Key Terms and Essential Vocabulary

ability level

academic year

adult/continuing education

Advanced Level examinations (AS)

AP courses

Associate of Arts (AA)

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Bachelor of Education (BE)

Bachelor of Science (BS)

boarding (residential) school

college campus

Common Entrance Examinations (CE)

community college

comprehensive (non-selective) school

compulsory school attendance laws

core subjects

day school

distance learning

elective subjects (electives)

elementary (grammar) school

fall/spring semester/term

four-year college

freshman (year)

full-time education/student

Further Education College (FE)

General Certificate of Education (GCE)

General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

grade/ passing grades/ failing grades

grammar school

grant

high school

High School Diploma

independent school

infant school

junior (year)

junior school

kindergarten

liberal arts college (school)

Local Education Authority (LEA)

Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

merit-based/need-based financial aid

middle (junior) school

National Curriculum

New Universities (former Polytechnics)

nursery (school) education (for those who are under 5 years old)

nursery (school) education /day-care attendance

old universities/ancient foundations

Open University (OU)

Oxford and Cambridge Universities (Oxbridge)

parochial school/religious school

part-time education/student

PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)

plate-glass universities

preparatory school

primary education

private (independent) education

private (public) school

red-brick universities

scholarship

school leaving age

secondary education

secondary modern school

secular school/non-sectarian school

senior (year)

setting

sophomore (year)

state/public education

streaming

to assess smth/smb

to award degrees

to be available to

to be eligible for smth

to enjoy equal standing

to be financed by smb/smth

to cover expenses

to earn a degree

to enroll in college

to enter a course

to fall into categories

to have access to smth

to improve job-related skills

to issue a prospectus

to live on campus

to major in smth

to offer a course in smth

to opt out of smth

to overlap

to prescribe the curricula

to release from work

to study/read for a degree

to study by correspondence

to take out student loans

to upgrade to a level

tracking system

tuition fee

tutorial

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)

Questions for discussion:

1. What types of UK schools do you know?
2. Is it better to educate your child in a private school?
3. What were the main advantages of the tripartite system of secondary education in England and Wales?
4. What are the pros and cons of comprehensive schools?
5. How many public examinations do British school-leavers have to take?
6. Does Scotland have the same system of school education? What public examinations on completion of the compulsory cycle of education are taken by Scottish school-leavers?
7. How are British school leavers admitted to universities and colleges? Is it difficult to obtain a place at the old universities (Oxbridge)? Is it expensive to study there?
8. What are the main educational opportunities in the USA? What do you know about the state and private sectors of US education?
9. Is schooling compulsory in the USA? What do you think is the best age to begin compulsory education?
10. What are the main tasks of primary education in the USA? Is there any difference between grammar schools in the UK and USA?
11. What are the main types of private schools in the USA?
12. What do you know about the most acute problems American schools face? What do you know about school shootings in the USA?
13. Why do many American school leavers want to receive college or university education? What are the main degrees awarded by US colleges and universities?
14. Is there any difference between public and private post-secondary educational establishments? Why do many young Americans go to community colleges after graduation from high school?
15. What forms of financial aid are available to American students?

FAMILY IN THE UK&USA

Study the topics: “The American Family” and “Family Life in Great Britain (Unit 5, pp. 78-97 in Discussion Guide: British and American Studies: Учеб. пособие/ Т.Н. Дубровская, Н.П. Звонак, О.А. Зинина и др. – Мн.: МГЛУ,2003.-120с.).

Key Terms and Essential Vocabulary:

adolescence

alimony

arranged marriage

average family

babysitting parent

best man/bridesmaid

birth control

birth status

blended family

breadwinner

caretaker

child-centered family/viewpoint

cohabitation

community roots

day-care centre/center

domestic partner

domestic violence

empty nest syndrome

enforced dependency

extended family

family abuse/violence

family allowance

family identity

family turmoil

family unit/household unit

father/mother-in-law

femininity

feminism

foster children/family

full-time homemaker

gender roles

generation gap

glass ceiling

godfather/godmother

housewife

illegitimacy

immediate family

in-law problems

juvenile delinquent

latch-key children

life expectancy

male/father, female/mother – dominated family

marital difficulties

marriage license

masculinity

maternal/paternal/parental leave

no-fault divorce

nuclear family

parental duties

pension entitlements

population decline

recreational facilities

retirement facilities

reversal of traditional gender roles

separate household

sibling rivalry

single-parent family

stepparents

the “me” generation

the average household

the generation of baby-boomers

to abuse physically

to be available for adoption

to be born into a family/to parents

to discriminate on the basis of sex

to be on welfare

to become a burden to one’s family

to discriminate on the basis of sex

to display emotions

to end in divorce

to endorse differences

to fashion family institutions

to gain a right

to grant independence

to handle the burden

to have a more active domestic role

to head a family

to highlight smth

to have the right to smth

to lessen the emotional distance/lessen the strain for smb

to maintain a good/high standard of living

to make good parents

to move in with smb

to offer flexible work hours

to poll smb

to provide the family income

to pursue a full-time job/career

to rear/raise children

to show appreciation and affection

to stay single

to strain a family/to be a strain to the family

to take priority in smth

to teach common practices and customs

traditional civilities

traditional family

trial marriage

unconventional/non-traditional family

widow/widower

Questions for discussion:

1. What types of families exist in the USA/UK? What is the society’s attitude to all these family types?
2. What functions do modern families serve?
3. Has a ‘traditional family’ undergone any changes in the USA/UK? What changes are taking place in the British family/American today?
4. Are the differences in everyday behaviour and domestic roles of men and women still visible in the USA/UK?
5. Is it possible to state that the reversal of traditional gender roles has taken place in the USA/UK?
6. Do you believe that mostly economic difficulties make people shun marriage and traditional family life?
7. How would you comment on the impact of baby boomers and immigrants on the present-day demographics?
8. How many working mothers do you know? Do they manage to juggle family life and work?
9. How do working mothers and fathers staying at home change the essence of family life?
10. Would you approve of fathers-homemakers? What would be the public opinion to them in your country?
11. Is the problem of home violence acute in the UK or USA?
12. Why do people abuse their family members?
13. What should be done to reduce the number of violence-hit families in modern world?
14. Does financial instability increase the degree of conflict in modern family households?
15. Do unemployment and job insecurity mostly lead to abuse of women and children? Are men also likely to experience domestic violence due to the impact of the recession?

NATIONAL VALUES AND ASSUMPTIONS

Study the topic “National Values and Assumptions” (pp. 5-30 in Discussion Guide: British and American Studies: Учеб. пособие/ Т.Н. Дубровская, Н.П. Звонак, О.А. Зинина и др. – Мн.: МГЛУ,2003.-120с.).

Key terms and essential vocabulary (the USA):

‘an accident of birth’

acquisitiveness

assertiveness

bluntness

competitiveness

‘delayed gratification’

efficiency

equality

fatalism

free enterprise

individualism

material badges of success

materialism

optimism

self-help

self-identity

self-improvement

self-reliance

to be always on the go

to be born into a family/ social class

to climb (move up) the difficult ladder of success

to enter a race for success

to foster competition

to go from rags to riches

to have an aversion to sth

to hold a belief/assumptions

to keep up with the Joneses

to lie in the hands of people

to lie beyond the power of humans

to place a high/low value on sth

to have control over sth

to stand on one’s own two feet

to take credit for one’s accomplishments

to treat smb with deference

‘trial-and-error’ approach

‘workaholic syndrome’

Questions for discussion:

1. What do the notions ‘value’ and ‘stereotype’ denote?

2. Which associations do you have when you hear the word ‘American’?

3. What stereotypes are traditionally connected with the Belarusian nation?

4. What values of the Belarusian people can you name?

5. What is fatalism? How is it viewed by Americans?

6. What is Americans’ attitude to time?

7. Why do Americans have an aversion to treating people of high position in a deferential manner?

8. What connotation does the word ‘privacy’ have in the American culture?

9. What is an ‘accident of birth’?

10. How would Americans deliver unpleasant information?

11. How do Americans view material objects?

Key terms and essential vocabulary (the UK):

