Teaching Critical Thinking in Academic Reading

Teaching Critical Thinking in Academic Reading

张颖外文学院

OUTLINE

1. Academic English for Social Sciences in Fudan University

2. Teaching Critical Thinking in Academic Reading

3. Two 45-minute Classes as an Example

AE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES IN FUDAN

1. Two 45-minute classes a week

2. Maximum 30 students in one class

3. Textbook with some extracurricular materials

4. Individual presentation + paper writing + final exam

WEEKLY SCHEDULE SPRING 2014

Content Academic Skills & Strategies Paper Writing TasksWeek 1 Induction: Ice-breaking

Needs discussion *academic culture *formal academic English

What is an academic paper?

Week 2 How People Make Decisions 1 *presentation skills (signpost language) *format of an academic paper *choosing a feasible research topic

Deciding on the topic of a small research project

Week 3 How People Make Decisions 2 *tips for academic listening * being polite in speaking

Writing introduction

Week 4 Thinking like an economist 1 *formal and informal English Finding relevant literature Week 5 Thinking like an economist 2 *paraphrase, summary, synthesis skills Summarizing literature on your chosen

topicWeek 6 Unemployment 1 *formal English rules Describing how you are going to

systematically collect and analyze dataWeek 7 Unemployment 2 *distinguishing different voices in reading

(criticizing Mankiw)Collecting data

Week 8 The Study of Society and People 1 *transition, hooking and other basics of English writing

Collecting data

Week 9 The Study of Society and People 2 *describing graphs Reporting and analysing research resultsWeek 10 Sociology matters *navigating academia Discussing resultsWeek 11 Change in Journalism *signpost language for academic writing

*hedging in writingDiscussing results

Week 12 First draftWeek 13 Hard Power, Soft Power *a real writing case (Berkeley) of Economics

studySecond or more draft(s)

Week 14 The Study of Politics as a Science

*round-up of the term

Week 15 Tutorials

A CRITICAL THINKER

Has the ability to

evaluate the reliability of sources of information

distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information

compare and contrast ideas, concepts and theories

make connections between ideas and concepts indifferent disciplines

make appropriate generalisations from evidence recognise contradictions

evaluate ideas, concepts and theories

identify assumptions and evaluate them

explore implications and consequences

VOICES IN ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING ACTIVITIES

When academics discuss issues, they put forward their ideas using their own voice and refer to the voices of others.

Unlabeled voice is the writer’s voice.

学术英语社科Academic English for Social Sciences

3UnemploymentUnemployment has been a serious global social issue in recent years. Both politicians and economists are making great efforts to find ways to reduce the unemployment rate, though the result is not always satisfactory. The texts in this unit may give you some insights into this issue.

Lead-in

Task 1 Watch a video clip and complete the following sentences according to the information you have heard.

Unit 3Unemployment

1 Eric, president of CollegeClickTV.com, is invited to give college grads ________________.

2 College grads of this generation have _______________ which is an advantage that not everybody has.

tips of finding a job

incredible talents

Lead-inUnit 3Unemployment

3 College grads who have _________________ or ____________ are more likely to find jobs.

4 College grads can apply to graduate school right now for _________________ and higher education, in order to ride out this recession and this extremely ______________.

5 Knowledge is power and education will always _________________. Now watch it again and check your answers.

working experience do Internships

a professional degreeweak job market

pay off in a long-term

• Text A

–Language focus Difficult Sentences Collocations Formal English

–Critical reading and thinking

Unit 3Unemployment

Text A

Difficult sentences

Unit 3

Unemployment

• It is not surprising, therefore, that politicians campaigning for office often speak about how their proposed policies will help create jobs. (Para. 1)

→ “Office” in this sentence means a position in a large and powerful organization, especially a government. It can be used in phrases “run for office (try to be elected)” or “take office (begin to work in a position)”.

Text ADifficult sentences

Unit 3

Unemployment

• Even if some frictional unemployment is inevitable, the precise amount is not. (Para. 9)

→ Even if we cannot avoid frictional unemployment, we can affect the extent of frictional unemployment.

Collocations

Text AEnglish language for academic purpose

Unit 3Unemployment

• 生活水平• 经济困难• 找工作• 最终结果• 报纸广告• 找工作网络• 大学就业办• 工作机会• 找工作的人• 在职培训• 行业转换• 政府开设、管理的

• standard of living• economic hardship• job search• the end result• newspaper ads• Internet job sites• unversity placement offices• job openings• job candidates• on-the-job/in-service training• sectoral shifts• government-run

Specialized vocabulary

• natural rate of unemployment

• GDP

• cyclical unemployment

• sectoral shift

Text A

English language for academic purpose

Unit 3Unemployment

自然失业率

国内生产总值

周期性失业

结构性变化

Signpost language

• Comparison: Similarly; likewise; both; same; resemble; parallels; in the same manner

• Contrast: on the other hand; in / by contrast; however; while; whereas; nevertheless; different; instead (of); conversely; rather than

Text AEnglish language for academic purpose

Unit 3Unemployment

Comparison and contrast signals & clue words

Text AUnit 3Unemployment

2

Replace the underlined words in the following sentences with the ones that are more daily-life.


