《英语教学法》（1）模拟试题答案和评分标准
Part I Fill in the blanks with correct information (30%, 2 points each)
1. a functional-notional
2. topics, situations, functions, notions 3. communication
4. generative-transformational grammar 5. The ‘holistic’ approach
6. able to produce structurally perfect sentences 7. the vocabulary and grammar structures, the skills required in typical situations 8. an instructor
9. take responsibility for his own learning
10. improving motivation, providing “whole-task practice”, allowing natural
learning and creating a context which supports learning.
11. the functional aspect of communication, use the language they know in order to
get meanings across and effectively, information gap
12. functional communication activities social interaction activities 13. skimming, scanning, inferring, recognizing rhetorical structures 14. look for implied meaning that is not stated openly 15. The presentation
Part II Decide whether the following statements are true or false. Write T for true and F for false. 20% (2 points each)
1. F 2. T 3. T 4. T 5. T 6. F 8. T 9. F 10. F
Part III 50%
Design a reading lesson with three stages as required.
Imagine that you would teach this text to a senior middle school class, think about the pre-reading activities you might design for it.
Age is a relative concept. Each of us will know that people in their sixties who regard themselves as “old”, are therefore seen as old by everyone else. We will also know people in their seventies, eighties or even nineties who remain very much part of society and who are mentally if not physically agile.
“Old” also varies from country to country and place to place. The Vilcabamba Valley in Ecuador, for example, is known locally as the “Valley of Old Age” or the “Island of Immunity” where many people live to be over 100. no one really knows
why, but a number of factors have been suggested, including the altitude, a mainly vegetable diet with little fat, reasonable work conditions, comparatively little stress, the beneficial effects of a certain kind of tree which recycles air—and the relative isolation of the valley. Further down in South America, in Potosi in Bolivia, life expectancy is at the other extreme—people don’t expect to live beyond
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their 40 birthday. Mining is the main occupation. The miners and their families suffer from harsh conditions, poverty, overwork, accidents, silicosis and other forms of lung poisoning. Therefore, in Vilcabamba, you may not be considered “old” until you are 90. in Potosi, you might be “old” at 30.
So if we can’t even really generalize about the meaning of “old”, can we say that there is an “aging crisis” Under current conditions and in the light of today’s population predictions, I think the answer must be “yes”. As more and more people live longer and their numbers increase both in actual numbers and relative to the general population, there will be fewer people to care for them if and when they need it. The dependency ratio, as it is called, is also affected by the increasing financial pressures put on families, particularly in the Third World. More and more women everywhere are working. Because women form the vast majority of careers, this also affects the number of people able to support elderly members of the family. As governments reduce spending on pensions and health systems in an attempt to keep taxes low or to conform to the “structural adjustment” policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund, it is old people who are likely to suffer most. For example, one of the main reasons the people in Africa or Asia or South America give for having large numbers of children is to “provide security” in old age. If people know that they could remain independent and yet be supported in their old age, then they would not feel the need to have so many children. Nor would they feel the isolation from society that arises from not having children.
As it is, “old” people—both in the North and the South—have been increasingly isolated from the rest of society in retirement homes which were seen as the model of how to deal with old age. Another model which claims to help people to live more independently is “care in the community”. What it usually means is “care in the family” and in most cases it comes from the need to find a cheap solution to the problem of caring for the old. This is all very well, but it puts the burden of caring very much back into the family—usually the women. While families can in some cases provide the support needed, the breakdown of the extended family and the squeezing of household resources have often led to neglect of, rather than succor for, the elderly. When resources are stretched, the old are likely to be the ones who go without.
It is precisely for this reason that in most of the world, “old” people continue to work until they die. They have no choice. They need to earn an income—however small—or they don’t eat. Indeed, people may even have to work harder as they get old, taking on the manual labor that younger people do not want to do. Many have to uproot themselves—old women who outlive their husbands are forced to leave their villages to seek work in the cities. In most Third World countries, older people figure as part of the huge informal economy, selling vegetables on the streets or
recycling garbage. The World Bank has suggested a “three-pillar” approach to financing the old which is based entirely on pensions. But even according to the World Bank, an estimated 60 % of the world’s labour force and 70% of old people, are part of the informal economy—they have no pension plan and are unlikely to save.
