Методика обучения чтению студентов в языковом ВУЗе на основе общественно-политических текстов (на русском языке)

Рогова Г. В., Рабинович Ф. М., Сахарова Т. Е. Методика обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе. — М.: Просвещение, 1991. — 230 с.

Саланович Н. А. Обучение чтению аутентичных текстов лингвострановедческого содержания // Иностранные языки в школе. — 1999. — № 1.

Сафонова В. В. Социокультурный подход к обучению иностранному языку.

М.: Высш. шк.

91.-302с.

Солганик Г. Я. О закономерностях развития языка газеты в XX веке // Вестник Моск. ун-та. Сер. 10. Журналистика. -

2002. — № 2. — С. 39−53.

Солганик Г. Я. Системный характер газетной лексики и источники ее формирования: Автореф. дис. … д-ра филол. наук. — М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1976.

Станевичене З. Б. Опора на композиционную структуру текста при обучении чтению // Иностр. яз. в высшей школе. — 1982. — Вып. 17.

Теоретические основы методики обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе / Под ред. А. Д. Климентенко, А. А. Миролюбова. — М.: Педагогика, 1991. — 456 с.

Толковый словарь терминов методики обучения иностранным языкам. — М., 1996.

Троянская Е. С. Обучение чтению научной литературы. — М., 1982.

Усачева КВ., Ильясов И. И. Формирование учебной исследовательской деятельности. Обучение чтению научного текста. — М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1986. — 126 с.

Фоломкина С.К. К проблеме отбора текстов для чтения на иностранном языке // Актуальные вопросы обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе // Под ред. А. Д. Климентенко, А. А. Миролюбова. — М., 1973. — С. 14−23.

Фоломкина С. К. Методика обучения чтению на английском языке в неязыковом вузе. — М.: Высш. шк., 1980. — 205 с.

Фоломкина С. К. Обучение чтению на иностранном языке в неязыковом вузе. — М.: Высш. шк., 2005. — 254 с.

Фоломкина С.К., Улановская Э. С. К вопросу о характере чтения студентов на английском языке (экспериментальная проверка) // Иностр. яз. в высшей школе. — 1972. — Вып. 7.

Халеева И. И. Основы теории обучения пониманию иноязычной речи. — М.: Высш. шк., 1989. — 180 c.

Шатилов С. Ф. Некоторые принципы создания системы упражнений для обучения иностранному языку // Система упражнений при обучении иностранному языку в школе / Межвуз. сб. науч. тр. — Л.: ЛГПИ им. А. И. Герцена, 1978. — С. 3−9.

Щерба Л. В. Преподавание иностранных языков в средней школе: Общие вопросы методики / Под ред. И. В. Рахманова. 2-е изд. перераб. и доп. — М.: Высш. шк., 1974. — 111с.

Приложение

Text I

Hillary falls to earth in poll race

Tony Allen-Mills, New York

From The Sunday Times/ December 31, 2006

Part I Pre-reading activities

Study the following words and expressions. Consult the dictionary, if necessary.

Presidency Bid for the White House

Nomination/nominee Media coverage

Charisma front-runner

Part II reading

Read the text

THE first vote is still more than a year away, but the campaign to replace President George W Bush in the White House is already throwing up surprises.

Unfortunately for Senator Hillary Clinton, long the front-runner in the Democratic drive to retake the presidency, most of them are coming at her expense.

A brace of Christmas opinion polls has left Clinton with a political hangover after a year that had appeared to cement her status as the Democrats' best-organised, best-financed and best-connected contender for her party’s presidential nomination.

Despite winning re-election to the US Senate by a handsome margin in mid-term voting last month, Clinton has had little to celebrate as polls from the presidential primary battlegrounds signalled early trouble for her historic bid to become America’s first woman president.

In Iowa, the Midwestern state that will once again open the primary season with its caucus votes on January 14, 2008, Clinton slumped to fourth place with only 10% of the vote in a survey of 600 likely Democratic voters.

In New Hampshire, which will hold the first full primary eight days later, Clinton had appeared to be cruising comfortably with a 23-point lead over her Democrat rivals — until last weekend, when a poll in the Concord Monitor newspaper showed her only one point ahead of Senator Barack Obama, the comparative political newcomer who is considering a similarly historic attempt to become America’s first black president.

Obama’s emergence as a charismatic alternative to the Democratic party’s veteran leadership — and the arrival in the race last week of former Senator John Edwards, the losing vice-presidential candidate in 2004 — have electrified Washington and placed Clinton under early pressure to abandon her cautious approach to the presidency and take to the hustings months earlier than she might have planned.

