Module 1.

Topic FAMILY.
Define: What is the appropriate English term for …
your sister’s daughter? _____
your sister’s son? ______
your grandmother’s mother? _____ ___________
your brothers and sisters? ________
your wife’s brother? _______ __ ___
the son of your mother’s new husband? ___________

Text 1.
Family traditions: 10 ideas to get you started
by Sherri of  Serene Journey.
Traditions. Those little rituals passed down from generation to generation that help shape
your family by creating a sense of unity, warmth and closeness. They create memories that fill your
mind with peace, love, happiness, and security.
But what do you do if your family doesn’t have many traditions? Well, you create them of
course! Somebody has to create all these little rituals, so why not let it be you?
There are so many traditions that you can incorporate into your family. I grew up spending
every birthday with my family, decorating eggs at Easter, carving the pumpkin at Halloween and
opening stockings on Christmas morning.
Traditions don’t have to be extravagant, intense or require a lot of planning. They can be as
simple as reading to your child every night in the same comfy chair, having a movie and pizza night
every Friday or discussing things you are grateful for around the dinner table each evening.
Traditions are the glue that keeps a family together. We all have very busy lifestyles, and adding a
small tradition here or there can make all the difference to your family.
Family tradition ideas to get you started:

Look at the tradition variants. What do they mean?

Christmas dainty exchange.  New job.
Easter egg hunt. Potluck.
Birthday cakes. Kick off summer with a BBQ. 
Family Olympics. The birthday hat.
Saturday mornings in bed. New Year’s fondue.

Match variants of the tradition given above with the following passages
1.
Get a hat that is well suited to your family and make this the “official birthday hat.”  The idea is that
each person wears it at their birthday dinner, whether that be at home or out in a restaurant. We
have a rather large birthday hat in our family – it looks like a cake complete with big felt candles
out of the top. It’s ridiculously awesome.
2.
Create the birthday boy or girl’s favorite type of cake. Is it cheesecake, devil’s food cake, or black
forest cake? Or is it not even cake at all? Do they prefer pies, cookies, or cupcakes? Whatever it is,
make their favorite treat an annual tradition for their birthday.
3.
When someone in your family gets a new job, a promotion, or a raise, create a tradition that they
take you out for dinner. It doesn’t have to be a fancy or expensive dinner – you can go for pizza or
wraps.
4.
This is my favorite new tradition in our family. Christmas can be a very stressful time, but baking
all those Christmas goodies doesn’t have to add to it.  Include as many or as few people as you
want, and choose two to three items each to bake.  Bake enough to share with everyone in your
group and agree to a date when you’ll meet up and exchange the goodies you’ve all made. I love
this one for a couple of reasons.  You get a huge variety of baked goods, and you don’t have to
spend weeks preparing. Who doesn’t want that?
5.
This has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Every New Year’s Eve we
have a fondue at Mom and Dad’s. It’s a very fond memory for me, and now my husband and kids
are included in it as well. It’s a very slow way to eat a meal, and a great way to spend the evening
with family as we ring in the new year.
6.
Choose a morning on the weekend to spend in bed with your family. You don’t need to spend hours
laying around, but 15 to 30 minutes is a nice length of time. Try having coffee, tea, or milk with a
couple of cookies. Relaxing and taking a few minutes to connect with your family can be a great
way to kick off a weekend.
7.
A classic in many households around the world. I always looked forward to finding hidden goodies
from around the house each year. It was always a lot of fun and the morning would be full of
laughter. Even now, my mom and dad still hide Easter treats for us, and it will certainly be
something we continue and share with our kids.
8.
This is a great way for extended family members to showcase their culinary talents.  If you decide
to do this monthly or bi-monthly, consider themes – make one night Mexican, and the next time
Thai, followed by Italian. Theme nights can introduce you to a whole new world of cooking.  Bring
print-outs of the recipe so people can take it home with them.
9.
When the weather is nice, spend the day at the park, at the lake, or at the beach.  Decide on sporting
events for whole family  – think bean bag toss, horseshoes, badminton, volleyball, and synchronized
swimming. Create teams, or compete individually and have prizes for all participants.
10.
This is a great way to welcome the beautiful summer weather and BBQ season. Set up outside on
the grass or on the deck, and have everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, water, hamburgers,
hot dogs, potato salad, and ice cream. Have some games ready for kids like water balloon tosses,
shoe scramble, and potato sack races.

