III. Consider
Should students only learn from books?
Arguments
1. Only books can provide people with the knowledge that makes them educated.
2. The criticism that what students learn today is not adapted to present-day society is utterly wrong because education can never be seen only in terms of how useful the subjcets are when students leave school. We ought to evaluate education in terms of how much the students enjoy those subjects and how much they mean to those students.
3. Instead of being trained to be utilitarian, students should be encouraged to do things for their own sake, fro getting satisfaction out of them rather than for what is achieved at the end.
4. those will a good command of the knowledge provided in books can adapt themselves better to their future life than those without.
5. Those who stress only practical skills and techniques and ignore the function of books are short-sighted.
6. Only by urging students to read more, write more and to more exercises can education be improved.
7. Being practical, many children leave school and start earning money at an early age. Because of this, quite a large number of children join the ranks of the illiterate in the country.
8. Without the knowledge provided in books, there is no point in talking about training qualified personnel and fostering versatile talents.
Counter-arguments
1. Education is a gradual extension of oneself. It does not only take place in school buildings. It is a life-long experience.
2. Students should be taught how to live an dhow to get to with one anther. This is more important than reading and writing.
3. Writing, reading and arithmetic don’t really matter. What matters is that students should learn to understand the world.
4. Students are so overburdened with class work and homework that many of them do not enjoy good health.
5. Instead of offering students book-learning only, we should encourage them to get to know society so that they will be more adaptable to deal with practical matters.
6. Many students are spoilt by our present-day educational system. They may be top students at school, but they are at a loss as to how to deal with practical matters.
7. Education is but a failure if it only produces people who are unable to put theory into practice.
8. We should put right the tendency of stressing only students’ academic achievement and ignoring their moral and physical edcation.
9. Students, in their formative years, should have a chance to broaden their outlook rather then feel compelled to work towards passing an exam. Questions
1. Do you think university students in China are overburdened with their studies? What is it like at your college?
2. What do you think is the main task students have at school? Is it to learn more book knowledge or is it to know more about society? Why (Why not)?
3. What do most of the university students do both in China and in the West to prepare themselves for the future?
IV. Write
Work out an outline of your own viewpoints. The outline should consist of major statements and supporting evidence and examples. Do you write down every word of your speech.
V. Speak
1. Speak according to your outline, or give spontaneous speeches when you disagree with your classmates or when you want to support your own group with similar opinions.
2. Language devices: You are expected to extend your ability to agree or disagree with other people’s opinions and to ask then to explain their points of view.
That’s exactly my opinion.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
I agree entirely
You’re quite right
I couldn’t agree more.
You can’t really mean that.
I’m not sure if I’d go along with you on that.
I suppose that’s true in a way, but...
Well, it depends.
Do you think so?
VI. Sum up
1. The whole class decide on the best prepared speech and the best spontaneous speech.
2. The whole class pick out the most convincing statements from the arguments and counter-arguments.
3. The teacher gives comment on students’ ideas and language. |
