ПРОФИЛЬНОЕ ОБУЧЕНИЕ

Программа обучения старшеклассников лингвострановедению (английский язык)

Элективный курс

Лингвострановедение – это новое направление в лингвистике. Данный предмет предполагает изучение страноведческого материала на изучаемом языке через лексические единицы этого языка.

Данный курс способствует прежде всего:

а) развитию аудирования на английском языке;
б) развитию навыков устной речи (монологической и диалогической) на английском языке;
в) развитию навыков чтения текстов страноведческого характера на английском языке;
г) развитию социокультурной грамотности учащихся, без которой невозможно общение с представителями англоязычных стран, а также понимание истории, культуры, традиций и обычаев этих стран.

Лингвострановедение помогает развитию интереса учащихся к английскому языку, расширению знаний в области изучаемого языка и их совершенствованию. Лингвострановедение направлено на профильно-ориентированное обучение, и преподается в школах с углублённым изучением английского языка, лицеях и гимназиях. Этот курс представляет собой третью и четвёртую модели обучения английскому языку старшеклассников.

Программа обучения лингвострановедению рассчитана на 32 часа в год и предполагает изучение материала по одному часу в неделю.

Мне хотелось бы привести примерное тематическое планирование с указанием необходимой лексики и текстового материала.

Я читаю этот курс на английском языке уже несколько лет. Учащиеся слушают мой рассказ на изучаемом языке, затем обсуждают его в монологах или диалогах. Кроме того, их вниманию предлагаются необходимые тексты для чтения с целью их понимания и извлечения из них необходимой информации (страноведческие, художественная литература и т.д.). Примеры текстов см. на стр. 28.

Надеюсь, что программа представит интерес для учителей английского языка и даст мне возможность внести свои дополнения при введении и отработке лингвострановедческого материала с учащимися, которые изучают данный элективный курс.

М.А. Гуменник,
учитель английского языка,
лицей № 1525 “Воробьевы горы”,
г. Москва

SECONDARY EDUCFTION

After the age of 11, most children go to comprehensive schools of which the majority are for both boys and girls.
About 90 per cent of all state-financed secondary schools are of this type. Most other children receive secondary education in grammar and secondary modern schools.
Comprehensive schools were introduced in 1965. The idea of comprehensive education, supported by the Labour Party, was to give all children of whatever background the same opportunity in education.
At 16 students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations. In 1988 these examinations replaced the GCE and O-levels which were usually passed by about 20 per cent of schools students. GCSE examinations are taken by students of all levels of ability in any range of subjects, and may involve a final examination, and assessment of work done by the student during the two-year course, or both of these things.
Some comprehensive schools, however, do not have enough academic courses for sixth-formers. Students can transfer either to a grammar school or to a sixth-form college to get the courses they want.
At 18 some students take A-level GCE examinations, usually in two or three subjects. It is necessary to have A-levels in order to go to a university or a Polytechnic.
But some pupils want to stay on at school after taking their GCSE to prepare for a vocational course or for work rather than for A-level examinations. Then they have to take the CPVE examination, which means the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education.
In Scotland students take the SCE (Scottish Certificate of Education) examinations. A year later, they can take examinations called Highers after which they can go straight to a university.
Secondary education in Northern Ireland is organized along selective lines according to children’s abilities.
One can hardly say that high quality secondary education is provided for all in Britain. There is a high loss of pupils from working-class families at entry into the sixth form. If you are a working-class child at school today, the chance of your reaching the second year of a sixth-form course is probably less than that for the child of a professional parent. Besides, government cuts on school spending cause many difficulties.

I. Answer the questions:

1. What types of schools exist in Great Britain?
2. At what age do students start their secondary education?
3. When do they take their GCSE examinations?
4. Do children have equal opportunities for secondary education in Great Britain?
5. What can you tell about secondary education in Russia?

