English Language Lesson

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SECTION

Introductory Motivation and Focus:

One of the first things we do when we meet someone new is to introduce ourselves. In this chapter you will hear several people telling you about themselves. The questions they answer may be some of the following:

What is your name?
What does your name mean?
Are you married?
What work do you do?
How old are you?
Where do you live?
Where are you from?
Do you have children?
Are you the oldest in your family?

Vocabulary: To answer the questions above you may find the following words helpful:

marital status		family position
-single	-I am single.	-oldest
-not married	-I am not married	-youngest
-married	-I am married with children	-the middle child
-widowed		-the second of six siblings
-engaged	-engaged to be married	-next to youngest
-divorced		-an only child
-separated		-oldest son
		-oldest daughter
		-oldest grandchild

occupation

-driver	-driver	-teacher	-vendor	-merchant
-seamstress	-farmer	-shop owner	-own my own business
-tailor	-dentist	-police officer	-waiter/waitress	-fisherman
-businessman	-businesswoman	-businessperson	-artisan	-artist
-manager	-veteran	-postal worker	-repairman	-receptionist
-secretary	-factory worker	-cashier/clerk	-motorcycle repairman
-accountant	-banker	-bank teller	-pharmacist	-nurse
-firefighter	-unemployed	-student	-government official/civil servant

family members

-mother	-father	-brother	-sister	-child
-wife	-husband	-son	-daughter	-sibling
-parent	-grandfather	-grandmother	-granddaughter	-grandson
-aunt	-uncle	-ancestor	- cousin	-grandchild
-nephew	niece	-step-brother	-second cousin	-step-parent
-stepson	-half-sister	-half-brother	-great grandparent

places

-Long Xuyen	-Can Tho	- Ho Chi Minh City	-The Mekong Delta
- Vietnam	-the South	-An Giang Province	- Southeast Asia
- Cambodia	-the North	-the countryside	-a village near_______
- Thailand	- China	-the Central region	-near the Cambodian border

Checking Vocabulary: What do you already know?

Divide into four small groups. Each group will be given a scenario which they will plan to mime. To mime means to act without sound, so each group will prepare to act without talking. After the mime is over, the class will answer questions.

Scenario 1: A Visit to the Seamstress

A customer goes to the seamstress with fabric. This customer selects a pattern and places an order. The seamstress measures, cuts and sews. The customer tries on the garment and pays for it.

1. Who are the people in this scenario?

2. Make a list of verbs that describe what the customer does.

3. Make a list of verbs that describe what the seamstress does.

Scenario 2: A High School Teacher’s Class

A teacher stands at the front of the class and talks about a story in a book. She asks her students questions, and they raise their hands and answer. Then the teacher closes her book and gives her students an assignment. The students write it down in their notebooks.

4. Who are the people in this scenario?

5. Make a list of verbs that describe what the teacher does.

6. Make a list of verbs that describe what the students do.

Scenario 3: A Foreign English Teacher’s Class

A teacher from another country stands at the front of the class and points to objects in the room and says what they are. The students repeat what he says. Then the teacher points to things and the students raise their hands to tell him what the things are.

7. Who are the people in this scenario?

8. Make a list of verbs that describe what the teacher does.

9. Make a list of verbs that describe what the students do.

Scenario 4: Taking a Ride in a Cyclo

A person walking on the street approaches a cyclo driver and asks how much a ride costs. The driver tells him a price. The customer says that is too expensive and gives him a lower price. The driver points to his tired legs and suggests another price. The customer agrees and gets in the cyclo.

10. Who are the people in this scenario?

11. Make a list of verbs that describe what the customer does.

12. Make a list of verbs that describe what the cyclo driver does.

Study Skill A:

Interview

An interview is a way to get information from another person. It differs from a conversation because it is not completely spontaneous. In other words, when we have conversations, we do not know what will be said next. An interview is a controlled dialogue. The interviewer (the person who asks the questions) has a list of questions to ask. The interviewer may not know what the answers will be, but the interviewer controls the conversation by the pre-planned questions. An interviewee (the person who answers the questions) may have less control. The interviewee is usually spontaneous unless he/she knows what questions will be asked in advance. Newspaper, television, documentary films, and radio reporters and journalists often interview people to get the information that is reported in the news.

In the IC3 section, there are two explanations for how children are named: one in the United States and a second one in Vietnam. After reading these articles, think about your name. Answer these questions.

What is your full name?
Does your name have meaning? If it does, explain the meaning.
Why did your parents give you this name?

What are some other questions that can be asked about a person’s name? Write these questions down to remember them. Then prepare to interview a classmate.

Most likely, you know your classmate well and asking your classmate for an interview may be easy. However, should you interview someone you do not know so well or interview someone you have never met, here is a way to approach them and ask for an interview.

