Academic English (EAP) at AUA: March 2021

Tuesday 30 March 2021

Peter: introduction in three parts

A book, film, or TV series enjoyed

A few years ago, or maybe ten years ago now, I decided to lighten my bookshelves, which had become loaded with thousands of books. I hadn’t bought a paper book for some years, and even the ones I had I’d largely replaced with Kindle versions. I love reading on Kindle — I can switch conveniently from my tablet when reading at home to my phone when out and about. About the only drawback with Kindle now is that I have to type notes: it doesn’t yet offer the option of scribbling handwritten notes.

Pride of place on my shelves
in the company of Austen's
other masterpieces

I sent my impressive-looking hardcover books to my brother, who now proudly displays them on his bookshelves in Australia, where they sit safely unread, waiting for me to visit and browse them again. I gave away most of my paperbacks to local homes where they would be read. But I kept a few back from the cull: a few novels from my high school days, my paper copies of Shakespeare, a few that carry strong nostalgic connections with my personal history, and a set of well-read novels by Jane Austen. Her Pride and Prejudice seems to me the best novel ever written in English.

For those not familiar with this story, it has also been made in films a few times, most recently starring Keira Knightley, who, as Mr. Darcy astutely points out, “smiles too much.” The Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice is OK, but like every other film version I’ve seen is a poor substitute for the real thing. The exception in adaptations for the screen is the excellent BBC production starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. This version of the story keeps its excellence by faithfully following Austen’s story in every detail, and most importantly by keeping unaltered almost all of her brilliant dialogue. The speech of each character presents them as believable, fully formed human beings, with credible motives for their acts. While treating the serious issues facing respectable women in polite society 200 years ago, Austen can also make us laugh at the pretensions she displays so brilliantly. We, at least I, also wonder how much of the foolishly respectable Mr. Darcy, the self-deluding heroine Elizabeth, or the scheming Mrs. Bennet, rightly terrified of the poverty into which she and her daughters could so easily be thrown by laws and social customs of the conservative traditions of their society. Happily, all turns out well in the end, save for the bad characters who get their just deserts.

Even though I’ve read this novel so many times that three of my cherished paper copies are falling apart from the constant reading, it still gives great pleasure every time I read it again and discover new details, new complexities, new connections among the schemes and themes, or simply relive old pleasures. The fourth paper copy is safe from the normal wear and tear of reading: these last ten years or so, I read the novel on Kindle, where it never deteriorates, but I could not bring myself to sacrifice the well-read paper editions to the cause of decluttering my home. They keep their place on the shelf that has been their home these past 15 years.

The only screen adaptation that comes close to the original's perfection —
so sensible of the BBC to have copied most of Jane Austen's dialogue.

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And a book, film or TV series not enjoyed

not recommended

When it came out some years ago, probably more than ten years ago, a lot of my friends read Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code. It was certainly very popular, so although I had some doubts about its value, I decided to read it to find out what all the fuss was about. Bad decision! I’m sure there are even worse books out there, but Brown’s very famous novel is one of the worst I’ve ever read.

I thought that the story wasn’t bad. It’s a fun plot with the nasty Catholic church repressing knowledge has been that religion’s habit since it began 2,000 years ago. And who could not like plotting priests, lying bishops and a murderous holy group determined to do their god’s work, to fight for him, and kill for him? Add in a shocking truth that has been kept secret for the same 2,000 years and you have the foundation for a great story.

The problem is that Dan Brown is a terrible writer. His short sentences in simple, repetitive language make his characters seem like slightly retarded fools, ever amazed by silliest things as they blunder into one amazing solution after another. If Robert Langdon were a real Harvard University professor, Harvard would be at the bottom of the international university rankings.

In fact, the childish language and shallow, constantly repeated emotions and dialogue made this so hard for me that I almost gave up and didn’t bother finishing it. But I bravely struggled through until the bitter end when the unbelievable characters came to their melodramatic ends and the terrible secret was revealed to shake the world.

recommended

To be fair, I gave him a second chance, and Brown’s later books have improved greatly with practice of his craft. The last one, Origin, was well-written and enjoyable. And fortunately for Mr. Brown, when the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code was made, the script writers and directors kept the plot whilst greatly improving on the dialogue that told the story. The film was well worth watching: not a masterpiece of cinema, but fun entertainment.

This is 354 words, which is at the upper limit. You can also see the Google Doc prepublication version.

After you paste in your work, format the titles of book, movies, and TV series in italics, which is a standard style. And you are welcome to add a relevant image or two.

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A regular habit

Although I’ve tried the background options that some people use during video meets on Zoom or the Google Meet app that we use, I’ve chosen to stick with reality. The reason for this regular habit is that I notice that the apps that create the backgrounds sometimes think that hand gestures, clearly not being face, are part of the background, which can look a bit odd at times. Yesterday I was teaching an online class where one of the students was using a background that displayed a cool looking photograph of stars across the night sky, but when she picked up her bottle of water, it was blended into the background, making it look as though she was drinking from a bottle of galactic majesty. And since I sometimes use gestures, I decided it would be a better habit to let people see my actual background. Two of the things on display in every class among other clutter are my coffee grinder and my coffee drip filter machine, both essential tools for one of my most enduring regular habits.

