Communicative English Language Skills I (2) Unit 2 PDF

Unit 2: Health and Fitness Unit introduction Like the preceding unit, this unit exposes you to a range of activities designed to help you develop your communicative ability in English language. The unit has seven sections. The first section engages you in listening to a short text about a famous fo...

Unit 2: Health and Fitness Unit introduction Like the preceding unit, this unit exposes you to a range of activities designed to help you develop your communicative ability in English language. The unit has seven sections. The first section engages you in listening to a short text about a famous football player. In the second section you will learn how to use conditionals correctly. The third section is mainly meant to enable you to improve your reading comprehension skills. In the fourth section you will practice guessing the meanings of new words from context. You will reflect on your learning experiences in the fifth section while the sixth section encourages you to self-assess your learning progress. Finally, section seven summarizes the unit. Objectives By the end of this unit, you will be able to:  listen and take notes from a story;  read and identify main ideas in a reading text;  write a paragraph describing the lessons you have learnt about health and fitness;  use conditional sentences in conversations or in writing;  guess the meanings of new words from context;  discuss in English about health and fitness; and  reflect on your learning and self-assess your progress. 2.1 Listening: Zinedine Zidane Activity 2.1.1: Pre-listening 1. Do you know the meaning of ‗career‘, ‗profession‘, ‗professional‘ and ‗professional career‘? If you don‘t know them, your teacher will tell you their definitions. 2. Do you know any sportsman/sportswoman well? Write brief notes that describe the sportsman/sportswoman you know very well. Your notes can be about the person‘s:  physical appearance (e.g. short, tall, fat, etc.)  personal qualities (e.g. kind, humorous, sociable, etc.) 21   previous and/or present (professional) career (professional football player, athlete, etc.)  achievements (e.g. record broken, goals scored in a football tournament, success as a sportsperson, etc.) N.B. You may ask your teacher for vocabulary support! 3. Now, sit in groups of three or four and discuss your notes. Remember to take turns to describe your sportsman/sportswoman. 4. Who is the man in front of the crowd (a large group of people that are gathered)? What might he be doing? What was/is his professional career? In groups of three, discuss these questions and write some answers in note form. You can also include all that you know about this person. 5. When you finish, join other groups to discuss and expand your notes. You may use some of them in the next activity. Activity 2.1.2: While-listening 1. Listen as your teacher reads a text about Zinedine Zidane. Write short notes as you listen, and be ready to discuss them in small groups. 2. Discuss your notes in groups of three or four. Try to reach an agreement on certain points and develop better notes. 3. Look at the table below and try to understand what you are required to do. 22  1. Full name 2. Date of birth 3. Place of birth 4. Known for 5. Playing position 6. Played for 7. Went to Real Madrid for record fee of 8. Games won 9. Special points (if any) 4. Listen to your teacher again. This time, complete part or the whole of the table. 5. Listen to your teacher once more. This time you have to finalize your answers. 6. Now, be in pairs and discuss your answers before the teacher gives you feedback. Activity 2.1.3: Post-listening 1. Go back to the table you completed during the listening activity, Activity 2.1.2. Ask and answer WH-questions using the information in the table. Your teacher will assist you if you need any help. Example: S1: When was Zinedine Zidane born? S2: Zinedine Zidane (He) was born _________. 2. Do you engage in sports activities? For example, do you do push-ups or go for a jog in the morning? Why? Why not? Write short answers to these questions and discuss them in small groups. Some of you will also explain your answers to the whole class. 3. Do you know the meaning of to ‗jog‘ and its forms ‗jogged‘, ‗jogging‘, etc.? Learn this from your dictionary. What does to know a word mean? Your teacher will give you a handout explaining what to know a word means. Study the handout and use the information in the handout in your future vocabulary learning efforts. 23 2.8 Grammar focus: Conditionals 1. Individually, study the questions below and try to learn how they are constructed. Then, write three sentences in the table based on the given cues. a. What will you ask Derartu Tulu if you meet her in your university? b. Go back to the table you have completed about Zinedine Zidane, and quickly study the contents. What would you ask Zinedine Zidane if you met him somewhere in Europe? c. What would you have done if you had met Derartu Tulu immediately after she won the women‘s 10,000 meters race in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992? No. Name of What you will do/would do/would have done if you sportsperson meet/met/had met the person If I meet Derartu Tulu, I will_____________________________. If I had met Deratu Tulu immediately after she won the women‘s a. Derartu Tulu 10,000 meters race in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, I would have_________________________________________________. b. Zinedine Zidane If I met Zinedine Zidane, I would_________________________. 2. Now, sit in groups of three or four and discuss your answers before your teacher gives you feedback on them. 3. Listen and take short notes as your teacher gives a short lecture on conditional sentences. 4. Quickly develop your notes into brief summaries focusing on the forms, uses and meanings of conditionals. 24 5. Finally, give oral summaries about conditionals (how conditional sentences are constructed) in small groups. 