endangered languages. Have you finished? Who'd like to show your writing?

A sample version:

　　Nowadays, international communication has become more and more important, people prefer to communicate in languages, such as English, Arabic and Chinese. But many of the world's languages and culture are dying out. In this essay we will examine the problem of languages and culture dying and the solutions, such as writing books and increasing language population levels.

　　Firstly, as the technology improves, people around the world are relying more and more on electronic devices to communicate with each other. While this trend is helping the major culture, it is having a harmful effect on the minor culture that could be swallowed up by the major culture.

　　Secondly, some of the world's languages are not being learned widely by children or used in daily commerce. In some boarding schools, children were punished for speaking their parent's language.

　　Despite the desires of language and culture activists, the outlook is somewhat grim. People already realize this problem exists and are trying to solve it.

　　For one solution, people can record the culture and languages on books or tapes, making sure our descendants can learn or use them in the future.

　　The second solution is increasing the language population levels. Governments can make some policies, like encouragement for people to learn and teach the languages facing extinction, no matter whether the language is used in daily commerce or not. By trying to keep them alive, at least they have a future as second languages.

　　The important thing is to learn the elder's tongue and culture before it's too late. Otherwise we will lose them.

Step II Reading and writing

Ask the students to read the passage on page 78 and answer the questions.

T: Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. It can be divided into two groups: tangible and