Mmm ...

For about the last 45 years, I’ve supported a serious drug addiction. I realized how dependent I was about 25 years ago when a friend invited me to stay at his family home in Sukothai for a few days. I packed my small bag and we set off. But I had forgotten to pack coffee. There was no coffee to be had in the small village. That night, the headaches began, and they did not pass. After a most unpleasant night, the first thing on the agenda for the following day was a trip into the nearest town to buy some instant coffee. I don’t much like it, but drug addicts can be too choosy. It was not as enjoyable as the two large coffees made from fresh ground beans that I drink every day, but it did the job. That was probably the first time I had been caught without coffee for twenty years. I have never been caught without access to my drug of choice since.

My day always begins with a simple ritual: I wake up, push the button to grind coffee, put the ground beans and water in the coffee maker, turn on my computer, and then brush my teeth while the coffee brews. Then I sit down and enjoy the large, black coffee as I browse the newspapers I habitually read. In the afternoon, the coffee habit is repeated.

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 45 - After you watch, 3

What is it?

In their discussion questions that conclude watching the video about nuclear power in Switzerland, Warwick and Rogers (2018, p. 30) invite us to discuss follow-up questions, giving and arguing for our own opinions on related questions.

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What do you think?

Click to see images full size
Why do you think it is taking so long for countries to move towards using cleaner, renewable energy sources?

You have 10:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the question. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

planning = 2:00 minutes (It's usually a good idea to plan before you start to write.)
writing = 6:00 minutes, and
editing = 2:00 minutes.

A helpful strategy

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are answering or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But you need to rewrite (paraphrase) the idea in the question as a statement.
Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. This is also a useful strategy in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.

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Reference

Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Monday 29 March 2021

Skillful 4: Reading and Writing, page 44 - Discussion point 3

Discuss (v.) & discussion (n.)

page 44

In every unit of Skillful 4, authors Lindsay Warwick and Louis Rogers make frequent use of the verb discuss (2018). The noun discussion is in fact the very first word of every unit, and the third word in every unit is the verb, for example on page 152. Rogers and Zemach almost always collocate the verb discuss with the object noun partner, or put them in close proximity. They clearly intend the discussion to be spoken, which is what we sometimes do, but in many cases, it helps our reading and writing class more to have a written discussion of the questions the authors ask us to discuss.

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Why hold the discussion on an online forum?

Apart from the fact that ours is a reading and writing class, there are several solid reasons for holding at least some of our discussions online.

It practices response writing for fluency. Unlike in more formal academic writing, the goal is not to do research or even to plan carefully, but to quickly communicate your own ideas on a topic or in response to an issue. You should still write complete sentences organized in paragraphs, but we are not looking for a carefully planned piece of work that was extensively reviewed and revised after it was first written and posted. Response writing is not academic writing; it does, however, practice the fluency that is also important in more formal work.
This sort of response writing is common at universities today. As part of their assessment, students are often expected to participate in online discussion forums that explore issues raised in lectures, seminars, or tutorials. This sort of response writing is a common component of academic work.
Brainstorming and sharing ideas independently of face-to-face group discussion typically produces a wider and more thoughtful variety of responses, which is good for the group. See, for example, the articles on this in the Harvard Business Review by Art Markman (2017), Andrew O’Connell (2010), and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015). (If you are interested, read some of the sources I've cited here after our class. They are all short.)

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Warwick and Rogers' question

We have already shared our ideas on the first two discussion point questions, which relate to your own county's energy production. The third question asks asks for your personal opinion on a related issue that is often controversial today, so we will hold this discussion online, here on our class blog.

Do you think we should continue to use fossil fuels? Why or why not?

click them to see images full size

You have 8:00 minutes to write your answer in the comment box below.

I suggest you spend 2:00 minutes to plan your answer. (Planning is usually a good idea.) That will leave you another 6:00 minutes to write your response to the question, stating your opinion and its support.

Why should we agree with you rather the opposite answer?

A helpful strategy

Imagine you are writing for someone who has neither seen the question you are answering. Your job is to clearly communicate your response to that reader. Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually helpful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer.

Remember: sentences in paragraphs

This is response writing. You want to communicate your ideas fluently as if you were speaking for a few minutes to someone actively listening. However, that person can't stop you to ask questions or clarify, so it's important to state your ideas in complete sentences organized into paragraphs.

Follow up

Finally, before you publish your comment, check "Notify me" below the comment box. You want to get updates on new contributions to the discussion.

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References

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm
Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Welcome to EAP RW4 unit 3 and to our class blog

Welcome to Skillful

Click to see
images full size.

