would you like to (laughter) next, would you like to play wind­surfing?

M: No, I don't like nothing, the, the sea sports because I like so much the sea but er I have er I have terror to the, I have terror in the sea (terror) terror, yes. I like nothing more than to see the sea (yes) um I don't like er swimming (to play ah, I see) in the sea, (just looking) just looking (yes, I see), or maybe, maybe in ten or, ten or twenty metres, nothing more (ah, I see). I don't like, I like for example er collect stamps (ah, collect stamps?), yes (/ hate it! I can't, I can't collect) yes (/ always give up, give up to collect stamps), yes, I like, why not (oh, that is good) yeah, and you have er you would have a good collection in the future yes (yes, yes) maybe. And I play an instruments too.

W: No I can't, I can't, I can't play anything, any instrument (yeah) even piano (mm). So how about you? (yeah) Could you, can you play —

M: No, I play nowaday the guitar nothing more (guitar, oh it's good) yeah, the Spanish guitar (yes, oh it's lovely) the sound is lovely.

W: Yes, yes, one day (yeah) please, please play the guitar for me.

M: Of course (yeah), of course.

Bruno and Booee speak to each other quite a bit, although talk of food dominates their conversation. At the moment, their conversations are mostly one-way: Booee will ask Bruno for a raisin, and Bruno will run away to gobble it down. Representative of these conversations were Booee's requests for orange juice: 'Gimme food drink . .. gimme drink . .. Bruno gimme.' A typical conversation for a five-year-old.

These conversations may seem unremarkable to you - no more than any typical conversation between two young children, you may think. But the conversations are in fact very remarkable. They took place between two chimpanzees who communicated with one another using the language 'Ameslan'.

Ameslan is a sign language for the deaf. Each gesture in Ameslan is made up of cheremes or basic signal units, similar to phonemes in spoken language. In all, Ameslan has 55 cheremes. It also has a grammar that organises gestures into sentences, although that grammar is significantly different from English grammar.

Bruno and Booee are just two of the many chimpanzees who have been taught Ameslan as part of an experiment to see if language is unique to humans. Ally is another of these chimpanzees. Ally has a vocabulary of 90 words, although he is only three. He picks up new signs daily, and his gestures have almost textbook clarity.

Last winter, three investigators made an explicit effort to teach Ally ten words in both English and Ameslan. First, they taught him a word in English, by saying, for example, 'Bring me the spoon'. When Ally correctly selected the spoon five consecutive times from among a variety of objects, it was assumed he reliably knew the word. When Ally knew all ten words in English, the list was divided into two sections and training began. One investigator would teach Ally the Ameslan equivalent of one of the five English words in one section. For instance, he would say 'spoon' and make the appropriate Ameslan gesture. Ally eventually demonstrated that he knew all the objects' signs in Ameslan.

While it had been known previously that Ally could acquire signs in Ameslan, in this case Ally learned the appropriate Ameslan word for a variety of objects solely on the basis of his knowledge of the English word.

Here Ally may be demonstrating that the block preventing the chimpanzee from speaking is not neurological but phonological, that is, the chimpanzee lacks the necessary mechanisms for generating and controlling particular sounds.

(adapted from Apes, Men and Language: Eugene Linden)

Unit 2

2 Listening 1

Emmah:

Well, mainly I've only learnt French and that is at school for the last five years and, um but primarily when I went abroad on a school trip to France for three weeks I learnt mostly a lot of French then.

Interviewer:

Um and um what about how you learnt French at school? I mean do you think you, you learnt in a good way? Do you think you could have learnt in any better ways?

E: Well, I learnt, yes I did learn a lot because I passed my exam but I do think that the way in which we were taught was, well to me, I could have found easier ways such as more conversation and less actual written work because it's conversation that's going to be needed more than anything else.

I: What sort of, I mean you say you had lots of written work, um what kind of written work and do you think you got anything out of that?

E: Um well, we had a lot of grammar to learn, and like verbs, verb tables to just learn off by heart and that kind of thing, trying to incorporate that in conversation I find it very difficult whereas where we had, where we did have conversations um we just like picked up the verbs and the grammar on the way which was a lot easier.

I: And when you were at school learning French did you have much opportunity for conversation in French?

E: No, not really, it was mostly um working from textbooks and we didn't have a lot of conversation-based um lessons at all.

I: OK. Right, now that's talked a little bit about when you were learning French at school. What, what sort of a way do you think you'd really like to learn?

E: I would enjoy um having pure French

conversations throughout the classes and then having to write essays on, for example, what we talked about or a subject that we talked about and then from there I could learn the grammar or read out our essays and learn the grammar from there.

I: But, no, you wouldn't like, you wouldn't like any sort of formal grammar input, you'd like to just sort of pick it up?

E: Um I don't know because I guess it is necessary but I would feel it a lot easier if I were to pick it up along the way.

I: Yeah, and what about vocabulary?

E: Um that too, if we just had um phrase books and, and um dictionaries with us I'm sure we would have been able to get along fine.

I: Instead of which, what were you, what did you do?

E: Just as I said before, just um learning directly from textbooks and not learning anything that was, um say words that the everyday French people speak, just um proper words, no slang, no, no getting on with French um everyday talk, language.

I: Right. And in an ideal world, I mean you know with or without the classroom, how do you think, what for you would be the best way to learn a language?

E: To ultimately live in the country or spend time in that, um, particular country for a couple of months.

Unit 3

5 Student language 1

Alberto:

Er, what do you doing in er November 24th of er (1988) two years ago, three years ago?

