Plastics are low in both thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion.

failure of the foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five

years, I believe I have some idea of why the failure is so total.1the faults already found out in the education

system as a whole-such as child-centred learning. The "discovery" method, and the low expectations by

teachers of pupils-there have been several serious2which have a direct effect on language teaching.

The first is the removal from the curriculum (课程) of the thorough teaching of English3. Pupils now

do not know a verb from a noun, the subject of a sentence from its object, or the difference between the past,

present, or future.

Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so4that the most able

pupils are5and are bored while the least able are lost and6bored. Strangely enough, few head teachers

seem to be in favour of mixed-ability school football teams.

Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having7lessons. This is

why many people who attended French lessons at school, even those who got good grades, have forgotten it

a few years later.8they never need it, they do not practise it.

Most American schools have accepted what is inevitable and9modern languages, even Spanish, from

the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britain to do the same, and stop10resources on a subject which few

pupils want or need.