Some Polite Ways to Ask Someone for an Interview:

Excuse me, I am a student of English. I have an assignment to interview someone from another culture. May I ask you some questions?

I am learning about naming traditions in my English class. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions about your name?

Exercises and Activities for Speaking Skill A:

Interview a classmate about their name and the traditions and family customs that may have contributed to their name. First, write down the questions you will ask. Then ask your classmate the questions and write down the answers. Introduce your classmate to the class.

For example:

I want to introduce Luong Thanh Yen. Thanh Yen means “tranquility” and the “stillness of water.” Thanh Yen’s parents wish for him a calm life.

If you are bold enough, interview someone from another cultural tradition. First, write down the questions you will ask. Then ask a person from another cultural tradition the questions and write down their answers. Tell your class about the person you interviewed. Here are some examples:

Example 1 :

This week I met Elizabeth Anne. Elizabeth Anne is American. Both of these names come from the Bible. The name “ Elizabeth” is of Greek and Hebrew origins and it means “my God is abundance.” Her middle name, “Anne,” means grace or favor. She is named after both of her grandmothers. In America it is acceptable to name people after other family members.

Example 2:

Yesterday, I talked to my friend Angong. Angong is from the Sudan in Africa. Her full name is Angong Dhol Acuil Aku. Angong is her given name. Dhol is her father’s name. Acuil is her grandfather’s name. And Aku is her great grandfather’s name. In Sudan, the male lineage of the family must be important.

Here are some resources on the internet to find the meaning of names from many parts of the world:
http://www.behindthename.com; http://www.babynamesworld.com/

Lecture/Presentation:

Listen to people talk about themselves. First look at the vocabulary below and discuss the meaning of the words with your teacher and classmates. Then listen to these people introduce themselves.

Transcript: Ms. Linh


seamstress (n)	order (n)	to specialize (v)	unique (adj)
style (n)	pattern (n)	to sew (v)	comfortably (adv)
sewing machine (n)	garment (n)	to place (v)
fabrics (n)	customer (n)	to fit (v)
	measurement (n)

(transcript):

My name is Linh. I am a seamstress. I specialize in making ao dai which is a style of dress unique to Vietnam. I learned to sew from my mother and my work is in the family business. We have a shop with our sewing machines. We also sell fabrics. Customers come to the shop to place their orders. We take measurements, cut the patterns, sew and fit our garments in this shop. I live with my parents and my grandmother. We live in rooms above the shop. I am 22 years old. I study English in the evenings at a language center. But when business is good, I don’t have much time to study.

(end of transcript)

Transcript: Mrs. Trang


motorcycle (n)	weekend (n)	to own (v)	busy (adj)
literature(n)	income (n)	to visit (v)
import-export company (n)		to inspire (v)
kilometer (n)

(transcript)

I am the mother of two children. We live in the city of Long Xuyen near My Long market. Our family owns a motorcycle and on weekends we visit my parents. They live in a village 30 kilometers from here. I am a teacher of Vietnamese Literature in the high school and my husband works for an import-export company. With two incomes, we live a busy life, but we are able to live comfortably in a place not far from our family homes. My work is very difficult. I teach many students during the day and I feel very tired. But I love the literature and I hope that some of my students will be inspired to be teachers or writers.

(end of transcript)

Transcript: Chris


campus (n)	product (n)	to taste (v)	curious (adj)
coffee shop (n)	holiday (n)	to move (v)	for sale (adj)
		to pass (v)	homesick (adj)

(transcript):

I came to Vietnam because I am curious about how other people live. I studied to be an English teacher because it helps me work in other countries. I am not married, so I am able to move from place to place. I live on the university campus. I like to walk around the city and taste the interesting foods and see what products are for sale. And I like to practice speaking Vietnamese. Sometimes I like to sit at a coffee shop and watch everyone who passes by. And sometimes I’m homesick, especially during the holidays when my family is together.

(end of transcript)

Mr. Minh


part (n)	education (n)	to forbid (v)	direct (adj)
law (n)	route (n)	to ride (v)	dangerous (adj)
foreigner (n)	body (n)	to bargain (v)	young (adj)
war veteran (n)	tourist attraction (n)	to communicate (v)
good fortune (n)	backpackers (n)	to ache (v)
calculator (n)	guidebook (n)

I know every street in this city because people ask me to take them to every part of the city. I am a cyclo driver and it is five years since I moved here for work. I am a war veteran and am nearly 50 years old. I lost my chances to get an education. Nowadays, it becomes more difficult to be a cyclo driver. City laws forbid us to ride on certain streets so we can’t take direct routes. It becomes more dangerous with more traffic and the number of young, fast motorcycle drivers. We see more and more foreigners in this city. Some are businessmen and some are backpackers. I think they see me as a tourist attraction. They don’t understand how to bargain, so it is my good fortune to give a foreigner a ride if he is rich. But backpackers sometimes drive a hard bargain by looking at the advice of a guidebook. This is why I want to learn English. Now I sometimes understand by using maps and words in guidebooks and numbers on a calculator. But how long will my body be able to do this? At night when I return to my home, my back and legs ache.

