2.2. Content-based language activities
The course consists of 17 units; each of the units includes 7 parts aimed at development of all four language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing. The content of the course exactly corresponds to the structure of the course of calculus: it starts with the short history of maths and birth of calculus; then, it describes the differentiation and integration notions; introduces limits and complex numbers; deals with multivariable calculus; pays attention on differential equations and, finally, discusses the applications of calculus in real life. Such order of the material is familiar to the students and it makes them feel free, comfortable and experience no stress being accustomed to the topics of the course book. Each unit begins with an epigraph related to the topic. For example, the very first unit opens with a quotation of mathematician Ian Stewart: “Numbers seem very simple and straightforward, but appearances are deceptive” (Stewart, 2008). It is an open exercise: the students are welcome to express their own opinion about the phrase, agree or disagree with it or just explain what the author meant to say. This kind of activity depends on the initial level of the group, their openness and allows the teacher to tune the group for further work. The first thing a teacher should do at the beginning of a class is a warm-up activity aimed at finding out what learners already know about the topic and what they know about the language of the topic (Dale & Tanner, 2012).