Foreign Language Learning in UK

遼寧 曲中宇

□語篇導讀

在中國,大多數學生從小學三年級開始學英語，一直到大學。那么,你知道英國的學生在學校也學習外語嗎？他們也跟我們一樣從小學到大學都要學習外語嗎？他們愿意學習外語嗎？英國政府為了讓國人學習外語正在嘗試采取一些措施呢!

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 (數據)from the survey done by the European Commission(歐盟委員會)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!

◆語塊收藏

1....speak at least one foreign language……至少講一種外國語

2.have a conversation in English用英語進行交談

3.look for different ways to improve language learning尋求提高語言學習水平的不同方法

4.give school children more choices給學齡孩子提供更多的機會

◆典句賞析

1.From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages...從這個(統計數據)可以看出英國人并不是因為講外語而出名……

這是一個復合句,動詞see后面接的是that引導的賓語從句；be famous for是固定詞組搭配,意思是“以……而出名,以……而著稱”,后面接名詞、代詞或動名詞（短語）作介詞的賓語。

2.That's why my country's people don't think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.那就是為什么我的國家的人們認為沒有必要學習一門外語的原因。

該句型是比較復雜的復合句。Why...a foreign language.是why引導的表語從句,說明原因；my country's people don't think it is necessary to learn...是含省略that的賓語從句的復合句,該賓語從句運用了否定轉移這一語法規律,將否定形式的詞轉移到了主句。

◆理解自測

根據短文內容,判斷下列句子的正(T)、誤(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.

◆詞句微練

根據所給漢語意思,寫出英文句子

1.那便是他如此喜歡這個地方的原因。

_______________________________________________________________.

2.我認為這個男人不是警察。

_______________________________________________________________.

3.我聽說這個城市以音樂而聞名。

_______________________________________________________________.

4.你用日語和他談過話了嗎？

_______________________________________________________________.

(答案見63頁)