Several Democratic strategists last week urged Clinton to unleash a «charisma offensive» in the new year to counter the saturated media coverage that has helped propel Obama up the polls.

Clinton has been virtually invisible as first Obama and then Edwards — who launched his second presidential bid on Thursday in the back garden of a New Orleans house ruined by Hurricane Katrina — have been grabbing campaign headlines.

Last week’s Iowa poll showed Obama and Edwards tied for the primary lead with 22% each.

Clinton supporters argued that their candidate’s poor showing — she was also beaten by Tom Vilsack, the Iowa governor who is considering his own bid for the White House — reflected the fact that she was focused on her Senate re-election in New York and did not visit Iowa this year.

Yet Obama hasn’t visited Iowa either, and the same poll found that both Obama and Edwards would perform better than Clinton against the likely frontrunners for the Republican nomination — former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Senator John McCain of Arizona.

«She's in a quandary right now,» acknowledged Ray Strother, a longtime Democratic political consultant. «She doesn’t need to start a war of any kind, but I don’t think she knows how to handle [Obama],» Strother said. «I think they’re preoccupied with it right now.»

Neither Clinton nor Obama has formally declared that they will be candidates, but Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, is widely expected to confirm his intentions after spending Christmas in Hawaii discussing the contest with his family.

Text Comprehension

Exercise I. Answer the following questions:

In which way can the characteristics of H. Clinton as «best-organized, best-financed and best connected contender» be understood?

What is the essence of ‘charismatic offensive'?

What is historic about Clinton’s and Obama’s bid for the White House?

Exercise II. Sum up the latest comparative failures of H. Clinton as a presidential nominee.

PART III Word wealth

Exercise I. Make up the list of words pertaining to the topic «Elections».

Exercise II. Paraphrase the following sentences:

A brace of Christmas opinion polls has left Clinton with a political hangover.

Clinton has had little to celebrate as polls from the presidential primary battlegrounds signalled early trouble for her historic bid to become America’s first woman president.

Clinton slumped to fourth place with only 10% of the vote in a survey of 600 likely Democratic voters.

In New Hampshire … Clinton had appeared to be cruising comfortably with a 23-point lead over her Democrat rivals.

Obama’s emergence … and the arrival in the race last week of former Senator John Edwards … have electrified Washington.

Exercise III. Paraphrase the following prepositional phrases:

To be in a quandary

At smb’s expense

By a handsome margin

To be under pressure

Exercise IV. Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying special attention to grammatical constructions.

Obama … is widely expected to confirm his intentions after spending Christmas in Hawaii discussing the contest with his family

Last week’s Iowa poll showed Obama and Edwards tied for the primary lead with 22% each.

Text II

Political turmoil thwarts prudent moves

From: Daily Mirror / 22.

01.2007

PART I Pre-reading activities:

Check whether you know the following words and expressions. Consult the dictionary if necessary. Indicate the topics the words belong to.

Employer Employee

Strike Trade unions

Council of experts Economic growth rate

Mutual understanding Political confusion

To achieve objectives To deal with problems

Politics/Policy/Politician/Political/Politicization

To be on the brink of an economic crisis

Answer the following questions:

What are trade unions and what are their main functions and objectives?

What role can trade unions play in the economy and politics of a country?

PART II TEXT COMPREHENSION

Read the text.

Many hailed the appointment of a cabinet sub-committee to deal with employee problems and grievances on which trade unions make representation. Yet, judging from the warnings and threats about imminent strike action emanating from trade union leaders, the sub-committee which was to be headed by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, either has not yet been constituted or it has not moved into action.

A mong the unions poised for strike action in February are the CEB unions that are perpetually at daggers drawn with the management as well as with rival unions. N ow that these unions have given notice of trade union action, the cabinet sub-committee should quickly invite them for discussions. T he problems in this corruption-riddled institution are so complex and complicated that the sub-committee may not be able to find quick fixes.

B ut this committee would at least be able to listen to the union representatives and ascertain their immediate problems. A nd the ministers in this committee would be able to place before the unions the concerns of the government too. H onest exchange of views often leads to mutual understanding and the removal of acrimonious attitudes that generally characterise employer-employee relations. The staging of protests, demonstrations and strikes often arises from employer-employee intransigence.

