E-06.03 Share Experiences of Language-Learning Newcomers Starting to Get Around

English in Everyday Life: An Immigration Story

WorkLife English: Competency-Based Listening/Speaking, Book 3; Chapter 3, Transportation + Transcript

13 + 3 = 16 pp

Who It’s For: (Teachers & Helpers of) Intermediates Still Developing Oral-Language-Skills with Competency-Based Comprehension Strategies, Pronunciation Exercises, Use of Notional / Functional Phrasing, & Practical Tasking   

Why It’s Useful: Gradually, new English speakers will get the main ideas: their listening skills will improve if they focus on stressed words that convey essential messages, noting “extra words” when ready—and if they summarize the info that they take in.  To improve their accents, they can imitate syllable-stress patterns, polishing articulation of “difficult” sounds as they come up.  In addition to getting Vocabulary relevant to immediate content, they can acquire language in Notional / Functional Categories applicable to many contexts.  And in getting the point of—and reacting to—“typical” everyday exchanges, they can (re)learn which patterns to rely in which situations.   

What You’ll Do: 

[1]  The Chapter 3 Opener announces that its text and Audio relate to Competencies like “Understanding Advantages vs. Disadvantages,” “Giving & Getting Directions,” “Using (Route) Maps,”  “Filing Reports,” all within the Chapter Theme of Local Transportation. Text users simulate accomplishing these aims with the the Functional Phrasing of (Un)Certainty; Asking, Accepting, or Turning Down Advice; & Describing Things—often with Modal-Verb Sentence Structures. 

[2] For Better Listening in Part One, enjoy one person’s experience on buses and another’s with hitchhiking; hear about the third learning to drive and the fourth, dealing with traffic.  In Part Two Exercises, work with “Other Vowel Sounds.” In Part Three, get moving by ”Asking Directions,” “Expressing (Un)Certainty,” “Asking & Reacting to Advice.” The Audio in Part Four uses these in regard to “City Bus Information,” “Traffic Accident Description,” & reaction to a parking ticket.  

[4] Be sure to consult highlighted language in the attached AudioScript pages if necessary—or for reinforcement of the correlation between the sound aural speech and the look of written text.  In case it’s of interest, you can a get a four-page  Answer Key for Text Exercises in Download E-06.11.