Formal English

1 … and information about job candidates and job vacancies is disseminated slowly among the many firms and households in the economy.

widely spread

2 At the same time, cheaper petrol stimulates car sales, so car-producing firms raise production and employment.

encourages

3 Government programs try to facilitate job search in various ways.

help

Text AUnit 3Unemployment

2

Replace the underlined words in the following sentences with the ones that are more daily-life.


Formal English

4 … and that they reduce the inequities inherent in a constantly changing market economy. existing naturally

never changing

5 These critics contend that the government is no better — and most likely worse — at disseminating the right information to the right workers and deciding what kinds of worker training would be most valuable.

argue

6 Although the economy will always have some unemployment, its natural rate is not immutable.

7 But how we choose to organize our society can profoundly influence how prevalent a problem it is. deeply / greatly

Language building-up

Text ASuggested answers

Unit 3Unemployment

Task 2 Signpost language

2 Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the words and expressions in the above box. There may be more than one correct answer.

1 You should talk to your teacher _________ just complaining to me about it.2 Analysts believe that the healthy results can be attributed to an increase in _____________ trade interest rate fluctuations.3 I read a lot as a child, but my daughter, __________, just seems interested in television.4 The son followed his father’s example and, ________, the daughter modeled herself on her mother.

instead of

as opposed toby contrast

similarly

Language building-up

Text ASuggested answers

Unit 3Unemployment

Task 2 Signpost language

2 Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the words and expressions in the above box. There may be more than one correct answer.

5 The philosopher Scott Buchanan once observed in conversation that science _________ theater.6 The heat in Arizona is ____________ the heat here. It’s very dry.7 Some paradigms have achieved limited success in some areas; _____others do better in yet other areas.8 You want to help your kids as much as you can, but _______________, you’ve got to be careful to help them learn on their own.

resemblesdifferent from

while

on the other hand

Text A

Critical reading and thinking – the global picture

Unit 3Unemployment

Summary of Text A ：

Text A

Critical reading and thinking – detailed reading

Unit 3Unemployment

The key word to describe frictional unemployment

MismatchCausesTextbook examples / Chinese examples1. 2.3.Solutions Two different ideas:

• Text B

– Language focus Difficult Sentences

Collocations

Formal English

– Critical reading and thinking

Unit 3Unemployment

Text B

Unit 3Unemployment

Understanding argument

Understanding arguments is an important skill for critical reading. Text B of this unit offers a chance to develop this aspect of critical reading. The author presents the two sides of the argument.

Lead-in

Text B

Difficult sentences

Unit 3Unemployment

• The bigger issue is mismatch. (Para. 3)

→ What is more important is the mismatch between job vacancies and qualified workers for the jobs.

Text B

Difficult sentences

Unit 3Unemployment

• Only 22% said they could find few or no qualified job applicants, about half the level reported before the recession. (Para. 13)

→ It was hard for 22% of small businesses to find qualified job applicants. In contrast more than 40% of small business could not find qualified job applicants before the recession.

Text B

Difficult sentences

Unit 3Unemployment

• While the housing crisis is keeping people in place, Shierholz doubts that a lack of mobility is the problem. (Para. 14)

→ Although the housing crisis is limiting people’s freedom to move in order to search job opportunities, Shierholz does not think this is the main cause of the problem of unemployment.

Text B

Difficult sentences

Unit 3Unemployment

• ... they just aren’t big enough to swallow up the swells of unemployed job seekers. (Para. 15)

→ … the states just aren’t big enough to absorb so many unemployed job seekers.

Text B

Difficult sentences

Unit 3Unemployment

• “The thing you’d expect to see with even isolated labor shortages would be low unemployment, high job growth, and wage increases,” she said. “We are not seeing that” (Para. 21)

→ Labours shortage normally bring with them low unemployment, high job growth, and wage increases, but that is not what is happening now.