Similarly, the appointment of a council of experts on the country’s economy was also welcomed as an appropriate move in the present context of different views expressed on the state of the country’s economy. This council of experts was appointed last month for obtaining specialized knowledge and advice from experts on the implementation of policies on economic matters — a move hailed by some as aimed at rescuing from the present quagmire of prejudiced party politics the subject of economic issues for objective scrutiny and approach at a national level. It is indeed the politicisation of even this science of economics which should have a scientific approach that has contributed much to the confusion, corruption and contradictions on economic issues.

T he government is said to be upbeat today on claimed progress made on the economic front. T he government’s claims are based on the statistics provided by the Central Bank. T hese statistics show an impressive economic growth rate last year and predict a higher rate this year.

S ome economic experts, perhaps dictated by their political party bias, dismiss these claims as empty declarations. T hey further assert that the country is on the brink of an economic crisis. Both groups, on the one hand, those supporting the government claim — mainly from the ranks of state officials — and those rejecting the claimed achievements, on the other, produce statistics to substantiate their respective propositions.

The ordinary people, who are at the receiving end of these claims and counter-claims, find themselves in a quandary unable to sort out which school of thought is to be believed. The preponderant view among ordinary people, however, is that the benefits of this claimed economic prosperity have not trickled down to their levels, if, in fact, such progress had been made. It is in this context that the expert opinion of this council would be able to clear the air of misconceptions and show the correct way how this country could be taken forward to prosperity. The country would otherwise be groping in the dark with different interested parties attempting to mislead the people.

The creation of various committees and councils — quite apart from the all-party conferences set up for the resolution of the national question — indicates a genuine desire on the part of the President to have an unbiased and objective approach to the national problems. Obviously, it is not easy to achieve the desired objectives after decades of viewing problems through the coloured glasses of party prejudices. The fate befallen the attempt to create independent commissions is well known. One of the important commissions sought to be established under the relevant enactment, the elections commission, is yet to be created.

What stands against the achievement of these national objectives is the prevailing political turmoil with most leaders in the political arena apparently pursuing their own narrow and selfish ends on the pretext of promoting national interests. The success of all these measures, therefore, depends on how fast the country moves away from the present political confusion.

Text comprehension

Exercise I. Mark the following statements as true or false:

The political confusion in the country prevents the resolution of economic problems.

The ordinary people consider that the country’s economic prosperity is a false claim.

The ordinary people consider that the country’s economic prosperity is not felt at their level.

The country is on the brink of an economic crisis.

The strike threat from the trade unions was neglected by the government.

Exercise II. Answer the following questions to the text:

What stands against the achievement of national economic objectives in this country?

In which way can a council of experts help resolve the present situation?

Is there any evidence to whether the country is moving towards the economic prosperity or not?

Exercise III Make up a brief summary of the text

PART III. Word wealth

Exercise I. Translate the following word combinations and set expressions into Russian. Paraphrase them.

corruption-riddled institution

unions poised for strike action

to find quick fixes.

to grope in the dark

to dismiss the claims

to pursue one’s own ends

on the pretext of promoting national interests.

to have an unbiased and objective approach to the national problems

to view problems through the coloured glasses of party prejudices

Exercise II. Political texts are characterised by usage of highly formal, bookish words which are not quite frequent. Find synonyms to the underlined words and phrases. Paraphrase the sentences, using more colloquial expressions and paying attention to grammatical and lexical combinability of words.

Honest exchange of views often leads to mutual understanding and the removal of acrimonious attitudes that generally characterise employer-employee relations.

The staging of protests, demonstrations and strikes often arises from employer-employee intransigence.

But this committee would at least be able to listen to the union representatives and ascertain their immediate problems.

This council of experts was appointed last month for obtaining specialized knowledge and advice from experts on the implementation of policies on economic matters — a move hailed by some as aimed at rescuing from the present quagmire of prejudiced party politics the subject of economic issues for objective scrutiny and approach at a national level.

The ordinary people, who are at the receiving end of these claims and counter-claims, find themselves in a quandary unable to sort out which school of thought is to be believed.

What stands against the achievement of these national objectives is the prevailing political turmoil with most leaders in the political arena apparently pursuing their own narrow and selfish ends on the pretext of promoting national interests.

The preponderant view among ordinary people, however, is that the benefits of this claimed economic prosperity have not trickled down to their levels, if, in fact, such progress had been made.

