Read the text for general understanding. Think of the title to the text. Unit 1. Multilingualism. The Importance of Foreign Languages

Unit 1. Multilingualism. The Importance of Foreign Languages

Module 3. Learning Foreign Languages

Lead-in

Ø What is multilingualism?

Ø What is understood by linguistic diversity?

Ø How many languages should a person know to be an effective communicator?

1. Watch the video on YouTube which is titled “What is multilingualism?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrblYsVuofU. Summarize all ideas shared by speakers.

It is represented by short sentences, opinions about multilingualism, in Europe and in the world. The video provides facts and benefits, why it is important to speak more than one language. The spoken languages in this movie are Hungarian, Slovakian, German, Finnish, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Georgian, Dutch, Swedish, Kazakh, Italian, Romanian, Polish, Czech, French, Russian, Albanian, Catalonian, Irish Gaelic, Basque, and Icelandic.

Try to formulate your own idea what multilingualism is.

Reading and vocabulary

Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.

Thanks to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals can come in contact with multiple languages quite often; there appears the necessity to acquire more and more languages.

Multilingualism is a value for intercultural dialogue, social cohesion and prosperity. It plays an important role in lifelong learning, media and information technologies, as well as in the world international relations.

A multilingual workforce is an evident advantage that would provide world companies with a competitive edge and thus promote prosperity. Consequently, companies are recommended to invest more in language and intercultural skills. From the citizens’ perspective, mastering several languages increases employability and allows to choose from a larger number of job offers. That’s why countries should develop the acquisition and recognition of language skills outside the formal education systems. At the same time, European Union, for example, intends to:

- stimulate student and worker mobility;

- communicate the results of the study on language skills, creativity and innovation;

- provide a platform to exchange best practices in learning languages.

Countries are also invited to promote language learning by:

- offering opportunities to learn the national language plus two other languages;

- providing a wide offer of languages to choose from;

- improving the training of those involved in language teaching;

- supporting the mobility of language teachers.

There exists a European Union Council Resolution of 21 November 2008 on aEuropean strategy for multilingualism. With this resolution, the Council is inviting the Member States and other countries to promote:

- multilingualism, in order to increase social cohesion, intercultural dialogue and European construction;

- lifelong language learning, in particular among young people and language teachers;

- the role of multilingualism in the competitiveness of Europe’s economy as well as in the mobility and employability of Europe’s citizens;

- linguistic diversity and intercultural dialogue, by further supporting translation so that the circulation of works and the dissemination of ideas in Europe and beyond is encouraged.

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2. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following word combinations:

языковое разнообразие, явление, превосходить численно, международные отношения, непрерывное образование, конкурентное преимущество, очевидный,, владение несколькими языками, овладение языковыми умениями, намереваться.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23