4. He took part in a swimming competition.

3. When the traffic lights are red, you must stop.

2. I hope the situation will soon return to normal.

Step I Key Vocabulary

This activity introduces the key vocabulary words.

Show the following vocabulary on the screen by a projector.

Say the words and have students repeat several times until they can pronounce them fluently and accurately.

Step Ⅱ Part 1

This activity is designed to activate students’ background knowledge before attempting the reading.

Read the title Changing English to the class. Ask, What do you think the article is about?

Read the instructions to the class.

Point to the three questions in the box.

Say, You are to discuss the questions about English with your partner. But don’t look at the reading. Use your background knowledge instead.

Get students to complete the task in pairs. As the pairs work together, walk around the room. Ensure that they are discussing the questions in English.

When most students are finished, invite pairs of students to report their results.

Don’t say yes or no to their answers.

Step Ⅲ Part 2

This activity provides practice in scanning for specific information.

Look at the picture. Ask students to describe what is happening in the picture.

Read the instructions and draw students’ attention to the list of numbers. Get a student to say the sample answer like this: In 1950 English started being more popular for science.

Please read through the article silently.

Find information for the numbers. Remember to skim for the key ideas rather than read slowly. Get students to work on their own. As they are doing this, move around the classroom answering questions they may have and offering language support as needed.

Check the answers.

Answers

1950-In this year English started being more popular for science.

10 000-number of words in the South African dictionary not found elsewhere in the world.

a hundred-number of years ago that

German was the most popular language for science.

one billion-number of people learning English.

375 million--the number of native speakers of English.

Step Ⅳ Part 3

This activity encourages students to use the strategy of reading in context.

Ask students to read the article once.

Say, Pay attention to the bold word and expressions? And note any other word or sentence you don’t understand. Read in context, guessings their meanings from the other words around them.

A few minutes later, ask different students to say the meanings of the words and expressions indicated in bold by guess. Don’t give them the correct answers. Let students look at the words and expressions and their meanings in the box. Point out the sample answer. Then ask students to match the correct meanings with the correct words and expressions. Allow them one or two minutes to do this.

Check the answers.

Answers

quarter d, normal a, traffic light e, competition f, significant b, position c

Get students to make sentences with the words and expressions. Remind them to look at the article again for extra help.

Answers to this activity will vary. Ask a student to write his/her answers on the blackboard.

Sample answers

1. A quarter of students in my class are girls.

A projector.

3. Groupwork.

1. Up-down reading methods.

Train students’ reading skill.

Read the text to identify main idea.

Read the text to understand words in context.

Read the text for special information.

3. Moral Object

If you can speak both good English and your native language, it may help you get more chances in searching jobs.