Text III

Salvage experts battle to avert an environmental catastrophe

Lewis Smith, Environmental Reporter

Stricken ship may split in two

Vessel 'weakened' by earlier accident'

from The Times /January 22, 2007

Part I Pre-reading activities:

Study the following words and expressions. Explain their meaning

Heritage coastline Looting

Environmental disaster Rough seas

Language note:

ships are usually referred to as ‘she'

Abbreviations:

RMS Royal Mail Ship

MV motor vessel

Part II Reading

Read the text

Wine barrels, perfume and shipping containers washed up on Branscombe, Devon.

Police told souvenir-hunters to stay away (Leon Neal)

A team of salvage experts were attempting last night to avert an environmental disaster as a stricken container ship threatened to break in half just a mile from a heritage coastline.

An estimated 200 containers, some carrying toxic substances, had fallen from the MV Napoli into the sea off the Devon coast by yesterday afternoon. There are concerns that the ship may not be able to withstand a deterioration in weather that is forecast today.

Coastguards said last night that 200 tonnes of oil had already leaked out of the ship, which is carrying 3,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. There is now an 8 km sheen of oil on the water’s surface.

The ship, which was caught up in fierce storms on Thursday, has severe structural damage and was deliberately beached to prevent her and her cargo sinking in deep water.

Her cargo includes 157 containers that are holding toxic substances such as sulphuric acid and pesticides. Containers began to topple off the Napoli on Saturday night and early yesterday morning as rough seas caused her to list at up to 35 degrees.

Environmentalists questioned last night whether the ship should have been at sea at all after she had extensive repairs in Vietnam after striking a coral reef in South-East Asia in 2001. The ship, built in 1991, grounded at full speed in the Strait of Malacca, the main waterway between the Indian and Pacific oceans. The vessel, then known as Normandie, was stranded on the reef for 60 days. It is not known how this affected her structural integrity.

Melissa Moore, policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: «If the vessel had been properly constructed and maintained it should not have suffered structural defects, despite the storm conditions last week, so something has gone wrong in either the design, repair or maintenance of this vessel. Most likely this is due to its previous damage, which was either not properly repaired or was so substantial the vessel was irreparable.»

Salvage specialists boarded the vessel yesterday in calmer weather to assess the damage and make preparations for the removal of the oil and cargo.

The Napoli has cracks around her hull and the decision was taken on Saturday to run her aground off Branscombe, Devon. The ship, which measures 276 metres (900 feet) and is carrying 2,394 containers, was abandoned by its crew 40 miles (65km) south of The Lizard, Cornwall, on Thursday morning when the vessel was holed and the engine room flooded in the midst of 40ft waves and 75mph winds.

Of the 200 containers lost overboard, three are thought to hold toxic substances including sulphuric acid.

Some were still floating in the sea yesterday but many of the containers, which held cars, BMW motorbikes, spare parts, vehicle airbags, wine, clothing and domestic appliances, were washed up on the shore.

At least two containers, one of which was said to hold four luxury Mercedes cars, are thought to have been opened before police arrived. Thousands of residents and tourists who flocked to the coast were told to leave because of safety concerns. Among the debris that was washed up on Branscombe Beach from 20 containers that split in the sea were a tractor, boxes of perfume and wine barrels. Police closed the beach to prevent looting.

Sergeant Alan Mobbs, of Devon & Cornwall police, said that hundreds of people had turned up to collect «souvenirs» from the wreckage. «All sorts of things have been turning up,» he said. «Of particular interest were wine barrels full of alcohol and bottles of perfume. But people are taking anything they can get their hands on. Obviously it is an issue of public safety because we simply don’t know what is in a container until it is opened.»

Tug boats attached lines to the Napoli and were towing her to Portland, but the ship was beached in Lyme Bay when it was realised that she would sink before reaching port.

Despite the concerns about the chemicals on board the vessel, the immediate worry surrounded her 3,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and diesel. If the vessel breaks up the fuel tanks could be ruptured, causing potentially devastating contamination.

Robin Middleton, a spokesman for the Department for Transport, said: «The salvage plan is concerned with the oils which we deem to be the greater threat. They include diesel and 3,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. At the moment it is all contained within the vessel.»

A floating boom was put in place around the Napoli to prevent spilt oil from spreading, but it had to be removed after the containers fell off the ship.

A team of salvagers were on board and preparing to remove the oil. They fitted pumps and pipes and hope to begin extracting it today. They were also working to stabilise the Napoli by laying out anchors and flooding empty ballast tanks with water. The contents of the containers remain the property of the original owners, but people who report their finds may be entitled to a salvage award, said Sophia Exelby, the Receiver of Wreck.