Exercises and Activities for Listening Skill A:

Listen to the people talk about themselves again. Using the chart below, write down as much information as you can about each person. Not every person talks about every item on this chart. Some answers are provided for you.

Name	Occupation	Age	M.S**	Family Information	Location
Ms. Lien	seamstress
Mrs. Trang			married		Long Xuyen
Chris				sometimes gets homesick
Mr. Minh		50 +/-

How would you answer these questions?

What is your name?
What does your name mean?
What work do you do?
How old are you?
Where do you live?

Where are you from?
Are your married?
Do you have children?
Are you the oldest in your family?
Is there something about you that may be a surprise to your classmates?

Write a passage introducing yourself. You may use your answers to the questions as information to put in the passage. You may want to change the order of the questions. Below are two examples of how people answered the questions. Then, below, are short passages written to introduce themselves using the answers to the questions.

First, answer the questions. Then select from your answers the things you want to use to introduce yourself. You do not need to use all your answers. You may want to add more explanations that do not appear in your answers.

For example:

What is your name?	What is your name?
Vo Thi Tu	Jonathan William Johnson. People call me “Jon.”
What does your name mean?	What does your name mean?
Vo is a common Vietnamese surname. And Thi is a girl’s middle name, but it doesn’t have meaning. And Tu means a star.	Jonathan means “a gift from God.”’ William is a German name that has something to do with helmets or protection. And my last name merely means “the son of John.” It is a very common name in the U.S.
What work do you do?	What work do you do?
I am a rice farmer.	I’m a student at the University of Colorado. I’m studying to become a teacher of English.
How old are you?	How old are you?
I am 35 years old.	I’m 23 years old.
Where do you live?	Where do you live?
I live in the countryside in An Giang Province.	I am now renting an apartment with two friends near the campus.
Where are you from?	Where are you from?
My home village is near Dong Thap.	I grew up in New York City. I moved a long way from home because I like to ski and I thought it would be great to live near the mountains.
Are your married?	Are your married?
Yes, we live with the family of my husband.	No, I’m still single.
Do you have children?	Do you have children?
Yes, we have two sons.	N/A (Not Applicable)
Are you the oldest in your family?	Are you the oldest in your family?
No, I am the youngest from a family with seven children.	Yes, I am. Actually, I am the only child in my family.
Is there something about you that may be a surprise to your teacher and classmates?	Is there something about you that may be a surprise to your teacher and classmates?
I am known to be a very talkative person in this class. But when I was a child, I was painfully shy.	Since I have been living in my own apartment, I find I am a very good cook.

Combining the answers from the questions above, a reading passage is created that describes a person’s life. Read this passage out loud to a classmate or to your class.

My name is Vo Thi Tu which means “star” in Vietnamese. I am a rice farmer. I am 35 years old. I live in the countryside in An Giang Province. My home village is near Dong Thap and I come from a large family. Now I live with the family of my husband. We have two sons.

Let me introduce myself: My name is Jonathan William Johnson. I am a student of Education at the University of Colorado. I am an only child that came from the large city of New York. My parents named me after my grandfather and both, Jonathan (meaning “gift from God”) and William (a German name that combines “determined” and “helmet”) are names that have been in my family for many generations. As a 23-year-old, I felt ready to adventure out far from my family and chose to go to school in a place with mountains so that I can ski on the weekends. I enjoy living in an apartment with two roommates. I never knew that I would enjoy cooking very much, but I have discovered that I am a good cook. So I do most of the cooking in our apartment. My friends wash the dishes.

Answer the Questions Here:

What is your name?

What does your name mean?

What work do you do?

How old are you?

Where do you live?

Where are you from?

Are your married?

Do you have children?

Are you the oldest in your family?

Is there something about you that may be a surprise to your teacher and classmates?

Now combine your answers into a small paragraph.

In Small Groups, read your paragraphs to each other to introduce yourself. Then, introduce yourselves to each other without reading. Try to be spontaneous and not speak from memorization. Just talk about yourself.

Study Skill B:

Getting the Main Ideas: A Matter of Stress and Pitch

Tone, pitch and stress are used for different purposes in the English and Vietnamese languages.

In English speech, important words are stressed. The main idea will come from the stressed words. Pitch may carry meaning.

Tone, or the musical voice of a language—voice inflections—carries meaning in Vietnamese. There are six tones in the Vietnamese language. A word pronounced correctly but with the wrong tone becomes another word or not a word at all.

