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Why hold our discussion online?
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 116. The authors 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.
For a more detailed explanation of the benefits for us of written discussions, see the blog page "For better discussions", which is included on the menu bar below the blog title. You might like to read that and the other pages on that menu outside of class.
Warwick and Rogers' questions (Skillful rw4, p. 116)
We have already discussed question 3, which ask us to share our ideas on how statistics such as those in the infographic that opens unit 7 might be helpful.
We will hold the discussion of question1 1 and 2 here on our class blog.
The questions
Look at the infographic. Which statistic(s) do you find most surprising, shocking, or worrying?
Click on them to enlarge images. - Why? Explain your reasons.
- How might these statistics be different than 100 years ago?
- Explain your reasoning. Examples or other evidence from our own experience will probably be useful here.
Time: 16:00 minutes
I suggest you manage your time to spend:
- 3:00 - 4:00 minutes planning (choosing topics, getting ideas, and organizing those ideas)
- 9:00 minutes writing. Write quickly. This is response writing, where the purpose is to quickly communicate your ideas in writing, so although you should write complete sentences organized into paragraphs, you are not writing an academic essay.
- 2:00 - 3:00 minutes editing (review, revise, and proofread what you have written).
A useful strategy
Imagine you are writing for someone who has not seen the question you are answering, which means that talking about "question 1" or "question 2" will not be helpful.
Your job is to clearly communicate your response to your 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 responses.
Reference
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
I find a statistic of people's diet very worrying because there are more than a third of people who are malnourish. I do strongly think that it would be great if we can contribute our excess food from around the world to feed undernourished people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in my opinion, all these statistics might be more extreme in terms of financial security. In the past people's wealth may not be clearly different. However, the following century, only just one percent of world citizens controls a half of the money in the world and this shows inequality in our society.
I totally agree with you that there is an unequal of human life because only one percent owns half of the whole money. Moreover, there is a small chance that the other 99% can get the rest of the money at the same time 1% try to get more. Mostly, they don't have enough money so they hardly afford a proper education. That is why most people are in the trap that is called poverty.
DeleteLike Good, I was a bit worried, although not surprised, by the statistics for diet and obesity. In Australia, I think people generally have healthier diets than in the past, such as 100 years ago. It's certainly much easier to eat a varied, well-balanced diet today than it was in the past. Everything is not readily available at the local supermarket or at farmer's markets.
DeleteThe problem with diet is that too many of us (I'm thinking of myself here) eat far too much. My own diet is very healthy, but the quantity probably needs to be cut in half. The statistic for overweight people did not surprise me at all: it's obvious when I walk around in Australia on my annual visits that the average weight is much higher than it was when I was a child.
My opinion is similar to you in past of financial security in the current situation but I'm not so sure about part of people's wealth in the past. Your comment makes me would like to research more about this. I am thinking about the feudal system which might also result in huge differences between each person financial status. However, a feudal system may be used around 500 years ago. I'm not certain about the exact timeline.
DeleteIn my opinion, the secondary education is very important for people. Therefore, I am worrying with the percent of the people know don't have a secondary education. From the statistic, it is about 60 percent of men and women who have secondary education. It quite low for me. From my experience, studying in high school is very helpful. I use what I have learned until today as the basic knowledge. And it also the best time of my life to be a high school student. But I think that compare to 100 years ago, the number of educated people has grow a lot. And I hope that one day in the future, it will be 100 percent.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t agree more! I also feel the same as your opinion that the percentage of people who do not have a secondary education is quite low. In addition, my minimum expectation to education is more than 80% of world citizens should receive their tertiary education and this should be free. However, some might argue that education is just a certificate. Many real life lessons are much more important and many can learn knowledge from other sources such as the internet or real experiences which are considered as a real teacher.
DeleteBy the way, I also hope that the number of high school students will reach 100% of its population.
I do agree with with your opinion about high school life. I think it’s very helpful because I had learned the basic academic knowledge as well as developed my social skills during that age. I also met my closest friend and did a lot of extreme activity during that time. These make it to the best time of my life. I also encounter an event that affect my lifetimes identity in that time. It was the day I decided my major in the last three year in school . If I had not completed the highschool level, my current achievements from university and job would not happen.
DeleteThe statistic from the infographic which suprised me the most is about the apporach to secondary study. There are still 34% of men and 37% of women who does not complete it. This must be the most worrying because the secondary study can help the individual to find the right jobs. This improve the quality of life individually and globally . As everyone has their right jobs and income so that the rate of criminal might decrease.
ReplyDeleteI think that this statistic is too high due to the development of technology.
It is very useful to know this because we can know that the approach of education system needed to carry on developing to make it easier to get.
The percentages for secondary education were a popular choice of topic to discuss in our comments. While I agree that higher numbers of people gaining a secondary education would be better for the reasons that Yok and others outline, I thought that the statistics for literacy, being able to read and write, were encouraging. Even if someone has not done much formal education, being able to read means that they can be informed and access information to make better decisions.