The salvage team from Smits, a Dutch company, will begin to remove the remaining containers once the ship has been stabilised and the oil removed. The Napoli, which weighs 53,000 tonnes, is registered in London and was last inspected by the Coastguard Agency in May 2005, when officials said that she met safety standards.

Running aground

March 23, 2003 RMS Mulheim aground at Sennen Cove, near Land’s End: 2,200 tonnes of shredded plastic littered beaches

June 29, 2003 MV Jambo sank off west coast of Scotland near the Summer Isles after striking rocks: less than half 3,300-tonne cargo of zinc sulphide recovered

December 14, 2002 The Tricolor and £30 million load of luxury cars sank in Channel after colliding with vessel 30 miles off Ramsgate. It took two years to remove wreck

February 2, 2002 Hundreds of people loaded their vehicles with timber from the cargo of the Kodima which was beached near Plymouth

February 15, 1996 Sea Empress oil tanker disaster at Milford Haven. More than 120 miles of coast was polluted, 120,000 birds died, and £100m of damage caused

Text COmprehension

Exercise I. Indicate true and false statements:

The police closed the coast fearing the environmental disaster.

The stricken ship had been deliberately beached.

The ship ran aground in a heavy storm because of poor visibility.

The immediate worry is the chemicals the ship was carrying.

Thousands of residents and tourists who flocked to the coast were told to leave because of public safety concerns.

The shipwreck was probably due to previous damage to the structure of the ship.

Part III. text analysis

Assignment I. Analyse the structure of the newspaper article: the title, the subtitle, the headlines, the main body and the additional information. What is the function of the subtitle and headlines?

Assignment II. Specify grammatical and lexical peculiarities of each part of the text.

Assignment III. What type of information does this text contain: factual, conceptual or implicational?

Part IV. Vocabulary Practice

Exercise I. Make up a list of words pertaining to the topical vocabulary «Environmental Protection», «Weather»

Exercise II. Translate the following prepositional and adverbial phrases into Russian.

off the Devon coast

Sergeant Alan Mobbs, of Devon & Cornwall police

in the midst of 40ft waves and 75mph winds.

Exercise III. Find synonymous expressions to the following:

to avert an environmental disaster

stricken container ship

to withstand a deterioration in weather

sheen of oil

Exercise IV. Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying special attention to grammatical constructions with modals:

Environmentalists questioned last night whether the ship should have been at sea at all after she had extensive repairs in Vietnam after striking a coral reef in South-East Asia in 2001.

If the vessel had been properly constructed and maintained it should not have suffered structural defects, despite the storm conditions last week, so something has gone wrong in either the design, repair or maintenance of this vessel.

If the vessel breaks up the fuel tanks could be ruptured, causing potentially devastating contamination.

The contents of the containers remain the property of the original owners, but people who report their finds may be entitled to a salvage award,

TEXT IV

Downing Street cautious over Reid plans to split Home Office

Richard Ford amd Philip Webster

Series of blunders prompt shake-up

Terrorism blamed for bigger workload

From The Times /January 22, 2007

Part I Pre-reading activities

1. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases and give their Russian equivalents:

Cabinet 225-year-old Home Office

No. 10 The Treasury

Home Secretary Chancellor of the Exchequer

the Shadow Foreign Secretary the Foreign Secretary

Department for Constitutional Affairs Justice Ministry

the Leader of the House Balkanization

2. What is meant by the word ‘establishment'? What is British establishment known for?

Part II. Reading

Read the text

John Reid won the backing yesterday of two leading Cabinet heavyweights for his proposal to split in two the 225-year-old Home Office. No 10 and the Treasury, however, adopted a much more cautious approach to the idea of creating a justice ministry and department of national security.

David Blunkett, a former home secretary, warned Mr Reid of the danger of the «Balkanisation» of Whitehall into a multitude of small departments headed by ministers unable to counter the combined weight of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr Reid has been driven to propose splitting the £15.1 billion department seven months after promising to work 18 hours a day to turn it round. A series of difficulties including slower-than-expected progress in dealing with foreign prisoners who should be deported, a backlog of asylum cases and gaps in counter-terrorist capabilities, has led Mr Reid to outline a radical option for change.

He has discussed his ideas with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary. Yesterday the Treasury and Downing Street both cautiously described Mr Reid’s proposals as interesting and added that they would be considered.

«At this stage the proposals are for discussion,» a Home Office source said. «These things are being thought about seriously but a lot more work needs to be done on the details. There is plenty of time.»