II. Make up dialogues about secondary education in Britain and Russia. Try to compare both systems of education.

III. Make up short situations about education in Great Britain using active words and phrases.

TURNER AND CONSTABLE

Constable never traveled outside England. He was slow to develop as an artist, and slow to become famous. In all these things he was the very opposite of Turner. If he was Wordsworthian in his attitude to nature, Turner was Byronic. The elements which seem so domesticated in Constable’s pictures are at their most extreme and battling in Turner’s grandest pictures. The large “Fire at Sea” depicts man’s hopeless fight amid storm and disaster. Human beings are literal flotsam in a raging sea. Turner himself actually experienced the “Snowstorm” Steamboat off a Harbour Mouth” in which wind and snow and spray sport with the unfortunate steamboat until it is barely visible except for a straining mast. There is a tremendous exhilarating terror in this moment when all nature’s forces are unleashed. Something of the same drama is in “Rain, Steam, and Speed”, where the glowing train forces its way over the high viaduct through the driving mist and rain – and here man is winning through, thanks to the newly invented steam engine. But Turner’s intense receptivity to nature’s moods made him able to capture also moments of utter tranquility. In the “Evening Star” there is nothing but the merging of sea and sky, day and night, as evening slowly sucks the colour from things; and only the diamond point of the single star shines out, caught tremblingly on the dark water. The same poignancy hovers about “The Fighting Temeraire” in which between dusk and day an old ship is tugged to its last berth. The ghostly hulk floats over the calm glassy sea, and the sun sinks like a bonfire in the west, seeming a symbol of the life that is ended, stirring us to a quite irrational sadness for days gone by. Such is Turner’s poetry.

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between Turner and Constable?
2. Have you ever seen pictures created by Turner and where?
3. Can you name the main Turner’s pictures?
4. Will you describe one of Turner’s pictures?
5. What Russian marine painters do you know?

II. Make up dialogues about the role of art in your life.

III. Please describe any marine picture of an English or a Russian painter using active vocabulary.

IV. Write a short essay about your attitude towards painting as a kind of art.

CHRISTMAS

If you try to catch a train on 24th of December you may have difficulty in finding a seat. This is the day when many people are travelling home to be with their families on Christmas Day, 25th December. For most British families, this is the most important festival of the year, it combines the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ with the traditional festivities of winter.
On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol service where special hymns are sung. Sometimes carol-singers can be heard on the streets as they collect money for charity. People are reminded of Charles Dickens’ story “Christmas Carol”. Most families decorate their houses with brightly-coloured paper or holly, and they usually have a Christmas tree in the corner of the front room, glittering with coloured lights and decorations.
There are a lot of traditions connected with Christmas but perhaps the most important one is the giving of presents. Family members wrap up their gifts and leave them at the bottom of the Christmas tree to be found on Christmas morning. Children leave a long sock or stocking at the end of their beds on Christmas Eve, 24th December, hoping that Father Christmas will come down the chimney during the night and bring them small presents, fruit and nuts. They are usually not disappointed! At some time on Christmas Day the family will sit down to a big turkey dinner followed by Christmas pudding. They will probably pull a cracker with another member of the family. It will make a loud crack and a coloured hat, small toy and joke will fall out!
Later in the afternoon they may watch the Queen on television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. If they have room for even more food they may enjoy a piece of Christmas cake or eat a hot mince pie. 26th December is also a public holiday, Boxing Day, and this is the time to visit friends and relatives or watch football.

I. Answer the questions:

1. What kind of holiday is Christmas?
2. Do British people try to be together with their families on that day?
3. In what way do children receive their Christmas presents?
4. What do people of Great Britain usually have for Christmas dinner?
5. Whose speech do people of the UK have an opportunity to listen to on that day and what is it about?

II. Find in the text the words which help to understand the main idea of the celebrations devoted to Christmas.

III. Speak about holidays in Russia. (Do it in pairs.) Describe your favourite holiday.

Литература:

1. Выборова Т.Е., Махмурян К.С., Мельчина О.П. Британия: Государство, политика, право. Тетрадь по лингвострановедению. М.: Центр “Школьная книга”. – АО “Московские учебники”, 2001

2. Сафонова В.В., Твердохлебова И.П. Пособие по культуроведению. М.: “Просвещение”, 1999

3. Ощепкова В.В., Шустилова И.И. Britain in Brief. М.: “Лист”, 1998