Maki:

Two years ago, yes, um this day I was er I going to my high school (um) and um I belonged to um English drama club. Maybe I, um I did exercise too, yes, but I'm not sure, (in the morning, in the morning) Morning!

A: No, I ask you in the morning (ah yeah) you, you go, you went to the school.

M: Yes, yes that's right.

A: Um, me (mm), um at 24 (what are you doing, yes?) I, I went to, is my birthday (ah, is your birthday, oh), yes, birthday and er is, was important for me because er (yes) when um in this years I, I was er eighteen years old (mm) and for me very important because er I like very much er to do um in um in um by car and er when (it's present!) yes, yes for, for my, my present was a car.

M: Oh, it's great present.

A: Yes, very great present, (laughter)

M: I see. And um did you, did you get a present anything else for your friends er and parents?

A: Oh yes, yes but er for me it was very important the car.

M: Ah! (laughter) Yes I understand...um, yes. 6 of April 91, um that day I um depart, I departed in my country (ah yeah) to in England to here, it's that day start er my new, new life.

A: I understand. I um in the 6th of April I went to

my grandmother's er house (yes) for er to welcome (mm) for my, for my depart (yes) to urn to, to England to, to come here (/ see) for my, also with my, my, my parent, my, my, my cousin (I see), yeah.

6 Listening

Clare Boylan:

I had very little rural experience in my childhood at all. We were Dubliners, we were kids who played in the lane and um went to the movies and ate chips.

I was the youngest and at various stages um my elder sister, three years older than me, was a 'twin' to me, and at other stages she was a 'twin' to my older sister. And um, we were very, very close. Um we circled around each other like little moths in motes of dusty light.

Edna O'Brien:

There was an avenue up from, from the road, and it was a big house. I mean, looking at it now it's not quite as big as it seemed to one then, but it was big, it had about five bed­rooms, it had um, as I say, this drive up to it, and then a second gate that led into the front of the house, and when the sun shone I used to think that it was a kind of heaven. And it was very beautiful.

Dervla Murphy:

I didn't really make any close childhood friends because I liked going off in the morning, and I mean this was in the school holidays, cycling off with a few books in the carrier, and finding a nice place to settle down and read them.

Maeve Binchy:

I have a very firm earliest memory, and I was three and a half, and at that stage my mother was expecting another child, but I didn't obviously understand a thing like this, but I was constantly adding to my prayers, you know, apart from praying, 'God bless Mummy and Daddy' and all that, 'Please send me a new brother or sister'. And it seemed like, you know, I got the word 'me' in it - 'Please send me' -and I thought 'That's great', 'cos I loved things that were given to me, things to open, parcels and presents, and I was outraged when it arrived, because the whole attention shifted from me to this small red-faced thing in a cot, and I said to my mother apparently, I remember looking at it, and my first memory is looking at it with great disappointment because this was something I'd been praying for, and this thing wailing and wailing and everyone saying wasn't it beautiful, and I said, 'To be frank,' (I don't

suppose I used the words 'To be frank'), but I said, 'But honestly, I'd really prefer a rabbit.'

Unit 4

2 Listening 1

Man 1:

I think I started to learn English about twenty, no 30 years ago, almost 30 years ago, and as far as I can remember the coursebook was very theoretical, um there was a text and after the text there were some questions on the text, then we talked about grammar problems in this lesson and afterwards we did grammar exercises but I can't remember any , communicative activity, any dialogue, any conversation, any interaction.

Man 2:

There was an interaction - the teacher asking 'What have you learned?' (laughter)

M1: Yeah, but between the teacher and the pupil only and never between pupils.

Woman:

And don't forget the vocabulary which was very important too (mm) and which still should be important.

M2: Just a list of English words (and German) and a list of German words and one English word for one German word (yes).

M1: There were no synonyms, no definitions, no opposites, no gaps, (no collocations) It helped me to learn a lot about the language, about English, about the system of the language, but one year after I left high school I went to London for the first time and I couldn't under­stand anybody, it was even difficult for me to, to just to buy things because I read a lot in English, I could read the newspaper but I had no experience in, in listening and in, in communi-, in talking to English people, the only voice I heard at school was the voice of my teacher, we never had a cassette with a native speaker.

W: We were very good in translating texts I think because we really knew the German meaning of each word (mm) and now they often only have a vague impression of the German meaning because in our lessons now we don't refer to the German expression very often.

M1: Mm. The language during the lessons was more or less German and not English (exclusively). The big difference (exclusively, only the reading was in English) yeah, yeah.

W: I can't remember any communication practice at all. We never had a given situation where we tried to practise a dialogue or things like that.

M2: That's, that, but as you said, we were very, very good at translating English and philosophical texts, political texts, and —

M1: Yes, we knew a lot about, about the political system, about the history, the geography of, of Great Britain and the USA.

Unit 5

5 Listening 1

Man:

I think, I think a good lesson, really um I think
the main thing is that it should be fun and it
should be interesting. Um. I think those, I think
5 those are some of, some of the main points •

about a lesson. Woman 1:

Do you think fun is really important? M: Um I think they should be, yeah, I think, I think

Ю when I say 'fun' I mean um that the students

should be able to enjoy themselves and, um, thereby feel relaxed, you know. Woman 2:

Maybe we could say that if the students feel

15 really involved, um, even if they're not actually

having 'fun'. M: Yeah, I mean, I don't mean you have to play games and stuff every lesson, um but I think a certain amount of games and playing, yeah, um

20 reduces tension in the classroom and is good.

