Level I

Chapter 4
Writing

IC3 Section

IC3 | IT | TOEFL | Best Answer

Vietnamese translation of IC3
Persian translation of IC3

Language Lessons
Assessment

Health/ Sức Khoẻ/ سلامت و بهداشت

Guiding Question: How do people seek to stay healthy in your culture?	Câu hỏi hướng dẫn: Mọi người giữ sức khoẻ như thế nào trong nền văn hoá của bạn?
	سوال راهنما: چگونه مردم در فرهنگ شما سعی در حفظ سلامت و بهداشت خود دارند؟

Skills:

In this chapter you will do these things:

English Language Skills:

How Not to Use Chopsticks

Writing Out Instructions for Daily Tasks

Sentences That Support the Topic

Chronological Order and Sequential Order

Writing a How-to Essay

Signal Words and Phrases

Vietnamese Language Skills:

Answering Questions About Personal Education

Grammar point: “Lai” (Again)

IC3: Language Education and Globalization:

A Global Generation Gap: Adapting to a New World

Foreign Language Education Policy in Vietnam: the Emergence of English and its Impact on Higher Education

Thinking Beyond English in the Classroom: Fairfax Commits to Study Of Foreign Languages

TOEFL

Intercultural Communicative Competence

Language Education and Globalization

In the subject area of Foreign Languages, does your country’s educational system address the hopes and dreams of its citizens? It is widely accepted that we are living in a highly globalized society in which our cultures are inter-connected and often that connection can mean the lifeblood of a people. Have our schools transformed into systems that accommodate this changing globalized arena in which the world now operates?

There are several articles here related to this topic of Language Education and Globalization.

A Global Generation Gap: Adapting to a New World

http://pewglobal.org/commentary/display.php?AnalysisID=86 Released: 02.24.04

Generational differences fuel much of current social and political tension in Western Europe and the United States over globalization, nationalism and immigration, according to an in-depth analysis of results from the Pew Global Attitudes surveys. Older Americans and Western Europeans are more likely than their grandchildren to have reservations about growing global interconnectedness, to worry that their way of life is threatened, to feel that their culture is superior to others and to support restrictions on immigration. This generation gap is less pronounced in Eastern Europe and is virtually nonexistent in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Nevertheless, Americans and Western Europeans of all ages are less likely than people in other parts of the world to tout their own cultural superiority and are less wary of foreign influence. These findings are based on the Pew Global Attitudes Project's surveys conducted during 2002 and 2003 among more than 66,000 people in 49 nations plus the Palestinian Authority.

Throughout the world, there is a tension in opinion brought on by the push and pull of globalization. Strong majorities in all regions believe that increased global interconnectedness is a good thing. But globalization is more popular among the youth of the world. Everywhere but Latin America, young people are more likely than their elders to see advantages in increased global trade and communication, and they are more likely to embrace "globalization" per se1. This hesitation among some older citizens to embrace the movement toward globalization may be due in part to latent nationalism. Trend data from the World Values Survey2, in successive surveys over the past 20 years, show that for the last two decades older people in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe have consistently expressed more national pride than a generation of older citizens.

Whose Culture is Best?

The Global Attitudes survey shows that people all over the world and of all ages are proud of their cultures. Yet it is only in the West (North America and Western Europe) where that pride is markedly stronger among the older generations, while younger people tend to be less wedded to their cultural identities.

In the U.S., 68% of those ages 65 and older agree with the statement "our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior," while only 49% of those ages 18-29 agree. The generation gap in Western Europe is similar. More than half of older Western Europeans (53%) are culturally chauvinistic, compared with only one-in-three (32%) of their younger counterparts. The difference between generations is particularly apparent in France, where only 21% of those under age 30 support the notion of cultural superiority while 56% of those aged 65 and older say French culture is superior.

