Foreign Language Learning in UK

辽宁 曲中宇

□语篇导读

在中国,大多数学生从小学三年级开始学英语，一直到大学。那么,你知道英国的学生在学校也学习外语吗？他们也跟我们一样从小学到大学都要学习外语吗？他们愿意学习外语吗？英国政府为了让国人学习外语正在尝试采取一些措施呢!

As an English man,I can speak three languages—English,German and French.So do you think the British people are very good language learners？ The fact is that they aren't.

Some statistics (数据)from the survey done by the European Commission(欧盟委员会)showed that 62%of the British people only speak English.38%speak at least one foreign language and 18%speak two or more.Compared with the British people,56%of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28%speak two or more.From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language.Many European people can have a conversation in English.That's why my country's people don't think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain,students are not required to learn a foreign language.That means learning a foreign language is only a choice at school.In UK schools it is common (普遍的)for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14.So why don't students continue learning foreign languages at school？ Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science and history.

To solve this situation,the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school.One way is to start learning it at a much younger age,and another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!

◆语块收藏

1....speak at least one foreign language……至少讲一种外国语

2.have a conversation in English用英语进行交谈

3.look for different ways to improve language learning寻求提高语言学习水平的不同方法

4.give school children more choices给学龄孩子提供更多的机会

◆典句赏析

1.From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages...从这个(统计数据)可以看出英国人并不是因为讲外语而出名……

这是一个复合句,动词see后面接的是that引导的宾语从句；be famous for是固定词组搭配,意思是“以……而出名,以……而著称”,后面接名词、代词或动名词（短语）作介词的宾语。

2.That's why my country's people don't think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.那就是为什么我的国家的人们认为没有必要学习一门外语的原因。

该句型是比较复杂的复合句。Why...a foreign language.是why引导的表语从句,说明原因；my country's people don't think it is necessary to learn...是含省略that的宾语从句的复合句,该宾语从句运用了否定转移这一语法规律,将否定形式的词转移到了主句。

◆理解自测

根据短文内容,判断下列句子的正(T)、误(F)。

1.The writer comes from America.

2.More than half of the British people only speak English.

3.British people are good at speaking foreign languages.

◆词句微练

根据所给汉语意思,写出英文句子

1.那便是他如此喜欢这个地方的原因。

_______________________________________________________________.

2.我认为这个男人不是警察。

_______________________________________________________________.

3.我听说这个城市以音乐而闻名。

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4.你用日语和他谈过话了吗？

_______________________________________________________________.

(答案见63页)