Dave

27 mar 20234 min

LEARNING LANGUAGES

Aggiornato il: 29 mar 2023

Talking about learning a language

Warm up

Name the official languages that are spoken in the countries below.

  1. The Netherlands:

  2. Switzerland (4 languages):

  3. China (2 languages):

  4. Tanzania (2 languages):

  5. Iran:

  6. Iceland:

  7. Brazil:

  8. Thailand:


 Now discuss these questions about the languages above.

  1. Do you know any of these languages? Which would you be most likely to learn?

  2. Which language do you think would be the hardest to learn? Why? Which would be the easiest?

  3. Which language do you think would be the most useful to learn? Why?

Vocabulary

Look at the sentences below. What do you think the words and phrases in bold mean? Match them to the definitions on the right.

Now answer these questions:

  1. What language do you think is very complicated? Why?

  2. What part of learning English is most challenging for you?

  3. Do you prefer to pick up new languages from music, TV and movies or do you prefer to study the grammar and vocabulary in a textbook?

  4. What can you do to improve your fluency in English?

  5. What languages have you mastered already? How long do you think it will take you to master English?

Listening - Part 1

Listen to the conversation and answer the questions below.

  1. What language is Sarah learning?

  2. How long has she been studying?

  3. What two things in English are hard for Nico?

  4. Why is Sarah lucky?

  5. Why does Nico not want to say "fat"?

  6. What does Sarah say is the opposite of "overweight"?

Listening - Part 2 (vocabulary recycling)

Read through the first part of the script. Then fill gaps with the vocabulary words from exercise 2.

alien | challenging | complicated | fluency | master | rich vocabulary | slang | to pick up

  • Nico: Hey Sarah! How are you?

  • Sarah: Pretty good. I’m just on my way home from French class.

  • Nico: How are your classes going?

  • Sarah: Great! My teacher says that I’ve come a long way. In the beginning I could hardly say a word, but now my _______ 1 is pretty good.

  • Nico: That’s great. You must be studying very hard.

  • Sarah: I am. I’ve been taking classes for almost a year, and I try to practise as much as possible. I’ll be ordering cafe au lait in Paris in no time!

  • Nico: I wish English was easier _______ 2. I understand a lot and can get by in conversations. But the grammar is very _______ 3 and it is hard for me to understand _______ 4.

  • Sarah: Yeah, the grammar is definitely hard to _______ 5. And English also has a really _______ 6, which can be _______ 7 for learners. Actually, I’m lucky that a lot of English vocabulary comes from French, so the language doesn’t sound completely _______ 8 to me.

Phrases for language learning

Complete the dialogues below with the phrases in the box.

a long way | a more polite way | another way of | do you call | do you say | get by | say a word | the opposite

Dialogue 1

  • A: How _________ hello in French?

  • B: Bonjour

Dialogue 2

  • A: I can hardly _________ 2 in Spanish.

  • B: Can you say hello, goodbye or thank you?

Dialogue 3

  • A: My English has come _________ 3 in the last year.

  • B: That’s great! What level are you at now?

Dialogue 4

  • A: My Italian is okay. I can _________ 4 in most everyday situations.

  • B: That’s cool. Can you teach me a few common phrases?

Dialogue 5

  • A: What’s _________ 5 of organised?

  • B: Disorganised

Dialogue 6

  • A: What’s _________ 6 saying hard?

  • B: Difficult or complicated.

Dialogue 7

  • A: How do you say move in _________ 7?

  • B: Pardon

Dialogue 8

  • A: What _________8 someone who is not polite?

  • B: Rude

Additional practice task

Look at phrases for Speaker A in the exercise above.

  • Think of different ideas for each word in bold.

  • Take turns saying your new sentences to your partner.

  • Listen to your partner’s sentences and respond.

Talking point

Discuss the questions below with a partner.

  1. What English slang do you know? Where did you learn it?

  2. Does your language have a rich vocabulary? Do you know any words in your language that don’t exist in English?

  3. Are there any alphabets that seem completely alien to you? Would you ever want to learn one?

  4. What is your motivation for learning English?

  5. Do you think learning a foreign language should be mandatory at school? At what age should foreign language learning start?

  6. Have you ever had to get by with just a couple of phrases in a foreign country? How did you feel?

  7. Have you ever felt embarrassed when speaking another language? Why?

  8. What foreign words have you picked up when travelling abroad?

  9. What is more important for you: speaking confidently or speaking accurately? Why?

  10. At what level, will you be satisfied with your fluency?

Optional extension/homework

When learning a language, it is important to understand grammatical terms for different types of words. Complete the table below with the following parts of speech and then answer the questions.

adjective / adverb / conjunction / interjection / noun / preposition / pronoun / verb

Answer these questions:

  1. What adjectives would you use to describe yourself?

  2. What’s another way of saying a boy? What part of speech is that word?

  3. What’s the opposite of below? What part of speech are these words?

  4. What conjunction do you use when there is a choice between two things?

  5. What do you call the two types of nouns, for example cats and knowledge?

  6. What’s another way of saying that someone does something often? What part of speech are these words?

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