W2: And I often find that if you're teaching students that have been used to um a very passive methodology like the Taiwanese, if you introduce this element of fun they respond

25 quite well to it, because they are fairly bored

with the way they've been taught although they expect, they sort of expect to be taught that way but they are quite open to doing something completely different.

30 W1: And they do realise quite quickly that they are doing something linguistically as well, don't they, even if they start off the first lesson or the second lesson, by the third lesson they realise what they're doing and, as you say, they enjoy

35 it (yeah), they're quite happy to do it. (Yeah. So

W2: And also, so I suppose there's also, the other
thing is difference in pace in the lesson, you've
got to, you can't keep doing the same thing so
40 you can't keep playing games and you can't (oh

yeah, sure) keep them sitting at their desks so you want, you want to vary the activities that you use so that there is, there are moments when they're doing something that's quiet and maybe just spending some time um thinking 45 about something and other times when they're working together or working as a whole class, so as long as you keep um a variety. And I think it's also very important that they go away feeling that they've done something (right), so that they've learnt something, achieved something, so as well as the element of, even if it is a lesson where there is a tremendous element of fun and everyone was laughing, at least when they go away they have some sort 55 of feeling that 'Well, we've done something in this lesson'.

M: Yeah, I mean, I think really one of the, yeah, another main thing about a good lesson, the students must learn something, but yeah, like 60 you say, they, they have to see that they've learnt something.

W1: Mm. So you also need a very clear idea really,
don't you, of what you are going to do with
them (right) and you've got to be very sure 65

when you go in of the kind of direction that you're going to go in.

M: I think you need, I think you need goals and I
think they need goals as well, um you know I
mean very often they need to see why they're 70
doing, you know, why they're doing this piece
of work, you know, if they can see a value to it,
if they see 'OK, this is why we are doing it' then
it's not so bad, you know, they, they at least
know what they're doing. 75

Unite

2 Listening 1

My first job was an utterly disastrous experience. I only stayed a week, because the headmaster hated me and I hated him. He came into my room about every ten minutes or so and kept saying, 'Why aren't they writing in ink? Why aren't they doing joined-up writing? Why aren't they doing harder sums?' And there was I with 40 tough little kids trying to get on top of them. I'm not saying that there weren't faults on my side, but it was a very unnerving experience. On the Thursday I rang the education office and said that I couldn't stay there. The head had apparently rung the office too.

So, on Friday, the inspector arrived. It was a very amusing experience. He came into the room and had

ipts

a few fatherly words with me and said, 'I'll show you how to control the class.' He clapped his hands and started to talk, but the children just called out ribald remarks. They really were tough little kids. So he quickly realised that he wasn't going to be able to do anything with them, certainly not show off to a younger teacher. As he fled, he turned in the doorway and said, 'I'll ring you from the office.' And sure enough I got a phone call later telling me to report to the office on Monday. I was sent to another school where I settled down happily.

I feel that education is absolutely a three-way partnership, if you can have such a thing, between the child, the parent and the teacher. There's no valid argument for denying parents the chance to be involved. We send reading books home regularly. I have parents in to hear children read, though not to teach them. And on odd occasions I might have parents in to help with cookery. Considering their expressed concern about their children's education, not nearly as many parents volunteer as you might think.

The atmosphere in my classroom is all-important to me. I work very hard to create a good relationship between the children and myself, which doesn't mean that I give in to them. I'm regarded as very strict, but I feel children need that firmness to feel safe. Sometimes I shout at them. I always feel ashamed afterwards. I encourage the class to discuss discipline. If there's been an epidemic of aggression in the playground, for example, instead of talking to the offender in the comer, I discuss it in front of the class. I think it's good for the offender to hear what other children think about his behaviour.

My greatest stress is having too little time to achieve what I want. I also find it stressful if col­leagues are inadequate because that puts a great strain on everybody else. Some teachers do the absolute minimum and have no real interest in the children at all.

I don't want to sound terribly pious about myself, but I really do hope every week that I shall reach the children and see some of them grow a bit. Sometimes, however, I just think, 'Oh, God! Monday! It's raining.'

(from Teachers: Frank E. Hugget)

6 Student language

2 Woman:

Yes, out which of er this relationships er are

most important for you? Man:

Mm, it's er parents. W: Parents, why? M: Because I think er they are the most close

people to me or to everyone in the world because you know from the beginning, from the first day you are born, they look after you and they all the time keeping you safe, er they give you what you want, everything you need, they, it's really for you, they make really for you.

W: Yes, I agree with you, the parents all the times must be important for us, yes you are right and er I think the least important er relationship is others, no, neighbours. What do you think?

M: No, neighbours I think er should be the third, er the third, er position er.

W: Why?

M: Because they are close to you, maybe you live with your parents er neighbours a long time, maybe after neighbours for ten years or fifteen years and you know them well and they know you well and if you want anything or some thing from them or they need anything, you're all together.

W: And what do you think about boy and girl­friend?

M: Boy and girlfriend, I think it's the least er relationship, (laughter)

W: This is more, please.

M: Yeah, because er I think boyfriend or girlfriend sometimes they have argument or possibly change in a three years or something, it's not important to have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, it's one along your life, and you know the argument and if the girl saw her boyfriend look another girl and she be jealous or something like this (mm) I don't think it's the important thing in your life.

W: • I think for me it's important er after the parents because er we all the times share lots of thing and we all the times together, I think it must be important.

M: There is a thing, a lot of things is more impor­tant than the boyfriend and the girlfriend.

W: Which one?

M: The other er members of your family (yes) is important than them. Your sisters, your brothers (laughter), your grandfather, mother, it's important than you have a boyfriend (yes, but) all that you ????????? live in the same house.

