Text A

 

Section A  Discovering the Main Ideas

 

Exercise 1: Answer the following questions with the information contained in Text A.

1) According to Will Pidcroft, the writer of this text, can English be mastered within a very short period of time? Does he provide any evidence to support his view?

2) Does he support the idea that a language is best learned where it is spoken?

3) What is the belief held by behaviorists in terms of language learning?

4) What does Pidcroft say about one’s interest in language learning?

5) What distinguishes human beings from parrots and chimpanzees according to Pidcroft?

 

▇ Answers for reference:

1) No, Will Pidcroft doesn’t think that English can be mastered within a short period of time. He says that in fact English is not that easy to learn; otherwise, he wouldn’t be working as an English teacher any more as there would be far less demand for trained English teachers.

2) Yes, he does.

3) Behaviorists believe that language learning is a kind of habit formation. So they are fond of making students repeat phrases and do exercises where they continually have to change one word in a sentence. They assume that people learn things very much like parrots and chimpanzees.

4) Pidcroft thinks that interest is a very important factor in language learning. No one can ever learn to speak English or any other language unless he or she is interested in it.

5) Parrots and chimpanzees make noises that are meaningless while the speech sounds human beings make are meaningful and they can relate them to their own lives. In other words, human beings use language to communicate.