The Vietnamese language has six tones:

Word with tone marker	Meaning	Tone Description
ma	spirit, ghost	level
má	mommy	high-rising
mà	but	low
mạ	rice seedling	low-falling
mả	tomb	high-falling-rising
mã	code, cipher	low-falling-rising

In English, the speaker’s meaning can be conveyed with stress and pitch. Stress refers to the strength of voice and pitch is more similar to tone. However, one word can be stressed differently or can carry different pitches to convey different meaning or show emphasis.

The problems Native English speakers have with speaking Vietnamese tones have more to do with the use of intonation. English speakers make use of a falling tone with most statements and with “wh” questions. A rising tone marks yes/no questions. It is difficult for a native speaker of English to not voice these uses of tone when speaking Vietnamese. For example, the use of “ khong ” at the end of a sentence means “no” or “not” acting as a question word. A direct translation could be “You are a teacher, no?” Many English speakers feel the need to apply a rising tone to “khong” (L1 interference) changing the word’s meaning.

For more information: www.geocites.com/wordcraft_by_hastings/VtTones.html

Pronunciation of the “–s” ending.

There are three ways to pronounce the �-s� ending:
/s/	thanks, speaks
/iz/	teaches, uses
/z/	says, brings

Exercises and Activities for Listening Study Skill B:

Listen to the following words. Check the sound you hear.

Set A	/s/	/iz/	/z/	Set B	/s/	/iz/	/z/
thanks				always
father’s				courses
people’s				universities
teaches				bushes
traditions				lessons
kids				classes
dishes				desks
names				springs
teachers				uses
occupations				touches

Back to Top

Vietnamese Language Lesson

In this chapter you will do these things:

Vietnamese Language Skills: Discussing identity and empathy

Vietnamese Boy

What do you know about what shapes other people? Do you think that you could put yourself in another person’s shoes and experience an event from their perspective? Today’s exercise is an exercise in empathy and identity.

Exercise 1:

The first thing that we need to do is to get into groups of 2-3 people. Once you are in these groups, you will randomly pick a number from one to five. This will allow you to see what person you are going to be empathizing with. The list of people is in box below (Table 1).

After you have randomly selected a person, you will then pick another number from 1-5 at random. That will allow you to see what situation you will be placed in. The situations are listed in Table 2.

Once you have a person and a situation, please sit down with your group and begin to explain how the person you are empathizing with sees the situation in Vietnamese. Look to the vocabulary section below for some helpful vocabulary for this exercise.

After you are finished in small groups, gather in larger groups and discuss your findings. Enjoy!

Table 1

Person 1	Roberto is 29 years old and he is a recent immigrant to the United States. He is learning a lot of English and is trying to adapt to this new culture. He works as a cook at a restaurant, which he likes most of the time, but he misses his family who are still in Mexico.
Person 2	Tam is an 18 year old student who lives with her family in Ho Chi Minh city. She is about to take the university entrance exams to see if she will be able to continue studying. If she doesn’t pass those exams, she might try to take them next year. Both of her parents really hope that she does well on the exam.
Person 3	Lou is an 87 year old retired truck driver who served in World War II. His family isn’t very close to him, and he spends a lot of his time working in his garden growing flowers and vegetables. Lou doesn’t have many friends, but tries to take a long walk every day.
Person 4	Chaman is a 45 year old employee at a technical firm in Bangalore, India. He mostly enjoys his work, but sometimes wishes he had more time to spend with his family and his two teenage children. He feels like it is important to work hard in order to make a lot of money and have a good life.
Person 5	Erich is an 11 year old German boy who likes very much to play outside in the forest. He goes to school and does fairly well, and his parents encourage him very much, though Erich would much rather be outside playing with his friends and enjoying nature.

Table 2

Situation 1:	Your person finds a wallet with 100 dollars in it.
Situation 2:	Your person looses someone who they are relatively close to.
Situation 3:	Your person takes a trip to another country.
Situation 4:	Your person makes friends with someone of a very different background.
Situation 5:	Your person is treated meanly by a person from a different cultural background.

Vocabulary

Experience-	Kinh nghiệm	Vegetables-	Thực vật, rau cải
Relatively-	Có liên quan	Feelings-	Tình cảm, cảm giác
Forest-	Rừng	University entrance exams-	Kì thi tuyển sinh đại học
Nature-	Tự nhiên	Adapt to-	Thích nghi với
Situation-	Tình hình	Retired-	Nghỉ hư u
Immigrant-	Dân nhập cư	Encourage-	Khuyến khích, cổ vũ
Garden-	Vườn	To make a lot of money-	Kiếm được nhiều tiền

Level III

Chapter 1
Listening Speaking

IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
English | Vietnamese | Persian | Spanish
Assessment

Topic: Identity / Bản sắc