Mr Brown is planning in the Comprehensive Spending Review, assuming that it is he rather than his successor who delivers it, to speak in more detail about his plans for a single security budget. Officials suggested that his thinking already went wider than Mr Reid’s proposal.

Under Mr Reid’s idea some of the current Home Office responsibilities including prisons, probation and drugs policy would switch to the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Jack Straw, the Leader of the House and a former home secretary, gave his full support to the idea, saying that the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States had changed the agenda of the home secretary. He said: «I was able to cope with a very wide programme including a lot of constitutional change because terrorism, although it was a serious concern, was not a fundamental pre-occupation of the home secretary.»

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, whose empire at the Department of Constitutional Affairs would expand massively by gaining prisons, probation and criminal justice policy, inevitably gave his support to the idea.

Mr Blunkett said that splitting the Home Office could favour criminals and hand too much power to the Prime Minister and Chancellor. «We should think twice, three times, five times before doing it,» he told Sunday Edition on ITV. «The Balkanisation of government needs to be taken into account: smaller and smaller departments, sometimes not warranting a secretary of state, with the only really powerful positions held by the Prime Minister and Chancellor.»

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, told Sunday Live on Sky News: «A massive upheaval at the Home Office, actually splitting it in two is, I think, a pretty serious admission of failure on the part of Mr Reid, if that is what he is contemplating.»

Departmental errors

1995 132-page report finds that the department’s performance falls short of what ministers and the public want, and says that the Home Office must change

1999 500,000 people wait up to 50 days after failure of new computer system at Passport Agency

1999 Bungled IT system leads to mounting backlog of asylum and immigration cases

Late 1990s Home Office loses control of immigration and asylum system

2002 Backlog of applications after poor launch of £940 million Criminal Records Bureau

2004;05 Loses control of its finances. National Audit Office refuses to give seal of approval

2006 1,025 foreign prisoners released without being considered for deportation. The news costs Charles Clarke his job as Home Secretary

2006 The Prison Service runs out of places in jails

2007 Disclosure of 27,500 backlog of files on British citizens convicted abroad

2007 Runs out of prison places again

Past and future

The Home Office

Founded March 1782 as the Home Department

First Secretary of State for Home Department Earl of Shelburne

Other previous occupants Robert Peel, founder of the police service; Lord Palmerston; Winston Churchill; Roy Jenkins; James Callaghan

Budget 2007;08 £15.1 billion

Staff 73,359

HQ £311 million new Westminster building opened in February 2005

What the Reid plan would create

National security ministry Overseeing the police, MI5, and borders. There would be an Immigration and Nationality Directorate with 15,944 employees and an Identity Cards and Passport Service with 2,886 staff

Justice ministry Probation, criminal justice policy, sentencing, drugs and crime reduction. A staff of 47,100 for prisons and 1,256 for the National Offender Management Service

Text Comprehension

Exercise I Answer the following questions:

What were the background reasons for the decision to split the Home Office into two departments?

Why is the proposal of Mr. Reid termed as Balkanization?

What are the pros and cons of splitting the Home Office into two departments?

In which way did the 9/11 terrorist attacks affect the responsibilities of the Home Secretary?

Exercise II. Paraphrase the following, indicating directly what the speaker meant:

‘A massive upheaval at the Home Office, actually splitting it in two is, I think, a pretty serious admission of failure on the part of Mr Reid, if that is what he is contemplating'.

Jack Straw, the Leader of the House and a former home secretary, gave his full support to the idea, saying that the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States had changed the agenda of the home secretary. «I was able to cope with a very wide programme including a lot of constitutional change because terrorism, although it was a serious concern, was not a fundamental pre-occupation of the home secretary.»

Part III. Text Analysis

Assignment I. Mark the main structural parts of the article. Specify the function of each, indicate their linguistic peculiarity.

Assignment II. Find in the text samples of newspaper phraseology, clichés, set expressions.

Assignment III. What is the general slant of the article — is it objective (neutral), subjective (biased) in presenting the facts?

TEXT V

Tony’s policy map for Gordon

David Cracknell, Political Editor

From The Sunday Times /January 21, 2007

Read the text and do the exercises which follow.

TONY BLAIR is seeking to force Gordon Brown to sign up to a far-reaching agenda of new Labour reforms before he leaves office, according to a leaked letter to the prime minister.

The overhaul, designed to be implemented over the next 10 years, covers all aspects of government, including crime, security, immigration and the running of schools and hospitals.

