词汇大师-- US Campaign Offers Lesson for an English Teach

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: another in a series of chats from the recent TESOL, or Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, convention¹ in New York.

　　AZADEH LEONARD: "My name is Azadeh Leonard and I teach English at the College of Staten Island. I'm an ESL [English as a Second Language] teacher, and I'm originally from Iran. I came here about a year and a half ago, and since I have a master's degree in TESOL, I started teaching here, too."
AA: "So tell me a little bit about your students."
AZADEH LEONARD: "Well, my students, they are college students, so I would say they are between the ages of eighteen and maybe forty-five, or something like that."
AA: "Where do your students come from?"
AZADEH LEONARD: "Oh, they come from all over. They come from Egypt, China, Korea, Colombia -- where else? Lebanon. Just anywhere, anywhere you can think of."
AA: "Do you have any advice for students back in Iran who are learning English? Any things that, now that you've been in the States here for a year and a half, any special advice for the students back home?"
AZADEH LEONARD: "I would say watch a lot of movies, use a lot of movies, and also listen to music, English music, 'cause that's how I learned English. I learned it through -- I mean, movies and TV helped me a lot. Also, satellite, because Iranians in Iran do have satellites. Although it's illegal, they still do have it. I would just say listen, listen a lot, and then practice pronouncing the words. That's very, very important. I always tell my students to watch movies. That's how you learn English best."
AA: "Is there anything else you'd like to say about being an English teacher, or being an Iranian English teacher, or living in New York?"
AZADEH LEONARD: "Well, I can only say that everyday is not just for my students, also for me -- although I'm an English teacher and I've learned English, I still am learning. I'm still learning new terms, I'm trying to understand them. There are many things that even I still have problems [with]. I mean things that deal with the tax system or with the government. Like how you vote. There were many terms that I learned -- like 'caucuses³.' I had no idea what caucus² meant. I hadn't even heard it."
AA: "It's basically a big term for a [political] meeting where people get together and ... "
AZADEH LEONARD: "Yeah, I mean the voting system here is so different from my country, and it was interesting to learn about the delegates⁴, super delegates, caucuses, all that, you know?"
AA: "Well, I'm curious then, are your students following the presidential campaign? I mean, do you discuss this in class?"
AZADEH LEONARD: "Yes, we do. We do discuss it and I try to make them realize that it's very important for them to care about these things because they're part of this country now. As a person who lives in a certain country, no matter where you live, you have to care about what's going on. Especially because they're immigrants, it's important for them to know, for example, who becomes the next president and what's going to happen to them, you know?"
AA: "Well, are there debates in class about, you know, Hillary Clinton versus⁵ Barack Obama versus John McCain? I mean, do you have to kind of tell them to cool it, or do they get into debates about this?"
AZADEH LEONARD: "Yeah, sometimes. Once, we discussed about different candidates, and some of them had some ideas. Some of them were obviously Democrats⁶ and maybe a few were Republicans⁷. So, yeah, I did have to like tell them 'OK, you know, whatever your idea is, I'm sure it's great, but you know, just let's stop this ... ' "
AA: "Go on with the class."
AZADEH LEONARD: "Let's go on with the class, exactly."
AA: Azadeh Leonard teaches English as a Second Language at the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. If you're learning American English, be sure to visit our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. I'm Avi Arditti.

1 convention   

n.惯例，习俗，常规，会议，大会

参考例句：

• How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到？
• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。

2 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

3 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

4 delegates   

代表，代表团成员( delegate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The conference was attended by delegates from 56 countries. 此次会议有来自56个国家的代表出席。
• Delegates expressed strong opposition to the plans. 代表强烈反对这些计划。

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 republicans   

拥护共和政体者，共和主义者( republican的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Republicans got shellacked in the elections. 共和党在选举中一败涂地。
• The latest poll gives the Republicans a 5％ lead. 最近的民意调查结果表明共和党领先了五个百分点。