DeleteI am sure that the statistics for secondary education are much better today than they were 100 years ago. Back in my grandparents' day, it was common for people to have only primary school before leaving to start work, or perhaps doing only a little secondary school. Today in Australia, everyone gets a high school education, and I think about 40% of Australians now go on to do at least some tertiary education.
I like the idea that besides studying in schools, it is important to be able to read. This also remind me of my father. He used to tell me since I was a kid that "all the knowledge is in the book, anybody who can read, they can learn it themselves for the rest of their lives". He tried to encourage me to read while I have to wait for something and also usually read the book for me before I went to bed. But sadly, I don't have the habit of reading books. But right now I already know that it is a big deal. I hope that I can develop the habit soon.
DeleteYou all can recommend me what books should I start from! That would be great
Among the various statistics given in the infographic "If the World Were a Village of 100 People", the one that worries me the most is the concluding one, that "one person controls 50% of the money in the village. Even if this extremely unequal distribution of wealth came about as a result of perfectly just, freely made transactions between the people, I think we should worry. It gives far too much power to a single person, and it is human nature, as written in and by our genes, to abuse such power.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think that most of the statistics given are much better today than they were 100 years ago, concentratio of wealth in the hands of a few seems to me to have continued, although I'm not sure whether it's worse. I believe that in the US, it's better than 100 years ago, but that it has gotten worse again in recent years, perhaps the past 40 years of globalization and technological explosion. It is, I think, the reason so many Americans were unhappy enough with the way things were going in their country to vote to make Donald Trump president in 2016. That was a terrible choice by the American people, but since he had been properly elected, it was important to respect the will of the people as expressed in the election. Fortunately, the US had institutions strong enough to survive Trump's four years in office. What drove and continues to drive many to support Trump is that they see a small elite getting richer because of globalization and technology replacing traditional occupations while they miss out, or become economically worse off. The same concentration of wealth in Thailand is even worse, as a Credit Suisse report stated in 2018 to much publicity in the domestic Thai media when it was released. The figure I remember is that in 2018 one person controlled 67% of the wealth in the Thai village of 100 people. But otherwise, I'm sure that people in my own country are today better educated, more literate, and earn more than they did 100 years ago. The rising longevity of Australians, such as my 91-year-old mum, who is still independent and getting around, suggests that Australians are also much healthier than we were 100 years ago, although there were certainly less overweight people around even 50 years ago, which I'm now old enough to remember.
In the first paragraph, it reminds me of a good quote from a hero movie, like "with great power, comes great responsibility" from the movie "Spiderman". Another movie is Batman. His superpower is richness. Anyway, in the real world, I think just a few people with a lot of power can force themselves to do a good thing. Too much richness can lead to greed and uncontrol.
DeleteI like Phum's supporting examples from movies. I haven't watched an entire Spiderman film, which bored me when I started, but I do remember the quote because it's in a TV series that I like, The Big Bang Theory currently on NetFlix. All of the of the nerdy physicists and other scientists in this brilliantly funny series quotes from nerd-culture classics such as Star Wars, which I can't stand, and Star Trek, which I think is great.
DeletePhum is right that movies and series are part of our experience and can provide useful examples to clarify or support an idea.
I think the statistics of the differences between the education levels of male and female are worrying me, as I think it can tell us that we are still having the issues of gender equality. I usually have this question in mind: why do men have more opportunities than women? How does being male or female limit chances to access to learning? I have leaned from one of my friends who are studying in Finland that the country really attaches to the concept of 'education is equality to all, regardless of races, genders, and so on. This mean he's got free education from the country even if he is Thai, not the country's citizen.
ReplyDelete"Education is equality to all" is a great concept. There should not be barriers of money or genders for learning. I totally agree with you that issues of gender equality still exist but I think that the situation is likely to be better in most parts of the world. Overall differences between the education levels of males and females tend to be smaller. My grandmother and some of her female siblings didn't have a chance to finish high school which is the opposite of the situation in my generation. However, as we have seen in going-on news, in some parts of the world such as Afghanistan this problem might become worse and should be concerned seriously.
DeleteI like the way that Emma makes a comparison with Finland based on information from a friend. Relating the ideas to personal experience is useful here.
DeleteAs I read, I was also wondering what Emma might think about how the statistics that show difference in male and female education might have changed since 100 years ago.
Hi Peter and Phing--thank you for your comments as it reminded me of the situation in my family as well. I was raised Thai-Chinese family which the roles and responsibilities in our family were determined by gender. For example, while my brothers were responsible for running errands, my sisters and I were in charge of cleaning house. I used to question my grandmother and grandfather the reasons why the girls and I were not allowed to run errands, and the reason was that we are female. Another example is when we went to school and university. Again, even though they encouraged both my brothers, sisters, and I to be successful in our education, they determined the subjects that we studied at school and university. For my bothers, they allowed them to study in high paid-fields such as business, medicine, politic and engineer. However, we, as females, were limited on our choices for study. We were allowed to study in not-high paid-fields such as accounting, languages, teaching, and so on.
