Education FCE Speaking

 Are there times when it’s better to let your child start work rather than going to university?
 At what age do you think children should be allowed to decide which subjects they study at
school?
 Do you think competitive sport is always a good thing for schoolchildren?
 Do you think it’s a good idea to start studying foreign languages when you are very young?
 Do you think it’s good for parents to speak to their children in a foreign language to help them
learn it?
 How important do you think it is to go to university?
 Is it a good thing for young people to go straight onto a postgraduate course?
 More and more people are working and studying at the same time these days. Why do you think
this is?
 What can you do to make sure your studies help your future career?
 What do you think people like about studying abroad?
 What do you think the advantages of a single national university entrance test are?
 What do you think the disadvantages of mixed-level classes are?
 What is the best way to make children motivated to learn?
 Why do you think cram schools are popular?
 Why do you think some people are so interested in taking language exams?
 Why do you think some people prefer cramming to studying over the whole course?
 Do you think all children should study foreign languages?

Writing

In your English class, you have been talking about what subjects should be compulsory at secondary
school. Now your English teacher has asked you to discuss one part of that question in more detail.
Discuss the question below, making sure you cover all the points given and give reasons for your point of
view.

Discussion question

All young people should study a foreign language as part of their education. Do you agree?

Notes:

Discuss:

1. Working life
2. Travel and holidays
3. ….. (your own idea) 
Motivation
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Motivation is an important part of human psychology. It arouses a person to act towards a desired goal. It
is a driving force which promotes action. For example, hunger is a motivation which causes a desire to
eat. "Motivation is an energizer of behavior".[1] Motivation is the purpose or psychological cause of an
action.[2]

With animals, motivation is caused by basic needs: needs for food, water, warmth, safety, mating,
protecting the young, defending territory, needs to escape pain and threats... The drive to do these things
is instinctive, inborn, and triggered by circumstance.

With humans, whose mental life is so much more complex, motivation is more complicated. Obviously,
humans feel the need for food and water, avoid pain and so on. But they are also capable of having long-
term plans which are more difficult to understand.

Drives
A drive or desire is a deficiency or need that activates behaviour aimed at a goal or an incentive.[3][4]

Drives may arise inside or outside an organism. External drives for humans are rewards and punishments,
and can be quite subtle: a frown or a smile may be sufficient for a young person.

Drives often occur within the individual and may not need external stimuli to encourage the behaviour.
An example is the sexual drive which is driven by our hormone system.[2] The desire for sex is wired deep
into the brain of all human beings as glands secrete hormones that travel through the blood to the brain
and stimulates the onset of sexual desire.[2] The process is started by the brain's hypothalamus, which
releases pulses of GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone). This starts a whole chain of reactions which
we call "puberty". Longer term, the hormone supporting male sex drive is testosterone, and for women
testosterone and oestrogen.

By contrast, outside rewards and stimuli are used in training animals by giving them treats when they
perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform the trick consistently, even later
when the treat is removed from the process. Children are motivated to learn by approval of friendly
adults, and by their own pleasure at success.

Emotions and unconscious motivation

Motivation and emotion are intertwined: "Emotional states tend to have motivational properties".[1]

Not all motivated behaviour is the result of conscious decisions. Freudian psychology suggests that much
behaviour is motivated by "unconscious factors, working through a network of defence mechanisms,
symbolic disguises and psychological cloaks".[1]