Get ready to read

Real Reading 4 by Liz Driscoll
 Teacher’s 
notes

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Unit
15 
English today
Get ready to read
•
Read the instructions with the class. You could do this exercise 
as a quiz. Explain that students should use words – rather than 
fi gures – when a number begins a sentence. In addition, you 
could make the point that the numbers 1–10 are often written 
as words – and larger numbers are written as fi gures.
A
English as a foreign language
You could ask students what they understand by the section 
heading. Elicit that someone whose fi rst language is English 
speaks English as their 
mother tongue
; in addition, he/she is a 
native speaker
of English. 
1–2
Get students to read paragraph 1 to answer the questions. 
Ask them to guess how many people speak English as a 
foreign language worldwide.
3–4
Get students to read paragraph 2 to answer the questions. 
After checking the answers, ask students if they know where 
English is spoken as a second – or offi cial – language. 
Countries include: Ghana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Nigeria, India, 
Pakistan, Philippines. In Nigeria, for example, English is the 
main language of government, education, commerce, the 
media and the legal system.
Learning tip
Remind students that each paragraph of their own written work 
should also include a topic sentence. 
5–10
If students are unfamiliar with academic writing skills, 
you could work through these exercises one by one, before 
getting feedback to make sure students are clear about topic 
sentences. Refer back to the 
Learning tip
.
11
Students could discuss more examples in pairs or small 
groups, and then share their examples with other pairs/
groups in a whole-class discussion.