Eastern Europeans overall are more likely than their Western counterparts to say that their culture is superior. However, generational differences are not as sharp or as consistent as those seen in the US and Western Europe. In Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine, citizens of all ages agree about the superiority of their respective cultures. In the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovak Republic, there are differences in perspective across age groups.

In Africa and Latin America, strong majorities, cutting across almost all ages, believe their culture is superior. In Asia, feelings of cultural superiority are even more intense. There are no major generation gaps in the region, except in Japan, where 84% of older people think that their culture is superior, compared with only 56% of those under age 30 who hold that view.

Protecting "Our Way of Life"

Despite the general attraction of globalization and possibly, as a reflection of their sense of cultural superiority, solid majorities everywhere think that their way of life needs to be protected against foreign influence. In most parts of the world, that desire cuts across all age groups. However, in the U.S., Western Europe and parts of Eastern Europe, older people are much more worried than the young about defending their country's way of life.

In the U.S., seven-in-ten (71%) people ages 65 and older want to shield their way of life from foreign influence, while just over half (55%) of those ages 18 to 29 agree. This generation gap is even greater in France, Germany and Britain, where older people are twice as likely as young people to be worried about erosion of their way of life. Generational differences are less consistent in Eastern Europe. Concern is greatest among older people in Russia and Ukraine, while young Czechs are more worried than their elders about foreign influence.

Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and people living in the Middle East are generally even more worried than Americans and Europeans about a pernicious foreign influence on their way of life, but that concern is broadly shared across generations, with little significant difference between age groups.

Putting the Brakes on Immigration

Skepticism about foreign influence is evident in widespread, intense antipathy toward immigration. Majorities in nearly every country surveyed support tougher restrictions on people entering their countries. Immigrants are particularly unpopular across Europe, especially among the older generation, where half of those surveyed completely agree with the need for additional immigration controls. The anti-immigrant generation gap is widest in France, where more than half (53%) of those ages 65 and older completely agree that immigration should be restricted. Only a quarter (24%) of younger French men and women shared such strong views.

Anti-immigrant sentiment also runs high in the United States, especially among older Americans. Half (50%) of those ages 65 and older strongly support new controls on entry of people into the country. Only four-in-ten (40%) young people share that intensity of sentiment.

Support for greater immigration controls also is widespread in Africa, Asia and Latin America, without the generational differences seen in Europe and the United States. The principal exception is Japan, where older people are much more vehement than younger people that foreigners should face restrictions for entering their country. Fully 64% of Japanese ages 65 and older say there should be more control over foreign immigration. Only 12% of those ages 18-29 agree.

Most Agree English is Important

While most citizens of the world long to preserve their own national identities and to protect their cultures from foreign influence, majorities everywhere agree on the importance of children learning English or, in the case of the U.S. and Britain, on the necessity for children to learn a foreign language.

Generational differences on language training suggest that, while older Americans and Western Europeans are quite worried about foreign threats to their way of life, they still place great value on developing the language skills necessary to cope with the broader world. Fully 42% of US senior citizens completely agree that children need to learn a foreign language. Only 29% of those under the age of 30 feel that strongly about language training. In France, 68% of those ages 65 and older completely agree that kids need to learn English to succeed in the world today. Only 44% of those ages 18-29 feel that strongly. The age gap is equally wide in Britain and less pronounced in Germany and Italy.

In Eastern Europe, the generational difference on this issue runs in the opposite direction. Young people are much more strongly committed to the idea of learning English than the older generation. Overall, 53% of Eastern Europeans under the age of 30 completely agree that children need to learn English to succeed in the world today. Only 29% of those ages 65 and older feel the same way.

In Latin America, overwhelming majorities of all ages agree about the importance of learning English. Only in Mexico do young people place much greater value on language training than do their elders. In Asia, there is similarly widespread agreement among all age groups about the need to learn English. The lone exception is Japan, where 75% of those ages 65 and older completely agree that it is important for kids to learn English, while only 45% of those ages 18-29 completely agree.

1 This also is true in the Asian countries surveyed by the Global Attitudes Project but not aggregated for the accompanying table or for this analysis.