Tapescripts

Unit 7

7 Listening

It seems to me that teacher development is a crucial part of every teacher's um educational improvement for one very important reason or perhaps two very important reasons.

First of all, um there is a tendency I think for all teachers to get into a rut; that is to, to fall into a very, very repetitive pattern of teaching so that you tend to do the same kinds of things over and over again. Um this is inevitable to a certain extent because like all um aspects of your life you have to do certain things in a repetitive way. I mean at a very basic level if your, if your walking skills were something that you had to learn afresh every day, life would be very hard. Similarly with teaching, an awful lot of the things that you do in the classroom you quickly learn to do automatically. When you're first teaching you don't, you have to think all the time and that's why teaching at first is very, very tiring, but after a while things become more automatic and that keeps you sane - it means that if you're teaching, say, 25, 30 lessons a week, a lot of what you do is automatic, you don't have to plan it, you don't have to think about it. However, there is a negative side to that: if all of your teaching becomes automatic or mechanical or formulaic you, um your teaching will become very dry and uninspiring. So one very, very important reason for teacher develop­ment is that it helps you to counter that ritual, for­mulaic side of your teaching, um, in two ways.

First of all, you are helped by whatever group of teachers you work with or by your teacher developer, you are helped to look at the things that you have become blind to - things that you have maybe a long time ago started to do completely mechanically, completely routinely. It might be something as simple as the way in which you, you hand out books to your students or the way in which you use the whiteboard or blackboard or the way in which you introduce vocabulary before a listening exercise; you may have got into a complete routine there and you have lost touch with, you haven't, you don't realise any more that you are doing it. So in teacher development you are helped to look at what you have lost touch with.

Um you're also helped to understand what lies behind what you're doing so, to take a very simple example, you may some time ago have read about or seen a demonstration of somebody doing some kind of information-gap activity where students are put in pairs or in groups and half the group or one of the pair knows, has some information, and the

other half has other information and you exchange information and you, as it were, have developed a way in which you do this activity, er but the way in which you do it has, has again become mechanical and ritualised and you have forgotten completely why you are doing it; you have forgotten the princi­ple behind it, the principle in this case that if two people are talking to each other normally, they are usually, they don't know everything, there is a gap between them, there is information that one wants to get across to the other, but very often in your classroom teaching you have lost touch with that principle. So that's the second reason for, um or the second way in which your mechanical teaching can be refreshed; the people you're working with in teacher development or your teacher developer can actually get you to see why that particular activity or technique is done and you perhaps have lost touch with that and you are able to see why you are doing it, why you should be doing that activity and once you see again why you should be doing it you are able to.'perhaps, reorganise the way you do it or do it completely differently; it becomes fresh again.

Um another, a third area of teacher development which is very, very important is um bringing to the surface, so that you can actually talk about it, your tacit knowledge. It may be that you do a lot of things in class expertly; er a classic example of that might be the way in which you deal with discipline problems with children. Um, I think this is particularly so in teachers in state education who have been teaching for a long time; they have these skills and yet they are probably quite unable to articulate them, to talk about how they do it. Now that for the individual teacher may not matter very much - why should a teacher, if he does some­thing very well, why should he or she actually be able to talk about it? But if you're in a group, a development group, a teacher development group, then it's very very, valuable to be able to share that er knowledge, that tacit knowledge with other peo­ple so that seems to be another purpose of teacher development groups - that er you are able to draw out of your peers, your colleagues, skills that they have and have never talked about before so that they can share that, that very, very, very useful information with other people.

(Peter Maingay)

Tapescnpts

Unit 8 Unit 9

7 Listening 2 Listening

з

Interviewer:

Right, I wonder if you could maybe say something on, about what you think makes a good teacher, the sort of characteristics of a good teacher.

Emmah:

Well, to me it doesn't matter what subject it is, it applies to all teachers. Um just so long as each teacher can put themselves on the same level as the student or the pupil that they are teaching, to be able to go back to when they were learning and be able to put themselves in our positions because there are lots of teachers that like I have come in contact with that get so frustrated because they know so much and they are trying to teach us and they can't remember when they were in exactly the same position so I think like empathy plays quite a large part.

I: Mm, mm. Um what about whether a teacher is sort of well trained or not; I mean what do you think is more important, a teacher's sort of personality or their knowledge of their subject or how much they know about techniques of, of teaching?

E: I think personality goes an awful long way because it doesn't matter how, well, they have to have obviously a basic teaching knowledge, but other than that as long as they're able to, um go back to the beginning and even learn again with us and be able to explain things in more detail, that's all we really need, just some one that can put themselves in our position and help us through things rather than ordering us to do things.

I: So somebody kind {yes, definitely), patient (yep); what other sort of qualities?

E: Um. Yeah, very tolerant (mm) and someone who obviously enjoys teaching rather than enjoys the subject that they teach in, someone who really does enjoy um coming in contact with people, it has to be someone very sociable.

I: So somebody who is able to relate more to the students than to their subject or, or equally at least.

E: At least equally, yes, so, so we can get a balanced sort of um view.

I: And you think that goes right across all subjects?

E: Yes, I do (mm), I do definitely.

Glo:

Yes, um well I'll start by telling you my age. I'm 49, so I've had rather a chequered career. Um at the moment I, my main interest is leading on courses on self-esteem, so I run courses on self- s esteem enhancement, enhancing hopefully people's self-esteem. Um I was trained actually as a landscape gardener, plants and gardening being my, my other great passion but I now do less of that and more of the self-esteem courses, ю

Interviewer:

Right. So you've already had, sort of, um made a fairly big change in, in your life.