Kasturi Sen, a specialist on aging and policy issues, has quite a different strategy towards this problem. She calls it the “life-cycle” approach. The circumstances that people find themselves in when they are older, she says, is simply a continuation to the situation that they have been in throughout their lives. If you are poor, overworked and in ill-health when you are young, these conditions are likely to be the same or worse when you are old. She argues that in order to improve the quality of people’s lives--and especially the lives of women, who in most societies live longer—policies should aim at improving education in earlier life, helping people to move in and out of the labour market, and enabling women to take out financial credit and buy land. Better nutrition and access to contraception would improve health. These things, she says, would do more than anything else to “reduce the possibilities of acute vulnerability in later stages of life.”
Pre-reading activities (10%)
Activity 1
Specific steps: The teacher may bring in pictures (they might be taken from newspapers, magazines or advertisements) reflecting the life and work of old people, and then ask students to discuss in groups about the life of old people: their joys and worries, troubles and problems.
Reasons for your design: If the pictures are interesting they may provoke the students to contribute their ideas freely to the topic. In doing so, the teacher not only activates students’ existing knowledge about the “problem” of the old, but also arouses students’ interest in reading the text.
Activity 2
Specific steps: Before reading the text, the teacher may ask students to discuss in pairs or groups the following questions:
1) How do you understand the concept of “age”
2) What do you think are the factors that lead to long life And the factors
that are harmful to our health
3) What problems may appear when one gets old 4) Can you suggest some solutions to the problems
While students are discussing these points, the teacher should circulate around the class and give any help that is necessary with the vocabulary and expressions the students need. The teacher can also listen for some interesting arguments and ask those groups to share them with the whole class after the discussion.
Reasons for your design: The students may come up with various answers out of their discussions. That is good. These questions are actually covered in the text they are going to read. After their discussions, the teacher may ask them to read the text and check whether their responses are the same as or different from the author’s. Therefore, this activity provides a purpose for the students to read the text.
While-reading activities (20%)
Activity 1
Specific steps: Read the text through and discuss in pairs the following questions:
1) Why does the author say that “Age is a relative concept” 2) Why is there an “aging crisis” 3) What are the models of dealing with old age What are their disadvantages 4) Do you think the “three-pillar” approach will work Why and why not 5) what is the “life-cycle” approach How do you look at it
6) What is the intention of the writer in writing the article Did she
achieve her purpose
Reasons for your design: These questions have been designed in such a way as to get the students to discuss the answers, which cannot be picked out straight from the text. Students have to use their inference skills.
Activity 2
Specific steps: Read the text carefully and match the paragraphs with the following titles:
1) Why is there an “aging crisis”
2) One suggested way of financing the old 3) Models of dealing with old age 4) Age is a relative concept
5) What is the “life-cycle” approach
6) “Old” varies from country to country and place to place 7) old people continue to world until their death.
Reasons for your design: This activity is to train students in their ability to summarise. Students may find it difficult to decide on the titles for some paragraphs. IN this case the teacher should guide them to pick out key ideas.
Activity 3
Specific steps: Read the text again and try to infer the meaning of the following words from the context:
1) …who are mentally if not physically agile. (para 1) 2) …rather than succor for the elderly. (para 4) 3) When resources are stretched , (para 4) 4) Many have to uproot themselves. (para 5)
Reasons for your design: What is important here is not that the students give the correct answers, but that they can show each other how to work out the answers, so the teacher should get them to provide evidence from the text for their answers. This sort of activity is more suitable for pairs and groups, so that they can discuss it together.
(Suggested answers should be given in the exam.)
Post-reading activities (20%)
Activity 1
Specific steps: The teacher may ask students to form groups of four and discuss the following two topics:
1) Beside those mentioned in the text, can you suggest some other ways in
dealing with old age
2) Is there an “aging crisis” in China too Why and why not
Reasons for your design: Students may relate what they have learnt from the text to their experience of real life and may express their views on these two topics freely.
Activity 2:
Specific steps: the teacher may also be able to ask students to do a writing task after reading the text:
Write a short paragraph under each of the following headings:
1) What I expected the text to say
2) What I found interesting in the text 3) What the text made me think more about
Reasons for your design: This activity also gets students to think about the content of the text and express their own views on it. It is an attempt to “personalize” the text, that is to relate it directly to the students’ real life experience. The students could be asked to share their comments with others in pairs or in small groups. The teacher could read out some of the more interesting ones or ask each group to select and read out the most interesting comments.
Activity 3
Specific steps: The teacher may ask students to go to their local community or neighborhood in pairs or simply by themselves to do a mini-survey on at least four elderly people, and then write a written report based on the result. This could then be presented to the class.
Mini-survey
Name: _____________________
Age: ____________ Sex: _______________ Hometoewn: ___________________ Occupation (before retirement): ____________________
英语教学法模拟试题答案和评分标准