2 The World Values Survey, run out of University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, can be found online at www.worldvaluessurvey.org.

Foreign Language Education Policy in Vietnam: the Emergence of English and its Impact on Higher Education Do Huy Thinh http://www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi_proceedings/dothinh.htm Introduction At a decisive time in the escalating Vietnam War, the then-President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, Monika Kehoe (1968), made the following prediction: "What the role of English may be in Southeast Asia will depend on the outcome of the conflict there" (p. 129). The choice of English in particular, and foreign languages in general, to be taught in an educational system for the most part bear the political, economic and social imprints of that society. In Vietnam, during the twenty years since national reunification in 1975, the teaching and learning of foreign languages have experienced many major changes, and after each change a language usually emerges as the main one taught in school. When Vietnam adopted doi moi [Economic Renovation Policy] in 1986, conditions for a thorough look at the role of foreign languages in national development started to emerge. After 1975, Russian was taught throughout the whole country. Patricia Denham (1992) — an international expert familiar with foreign language education in Vietnam, and also the head of a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project for English training for Vietnamese teachers for more than a decade after 1985 — notes that targets were set for foreign language education at high school in these early years: 60% studying Russian, 25% studying English and 15% studying French. In the North, Russian, which had developed a solid footing during the war, continued to predominate. The number of Russian majors in this period always outnumbered the combined enrollments in all other foreign languages. In the South, Russian departments, the whole faculty of which came from the north, were established in many universities in 1976, and began to enroll students in 1977. The spread of the language was further strengthened by Russian aid in education, through which hundreds of Vietnamese teachers and students were sent annually to the Soviet Union for Russian studies, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Besides Russian, Chinese, French and English maintained the same pace of development in the North as before 1975. The situation was, however, different in the South, where French and particularly English were deep-rooted at many social strata. Both languages continued to be taught: Russian, however, began to develop. In early reunification was emphasized, inevitably including a restriction of foreign language use and development.

Since English had been widely used before, its retention was inevitable but very limited. Since all schools were nationalized, hundreds of private English-language centers were closed, and as an immediate result of the weakening of all the commercial ties with capitalist nations, English was the only language taught in a limited number of classes in high schools, particularly in big cities. In higher education, enrollments in English also decreased dramatically. For instance, at the University of Ho Chi Minh City, the annual quotas for English training declined from 60 students in 1975 to a dozen or so in 1985. During this period, a small number of English language teachers were chosen and sent to Britain, Australia and India for graduate training (Fox, 1992; Do, 1994; Gayle, 1994; McCrum et al., 1986; Nguyen Ngoc Hung, 1992). The training programs in Britain and Australia were terminated during the period 1979-1985. Australia resumed its English training for Vietnamese in 1985 under the UNDP project, and since 1992 under bilateral aid agreements, approximately 40 teachers and interpreters annually — of English have participated in programs for higher degrees and certificates annually (Denham, personal correspondence). Approximately 200 Vietnamese teachers of English, mostly in higher education, received such training between 1985-1993 (ibid.), while a few people were trained in Britain and India. The period 1975-1986 witnessed Vietnam experiencing various major difficulties, including economic decline. At the Sixth National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1986), Vietnam decided to expand its relations with all foreign countries irrespective of different political systems and to adopt a market-oriented economy. This was seen here as a farewell to the obsolete subjectivism of the past. The famous term doi moi reflects reforms not only in the economy but also in other aspects of society. As a result of these reforms, more English-speaking foreigners began to visit Vietnam again along with products and advertisements in English. English started to become popular and was used not only between Vietnamese and foreigners but also between Vietnamese and Vietnamese (Denham, 1992). All this prompted the reemergence of English as the main foreign language. As a common trend, the demand for English training was quickened by an increasing influx of foreign investments, most of which came from capitalist societies such as Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia and the European Union, and these investors required English as the means of communication. In the late 1980s, students began to have the right to choose the foreign languages they wanted to study. English use was strongly supported by the variety of jobs with foreign ventures. English language underwent explosive growth during the early 1990s (Denham, 1992; Do, 1994; Nguyen, 1992, Shapiro, 1995; Mydans, 1995; Penaflorida, Tatlonghari and Kaewsanchai, 1992; UCLA-LRP-BAVE, 1995; Wilson, 1993a,b), leading to an official acknowledgment of the role and status of English. MOET [Ministry of Education and Training], for the first time, conducted a statistical survey of foreign language needs in late 1993 (MOET, 1993b). This initial work has contributed to the building of "A National Strategy for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning throughout All Levels of Education" (MOET, 1994c). This research project aimed to review foreign language education in the previous two decades or so and a proposal for future implementation in foreign language teaching and learning. University students are now required to take foreign languages for their graduation exams. In addition, many universities require students of all majors to take a foreign language at the entrance exams. Post-graduate education and the granting of faculty positions also require foreign language proficiency. Foreign languages, especially English, are increasingly used widely in education and in daily-life activities. As a matter of fact, the status of foreign languages, particularly English, has recently been reconfirmed by an Order, signed by the Prime Minister (August 15, 1994), in which government officials are required to study foreign languages, usually English. It should be noted here that, in contemporary Vietnam, there has never been a stronger, clearer decision concerning foreign language education policy and planning made at the highest-level authority.