G: Yes. A complete new direction, um certainly

involving more and more people. I love to be 15
with people, I like to share, er how people tick
and communicate with them, er just see where,
where they are in their lives and um what
they're going to do with their life. It's, it
fascinates me. 20

I: And well, you've, you've already said that you're, you're 49; I mean there is a saying that life begins at 40 and, how do you feel about that?

G: (laughter) I think um I think my life begins 25

almost afresh um every six months um; I, I've never had the feeling that it, it went downhill after 40 um but whether it took off at 40 um maybe, maybe, maybe it did, did um in, in some respects. I think you certainly get more in touch 30 with the direction that you want to go in. The, the, the exciting thing for me is that, just to be able to keep on changing, um I've never planned anything that's happened in my life, um things have happened, opportunities have 35 come into my life and I've either said 'Yes' or 'No'.

I: So you don't feel with the passing of the years
you've become more conservative or less open
to change or.. . 40

G: Oh, no, no, I don't think I've been more

conservative. I'd like to think I've become more
eccentric um but I think I have become more
open to er to change. There seems an incredible
quality in, in being able to change several 45

times, if not more than that in one's life.

I: And what do you see, that quality, I mean why, why are you so interested in change? Why is it so, why do you find it so stimulating?

G: I think because it stops you being completely 50 stuck um along one direction um it's, it's energising er and just the thought of the

L

Tapescripts

possibility that you can go on changing until
55 you're 75 is er is life-giving.

I: Have you any idea what you might be doing in

ten years from now, twenty years from now?
G: No, and I don't think I'd like to know. I'd like to
think that it's all still a mystery, though, I don't
6o know, I love what I'm doing at the moment and

I'd like to think that I'll go on enjoying doing
whatever it is. Um there's nothing I have to do,
I'm lucky in that respect, er I can keep on
choosing what I want to do and I've no idea
65 what's going to be out there for me in ten

years' time. I: Well, you sound all really excited by it all.

4 Student language 1

Takako:

My name is Takako from Japan. I'm nineteen

years old. Maria:

My name is Maria from Spain. I am twenty,

twenty-two years old. T: What do you think you will be like in twenty

years' time? M: Um I would like my life, um OK in my, in my life

er with my family, with my husband (mm), my

childrens (mm), maybe four childrens, three son

and one er one daughter in a house, in my

house in a countryside (mm). T: Will you be happy? M: Yes, of course (laughter) (yes), I think so. T: With Paulo? Pablo? M: With Pablo, I don't know, Takako (laughter)

with who but I hope with Pablo, yes of course.

And you? T: Mm twenty years' time, I don't know, but

maybe I, I will get married (maybe) mm. Yes, of

course. M: But do you want this? T: Yes, I want get marry early, early. Um. Maybe,

um. M: And childrens? T: Children, children, one or two. M: One or two. T: Yes.

M: Because in Japan it's very difficult, no? T: No, no, no, no, it's OK. M: It's OK?

T: No problem, but... M: But the families er haven't got... T: Only one or two or three (yes) mm, normally,

yeah. M: And the work? What do you think about the

work (work) in twenty years, in twenty years? T: Maybe no, not a lot (no), only housewife (yes,

me too, I think) and er I hope er I will go out with my friend, I'll go out with my friend, play tennis (ah), yes I hope (a good life, OK, mm?) yes (yes, OK, me too) and my, my dream (your dream) is my friend and my er have er children, same age (yes, yes), a very good relationship (yes) each other.

M: Ah, you, you can go to the ...

T: My friend's house (with your children) (laughter).

M: Yes, yes, beautiful. My, my dreams is the same, (yes) is beautiful because I think in the future I prefer stay with my family and my house (yes) than work (yes), the same you. Go, I have my childrens and after er we, no I bring my children to the school with my friend (mm) and after go to the shopping (yes) yes and (eat something) look for my family (ah, yeah), look for, look after? Look for...

Unit 10

5 Listening

Presenter:

Frieda Smith, a British secondary-school teacher, spent two weeks working in a Danish school and found a school life that British teachers are still campaigning for. Frieda went on an exchange trip to a gymnasium situated in a town to the north of Copenhagen. The school takes students from 16 to 24 hoping to go to university.

Frieda:

One of the most striking features of the Danish system is how much better resourced they are in terms of staffing, equipment and buildings than we are in Britain. Maximum class size is set at 28 in the gymnasium although many are smaller. Contact time is limited according to the amount of marking each subject requires - I taught seventeen, 45-minute English lessons a week. Teachers are under no obligation to cover for absences in the gymnasium, but if they contract to do cover they are paid extra whether they are required or not. Teachers are not obliged to be on the premises during non-contact time. The Danes still believe that teaching students and the preparation of lessons are the most important parts of a teacher's job!

P: Frieda also noticed a difference in the buildings.

F: The fabric of school buildings is far superior. Fixtures and fittings are of good quality. Windows are always double-glazed. Heating is

Tapescripts

effective and quiet. All classrooms have curtains and blackout.

P: The gymnasium had approximately 70 staff to 800 students. Each class had two members of staff responsible for them and class sizes averaged around 25. The gymnasium was well equipped with computers, printing machinery, photocopiers, binders and typewriters.

F: Most useful was the seemingly limitless supply of paper, pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, glue, scissors, staplers and hole-punchers. This eliminated at a stroke the lost hours in any British teacher's life as the four corners of the building are scoured for any or all of these. The differences these and other considerations - like freedom from form-filling and decent clerical support - make to morale is difficult to quantify, except that it restores one's belief that teaching really is a profession and not just a job. It's a feeling that teachers in Britain no longer share.