It calls for a greater role for the private sector — a suggestion that will irritate Brown — and for cutting Whitehall staff by 50%, potentially meaning 350,000 civil servants could be sacked.

The letter, dated January 12 and marked «confidential — personal», outlines the prime minister’s «emerging ideas» for his last months in office which he hopes will be so far advanced when his successor takes over that Brown will have to follow them.

The memo was written by David Bennett, the head of the No 10 policy directorate, in advance of a policy summit at Chequers last Friday.

It brings together suggestions from policy groups set up by Blair in the wake of last autumn’s botched «coup» attempt by Brownites. Their job was to study ideas for Britain’s long-term future.

The suggestions in Bennett’s memo include:

A «clean-sheet redesign of Whitehall», resulting in «a radical (50%+) downsizing».

Limiting immigration to «where it clearly benefits the UK» and making British citizenship a «greater prize» for immigrants.

Faith schools being twinned with schools of different religions.

Ensuring preachers recruited from abroad should have «a proper command of English».

Prescribing addictive drugs in a bid to help tackle drug-related crime.

Sentencing repeat offenders to «a night spent in the cells» plus unpaid work, rather than lengthy and costly periods in prison.

Higher energy taxes to cover the cost of pollution through so-called carbon pricing and introducing charges by weight for household waste collection.

Following the coup attempt last year, Blair was forced to say he would leave office within 12 months, although last week he confirmed that he wanted to stay until at least the end of June.

Blair’s aim was to ensure that the chancellor, who was vulnerable at the time to suggestions that he inspired the plotting, was manoeuvred into continuing his reforms when he takes over.

The prime minister set up review teams in the areas of economic competitiveness; public services, security and crime; the environment and foreign policy.

However, the chancellor’s allies have indicated that Brown will make a decisive break from Blair’s legacy when he enters Downing Street by refusing to keep to the 10-year policy review. Brown is planning a blitz of initiatives during his first 100 days in office, aimed, for example, at restoring the accountability of parliament and distancing his administration from the cash for honours scandal.

Text comprehension

Exercise I. Answer the following questions to the text:

Will G. Brown go on with the reform programme started by T. Blair, when he is in office?

Which of the T. Blair’s suggestions will irritate G. Brown most?

Why did T. Blair decide to leave office within 12 months?

Exercise II. Explain the meaning of the underlined words and word combinations. Paraphrase them.

TONY BLAIR is seeking to force Gordon Brown to sign up to a far-reaching agenda of new Labour reforms before he leaves office, according to a leaked letter to the prime minister.

It brings together suggestions from policy groups set up by Blair in the wake of last autumn’s botched «coup» attempt by Brownites.

However, the chancellor’s allies have indicated that Brown will make a decisive break from Blair’s legacy when he enters Downing Street.

Brown is planning a blitz of initiatives during his first 100 days in office

The letter, dated January 12 and marked «confidential — personal», outlines the prime minister’s «emerging ideas» for his last months in office which he hopes will be so far advanced when his successor takes over that Brown will have to follow them.

Exercise III. Indicate true and false statements

Blair’s aim was to find out whether the chancellor inspired the plotting.

G. Brown is encouraged to go on with the policy initiated by T. Blair.

The policy groups' job was to study ideas for Britain’s long-term future.

The leaked memo summarized the ideas of the Brownites revealing that they were plotting against the Prime Minister.

Exercise IV. Explain the metaphor used in the title of the article. Does it connote positive or negative attitude to T. Blair’s actions?

Part III Text Analysis

1. What is the function of quotation marks in the following passages? In which case the author resorts to them to quote and in which case they signal a certain attitude (approval/disapproval)?

The letter, dated January 12 and marked «confidential — personal», outlines the prime minister’s «emerging ideas» for his last months in office which he hopes will be so far advanced when his successor takes over that Brown will have to follow them.

Limiting immigration to «where it clearly benefits the UK» and making British citizenship a «greater prize» for immigrants.

It brings together suggestions from policy groups set up by Blair in the wake of last autumn’s botched «coup» attempt by Brownites.

2. Find in the texts samples of ‘political cliches' and explain their meaning.

Text VI

MPs ‘misled over troop payments'

By Graeme Wilson, Political Correspondent

From Telegraph / January 20, 2007

Part I Pre-reading activities

Check the understanding of the following political terms:

Defence Secretary Shadow defence secretary

The Commons MP

Part II Reading

Read the text

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, was accused of misleading Parliament last night after he told MPs that plans to scrap allowances for troops who spend long periods away from home would «not take one penny away from anybody» .