Creating a feeling of unity, warmth and closeness with your family is priceless.  There are
no rules and there is no “right” way to do this.So take initiative, get creative, make it happen and
most importantly have fun!

Give answers to the questions:

1) What is the best environment to raise a family in (e.g. apartment, village, etc)?
 2) What was the worst thing you did as a child? Did you get caught?

3) Is there anything funny or different about your family?

Text 2.
Changing Values and Norms of the British Family
The family in Britain is changing. The once typical British family headed by two parents
has undergone substantial changes during the twentieth century. In particular there has been a
rise in the number of single-person households, which increased from 18 to 29 per cent of all
households between 1971 and 2002. By the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be more
single people than married people. Fifty years ago this would have been socially unacceptable in
Britain.
In the past, people got married and stayed married. Divorce was very difficult, expensive
and took a long time. Today, people's views on marriage are changing. Many couples, mostly in
their twenties or thirties, live together (cohabit) without getting married. Only about 60% of
these couples will eventually get married.
In the past, people married before they had children, but now about 40% of children in
Britain are born to unmarried (cohabiting) parents. In 2000, around a quarter of unmarried
people between the ages of 16 and 59 were cohabiting in Great Britain. Cohabiting couples are
also starting families without first being married. Before 1960 this was very unusual, but in
2001 around 23 per cent of births in the UK were to cohabiting couples.
People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to
have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby
until late thirties.
The number of single-parent families is increasing. This is mainly due to more marriages
ending in divorce, but some women are also choosing to have children as lone parents without
being married.

Consider if there is a traditional family structure in your country/culture. Answer True or False for
your family and the traditional family in your country. 
My family/My country
1. Mothers work outside the home.
2. Fathers are the main money makers.
3. Children live at home until they get married.
4. Grandparents often live with their children and grandchildren.
5. Daughters usually take care of their parents when the parents get older.
6. Children do chores and get money for helping the parents.
7. Husbands and wives share household responsibilities like cooking and cleaning.
8. Parents always pay for their children to go to college/university.

Write: Read your answers again and write a paragraph or two about traditional families in your
country/culture. If there is no traditional family, write about that.

Discuss
1) Violence: Is it ever okay to hit a child? What is the custom or law in your country?
2) Due to population growth and environmental problems, should families have fewer kids?
 3) What is the ideal number of children to have?
4) Is it tradition in your culture for women to adopt their husband’s last name? Is this fair?
5) In your country, are mothers allowed maternity leave (from work)? What about paternity leave
for fathers?
6) When are children old enough to move out of the house?

Text 3.
Family
The nuclear family is the traditional family structure in the West. This term, originating in the
1950s, describes families consisting of a father, a mother, and their offspring. Under this
conventional structure, the family is seen as the basic unit in society; the father functions as the
breadwinner and the mother as the homemaker. Nowadays, alternative family types are becoming
more common, such as single-parent families, families headed by same-sex parents, and extended
families where families live with their kin, which may include several generations. Extended
families are less common in North America, where it is not uncommon to place grandparents in
retirement homes.
A Social Trends survey in 2009 reported radical changes in child rearing and marriage practices in
the United Kingdom. Figures showed that while 30 percent of women under thirty had given birth
by the age of 25, only 24 percent had married. This marked the first time childbirth had become the
first major milestone in adult life, ahead of marriage. In 1971 in the U.K, 3/4 of women were
married by the age of 25 and half were mothers.
Judging by the high rates of divorce and the increasing number of children born out of wedlock, it
would appear that the family as an institution is in decline. American sociologist Stephanie Coontz
believes so too, but for different reasons. Coontz points out that marriages are no longer arranged
for political or economic reasons, and children are no longer required to contribute to the family
income. Marriages nowadays are founded on love. She believes this shift towards love, emotional
fulfillment, and free choice has actually weakened the family by making it optional and fragile.
(276 words)
Answer the Questions:
1) What is a nuclear family?
2) True or False: extended families are replacing nuclear families in North America.
3) How has marriage and raising children changed in the U.K. since 1971?
4) Why does Stephanie Coontz believe the institution of the family has weakened?
5) Do you agree or disagree with the ideas in the article?