The exchange gave me a renewed sense of my own vocation. I remembered what it is I enjoy about teaching.

(Adapted from 'Nothing wrong in the state of Denmark': Martin Brown, The Teacher)

Unit 11

5 Student language i

Woman 1:

How busy, busy is your life at home, in your country?

Woman 2: In Japan?

W1: Yes.

W2: Um I, I go to school (mm) er I studied English (yes) er it's very difficult for me.

W1: Studying English, yes another language, another alphabet (yeah), I think so, but er normally you have moment for relaxing er for er free time, for example er?

W2: Yes, I have (yes er) um wake up er how, sorry (laughter) ?????? And you?

W1: Me? Is not very busy in my country (mm) but um I haven't, er from last October I haven't er been in my country because er I was in Germany for six months and now I'm here (mm) for another six months and er yes is stress because I have to study another language, it's not my language, er (oh) for example English was very difficult because I was only beginner yet (mm) and so I, er I have to study a lot of, but it's not like er for example er to work, er to work is very stress (oh) because you are always er in, for example

me, in an office, er you have to answer all tele­phone (mm), you have talk with people, write er a lot of er noisy (yeah, mm) and so on, here is very relaxing for me (mm) I think and I can meet a lot of people. I can speak, er it's OK I think. In my country it's not um because I live in a small town and so (small town?) yes, it's a very small town (laughter), nothing to do really but for me um work is a stress because er maybe because er I didn't like um my job, um I was secretary to, it was very boring (oh) and so I, I took a lot of stress (mm, stress) and now is a holiday for me (laughter), yes, a holiday for me.

W2: What did you do er, er when you be secretary?

W1: Oh, a lot of things, (typewriter) yes typewriter, write a computer, er I, I worked by insurance er and so I, um I had to read a lot of er book about insurance and take info-, news (mm) and er I had to explain a customer er about, er for , example, er this insurance or this insurance (mm) and er was good but um maybe I, I had the chef, you know the chef, the company director not very good (laughter). I think he don't like me and so ooh terrible (laughter), yes, always angry (laughter) and so always er I took er a lot of stress (oh).

7 Listening 1

Interviewer:

Mrs Battersby, you're a teacher in an English primary school, isn't that right?

Monica:

Yes, I am.

I: Um and how many classes do you have?

M: I just have one class.

I: Right. Um. And can you tell us something about the class?

M: Um. They're a mixed class of Reception and Year 1 children so they vary from age four, five to six.

I: So Reception is the, what is Reception exactly?

M: Reception are the new children when they first start school.

I: OK. Under five.

M: Yes. Yes.

I: Um I wonder if you could say something about what it is that you're teaching or working on with the children this year?

M: Um well, the main aim that we have is to teach the children to read and number work and we do quite a lot of science, early science now, and lots of art and craft and manipulative skills (mm) um and we do this through project work. This year we've been doing projects on movement, weather and mini-beasts.

Mini-beasts? What are mini-beasts?

The insects and small creatures.

Right, (laughter) Urn so you do project work.

Does that mean you work through group work

rather than whole-class work?

We do some and some, um I do a lot of group

work but I often do class work as well when I'm

talking and discussing something, we do it as a

class but the actual tasks are done in groups

because you can't actually get round 32

children at the same time so you have to

organise your tasks, you know, so that they're

doing different sorts of things.

And do you have any individual work as well?

Er, yes, I do individual work, um a morning a

week when I have an extra teacher to help me.

It all sounds as if it means an awful lot of

organisation.

Yes it does, a lot.

Well, could you maybe describe um how that

organisation works out in the course of an

average day or just maybe tell us how you

spend your average day?

Um well I start at half past seven in the

morning, um when I'm organising my groups,

getting the apparatus ready and making paints

and glue.

So you're actually in work at half seven?

Yes, yes, each day, and so I work from half

seven until ten to nine when the children arrive

and I spend I suppose half of my lunch hour

getting group work ready for the afternoon

and then I stay about an hour after school each

night, sometimes longer.

So half seven to half four or so, your day...

Is an average day, yes.

And when you're not preparing, when you're

actually sort of teaching, how does the day

work out?

Well, we start off with um assembly and then

we come back and then I talk to the children

about the tasks and activities I want them to do

that day and then while they're actually doing

them I'm sort of moving around from group to

group and then we have, we have story times

just before play and just before lunch and we

have P.E. times during the day and music times,

as well as the language, maths and science and

art activities going on all day.

(laughter) Goodness. And how about at home?

Do you ever work at home?

Yes (laughter) - most evenings, and I spend

quite a bit of time at the weekends as well, and

at holiday time we have to organise our project

for the term.

And do you enjoy your job?

Yes, I, I enjoy teaching, the actual teaching part

I still enjoy, yes.

Unit 12

4 Listening

And in my job I have to recruit teachers to work overseas. The kinds of jobs that I recruit for are basically normally either people who are not very experienced or people who are very experienced and so naturally I'm looking for different qualifica­tions and for different experience in both kinds of jobs.

If we're looking at the jobs for teachers with um very little experience then normally we will want a university degree and a, a teaching qualification, an EFL teaching qualification such as the UCLES RSA Certificate. If we're looking for people with more experience then probably we're looking for a degree, um, the UCLES RSA Diploma, maybe a master's degree in applied linguistics, something like that.

