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开放教育英语专业实践性教学

英语国家概况 1

英语教研室：宦敏

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教学意义电大教育是应用型人才的教育，不是单纯理论知识的传授与延伸。通过实践性教学，激发学生求知的欲望和其对英语专业的热爱，多方面培养学生的能力，从而更有效地实现教学目标。就本课程而言，通过实践性教学，使学生对英语国家概况更感兴趣，激发其学习动力。

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教学重难点 如何激发学生的英语思维，如何提高学

生的英语表达能力、把握学生特点，刺激其学习英语的兴趣，更好地 了解英语国家概况。

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教学设计步骤1. 布置同学课前广泛收集有关英国经济方面信息，尤其是对其经济发展产生重大影响的历史事件资料。 2. 通过指导学生观看电视教学节目“大国崛起”，帮助其了解英国经济的历史及现状。3. 以学生的收集素材展示、解说作为重要教学环节，来充分调动积极性。

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4. 提问 What do you think about the tendency of the

UK economy? Declining or growing?

5. 讨论 Separate the students into 2 groups

according to their answers. And the rest of the students who are neutral can act as judges. But whenever they want ,they can leave one group and join the other .

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For example, you can begin your view with “ I think the economy has grown to some degree, or from sometime…, because……”.

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6. Conclusion

Each group has a few minutes to deliver their reasons why the U.K economy grows or declines. Produce as many reasons as you can to earn the support.

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Supplementary Background Knowledge

Chapter 5 The UK Economy 

I. Absolute and relative decline of the British Economy

1.  By the 1880s, dominant in the world--- 1/3 of the world’s manufactured goods; 1/2 of the world’s coal, iron and cotton; shipping greater than the sum of the rest of the world

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2.      By 1900, overtaken by the U.S and Germany

3.      From 1945(the year when WWII ended) until present, thought of as relative decline because of steady economic growth and rapidly increasing living standards and still remaining one of the Group of Seven industrial economies( 七大工业国 :US, UK. Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada), but other countries developed more rapidly, so it slip from being the 2nd largest economy to being the 6th.

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      Ⅱ causes for the relative decline

1 Gone into heavy debt to finance the war (selling many accumulated overseas assets, borrowing large amounts from the US and Canada)

2 British colonies which used to provide raw materials and big markets gained independence —the end of the era of empire

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*Supplementary note: In the 17th C., trade between Britain and India started, which

 was undertaken by a trading company called the East India Company. In 1813, Britain took over the company. At that time, the company controlled nearly all the official and administrative work in the whole sub-continent of India. Then the British Empire’s rule began. In 1947, India, “The Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire, gained its independence. So the UK lost the largest resource of raw materials and a big market for its goods.

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3 Britain was heavily burdened with the huge military expenditure during the process of decolonisation.  [It was still forced to maintain a substantial and expensive military presence in many overseas locations until the process was completed (mostly by the end of the 1960s). And as one of the shapers of the post-war world required substantial military contributions (member of NATO and UN Security Council).]

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4 lacked the investment in modern equipment and new products (Britain’s industry survived comparatively unaffected. It continued with its older factories and pre-war products. While the main losers in the war, Germany and Japan, had to start from nothing, so they could invest in the most modern equipment and new products, which was sufficient.)

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* low rates of domestic industrial investment; high rate of overseas investment

* lack of a close relationship between industry and banks because the UK was the 1st economy to industrialize, and industrial firms grew used to financing their own development, without need to borrow from banks. So banks looked overseas for investment opportunities.

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Ⅲ Summary of the decline:

  ---The UK has experienced an economic decline since 1945. but this is a relative decline rather than an absolute one. Britain is wealthier and more productive than it was in 1945, but since other countries developed more rapidly, it has slid from being the 2nd largest economy to being the 6th.