1. Family in the United States
Chapter 4
Family in the United States

2. Pre-listening Warm-up Questions
What do you know about families in the United States?
There has been high rate of divorce in the U.S., what are some of the reasons?
In what way are children affected when their parents are divorced?
What should the children of a single parent’s do shake off the unhappy memory?
Do you agree or disagree that a person’s happiness is determined by the close relationship between his or her parents? Why?

3. Pre-listening Vocabulary and Key Concepts
Read through the sentences and figure out what words would fit in the blanks. Then check your answers by listening to a dictation of the full sentences.
(See the sentences in the textbook on page )

4. Pre-listening Predictions
Using the pictures in your textbook and the vocabulary exercises as a starting point, write 3 questions that you think you can get answers in the lecture. (Answers vary)

5. Pre-listening Note-taking Preparation Key Words: Content Words
A good notetaker listens for relevant information and then uses key words to take down only the essential information. A good way to pick key words is to concentrate on content words you hear: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These words are usually stressed when spoken. Auxiliary verbs, pronouns, and prepositions are structure words and they receive less stress when spoken.
Practice reducing information by taking down key words (see exercises on page )

6. Rhetorical Cues Introducing a topic / subtopic
Which order will you probably hear them in today’s lecture?
Well, let’s proceed in chronological order and start with the traditional familism.
The third period, the new familism, is harder to see because we are living in this period now.
The second period, the period of individualism, saw three important social and political movements.
To make this point clearer, we’ll take a look at how the American family has changed in the last fifty years by looking at three different time periods.
Because individualism is so often mentioned in our discussion of U.S. culture and people, I should make a little detour before we discuss it.
Answer: d---a---c---e---b

7. Listening
A. In the first listening, you get down the main subtopics of the lecture. The lecturer looks at changes in the family over the last fifty years and divides the changes into three different periods. For each period, the lecturer looks at cultural, economic, and demographic aspects of the family.
ST1: traditional familism: mid-1940s to mid-1960s.
ST2: period of individualism: mid-1960s to mid-1980s
ST3: the new familism: mid-1980s to present
B. In the second listening, write down necessary relevant details. Remember to use key words to save time.

8. Post-listening Answer the following questions.
Are agricultural, economic, and demographic conditions the same now as they were 100 years ago in the U.S.? (no)
What proof of family disintegration is given for both the past and the present? (declining birth rates, rising devoice rates, discontent of women with domestic role)
What was the predominant configuration of the family during the first period of traditional families? (a married couple with children)
In the lecturer’s mind, is the meaning of individualism closer to self-reliance or closer to selfishness? (the latter)
What three social and political movements occurred during the second period of individualism? (sexual revolution, women’s liberation, and the movement against the Vietnam War)

9. Post-listening
What two cultural changes occurred during this second period? (the idealization of career and the drive for self-expression and self-fulfillment)
By what number did single-parent families and cohabiting couples increase during the second period? (single-parent families tripled; cohabiting couples quadrupled)
In which of the three periods discussed do parents put themselves before their children? (the second)
Which cultural elements from the first two periods do people want to keep today? (commitment to family, equality of men and women)
In what three ways could the government promote, or help, the new familism? (quality day-care, parental leave, family allowances)

10. Oral Activities A. Rehearsal of the Lecture
With the help of the above questions and your notes, retell the contents of the lecture to your classmate who might miss the lecture.

11. Oral Activities B. Group Discussion
Discuss with your classmates the following questions and decide what information to include. Write the answers to each question in complete sentences in paragraph form in about 125 words.
What do you know about the family configuration in China? Has it changed in the last 50 years?
What effects have economic, demographic, and cultural changes had on families in China?
Some western country criticizes the Chinese Government for the family planning policy, saying that it is violence to human rights. However, westerners claim that not wanting to have children is a kind of human right that they should enjoy. What’s your opinion?
Nowadays, gays and lesbians are very common. They demand their relationship legal? What do you think about the matter?

12. Homework
Review the main idea of the lecture and make it a complete article.
Log on the website: ; for information.
Listen to the world news program about the new Gulf War between US and Iran.