 Speaking

Tell about your school experience:

• Was your school a strictly disciplined one?

• Were all your teachers strict disciplinarians?

• How did you manage to keep your marks to a respectable standard?

• Who was reluctant to accept school discipline in your class? Were you among such pupils?

• Did you ever break the school rules? Did you disrupt discipline?

• Did you help a teacher to restore discipline in class?

• Did you have problem children in your class or problem schools in your town/city?

• Who usually went to parent-teacher meetings – your father or your mother?

• Do you think there should be better co-operation between schools and parents?

• How many classmates graduated from school with honours? Were you among them?

Exercise 6

Choose the most important questions (3-5), go round the class and ask as many students as possible. Ask some other questions you consider interesting.

 Listening

Now listen to Graham Grant, an English teacher, who will tell about life in a Japanese school.

Part A

The following words and phrases are in the interview. Check the meaning and the pronunciation in your dictionary.

attitude (n) retire (v) respect (n) competitive (adj) discipline (n) rude (adj) row (n) strict (adj) bow (v) politeness (n)

Part B

Listen to the interview and answer the questions.

• Why is education so important in Japan?

• “Children must do well at school.” Why?

• At what age do they start to work hard?

• What do they do in class?

• What do they do in the evening?

• Do they have a long holiday?

• How do they spend their weekends and holidays?

Part C

Divide into two groups. Each group has four answers to four questions about the interview. Write the questions, then ask the other group to answer them.

Group A		Group B
1. ?		1. ?
He’s teaching Japanese in England.		Six.
2. ?		2. ?
They usually stay from the time they live school or university until they retire.		Yes, they do, because they are never bored. 3. ?
3. ?		Three or four hours every night.
About forty.
4. ?		4. ?
Because it is rude to question a teacher.		She is probably watching TV.

Part D

What do you think?

• Are Japanese schools like schools in our country?

• Were teachers in your school strict or lenient? Which do you prefer? Which do you

think is better?

• What are the advantages or disadvantages of strict schools?

• In what way are schools in your country and schools in Japan alike?

• How are students’ attitudes toward teachers and school in Japan and Ukraine different?