DeleteBy the way, to answer Peter's question, I think the gap between male and female education has been narrower since 100 years ago. I mean the situation has been better. I have seen that more and more girls and women around the world accessed to primary education with the support from many organizations.
Emma, thank you for sharing the highly relevant personal experience of your own family. It helps us to see the situation more concretely, especially your well-chosen details comparing the different ways that brothers and sisters were treated in your family.
DeleteThe statistic that I find most surprising is 34 men and 37 women don't have secondary education because, I think that there would be more people who have secondary education, since it is mandatory for children to have education to a certain level, and people have more access to education. A 100 years ago, the statistics for men and women who do not have secondary education would have been higher, because not many people went to school or high school.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that the most surprising statistics secondary education and think in the same that there should be more people achieving secondary education. It has been 40 years now since the technological explosion and this should make secondary education to be more easier to access. That’s why I think the number is so little than it should be. I also agree with your another idea that in 100 years ago , this statistics was extreme lower. As my parents used to shared their experiences to me. One related to this is that when they were teenagers, there were five time less than secondary school in Bangkok compared with those in nowadays. Most of the government school in their is open for primary as their highest level. I think these would make secondary education harder to access in the past.
DeleteIt surprise me that there is only 1% controls 50% of the total money. It show us that the society or the world might be run by privilege people.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is a bout population. I think the statistics should be definitely different than 100 years ago. Frist, the population is rise continually because they know much about living healthy and they not die from disease that can be cure.
I agree with you about how privileged people are running the world. Anyway, I do quite agree with you about how the population has increased in the last century because there are more curable diseases. I also think that the population has increased because there is a decline of wars in recent decades, and wounded soldiers in current wars are able to survive with more advanced medicine.
DeleteThe statistic that I worrying the most is one person control 50% of the money in the village because that he might become a most powerful in the village and if he/she is a good person then the society might not have any problem from him. However, if the he/she is a bad person the villager might get problem from him as well. Since he own a lot of money and can be a powerful person.
ReplyDeleteIn 100 years ago, people might be not know how to use statistic to represent an information yet, we may collect data but we don't know how to organize and calculate it. We could only separate it as a big group and a small group. We might use an icon or a sign to differentiate the information or team.
That is exactly what I think about one person control 50% of the money in the village. It will be a big trouble if the one who own the most money does not care enough about others. It can happen many situations in life. For example, in Thailand leader sometimes are the rich people. At first, they might seem to be a kind person who like to give money to people but later on he does not do anything to improve the life of people in society. He just makes profit for himself and leave all the problem behind.
DeleteJust a note pronouns: in modern English, including academic English, its becoming increasingly common for authors to use singular they/them/their. This avoids he/she, his/her and similar language which is awkward if used more than once or twice.
DeleteLexico, which uses content from Oxford Dictionaries, has a useful explanation of this in its grammar section: "Using ‘they’ and ‘them’ in the singular".
I absolutely agree on how the village depends on the person who controls 50% of the money. On the other hand, I think a 100 years ago people knew how to collect, organize and calculate data; however, they did not have the tools or technology to help them with it. Although their data collected may be miscalculated or collected in a smaller scale, they knew how to do it. For example, in ancient civilizations, they used tally marks to keep count of inventories, and later the abacus was invented to help them with calculations. And by the time of the 18th century, the first census of the U.S. was collected by hired people, nevertheless, it took a lot of time due to lack of technology.
DeleteThe most surprising statistic for me is the proportions of men and women which is equal. I have thought that the population of women is more than men. The percentages of women in education are also astonishing for me. It does have a dramatic difference from the percentages of men. Many documents and history (I have read) usually say that women are prevented from education especially in Asia. Which sometimes have issues with genders discrimination. This set of statistics is quite optimistic for me, leading to a lot of questions in my mind. For example, what is the year of record or how did they collect this information.
ReplyDeleteIn 100 years of age, these might be unbelievably different because the world moves incredibly fast in my point of view. I am quite sure that the number of people who had high incomes would be lower while the majority of people would have the smallest amount of income because of social structure in the past.
I agree with you that female population should be more than men as I think many Thais would feel there are more women than men and this trend would be similar to other countries. However, after refection, one of the reason why male population is equal to women is that China, where I believe there are the highest population in the world, have a tradition of having male child in their family and this have been always a Chinese culture.
DeleteAs I read of their surprise that the reported proportions of men and women were balanced at 50% each, I was wondering what percentages they were expecting. How many percent for males and how many for females. I also thought that the discussion we had last night about Australia's apparently ignored population might be relevant here.
DeleteWhat do others think about this question? And why?
One child policy is a cultural byproduct. Chinese prefer boy this created a huge gender gab between boys and girls. This imperative rule had been cancel in 2015. However, an outrageous result were many baby girl were killed or abandoned during the period, so the couples could have another chance to have a baby boy.
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