Mr Browne came under fire after a leaked Ministry of Defence document, seen by The Daily Telegraph, revealed he had been told a week before his statement in the Commons that there would be «losers» under the reforms.

He was one of a handful of people who received the memo, which was stamped «Restricted — policy» .

The memo — written by Chris Baker, the MoD’s director general of service personnel policy — was sent out the day after it emerged that thousands of soldiers faced losing hundreds of pounds under proposals to scrap so-called long service separation (accumulated turbulence) bonuses.

Mr Baker’s memo spells out the Government’s case for scrapping the allowances, and introducing a new system of payments, before concluding: «It has always been recognised and accepted that there will be a few potential losers as those who have qualified due to high separation are unable to do so [under the reforms]. «The memo added that Tony Blair had been briefed on the issue.

The full impact of the changes was underlined last night by a separate leaked memo from Lt Col David Russell-Parsons, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, which revealed that more than 500 of his troops stand to lose £1,350 each. Despite the clear warning in Mr Baker’s memo that some soldiers would lose out, Mr Browne brushed aside concerns about the allowances raised by Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, at the end of October.

Instead, Mr Browne told the Commons that «the reconfiguration of the allowances does not take one penny away from anybody or from the armed forces.. .Money is not taken away from anybody.» In his memo — written in September — Lt Col Russell-Parsons said his men will have spent around 20 months away from home on a series of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia between Aug 2004 and Nov 2007.

He estimated that 505 of his men would have qualified for £1,350 each under the old system. He warned that withdrawing the allowances — which started to be phased out last month — would send an «appalling message after a seven-month tour interval». Retaining the payments would be a «key signal to the soldiers of their value over a considerable period of additional turbulence.»

Lt Col Russell-Parsons added that his troops were looking forward to their deployment in Afghanistan «without concerns of a considerable loss of money» .

Last night, Mr Fox said: «It is very clear that Parliament, the public and the Armed Forces were all misled and are due an apology. The Secretary of State promised there would be no losers when clearly he understood there would be.» He added: ''This slashing of pay is very damaging to morale and yet another kick in the teeth for our brave Armed Forces." Responding to the memo from Lt Col Russell-Parsons, an MoD spokesman said: «The Secretary of State’s office now has a copy of the memo and the department will be looking into it to make sure no soldier has been treated unfairly.»

Text Comprehension

Assignment I. Summarise the facts on the basis of which the Defence Secretary came under fire.

Assignment II. Whose side does the author keep with? How can this be proved?

Assignment III Give another wording to the underlined parts of the sentences:

He estimated that 505 of his men would have qualified for £1,350 each under the old system.

'This slashing of pay is very damaging to morale and yet another kick in the teeth for our brave Armed Forces.

The leaked memo from Lt Col David Russell-Parsons, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, revealed that more than 500 of his troops stand to lose £1,350 each

Mr Browne came under fire after a leaked Ministry of Defence document, seen by The Daily Telegraph, revealed he had been told a week before his statement in the Commons that there would be «losers» under the reforms.

Tthousands of soldiers faced losing hundreds of pounds under proposals to scrap so-called long service separation (accumulated turbulence) bonuses.

Mr Browne brushed aside concerns about the allowances raised by Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, at the end of October.

Part III Vocabulary Study

Exercise I. Give synonyms to the following words and word combinations:

to scrap allowances

slashing of pay

Exercise II. Give full forms to the following abbreviations

Lt Col

MoD

Exercise III. Study the following words and explain their meaning. Check the meaning of a similar word in Russian

Morale the public

Personnel personal

Exercise IV Fill in the blanks with suitable words:

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, was accused ___ misleading Parliament last night after he told MPs that plans to scrap allowances for troops who spend long periods ___ from home would «not take one penny away from anybody» .

Retaining the payments would be a «key signal ___ the soldiers of their value ___ a considerable period of additional turbulence.»

In his memo — written in September — Lt Col Russell-Parsons said his men will have spent around 20 months ___ from home ___ a series ___ operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia ___ Aug 2004 and Nov 2007.

Как отмечает С. К. Фоломкина, существуют и иные термины для описания данного процесса, а именно: «логическая переработка информации в процессе мышления» (термин А.Н. Соколова) и «мыслительная переработка» (термин А.А. Смирнова) [Фоломкина 2005: 13].