Lesson 7: Mastering Languages

​Lesson 7: mastering languages

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Reading and Use of English Part 3

​8 Questions / 8 Marks

• you read a text of 150—170 words with eight gaps and one example (0)

• in each gap you write the correct form of the word given in CAPITALS at the end of the line.

​This part tests your knowledge of vocabulary and your ability to form words by adding prefixes and suffixes and making other changes.

​Group Activity

Work in small groups. How many words can you form from each of these base words?

govern - care - critic - child - break - occasion - force - deep - fragile - friend - repair

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Example

govern: government, governmental, governable, ungovernable, ungovernannly, governing, governor.

​Discussion

Look at your answers to the previous Exercise. Which of these suffixes did you use?

-ion, -ment, -less, -ise, -ally, -hood, -able, -ly, -ful, -en, -ity, -ship

​Corpus Mistakes

​Spelling mistakes with suffixes are among the most common.

Decide if the following need to be corrected. If so correct them, if not write 'correct'.​

​Spelling rules for affixes.

​Affixes are either prefixes or suffixes.

Here are some spelling rules when adding affixes.

When adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -ance, -ence, -en or -y,

double the final consonant in:​

• one-syllable words which end in consonant—vowel—consonant:

run - running, flat - flatten, mud — muddy

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(But w, x and y are never doubled: flowed, taxing.)

Subject | Subject

Verbs of two or more syllables which end in consonant—vowel—consonant when the final syllable is stressed:​

occur— occurrence, forget — forgetting​

Verbs which end in l after one vowel in British English (in

American English the l may not double):​

travel — traveller, cancel — cancellation

Don't double the final consonant when:​

• there are two final consonants: correspond - correspondence

• there are two vowels before the final consonant: disappear — disappearance

• the stress is not on the final syllable: deepen — deepening

Drop the final -e:​

• If there is a consonant before it and the suffix begins with a vowel (-er, -ed, -ing, -ance, -ation, etc):

nonsense — nonsensical, amaze — amazing, sane - sanity

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Note this exception: adding -able to words ending in -ce and -ge: noticeable, knowledgeable​

Change -y to i:​

• in words which end in -y after a consonant when a suffix (with the exception of -ing) is added:

  happy - happiness, try - tried / trial, study - studious, family - familiar, rely — reliance

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Note these exceptions:

dry- drier / drily but dryness; shy - shyness / shyly

Change -ie to y:​

• when adding -ing to words which end in -ie:

  lie- lying, die - dying

Add -es rather than -s for plural nouns or present simple verbs when the word ends in:​

-s: bus -— buses, miss — misses

​-ch: watch — watches

​-sh: wish — wishes

​-x: relax — relaxes

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Note: For some common nouns ending in -f or -fe the plural ending is -ves:

​leal— leaves, loaf— loaves, knife - knives​

Corpus mistakes

Spelling mistakes are among the most frequent errors made by candidates in the exam. Find and correct the spelling mistakes made by candidates in the next sentences.

Open Ended

As you can see in the advertisment, the holiday is quite cheap.

Open Ended

People are begining to get tired of being promised things it's impossible to give them.

Open Ended

I’m sure you‘re going to be as succesful as your predecessor was.

Open Ended

He was sent to prison for expressing his disagreement with the goverment.

Open Ended

By implementing these proposals we will be doing more to protect the enviroment.

Open Ended

The family I stayed with was realy kind and helpful.

Discussion

You are going to read a text about names for new products. Before you read, suggest an attractive and an unattractive name for each of the products in the pictures.

Scanning for information

Read the following text quickly and find out:

1 how companies name products

2 what problems they have when naming products.

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​DISCUSSION

Work in pairs

• How do people in your country choose names for their children?

• Are fashions in children’s names changing?

• In Britain, people also name their pets and sometimes their

houses. What things do people in your country name, and what

sorts of name do they choose?

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Reading and use of english part 6

​4 Questions/ 8 marks.

In Reading and Use of English Part 6, you

• read four short extracts from academic texts on the same subject

• answer four questions.

​This part tests your ability to identify similarities, differences and connections between opinions and attitudes expressed in the extracts.

​Discussion

You will read four extracts from texts about minority languages. Before you read, discuss these questions.

What minority languages, or languages spoken by just a small number of people exist in your country, or do you know about?

Are they in danger of dying out? Why (not)?

Do you think it is important to protect endangered languages? Why (not)?

5 minutes breakout activity

​Before you do the exam task in Exercise 4, read the introductory sentence in italics and each extract carefully and answer these questions. Then discuss your answers in pairs.

Extract A

What effect has globalisation had on minority languages?

What suggestion does the writer have for keeping minority languages alive?

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Extract B

What reasons does the extract give for not promoting regional languages?

What is the ’benign neglect’ position?

Extract C

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What problem do linguistics researchers face and how has this affected their research?

Why should languages be kept alive?

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Extract D

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When is it clear that a language is going to die?

Why is it important to prevent the loss of minority languages?

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​speaking part 2

3 or 4 minutes

You are each given three photos and are asked to choose two of the photos to speak about. You must speak on your own for one minute. You have to

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compare the two photos you have chosen

answer two questions connected with the photos, which are printed on the task sheet.

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When the other candidate is speaking, you need to listen and then answer a brief question about the photos.

This part tests your ability to speak at length, organise your ideas, compare, describe, express opinions and speculate about things connected with the photos.

​Look at the picture and read the examiner's instructions. What are the three parts of the test?

​"In this part of the test I’m going to give each of you three pictures. I‘d like you to talk about two of them on your own for about a minute, and also to answer a question briefly about your partner's pictures. Here are your pictures. They show people explaining things. I'd like you to compare two of the pictures and say what the speakers might be explaining and what problems the speakers might have."

​In the Speaking test you will get higher marks if you use a range of appropriate vocabulary. Decide which of these phrases you could use with each photo. (Some can be used with more than one photo.)

argue a case - boost morale - defend a client - decide on / discuss / explain tactics - encourage the team - give a demonstration - influence the outcome - persuade thejudge/jury - reach a verdict - take people through the steps

​discussion

work in pairs

• Take turns to talk for a minute to do the Speaking task in the previous Speaking exercise. You can choose which two photos you wish to speak about.

• When your partner has finished speaking, briefly answer this question about the photos your partner chose: Which of the two speakers do you think has the harder task?

See you next week!

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