‘inverted snobbery’

a snob, snobbery

a stratified society

a welfare state

amateurism

anti-intellectualism

BBC English/Oxford English/the Queen’s English

egalitarian climate

insular spirit

public spiritedness

‘Received Pronunciation’/ RP

‘standard English’

to accuse smn of being posh

to address people by their titles

to adopt working-class values and habits

to approve of class divisions

to be able to exert one’s economic power

to be bad at learning foreign languages

to be conservative about sth

to be indicative of class

to be reluctant to change the system of currency

to be renowned for some ability

to be thought of as snobbish

to be tolerant of sth

to chip in sth

to cling to certain ways of doing things

to conform to a stereotype

to dominate the cultures of other three nations

to follow customs

to forge contacts with other people

to have living folk traditions

to impose sth on smb

to indicate friendship by open displays of emotion

to keep things private

to make social contacts through work

to perceived as a token of Britishness

Questions for discussion:

1. What are the popular stereotypes of the British character?

2. What is the attitude of the British to class divisions?

3. What is indicative of class belonging in Britain?

4. What is ‘snobbery’/’inverted snobbery’?

5. What is typical of the British patriotism?

6. Are the British good at learning other peoples’ languages?

7. How do the British view change?

8. Do all the common stereotypes conform to the real British habits?

9. What is ‘anti-intellectualism’?

10. What can be perceived as a token of Britishness?

11. The British tend to have a sentimental attitude to animals, don’t they?

12. Why are British people often considered aloof and reserved?

13. What does the notion ‘public spiritidness’ involve?

LEISURE AND SPORTS

Study the topics “Leisure and Sports in the USA” and “Leisure and Sports in the UK” (pp.103-109 in Discussion Guide: British and American Studies: Учеб. пособие/ Т.Н. Дубровская, Н.П. Звонак, О.А. Зинина и др. – Мн.: МГЛУ,2003.-120с.)

Key terms and essential vocabulary (the UK):

‘bank holidays’

‘book makers’, ‘turf accountants’

availability of pub games

daytime entertainment in sunny weather centres

‘home from home’ atmosphere

to be different in character

to be governed by routine

to be on one’s best behaviour

to be regarded as a national disaster

to be served at a table

to be the best in the world at particular sports

to book package holidays

to collect money for charity

to decline in popularity

to develop a mystique

to encourage people to have caravan holidays

to express a liking for barbecued food

to gamble some money on the result

to generate a lot of enthusiasm

to get into prolonged conversation with people

to go into the habit of preparing sauces

to go on ‘working’ holidays

to have a duty to provide and maintain playing fields

to have a preference for team games

to have a widespread ‘restaurant culture’

to involve some element of competition

to place bets on future results

to start the fashion for seaside holidays

to stay at boarding houses

to stay in chalets in self-contained villages

Questions for discussion:

1. Why, do you think, do the British have fewer public holidays than any other country in Europe and fewer than North America?
2. What is the attitude towards the tradition of making a ‘bridge’ in the UK and in our country?
3. How would you describe a stereotypical daytime entertainment in sunny weather during seaside holidays?
4. What is the essence of ‘working holidays’?
5. Why are Britain and good food two things which are not commonly associated?
6. What functions does a pub perform? Describe the atmosphere in a typical British pub?
7. How do the British view sport?
8. Why do individual sports have comparatively small followings in Britain?
9. Who is a ‘turf accountant’?
10. How do the British handle the problem of obesity?

Key terms and essential vocabulary (the USA):

a dishwashing machine

a strong incentive to spend free time at home

an added sun-room or covered terrace

an air-conditioning system

drive-in movies

good municipal facilities for participant sports

to adapt the English cricket

to arouse great interest

to attract people to downtown areas

to be accustomed to buying food in weekly visits

to be employed in political rallies

to be part of a family's identity

to be popular with joggers and conscious of the need for exercise

to be scattered around residential areas

to be spread throughout the socio-economic classes

to be urged to cheer by cheer-leaders

to choose to take long unpaid vacations

to contribute to a recent development

to demand group activity and enthusiasm

to derive from the British game of rugby

to favor 'campers'

to find no difficulty in identifying with the new

to have self-catering facilities in rooms

to have the usual array of machines and gadgets

to keep alive some semblance of city culture

to make environment more pleasing

to make urban life more cultivated

to occupy leisure hours

to prefer mobility

to stay open all night

to store food in the deep-freeze

Questions for discussion:

1. How do Americans view home?
2. Americans have no difficulty in indentifying with the new, don’t they? How is it expressed?
3. What contributes to making American urban life more cultivated?
4. What sports are particularly popular in the USA?
5. How have Americans adapted the English cricket?
6. What sport and leisure attractions can be found outside big American cities?
7. How much time do Americans normally spend on holidays each year?