Match the words with their meaning as used in the article.

1. offspring a. a very important stage in the development of sth
2. conventional b. traditional
3. breadwinner c. bring up and care for a child until it is fully grown
4. homemaker d. the income-earner of a family
5. kin e. breakable; delicate; weak
6. rear (verb) f. failing; dying
7. milestone g. the state of being married
8. wedlock h. children
9. institution i. a person who takes care of the house and family
 10. in decline j. your family or your relatives
11. fragile k. a custom or system that has existed for a long time

Master the language: Connect the below ideas to make a sentence.

government / crush / uprising e.g. The government plans to crush the uprising.
care / offspring
conventionally / breadwinner
homemaker / rear
kin / gifts
milestone / life
born / wedlock
institution / in decline
relationship / fragile

What do you do? (Pair Work)

Discuss with a partner what you should do when…
your six year-old child asks where babies come from.
your child fails his English test.
your 13-year old gets a tattoo on his back.
your child won’t eat his/her vegetables at dinner.
your child won’t stop screaming because you won’t buy him candy in the grocery store.
your child graduates university.
Family role-plays
Choose a role-play from one of the following scenarios. Write it up with your partner, and perform
it for your classmates. Your writing will be checked for grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc., as will
your participation, pronunciation and interaction in the role-play. The role-play should last at least 2
minutes.

 You are a student at an English institute outside of your country. You’d like your parents to
send you some more spending money. Telephone your father (your partner in the role-play) and ask
for more money. Your father feels that you are spending too much money. Come to a compromise.

 You are visiting your cousin (your partner) whom you haven’t seen in a long time. Catch up
on all the news from your two families, as well as from your own lives.

 You are a student who has improved at school, but your mother/father (your partner) doesn’t
feel that you have done enough. Discuss together what you can do to improve your grades, but also
recognize your increased efforts.
 You are the aunt / uncle of a your partner. Your partner wants to ask you about what life was
like with your brother (your partner’s father) when you were both teenagers. Have a discussion
about the old times.

 You would like to get married to a man / woman your parents do not approve of. Have a
discussion with your mother / father (your partner) about your plans. Try to break the news gently,
while still maintaining your desire to get married.

 You are having a discussion with your husband / wife (your partner) about your son who is
having problems at school. Accuse each other of not being a good parent, but try to come to a
conclusion that will help your child.

 You are a technological wizard and have a new idea for a great startup on the internet. Try
to convince your father to fund your business with a $100,000 loan. Your partner will be your father
who is very skeptical about your idea because he thinks you should be a doctor.

 Your parent (Student B) is 98 years old and lives with your family. He/she is completely
dependent on you. This is having a bad affect on your personal life and career. He/she never goes
out. You have decided to put him/her in a retirement home, where he/she can be with other seniors
and get the care he/she needs. Tell him/her your plan. (You live with Student A, who is your
daughter/son, in a house you built with your own hands in 1930. You are old now. Your
daughter/son says she/he wants to speak with you about something.)

Text 4. Wedding Vows

When Prince William married Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011, their wedding vows didn't include
the word 'to obey'.
From William:
I, William Arthur Philip Louis, take thee, Catherine Elizabeth, to my wedded wife, to have and to
hold from this day forward, for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to
love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law; and thereto I give thee my
troth.
From Kate:
I, Catherine Elizabeth, take thee, William Arthur Philip Louis, to my wedded husband, to have and
to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse: for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health;
to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy law; and thereto I give thee my
troth.
Language tip.
Often we use the word 'promise' as well as 'vow'. Both have the similar meanings. If you make a
promise, then generally you are expected to keep it.

People discuss:

This is what some people in London told us:

A woman said that understanding, freedom and respect are all very important to her.

It seems that one woman doesn't particularly like the word 'obey', she wouldn't like to have it in her
wedding vows.

For one man, marriage is about the long term future and that's what he would like to mention in his
wedding vows.
Cultural tip.
Las Vegas is considered by many as a place to get hitched quickly and hassle-free. There are over
300 weddings taking place in town every day and the wedding chapels open almost 24/7.