Английский язык: Экспресс-репетитор для подготовки к ЕГЭ, «Говорение».
Урок 8: «Изучение иностранных языков. Диалоги».

Task 1

You and your friend are going to take a language course in London. You would like to stay at the same place with your friend. Discuss all of the suggested possibilities and agree on the one that suits both of you:
• staying with your relatives in London
• staying at a hotel
• staving at a youth hostel
• staying with a host family

’It’s a great idea to take a language course in London! But where are we going to stay? I’d rather stay at the same place with you? And you?’

’So would I. I’ve got some relatives in London so we could stay with them. They are very friendly people and they know London very well. So they could recommend us the most interesting places to visit. Besides, we won’t have to pay for our accommodation. What do you think of it?’

’Not a bad idea! But I won’t feel very comfortable if we stay with your relatives. They are strangers to me and I won’t feel at home. In addition, we won’t be on our own in the evening and at the weekend. Just imagine that we’ll have to talk to them all the time and to do what they want us to. It’s awful! By the way, do they live near the school?’

’Not really. In fact, we’ll have to go by bus or by underground.’

’You see, it’s quite inconvenient to waste so much time getting to and from school. As for me, I’d rather stay at a hotel not far from our school. The hotels in London are very comfortable.’

’But they are very expensive! I’m afraid my parents won’t be able to afford it. Besides, it’s very difficult to book a hotel accommodation in London in summer. The hotels are usually full.’

’Well, it’s a pity because in the hotel you are absolutely free to do whatever you feel like doing, for example, go to the cinema or to a disco. What about staying in a youth hostel? They are much cheaper, and we’ll have the same freedom as in a hotel. What is more, we’ll be able to make lots of new friends with foreign teenagers and practise our English. What’s your opinion?’

’To tell the truth, I don’t like this idea. First of all, youth hostels are also expensive. Besides, they are usually far from the school so you’ll have to get to school by public transport. In addition, we’ll have to cook our meals ourselves and I hate cooking. Moreover, it’s no use speaking English with people who don’t know it. Don’t forget that students usually come to England to learn English. We should practise our language speaking with native speakers.’

’Well, perhaps, you are right. What do you suggest then?’

’Why don’t we stay with a host family? We could practise our English talking with them in the evening and discussing different things. Besides, it’s a good chance to get to know the English lifestyle as well as English customs and traditions.’

’Not a bad idea! Is it expensive?’

’Not at all. It’s the cheapest kind of accommodation, especially if we share a room.’

’But I’m afraid that we wouldn’t have much chance to be on our own and we would have to follow the family rules. Besides, it could be a long way from school.’

’I don’t think so. Students usually have enough freedom in the family, they even have their own keys, so we’ll be able to return home whenever we like. And the school usually chooses host families that live within a walking distance from school. What is more, the family provides students with morning and evening meals. So it will be very convenient.’

’You’ve convinced me that this is the best way to stay in London! It’s great that we won’t have to worry about our meals. Besides, the family could recommend us what to see in London. As for you relatives, we could phone them or even pay them a visit.’

’I completely agree with you! Staying with a host family will be the best choice for us.’

Task 2

Your English school is considering what to buy to help students with their English. Here are some of the things that have been suggested. Discuss all of the suggested possibilities with your friend and choose the one that both of you find most useful:
• a cassette recorder
• video cassettes
• dictionaries
• books for reading

’Our school is going to buy some things to help us learn English. What do you think will be the best thing to buy?’

’I’m glad we’ll have more opportunities to improve our English. I think we should buy a cassette recorder. There is no cassette recorder in our classroom and our teacher always has to ask somebody to lend it to her when we have listening tasks in our textbook. You know that listening skills are very important in learning languages. If you can’t understand a person you are speaking to, you won’t be able to communicate, will you?’

’I completely agree with you that listening is very important. But we should buy things not only for our group. I think it’ll be better to buy something that will be useful for all students of our school, for example, video cassettes with films in English. We’ve got TV sets in almost all classrooms so they can be used in all groups. Besides, watching English films is a good way to train our listening skills. Do you agree with me?’

’Well, I can agree that watching English films is really useful. But the problem is that we don’t have video players to watch them. Besides, all films now are on DVDs. If we had DVD players, it would be the best option for us but unfortunately DVD players are rather expensive so we can’t afford to have them in all classrooms. Why don’t we buy dictionaries? We need them for our lessons and ours are very old. The language is constantly changing, so we need modern dictionaries for our English classes.’

’It’s not a bad idea. Dictionaries are very useful. But good dictionaries are rather expensive so we won’t be able to supply all students with them. What is more, many of our students use electronic dictionaries in their computers and mobile phones so they don’t need printed dictionaries. That’s why I think we shouldn’t buy them.’

’I can see what you mean. What about buying different books for reading? Reading English books is the best way to enlarge our vocabulary and today there is a great choice of books in the shops. Moreover, many of them go together with audio cassettes so we’ll also be able to improve our listening skills.’

’Great idea! We could keep them in the library so all students will be able to read them at home if they want. I hope they aren’t very expensive.’

’No, they aren’t. They are rather cheap so we’ll be able to buy quite a big number of different books.’

’I completely agree with you. As for me, I enjoy reading English books very much and I don’t have many of them at home. So I’ll be very glad if we have books for reading in our library.’

‘I hope everyone will enjoy them. So what’s our decision?’

’Let’s choose books for reading. I’m sure everybody will approve of our choice.’