INTENSIVE LISTENINGBefore Listening Activities Activity I: Orientation 6. Going away to college can be an overwhelming time for new students as they embark on a new stage in their lives. What are freshmen usually anxious and nervous about? Make a list of the most common fears that freshmen have at the beginning of the first year of college. 7. What was your transition from secondary school to university like? Did you have any worries and fears? Activity II: Helpful Vocabulary 1. Match the idioms and phrasal verbs with their definitions, then give their Russian equivalents.
2. Use the words from exercise 1 in the correct form in the following sentences. 1. She is new to the company and needs time _______________. 2. He is not the problem solving CEO that he _______________. 3. Near the end of the school year, Sally began _________, and her grades showed it. 4. It’s really exciting ___________ for the first time even if I am only one state away from my family. I’ve never felt so independent before. 5. He hasn’t shown any signs of grief over his father’s death, but I’m sure he _____ just __________. 6. The math skills of the majority of children in this school _________ to the national standards. 7. Living away from home while attending college gives students a lot of new-found freedom – often resulting in a classic case of classes __________ and GPAs destroyed. 8. Although _________ is something that is normal for most young adults, the age at which a person does this often depends on the emotional and financial readiness of the young adult, as well as on the parents and the child’s relationship with those parents. 9. On this website you can see how our current students and graduates ____________ around the world, hear from scholarship winners and see our TV stars. 10. The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, found that China was the only one of 21 countries or territories where the majority believes parents ______ too much __________ students to do well in school.
Listening Comprehension Activities 1. Listen to Reba Watkins, a freshman at Howard University, Washington, D.C., talking about getting adapted to college life, and write true (T) or false (F) in front of each sentence. 1. Howard University is far away from Reba’s home. 2. Reba feels excited about becoming independent and being on her own, free from rules and chores. 3. Reba did not do well at school as she often skipped her classes and slacked off on many assignments. 4. Reba had been looking forward to moving out of her parents’ home since the first day of her senior year in high school. 5. Reba is starting to doubt if going to college was a good decision. 6. Reba feels pressured because everyone around her expects her to make her mark in the world. 2. Listen again and tick the freshman fears Reba has. Reba is afraid that · she will not have enough money to do all the things she wants to do. · she will not come up to her parents’ expectations. · she will not be able to manage her time properly. · she will not be able to help her parents to pay for college. · she will have trouble getting along with her roommate. · studying will be too difficult as she is probably not as smart as other freshmen. · she will have difficulty finding a major she likes. · she will become homesick, and this will affect her grades.
After Listening Activities Activity I: Discussing the Issues 1. Why do freshmen often feel worried about going away to college? What advice would you give to such first-year students? 2. Read the following excerpt from the article “Start of college can be harder on parents than freshmen”. Do you agree with Ian Sladen’s opinion that start of college is probably tougher for parents than for students? How did your parents feel about your going away to college? Increasingly, colleges and universities have noted the support parents need in letting go, so much that they are starting to formalize the goodbye. At St. Olaf College in Minnesota, incoming freshmen are shown a video with their smiling, crying parents waving goodbye as one big group. First-year students at the University of Chicago, meanwhile, walk their parents to the university gate as bagpipes play in what some university staff call the “parting of the seas.” At Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business in Philadelphia, a goodbye reception includes an unofficial “crying room,” set up with tissues and a counselor. It’s kind of a gentle joke, but one that’s meant to send a message. “The idea was that we understand this is a major change for everybody,” says Ian Sladen, LeBow’s assistant dean of undergraduate programs. “It’s just as tough for parents – probably tougher, really.” But in the end, the message from universities and colleges is the same: Parents, please go home ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-09-05-freshman-coping-parents_N.htm).
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