 

Thinking Beyond English in the Classroom: Fairfax Commits to Study Of Foreign Languages

by Jack D. Dale

The Washington Post, Sunday, November 26, 2006; Page B08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400964.html

"Doesn't everyone everywhere speak English?"

"I took four years of high school French and couldn't understand anything when I got to Paris

"How can we teach a foreign language to young kids when they are just learning their own language?"

For years, many Americans have dismissed foreign language study as useless, futile or even harmful.

Why, then, has the Fairfax County School Board decided that one of its major goals is that eventually every graduate will be competent in a foreign language?

First, board members looked around America and the rest of the world. They saw that many, if not most, developed countries required students to learn at least one foreign language. They saw that when these countries' diplomats, journalists, salespeople and soldiers are in a country that speaks a different language, they are much more likely to know something about that language than are Americans. This is particularly apparent in the Washington area, where so many diplomats, journalists, salespeople and soldiers are based. Washington, with its inherent resources, is able to support almost any language

Second, the board saw that other countries were ensuring second-language competence by teaching languages to very young children and continuing foreign-language instruction throughout the students' schooling. The best language-learning period is before puberty.

So, the board decided to move toward foreign-language competence for all students and to start instruction in early elementary school.

What language? Knowing any foreign language is better than not learning one, but individual schools and students have particular reasons for choosing one language over another. Each elementary school will work with its community to determine what language(s) to offer, and middle and high schools will continue to offer choices. We are already offering nationally critical languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Russian. With the help of federal grants, we are expanding offerings and creating closed-circuit

One of the challenges is to find qualified teachers in these languages and to enroll enough students to fill classrooms in some schools. So we can no longer rely on traditional methods of delivering instruction. Remote learning appears to offer an efficient, cost-effective alternative.

This change will not be instantaneous.

Fairfax County has for years had partial-immersion programs for foreign languages in several elementary schools, but the model that eventually will be in every one of our elementary schools features language teachers who work with regular teachers to integrate foreign-language instruction into lessons in other subjects. Students will not suffer in reading, math, science or social studies. Instead they will learn to talk about these subjects in the foreign language they are studying. In any case, research indicates that students who learn a foreign language develop all academic skills better and perform better on standardized tests.

It is time to view language as a necessary tool in today's job market -- not simply a check-off requirement for college admissions.

And it's not just about jobs. Really understanding a nation's culture means learning its language. Being able to think in another language helps a person understand that a translation is not the same as the original. Respect for and knowledge of diverse cultures around the globe are essential life skills.

