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Lesson plans and teaching materials for the Trinity College London
GESE and ISE exams

ISE I Learning a Foreign Language Lesson

Task 1: Speaking
1. Which of these foreign languages do you think are the most popular with language
learners around the world? In pairs, rate them from 1 (most popular) to 7 (least
popular). Give reasons for your answers.
French Chinese Spanish
Japanese Italian English German

2. Which foreign languages do you learn? Why did you choose these languages?

3. Which foreign language would you like to learn? Why?

Task 2: Reading
Now there are four short texts for you to read and some questions for you to answer.
Questions 1-5
Read questions 1-5 first and then read texts A, B, C and D below the questions.

As you read each text, decide which text each question refers to. Choose one letter — A, B, C or D —
and write it on the lines below. You can use any letter more than once.

Which text:

1. describes the reasons why a lot of people speak this language __________
2. reports the numbers of people studying a language __________
3. asks for advice about which language to learn __________
4. gives examples of languages that will be popular in the future __________
5. provides information about language courses __________

Text A
Thinking of learning a foreign language? Why not choose one of these fast-growing languages:

FRENCH– it’s predicted that HINDU/URDU – By 2030, ARABIC – there are already
French will be spoken by 750 India will have a bigger 300 million native speakers of
million people by 2050. It’s population than China, and Arabic and it’s the fastest
becoming a popular language Hindu and Urdu are the most growing language on the
in sub-Saharan Africa and is an spoken languages of this internet. And speaking Arabic
important language in country. They are also is a big advantage in the job
business and trade. important languages in the market!
Bollywood entertainment
industry.

For more information about our classes in these and other languages, contact us on 555-367-241 or
[email protected]

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Lesson plans and teaching materials for the Trinity College London
GESE and ISE exams

Text B

Number of foreign language learners (in millions)

Japanese 3
Italian 8
German 14.5
Spanish 14.5
Chinese 30
French 82
English 1500
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600

Text C

I have to choose a foreign language to study this academic year. Any suggestions?
HelenG: Why not try Chinese? There are about 1.4 billion speakers and
you’ll be able to communicate with them! And it’s interesting to learn a
new alphabet too.

TimP: I think that French is a good choice – it’s a fast-growing language and
it’s easier than Chinese.

Marial: I agree with @TimP. French is a good choice because many

employers want to hire people with knowledge of French to help them
communicate and do business.

PaulF: I’d rather study German than French as there as fewer speakers of
German and it gives you an advantage when you want to find a job.

Text D

Why is English so popular?

English is a global language. Over 1.5 billion people speak English around the world. But how
did it become so popular?

The British Empire: English was spread around the world because of trade. Britain wanted to
buy and sell goods around the world and English became the language of business.

The United States: In the 19th century America became more influential and helped to increase
the use of English around the world.

Science: In the past, Latin was used as the language of science, but in the 20th century, English
began to be used to report scientific research.

Popular culture: English is used in many films, music, computer games, advertisements, etc.
Many entertainers use English because they think they can reach a wider audience.

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Lesson plans and teaching materials for the Trinity College London
GESE and ISE exams

Questions 6-10

Choose the five statements from A–H below that are TRUE according to the information given in the
texts above. Write the letters of the TRUE statements on the lines below (in any order).

6 ________
A There are 750 million speakers of French in the world.
7 ________
B Spanish and German are equally popular language choices for
8 ________ language learners.

9 ________ C One reason English became popular was because of international

business.
10 ________
D PaulF thinks German is a better language to learn because it is
more popular with learners than French.

E Arabic is becoming a popular online language.

F English has always been an important scientific language.

G The population of India is increasing faster than the population of

China.

H Knowledge of French can be useful when you are looking for a job.

Questions 11-15

The summary notes below contain information from texts A–D. Find an exact number, word or
phrase (maximum three words) from texts A-D to complete the missing information in gaps 11-
15.

Write the exact number, word or phrase on the lines below.

Summary notes
Languages around the world
Popular languages

• English is the most popular language for learners

• (11) _______________________ are French, Arabic, and Hindu/Urdu
Reasons languages are popular

• Because of business and trade

• Entertainment industry, e.g. movies, music, computer games
• (12) _________________________ countries e.g. the United States
and Britain
• Number of (13) __________________________ of the language

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Lesson plans and teaching materials for the Trinity College London
GESE and ISE exams

Reasons learners choose to study a language

• More opportunities in the (14) _________________________

• Ability (15) _________________________ with many other speakers of the
language
• If the language is easy or difficult

Task 3: Reading into writing

Write an article (100-130 words) for a school or a college magazine about foreign language
learning around the world.

Use the information you read in Task 2 to:

• explain which foreign languages are popular around the world

• give reasons why these languages are popular
• suggest why learners choose to study a particular foreign language

You should plan your short article before you start writing. Think about what you want to say
and make some notes to help you. It’s useful to think about how you will include information
from ALL THE 4 TEXTS.

Example:
Introduction – English most popular language for learners (1.5b) compared to 82M for French
2nd most popular (text B) Other langs becoming more popular (Arabic, Hindu) (text A)

Continue planning your essay in the box below, making sure you include information from
each of the 4 texts..

Planning notes

(No marks are given for these planning notes)

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 EFLMaterials.com
Lesson plans and teaching materials for the Trinity College London
GESE and ISE exams

Answer Key

1. D
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. A

6-10 in any order.

6. B
7. C
8. E
9. G
10. H

11. Fast-growing languages

12. influential
13. speakers
14. job market
15. to communicate

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