But as important as qualifications are, and you won't get to an interview or at least people won't get to an interview without the qualifications, the most important thing in fact is the character and how a person presents themselves at interview. I find it very difficult to define exactly the sort of person I am looking for, but when I meet someone I can tell whether they are the sort of person that I would like to appoint or whether they are not.

At interview the first thing that I notice is how the person settles down, when they sit down. Do they immediately rush into the room, grab a chair without being invited to sit down? Are they ner­vous? Um, do they spend a lot of time fiddling with their hands, brushing their hair back, er holding their pen, tapping it on the table? Obviously everyone is nervous at interview and you make allowances for that, but if it continues throughout the whole interview then of course you have to ask yourself if they're like this after, say, an hour of interview, what will they be like in a normal job?

Second thing that I look for is: Do they look at you? Do they make eye contact? Because if they won't look at you in a job where in, in a situation where a job depends on, on them making a good impression, then probably in the job they won't do very well in terms of making, er, good, making contact with other colleagues, making, having good relations with other colleagues. The sort of person normally we would look for would be someone who was, open, outgoing, enthusiastic and who could talk intelligently about what they had done and what they hoped to do. That doesn't mean that they have to have had a lot of experience but that they should be able to reflect on whatever experience they've had.

The other kinds of, of um things that we might

Tapescripts

talk about in an interview of course are what, er what the person expects to get from a new job in a new country, and that I think is important because it shows the expectations that the person has - what they want from their job. Um it's interesting to hear why people want to change jobs, why they want to go to a new country.

6 Student language i

Harako:

Carla, (yes) what kind of person do you like?

Carla:

Er, I like my teacher.

H: Uh huh. Um why do you like?

C: Because very good teacher (mm), extraordinary teacher, um he is very nice (mm), wonderful person (mm) and he is, er he know what er to do for students (yes, yes), for progress.

H: Yes, I came here England, er now um I study English and, but um teacher is very kind and English person very kind; yes, I am very happy.

C: Yes, I think er here there is everybody is very friendly (yes, yes) (laughter).

H: And what kind of person do you dislike?

C: Oh, maybe you can say?

H: I dislike person is um don't keep promise person (yes) so, for example, my classmate um some­time go to restaurant as ?????????? but er most of the people (mm) don't keep promise so if you are someone don't keep promise um, um it is very bad so, er for example, go to restaurant and we reserved er a table but everybody don't come, very problem (mm) so, and er, um. I dislike person is er, um mm um .. .

C: Don't worry, maybe you ?????????? to me. I think here everybody is very friendlier er as every, everyone help you, help everyone ?????????? at college (mm, yeah).

Unit 13

5 Listening

з

First of all you can make your classroom as attractive and as stimulating as possible. It should look orderly and purposeful and create the expectation that people do useful work here. It should also be a place that makes your work as easy as possible. The way the furniture is arranged must reflect the way you want to work. It need only take a couple of minutes for a class to rearrange their tables and chairs, after a little practice.

Your lesson planning can also help your classroom management. Plan your lessons so that the work is differentiated; so that every pupil, even the lowest attainer, has something productive that they can do and so there is a graded sequence of higher-level extension activities for the others.

Of utmost importance too is how you relate to your class. Teaching is a professional activity, requiring human warmth, tact, sensitivity, resolve and professional detachment. The management of pupils needs to be calm, patient and measured. Your comments should be as positive as possible. You should give more praise than censure, more reward than punishment. We should try to reinforce the behaviour we want more than we complain about the behaviour we don't want.

Think too about your own behaviour. Be consistent and don't let your own psychological baggage make you moody. Something ignored one day and punished the next is naturally resented by pupils. And if a situation arises which you cannot control, stay calm and send immediately for support from a senior member of staff.

And finally, don't forget: all the advice in the world can only be of limited use unless we are willing to examine and reflect on what we do in the classroom. Systematic evaluation is the key to any effective teacher development.

(adapted from 'Classroom Discipline': Clifford Walker and Ian Newman, Practical English Teaching)

Unit 14

2 Listening 1

Interviewer:

Timothy. All right. And how old are you

Timothy? Timothy:

Five and three-quarters. I: Mm. Do you go to school? T: Yes. I: Mm. Are there lots of boys and girls in your

class? T: Quite a lot. I: And can you tell me the names of some of your

friends? T: Thomas, Jamie, Thomas and Guy; Sam, um,

Harry. I: Yes? T: That's all. I: All of those are boys. T: And Maria and Clare and, I don't know, I

haven't got any more.

Tapescripts

Т: I: T:

So you normally play with boys more than girls?

Yes.

Why's that?

I like boys best (do you?). I'm a boy, I'm a boy

myself (laughter).

And do you think girls and boys are different?

Yes.

In what kind of way?

Um, girls, boys can't do, have babies, girls can

and um, not much, um, lady polices, is there?

Not many lady police (mm). No. Do you think

girls and boys are different as people?

Yes, why, why um men um can fight in um

dangerouser ways than girls, can't they?

Do you think so? (Yes, do you?) I suppose it's

true; why do you think that is?

Why, um, um God made it like that, didn't he?

Mm. And let me see, so who do you think are

faster, boys or girls?

Um sometimes girls when they have, um when

they are older (mm) and what else?

OK, who do you think's cleverer?

Boys sometimes.

And sometimes girls?

Yes.

All right. Who do you think's stronger?

Boys.

Always?

Of course.

Why of course?

Why they do the powerfullest fighting.

Mm. And who do you think's nicer?

The girls.

The girls are nicer?

Yes.

And why are the girls nicer?

Why they are.

And who talks more, boys or girls?

Girls.

And who do you think is gentler?

