Part 2, Educational systems.

A. Keywords. primary school, secondary school, high school, higher education, college, university.

Vocabulary. comprehensive school, GCSE examination, A level,sophomore, provincial,school board, diploma,certificate.

A1, you are going to hear some people talking about the educational system in their country.

Before listening, discuss the prelistening questions below.

1, how old are children when they begin school in our country?

2, how are the levels of schooling divided?

3, what do school children have to take before they enter the university?

A2, now listen to the material.

while listening, focus on the points in the chart.

Supply the missing information in the chart.

Well, in Britain, for the ages of 5 to about 11, you start off at primary school.

And then for 11 to 16, you are go on to a secondary school or a comprehensive school.

And at 16, you take GCSE examinations.

After this, some children take vocational courses or even start work.

Others stay on at the school for another two years to take A levels.

And at the age of 18, after A levels, they might finish their education or go on to a course of higher education to a college or university, and that's usually for 3 years.

Well, it depends what state you are in, but most kids in United States start school at about 6.

When they go to elementary school and that goes from first grade up to sixth grade.

Some kids go to a kindergarten a year before that.

Then they go on to a junior high school, that's about 11, and that's the seventh, eighth and ninth grades.

Then they go on to senior high school around age 14, er, starting in the tenth grade and finish in the twelfth grade, usually.

Some students ,er, will leave school at 16 and they'll start work,

But, er, most of them stay on to graduate, er, from high school at age 18.

In the first year of high school or college, students are called "freshmen".

In the second, they are called "sophomores".

In the third year, we call them "juniors", and in the fourth year, they are called "seniors".

Now, a lot of high school graduates er, then go to college or university, and they do a four-year first degree course.

Some of them might go to junior college, er, which is two-year course.

Well, in Austria, what in the most states anyway, children start their primary education at 5 after perhaps a brief time in the kindergarten.

They will stay at primary school until they are about 11.

Then they'll either stay there or go to an intermediate school for a couple of years.

Then they start high school usually 12 or 13, which you start in the third form.

Now after three years in the high school, you sit a general exam, some states call it School Certificate, and that is sort of a general qualification.

After that, you can leave school at 16 or you can go on and sit your University Entrance Examination, which then gives you entree into a university or it's another useful qualification.

And from then on you go to various sorts of high education.

Education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, but school are administered by local school boards.

Kindergarten is for children who are 4 or 5 years old.

Children begin formal full-day schooling in grade one.

When they are about 6 years old, they must stay in school at least until they are 16.

However, most students continue to finish high school,

Some go on to college or university.

Each year of schooling represents one grade.

The school year extends from the beginning of September to the end of June.

Elementary school, includes kindergarten, to about grade eight.

Secondary school or high school may start in grade eight, nine or ten, and usually continues until grade twelve.

In Canada, students may go to university or to a community college.

If they want to learn skills for a specific job, they attend college for 1 to 4 years to get the diploma or certificate.

For example, lab technicians, child-care workers, and hotel managers go to college.

Universites offer degree programs as well as training in certain professions such as law, medicine and teaching.

Universities offer three main levels of degrees.

Students earn a bachelor's degree after three or four years of study.

A master's degree can take another year or two.

A doctoral may take a further three to seven years to complete.

A3. Now listen again, answer the following questions briefly

B. Keywords. widely used, difficult,hodgepodge, irregularity, largest vocabulary, idioms, varieties

Vocabulary, linguistics, spring up, aviation, hodgepodge, stem from, baffle,prestige, evolve,pose, slang

B1. listen to an interview talking on some facts about English.

Focus on the things make English difficult to learn.

Supply the missing information.

And now, we have an interview with a professor J.T Lingo, Professor of Linguistics at Chimo university, who is here to talk to us about the growing business of teaching English.

Good morning, professor lingo.

Good morning.

Professor, I understand that teaching English is becoming "big business" all around the world.

It's seems that language schools are springing up everywhere.

Why is that?

With the move toward of global economy, English has became the most widely used language in the world.

It's the language of business, aviation,science and international affairs, and people find that they must learn English to compete in those fields.

And do people find English an easy language to learn?

Well, every language has something about it that other people find difficult to learn.

English is such a hodgepodge of different languages.

It's essentially Germanic but a lot of its vocabulary comes from French.

And technical words stem from Latin and Greek.

This feature makes English fairly adaptable, which is a good thing for a world language, but it causes irregularity in spelling and pronunciation.

English spelling baffles me, too.

Yes, well, anyway, English also has the largest vocabulary.

Often there are words for the same thing.

One that is Anglo-Saxon and one from the French like"buy" which is Anglo-Saxon, and"purchase" which is from the French.

The French word often has more prestige.

Anglo-Saxon?

That's the word for old English.

The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought the French language to Britain and help English evolved into the language it's today.

I see, is there anything else particularly different about English?

Well, the idioms in the informal English pose a problem for some students.

Informal English?

As with any language, there are different varieties. slang, colloquial, formal,written, as well as the different dialects, British, American and Canadian English.

And how is Canadian English different from American and British?

Well, Canadian English is close to American pronunciation and idiom.

Some of our words and spellings do reflect British usage.

However, we wouldn't use British term "lorry" for a truck.

But we have kept the "o-u-r" spellings in words such as "honour", and "colour".

This has been very interesting, professor.

I am afraid we're out of time.

It has been a pleasure talking to you.

Thank you.

We have been talking to Professor Lingo of Chimo University.

B2. Now listen again.

Decide whether the statements are true or false, put T for true or F for false in the blankets.

Then discuss the following questions.

Questions for discussion.

1, Do you agree that English will eventually be the world language?

If not, which language do you think will be?

2, From your experience, what is particularly difficult to learn about English.