MULTINATIONAL SOCIETIES

Study the topics “Multinational countries: the UK and the USA” (Unit 3 pp. 62-69 in Discussion Guide: British and American Studies: учебное пособие / Т.Н. Дубровская, Н.П. Звонак, О.А. Зинина и др.-Мн.: МГЛУ, 2003.-120 с.;

p.p. 13-17;

pp. 112-115., – in America In Close-Up /Eckhard Fiedler, Reimer Jansen, Mil Norman-Risch – Longman Group UK Limited 1990;

pp. 97-100., –in Britain In Close-Up / David McDowal – Longman Group UK Limited 1990).

Key terms and essential vocabulary:

apartheid

assimilation

discrimination

citizenship

ethnicity

fascism

genocide

nation / nationality / nationalism

patriotism

prejudice

“primary races”: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid

race /racism

segregation (traditional, voluntary, forced)

xenophobia

The USA:

alien (illegal, legal)

asylum seeker

old-stock American

disadvantaged minority

economic hardship

ethnic make-up / diversity

ethnic enclave

immigration debate / reforms

melting pot / salad bowl / vegetable soup

Nativism

political oppression

WASP

to be assimilated into (a culture)

to be of (British) origin / ancestry/ descent

to be underrepresented (in government)

to abolish slavery

to accommodate refugees

to arrive by millions

to come on a (temporary/ visitor) visa

to convert to (Protestantism)

to deny somebody the right

to encourage / forbid intermarriage

to endure degrading conditions

to exclude women / blacks

to excel in / at (showbiz, sport, etc)

to exploit someone / something

to flee (religious persecution)

to force assimilation / integration

to gain / acquire legal status

to keep illegal immigration to a minimum

to lower the minimum wage

to possess inalienable rights

to prohibit employers from hiring illegals

to promote harmonious race-mixing

to remove cultural / language barriers

to threaten (jobs, healthy competition)

to tighten immigration restrictions

to wrestle with the problem of identity

The African-American Civil Rights Movement

literacy test

ghetto

peaceful / non-violent means of protest

freedom from oppression by whites

desegregation of public education

Fair Housing Act (1968)

affirmative action (preferential treatment)

reverse discrimination

to alter the hiring process

to bridge the differences

to close the income / inequality gap

to extend equal privileges to (Blacks)

to outlaw racial discrimination

to prohibit housing discrimination

to reduce employment discrimination

to reestablish voting rights

to restore suffrage / fundamental right

The UK:

Accession-8 countries (A8)

British Nationality Act 1948

Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 Race Relations Act (1965, 1968, 1976)

sense of alienation from (a community)

to be eligible for (welfare support)

to be the target of discrimination in class and status

to apply for / claim / live in social (state) housing

to claim child benefits

to create a new multicultural identity

to deter smn from enrolling (in college, …)

to end up in the poorest area

to eliminate racial discrimination

to face / encounter hostility from (the authorities)

to feel harassed by smth / smn

to fill a gap in the UK labour market

to introduce / issue a Race Relations Act

to keep a strong attachment to traditions

to lack basic housing amenities

to make a substantial contribution to smth

to process an application for asylum

to reduce primary immigration

to rely on public welfare services

to remain at the bottom of economic scale

to rise to leading positions (in the UK economy)

to suffer ill health

Questions for discussion:

1. Name major ethnic minorities in the USA.
2. Comment on the waves of immigration to the USA.
3. What caused “nativist sentiment” among “old-stock” Americans?
4. Which ethnic group is called “America's unwilling immigrants”? How has their position changed?
5. What problems do ethnic minorities face in the USA?
6. What are the typical trends within the recent immigration processes?
7. Compare reasons for immigration to the USA before the 20th century and nowadays. What has changed? Do you agree that “the grass is always greener on the other side”?
8. Why does American government have to impose immigration restrictions? If you were an average American, would you support such measures?
9. Public opinion surveys suggest that Americans see both the good and bad sides of immigration. What do you think they are? In your opinion, can such large-scale immigration processes be benefitial for a country?
10. Name major ethnic minorities in the UK.
11. What policy has the UK government pursued towards ethnic minorities throughout its history? How does it differ from that in the USA? What are the reasons for such differences?
12. What problems do ethnic minorities face in the UK? What can be done to reduce racial prejudices in multi-ethnic societies?
13. Do you share Trevor Philips' ideas espressed in the quotation on p. 100?