Increased language proficiency will make us safer as a nation. We put our country at risk when we depend solely on the services of interpreters and translators. We need to teach a broad range of languages that will make this generation of students full participants in the global society and give them the skills necessary to communicate and protect our national interests.

Back to Top

Taking it Further

Back to Top

Taking It Further Explanation

 

Information Technology

Back to Top

Input for IT

TOEFL Exercises

Back to Top

These exercises are based on an article from “World Press Review,” September 2002, “Poland Must Bread the Mold. Building Better Schools Together” by Elzbieta Cichocka & Gazeta Wyborcza

The following questions are incomplete sentences. Beneath each sentence you will see four words or phrases, marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the one work or phrase that best completes the sentence.

1. Parents can exert an influence over schools _________ parents’ councils and the election of council members, as well as town officials and mayors.

1. between
2. through
3. because
4. though

2. Participation in municipal elections is a good occasion to find out what ideas the candidates have about the local schools.

1. finding
2. to found out
3. to find out
4. found

3. Boredom and humiliation are the most frequent accusations that students make _______their schools.

1. against
2. among
3. between
4. before

4. It is hard not to be bored when, week after week, and month after month, you have to assimilate bits of knowledge that do not present a cohesive picture ________________around us.

1. to the world
2. with the world
3. of the world
4. because of the world

5. Some schools teach in a manner similar to putting together a thousand-piece puzzle, without providing a picture of what this puzzle ___________ to represent.

1. supposing
2. to suppose
3. were supposed
4. is supposed

6. It is not easy to create a school that provides a cordial atmosphere ___________ students and teachers.

1. for both
2. the both
3. both
4. both of

7. A difference in age and life experience is often enough to make people treat one another as enemies.

1. making
2. made
3. make
4. to make

8. There are Polish schools that young are happy to attend and that the teachers like to work in.

1. and
2. so
3. because
4. if

9. These teachers cope better with the syndrome of professional burnout, since they do not conduct their classes __________ old comfortable way.

1. for the same
2. with the same
3. in the same
4. same as

10. It is important to be really interested in the students’ problems, to know the subject matter, and to possess social skills, not to betray students; confidence, not to give up, and ________ a sense of humor.

1. keeping
2. to keep
3. kept
4. keep with

Directions: In the following exercises each exercise has four bold type words or phrases. Consider the first bold type word to be A, the second one B, the third one C, and the fourth one D. Choose the one word or phrase that must be changed in order for the sentence to be correct.

11. We got to meet some teacher who break from the usual stereotypes. We met interesting principals.

12. What distinguishes them is that they continue searching and are not afraid to experiment. They has vision and courage.

13. They have vision and courage. Schools as these vary – they are big and small, richer and poorer.

14. They have “class” in that they being willing to change.

15. It is less important from what level they begin What counts is what they strive to achieved.

16. According to the world-renowned futurologist Alvin Toffler, the “mass” school come into being as an institution designed to prepare industrial workers for their jobs.

17. Along with the official educational program, the school trained its students to be punctual, obedient, and capable of performing repetitive task.

18. Them traits were held in high esteem until the middle of the 20th century.

19 Societies has changed, but schools have not kept pace with these changes.

20. In many countries there is talk within a revolution in education.

Answer Key

1	B	6	A	11	B	16	B
2	C	7	D	12	D	17	D
3	A	8	A	13	B	18	A
4	C	9	C	14	C	19	A
5	D	10	B	15	D	20	C

"Best Answer"

Back to Top

Best Answers to Guiding Question:

After you have completed the Reading, Listening/Speaking, and Writing chapters 4, how would you answer the following question?

Guiding Question: How do people seek to stay healthy in your culture?	Câu hỏi hướng dẫn: Mọi người giữ sức khoẻ như thế nào trong nền văn hoá của bạn?
	سوال راهنما: چگونه مردم در فرهنگ شما سعی در حفظ سلامت و بهداشت خود دارند؟

 FORUM

Back to Top