Um of course girls are nicer, girls, girls are nice

so, so girls won't fight, (mm) will they?

I don't know.

Some do, don't they?

But not really?

No.

They're much, they're, they're more gentle, are

they? Who's better behaved, boys or girls?

Girls are better behaved.

Do you think so?

Yes.

OK.

3 Grammar

Not much lady polices, is there?

Men can fight in dangerouser ways than girls,

can't they?

God made it like that, didn't he?

Girls are nice, so girls won't fight, will they?

Some do. don't they?

5 Student language 1

Woman:

What, what do you think strong?

Man:

Strong er er for me is the word er er for male because er (for male?) yes for male because er it er it a word, a very, er a very strong for, for, for (laughter) describe the, the meal, the male, er man (mm) and it's not right for a woman, it er right, er it er right er for a fern-, female, female er sweet or kind (mm) or love, er sweet, kind, careful (yes) er can, can describe very well of a, of a fern-, of a woman (mm).

W: But I think strong is er man, male.

M: Yes, strong (yes) is man (yeah), strong er hard­working (yes) because er is the man is er that work a lot (laughter) (mm).

W: But now, nowaday er female, female work more hard (yes) yes.

M: Hard-working, hard-working is for male

because of the man (yes) work every time (yes) (laughter) not the woman (but). The man is er um, mine., er he works in my case he, he makes of er (yes) difficult, difficulter work (yes).

W: But housewife, housewife, housework is very hard (yeah), always cooking and cleaning and er washing (laughter) it's very hard.

M: Yes. And you said er that er hard-working is er for both yeah (yes, both). OK (mm). And other words such as loving (loving), intelligent, shy, logical (mm) ate for both (mm) because in, er in, in the er man, in the woman er we, we can find love and intelligent (mm). The man er could, could er be shy or the woman could be shy (laughter) and er, or logical (yes) and yes but er other words such as sweet, careful and beautiful I think that, er (female?) that er are for the female (um), yes (yes). Mm, for you?

W: But some, sometimes er beautiful man

(beautiful man) um yes, like a model (laughter).

M: I'm not sure I think beautiful er (model) is exact for describe a man (laughter), beautiful, but er yes, beautiful man (laughter) (mm) like me (laughter), like me (mm). I am, I am hard-

Tapescripts

working, er I am beautiful (laughter), I am strong. No. No, there are a lot of, of words that can describes er every, every person, male or er (female?) or female (mm), yes. W: Mm. Yes.

Unit 15

2 Listening 1

Vanessa:

Well, I think my free time is for doing all the things that I can't do when I'm at work like er having fun, sleeping, relaxing, um doing exercise or just generally winding down from the day-to-day traumas of living. Er what do I actually do in my free time? Well, I er play with all my toys; I play with my guitar and the piano and I play squash, and I read quite a lot and try to improve my computer skills. That's about it really.

Rod:

I guess I generally consider my free time to be time where I can sort of indulge myself in things that I, I like doing um away from work, er, generally concerning er maybe myself but also perhaps people who are around me er in a, in a social, in a social sense. As to actually what I do in that time, um I probably spend a lot of time cooking and er that usually leads to social gatherings, dinner parties or entertaining generally and er I like to sit outside when the weather's OK and have a few drinks and chatting with people, so I guess I'm fairly much a people person, so generally my free time isn't always just to myself, there's usually others around.

Derek:

So what do I think that my free time is for? Um I think it's for doing all the things which you always want to do but you can't do when you're at work because you're not allowed to; you can mix with the people which you want to mix with um rather than those you're obliged to, um and you can just basically be yourself and relax and take things easy or you can try and achieve things by having projects which aren't related to what you do during the day, um for example much of my free time at the moment is taken up with trying to learn Danish; um I'm also trying to master English grammar and I also enjoy playing guitar, um going to the gym and working out, things like that. Um

unfortunately I don't do as much with my free time as I would like to do but I guess that's the same for most people. Sue:

What do I think my free time's for? I would like it to mean time for me, time of course away from work and away from all the duties that one has to do outside work. I would like to be able to have more time for me, more free time to enjoy my family, but being a working wife I actually find a lot of my free time is taken up by doing the, er the domestic chores, doing the gardening, and keeping the household running. I do spend some time um on sports and leisure, for example, swimming and playing tennis, um and reading. I also find it quite important to be outdoors so I do try and go for walks. Really it's to do anything that's um outdoors.

6 Student language 1

Woman:

.. . and then swimming (yeah) and scuba diving (yeah, yeah) and dancing, yeah.

Man:

Have you in Japan a very good, er places for practise the skiing?

W: Yes, yes we have a lot (yes a lot). Yes, in

wintertime we can go, we can go everywhere (yeah) er in the north of Japan (mm) yes, and how about you? What, what is your favourite hobby?

M: Yes, I like er so much to er play tennis (tennis, yeah) um er skiing too (skiing) yes.

W: Can you sj<i in Spain?

M: Yes of course (oh). We have er a lot of

mountains in the north of Spain (yes) and we can practise this sport er during the, er the winter months (mm) and Easter month too (oh Easter month yes) yes. Now you can, you can in this, in this month, you can practise the skiing in Spain in April (oh) yes (even April) yes (/ see). (And then?) and then er...

W: Um but my hobbies most of sports (yeah) so yes I loved cooking (yeah?) yes, cooking (cooking?) yes. I can —

M: I have, I haven't more and more hobbies

because I, I, I am a lazybones person (laughter) yes, lazybones, yeah (oh); I don't like (ah yes) so much the sports (ah I see). I prefer my house, my friends (yes, yes . ..)

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1004