MULTILINGUALISM

Study the topic “Multilingualism” Unit 3, pp. 59-61, 69-70 in Discussion Guide: British and American Studies: учебное пособие / Т.Н. Дубровская, Н.П. Звонак, О.А. Зинина и др.-Мн.: МГЛУ, 2003.-120 с.

Key terms and essential vocabulary:

bilingualism

monolingualism

societal / individual / international multilingualism

native language / mother tongue

endangered / threatened / moribund / extinct language

official / national / majority/ dominant / second / minority language

linguistic minority (indigenous / rural / urban)

linguistic variety / diversity

language loyalty

linguistic revival / revitalization

“appreciation of dialect differences” approach

“elimination of non-standard speech” approach

language “immersion” schools

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

creole language

lingua franca.

pidgin language

to acquire proficiency in (a language)

to act as a focus of discontent

to act as a symbol of group consciousness and solidarity

to actively discourage (a child) from using a minority language

to adopt a bilingual approach / policy to (education)

to be a barrier to one’s social advancement / effective communication

to be compelled to learn multiple languages

to be / remain at a political disadvantage

to be educated in one’s mother tongue

to be essential for upward social mobility

to be faced with a considerable / severe problem

to be reluctant to (learn foreign languages)

to be spoken natively / indigenously

to be taught through the medium of (one’s mother tongue) in the initial stages of schooling

to be under increasing threat

to be (un)true to one’s cultural traditions

to depend on teacher’s individual commitment to the subject

to eliminate non-standard speech

to function as a full member of a national community

to have a linguistically sophisticated educational policy

to have an outwardly monolingual appearance

to have an adverse effect on smn

to ignore / discourage a minority language

to impair educational progress (of a child)

to locate a genuinely monolingual country

to obliterate a culture / language

to observe an increase in the number of fluent speakers

to post public notices in several languages

to protect / observe linguistic rights (of a minority group)

to provide bilingual signage

to put a language on / out of the school curriculum

to retain a passive knowledge of one’s mother tongue

to undertake a separatist movement

Questions for discussion:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism for individuals and societies?
2. What is a “language education policy” of a country? What approaches can be adopted by a government to settle problems of linguistic minorities in education?
3. What is the basis of teaching in “immersion schools”?
4. Define the notion “new Bretons”. Do you approve of their motives?
5. What are the problems linguistic minorities face? (e.g. the Frisian-speaking minority in the Netherlands, etc).
6. Why is so much attention being paid to the protection or revitalisation of minority languages nowadays?

AGING

Study the topic on the texts handed out by the teacher (Social benefits of extended families and Family responsibility: a dangerous policy).

Key terms and essential vocabulary:

a carer

a child care centre / a child care facility

a family argument

a generation

a nursing home

a policy

a return to

a reversal of the current trend

a social trend

a stifling environment

an ensuing gap in one’s career

an extended family

child-rearing / upbringing

elderly people

government support

greater emotional involvement

massive demographic changes

mutual benefit

roots

social benefits

social welfare

(subsidized) health care

the scope of personal growth

to be better attuned to the children’s needs

to be in one’s best interests

to be reluctant to do something

to benefit from the greater experience and knowledge of the family elders

to carry out the wishes of one’s elders

to come and go as one pleases

to deal with demographic shifts

to decrease the proportion of working age people

to disadvantage

to encourage somebody

to enjoy the benefits of independent living

to feel a burden on one’s family

to feel deep shame

to gain benefit from something

to increase the proportion of older people

to leave the parental influence

to live by oneself

to live longer lives

to live one’s life in one’s own way

to look after somebody

to lose control over one’s life

to move in with somebody

to organize one’s living arrangement

to prevent from living together

to provide opportunities for social interaction

to rear / bring up children

to reduce independence

to reduce working hours

to rely on support services

to retain one’s independence

to strengthen family bonds

to sustain at the same level

to take time our from one’s job and working life

Questions for discussion:

1. Where do elderly people tend to live nowadays? What’s the general trend?
2. What are the benefits of living in extended families?
3. What are the disadvantages of this trend?
4. Why are elderly people reluctant to live with their children? Give reasons.
5. Why isn’t it a good idea to promote extended family as a model on the part of the state?

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