Welcome, and thank you for registering for the class this term.

Our aim is to cover all of unit 3 of Skillful 4: Reading and Writing, which we should be able to do in our 16 hours of classes over the next five weeks (there is a one-week break for Songkran in the middle). In addition to your paper book, there is also a very useful digital version of the text, and an online workbook for further practice.

If you have not already done so, please register for the digital version of Skillful, and then join both the online class and the online Workbook class, for which there are short presentations posted on Classroom.

As with the Google Apps for Education that we will use and this class blog, it might take a couple of sessions for you to become familiar with these tools, but I am confident that you will find that initial effort worthwhile. By moving some of the work to out-of-class activities, we can then focus our class time on preparation for and discussion of the skills you will practice at home, or wherever you like.

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Introduction to students — page 6

The digital version of the
book is very convenient

In her introduction to students on page 6, the series consultant, Dorothy E. Zemach, gives some strategies for successful learning, one of which is to "be an independent learner" (in Rogers & Warwick, 2018). As Zemach suggests we do in her comment, it is one way for you to "practice English outside of class." Some of the topics you will write about here are the unit topics, but I also like Zemach's suggestion that "reading for pleasure and using the Internet in English" are important, so your writing here will not be limited to the topics of the units that we study over the next four weeks.

Another point that I like in her introduction is Zemach's emphasis on practice, for which she suggests that we do "a little bit each day." The research on this is strong: regular deliberate practice in small chunks of time is far more effective than long sessions once or twice a week (Schwartz et al. 2016, ch D). Since we meet twice a week, and on consecutive days, this is especially important to bear in mind.

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Question

As Warwick and Rogers often do, giving readers a specific question or two to respond to is often an effective way to engage readers. It helps to check that we understand what we have read, that we have thought about the ideas critically, and to that we can apply them to our own of more general situations.

Which one of the five strategies that Zemach introduces on page 6 do you think will be most useful for you to focus on over the next five weeks?

It's good if you think all five are useful, but this question asks you pick one of them, so you will have to write a little more to explain your choice of that one over the others.

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References

Schwartz, D. L., Tsang, J. M., & Blair, K. P. (2016). The ABCs of how we learn: 26 scientifically proven approaches, how they work, and when to use them. [eBook edition]. W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.amazon.com/ABCs-How-Learn-Scientifically-Approaches-ebook/dp/B016CAJLBA/ref=sr_1_1
Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Thursday 4 March 2021

Anik: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'

Summary

In “Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'” (2021) published on the BBC News online portal, we are told that, in some industries, working from home may not replace the on-site traditional workplace. According to David Solomon, CEO of the American company Goldman Sachs , lack of social interaction and direct mentorship are disadvantages of working from home policy, especially for innovation-driven companies like his. Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan shares the same opinion as he raises the concern about dropping work efficiency during work from home period. However, some bank executives disagree with this, saying that work from home policy will continue. Technology companies like Facebook and Twitter are also taking a totally different stand, where work from home policy is encouraged and may become their future norm.

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Response

Having read the article “Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'” on the BBC, I strongly agree with the CEOs from both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan that working from home may not be the future norm.

The arguments raised by these two CEOs against the work-from-home policy are the absence of social interaction, the lack of mentorship and sinking productivity rate. These are the points that I can relate to my own experience. As a teacher of German language, I also experienced a sudden transition from an offline traditional class at school to the virtual classroom on Zoom and Google Classroom as a response to the worsening pandemic situation. However, I realized that it is not easy to stay focused during an online class. One of the main reasons may be the lack of direct and indirect social interaction both between students and teachers and among students themselves. Furthermore, on a normal day at school, I myself usually observe my students through their gesture and the way they interact with their peers so that I know if more explanation is needed. This is almost impossible in an online classroom. In addition, I also heard lots of complaints from my students that they are stressed because there is no room for talking with their friends during the day while all classes are online. In contrast, students can at least interact with each other during the break at school, but online classrooms leave no room for talking at all. And I am sure that this argument is also applicable to online offices too.

There are also concerns about privacy issues and work life balance. Working from home may invade the most private space of a person, that is, their home. During the online meeting, employees may experience an embarrassing moment such as a sudden interruption from their family members, for example, mom calling them to do dishes or a daughter suddenly running to the screen. Moreover, the unclear boundary between professional and private life may have negative health implications on the employee, for example, the rising mental health concerns.

Despite its disadvantages, work from home policy may allow the employee to have more time for their family as they can save time commuting on the road. The more quality time with their family means the better mental health of the employee. Therefore, remote workplace should still be considered as an alternative. However, more study should be conducted to find out more about the positive and negative effect of work from home policy.

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Question

To what extent do you agree with the statement: “a virtual workspace/classroom leaves no room for privacy”?

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Reference

Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'. (2021, February 25th). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56192048

Tuesday 2 March 2021