6. Circle the correct words in parentheses in the following dialogues (1-4). Dialogue 1 Tigist: What‘s wrong? You look really stressed out about something. Kedir: It‘s this research paper I‘m writing. The outline is due tomorrow, and I‘m still working on it. If I don‘t finish it tonight, I (get, will get, would get) an F! Tigist: Well, I can help you if you (need, will need, would need) it. Kedir: Really? That would be great! I get off work at 4:30. Man, I feel better already. Dialogue 2 Almaz: Are you ready? Let‘s go. The movie starts in half an hour. We need to leave right now if we (want, wanted, will want, would want) to get there in time. Muhaba: I know, I know, but I can‘t find my wallet. Almaz: Can I do something to help you get ready? Muhaba: Well, if you helped me look for it instead of telling me what time it was, that (is, was, would be) a big help. Almaz: Okay. But let me say just one more thing: I‘d keep my wallet in the same place every day if I (am, were, can be) you. That way I‘d always know where it was. Dialogue 3 Bontu: How was your Spanish exam, Hadas? Hadas: Fine, I guess. I got a B. I could have got a better mark provided I (worked, work, had worked, have worked) on the verbs. And you? Bontu: I didn‘t study and I failed, but I (would fail, will fail, would have failed) even if I had studied; that‘s why I decided not to do it. Hadas: That‘s not true. Nobody fails an exam as long as they (study, studied, had studied). Dialogue 4 Mother: You can't go out. That's out of question. Son: Please, mum. Can I go out on condition that I (did, do, have done, had done) all my 25  homework before leaving. Mother: Well, if you (do, did, had done, have done) your homework when I asked you, you would be allowed to go out now. Son: But I didn't hear you. If I had heard you, I (would have done, will do, would do, will have done) it. Mother: That's the problem; you never listen. It (won‘t, wouldn‘t, wouldn‘t have) hurt if you listened to me once in a while. If you (did, do, had done, have done) it more often, your life would be much easier. Q. What would you do if you were the mother? Write your answer and show it to a partner. 2.3 Reading: Health and fitness Activity 2.3.1: Pre-reading 1. Do you think that Zinedine Zidane and the other sportspersons you talked about in Activity 2.1.1 have benefitted from engaging in sports? What are the benefits/advantages they might have got from engaging in sports? 2. How do sports help us to improve our health? 3. Write short answers individually and discuss them in pairs. Then, some students will explain their answers to the whole class. Activity 2.3.2: While-reading A. Read quickly the text below and find the main idea of each paragraph. Take notes while you read to help you capture the main ideas. The first one has been done for you as an example. 26  Paragraph Main Idea Paragraph 1 Team sports as one of the best ways to exercise Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph 4 Paragraph 5 1. Discuss your answers in groups of three or four. Also, focus on the techniques which you have used to work out the main idea of each paragraph. 27 2. Were your answers similar? Were there big differences? Why? What are some of the techniques you used to work out the main ideas of the paragraphs? B. Read the different parts of the above text and answer the following questions. 1. List the benefits of team sports. a. _________________________ b. _________________________ c. _________________________ 2. The writer believes that the ultimate goal of team sports should be winning the competition. a. True b. False c. information not given 3. ‗them‘ (paragraph 1, line 3) refers to _________________ 4. ‗It‘ (paragraph 1, line 3) refers to ____________________ 5. ‗Each one‘ (paragraph 5, line 1) refers to ______________ 6. How did you find the information in the passage? a. acceptable b. doubtful c. exaggerated d. unacceptable 7. Read through paragraph 4 again. If you decide to engage in team sports, which one(s) will you choose? Why? 8. Now, sit in pairs and discuss your answers. You will then review them with your teacher. Activity 2.3.3: Post-reading What have you learned from the text on health and fitness. Write a short paragraph explaining all that you have learned from the passage. The topic sentence has been provided to help you. I have learned important lessons from the text on health and fitness. ______________________________________________________________________________ 28 ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2.4 Vocabulary: Guessing meaning from context Activity 2.4.1: Building vocabulary 1. Find different words from the reading text which have the following meanings and write your answers in the spaces provided. a. ‗regular‘(paragraph 2) ________________ b. ‗value given for sport‘ (paragraph 3) _____________ c. ‗a number of‘ (paragraph 5) _______________ 2. Now, discuss your answers in small groups. In your discussion, also focus on the techniques that might have helped you to work out the meanings of words or phrases. 2.5 Reflections Reflect on your learning experiences in this unit by writing short answers to the following questions. 1. Which of the activities in this unit were: a) easy? Why? c) of medium difficulty? Why? b) difficult? Why? d) enjoyable? Why? 2. How do you compare your learning experiences in this unit with your learning experiences in Unit 1? 3. Discuss your reflections in groups of three or four. In your discussion, see if there are similarities, and if any, report them to your instructor. 29 2.6 Self-assessment Assess your learning progress in this unit by putting a tick mark (✓) in the appropriate box in the table below. No. Can you… Yes No 1. listen to and comprehend short texts of reasonable difficulty? 2. read with comprehension short texts of manageable difficulty? 3. write relevant notes while listening or reading? 4. write meaningful conditional sentences? 5. interact in English after engaging in listening activities? 6. interact in English after carrying out reading comprehension and reflective activities? 7. attend to vocabulary while listening or reading? Tell your partner your plan to make improvements in areas where you have weaknesses (if any). 2.7 Summary This unit has engaged you in a range of communicative activities. Specifically, the unit gave you opportunities to practice listening and reading activities with the other skills integrated. You also had a chance to learn vocabulary and grammar that you can use in communicative events. It is thus believed that the unit helped you to build on the skills and knowledge you learned in the previous two units. The next unit will also expose you to various activities aimed to enable you to further consolidate your English language skills and knowledge. Are you ready to proceed to Unit 3? 30