Collocations

Text BEnglish language for academic purpose

Unit 3Unemployment

• 越来越激烈的辩论• 辩论在激烈进行• 越来越多的…人• 主要问题是• 一群失业工人• 考虑、处理问题• 反对方• 需求不足• 旁枝末节• 合适的工人• 构成…比例• …供应紧张• …过多• 推动因素• 从一开始• 增长开始• 泡沫破裂

• an increasingly fierce debate• debate raging over• a rising tide of…• the issue is…• a pool of unemployed workers• address the issue• the opposing side• the depressed demand• a minor side issue• qualified workers• make up…percentage of…• a tight supply of… • an excess of…• the driving factor• since day one• growth picking up• the bursting of … bubble

Specialized vocabulary

•structural unemployment

•labor market

•underwater houseowner

•unemployment benefit

•housing bubble

Text B


Unit 3Unemployment

结构性失业

劳动力市场

“ 溺水屋”屋主

失业救济

房地产泡沫

Text B

Critical reading and thinking – the global picture

Unit 3Unemployment

Summary of Text B ：

Text B

Critical reading and thinking

Unit 3Unemployment

Task 1 The tree diagram below illustrates the main points of the text. Complete it according to the text.

Suggested answers

Debate topic: __________________________ Why unemployment is so high?

Argument by some economists:______________________________________________________

Argument by most people: ____________________________

Supporting details: ____________________________

Supporting details: ________________________________

There are jobs out there, just not

the right candidates to fill them.Employers just aren't hiring enough.

Text BUnit 3Unemployment

•The author’s position?

Although the writer seems to be objectively presenting the two sides of the argument, the way he presents the arguments of the two sides and the way he ends the article indicate that he is more in favor of the argument that the unemployment situation in the US is not just structural unemployment.

Critical reading: questions for discussion

Text BUnit 3Unemployment

•How about Text A? How many voices do you hear in Text A?

In text A there is often only one voice.

Textbooks offer you a basic understanding of the major issues in a particular field, but not in-depth coverage of specific topic, nor the most recent developments.

Critical reading: questions for discussion

Critical Reading

Do not fall under the spell of the printed word as authority.

Very few of your instructors think of the texts they assign as the last word on the subject.

Remember that the author of every text has an agenda – something that he or she wants you to believe.

Unit 3Unemployment

Unit 3Unemployment

Asking Yourself Questions

"What is the author trying to say?"

"What is the author assuming I will agree with?"

Do you agree with the author?

Does the author adequately defend her argument?

What kind of proof does she use?

Is there something she leaves out that you would put in?

Does putting it in hurt her argument?

Unit 3Unemployment

Unit 3Unemployment

• Writing

– Writing literature review

– Writing tasks

Unit 3Unemployment

Writing

Unit 3Unemployment

Literature review

Reviewing literature often involves summarizing the reading.

• Find the main ideas which are often to be found in topic sentences.

• Delete details and examples, unimportant or subsidiary information, anecdotes, illustrations, data etc.

• Rearrange words and sentences. Combine your notes into a piece of continuous writing.

WritingUnit 3Unemployment

Literature review

• In literature review what is most important however is not summarizing for its

own sake. You summarize others’ work either to support your points or to

criticize the work before you introduce your points.

• In the end remember to make sure your purpose of summarizing is clear, the

meaning is the same with the original, the writing is your own, and

acknowledge other people's work.

An example

Which sentences are the writer’s voice?

1. The relationship between price and perceptions of quality is not clear. 2. Alpert, Wilson, and Elliot (1993)observed that higher price alone did not create impressions of a higher quality facial moisturizer. 3. However, they found that a higher price, coupled with quality signals such as premium packaging and advertising did indicate higher quality to consumers.

Unit 3Unemployment

Unit 3Unemployment

An example

Which sentences are the writer’s voice?

4. High price has been shown to have varied effects on the likelihood of trying a product as well. 5. Dodds et al. (1991) demonstrated that high prices reduced reported willingness to buy products. 6. This finding is consonant with the traditional notions of the demand curve, which suggest that price and demand are inversely proportional (Kreul, 1982). 7. Conversely, Rachman (1999) pointed out that high prices often increase demand for wine, another case in which consumers may equate high prices with high quality. 8. This phenomenon suggests that the impact of a high price on demand is affected by the type of product. 9. Lambert (1970) showed that high priced products were preferred when different brands of the product varied greatly in quality and when the product was socially significant, both of which seem to be the case with wine.

Unit 3Unemployment

Unit 3Unemployment

An Example

1. writer’s voice – introduces topic – the relationship between price and quality 2-3 indirect voice of source – the perceptions of quality and price with reference to

moisturizer 4 writer’s voice – introduces topic 2 – relationship between price and likelihood of

buying a product 5 indirect voice of source – findings of Dodds et al.: high prices reduced demand 6. writer’s voice – comment: the study by Dodds et al supports the traditional

concept of the demand curve 7. indirect voice of source – Rachman’s study contradicts the study of Dodds et al. 8. writer’s voice – a possible implication of Rachman’s study 9. indirect voice of source – Lambert’s voice supports the implication

Unit 3Unemployment

Unit 3Unemployment

Homework

Unit 3Unemployment

Check voices in your review of literature

THANK YOU!

Documents

Teaching Critical Thinking in Academic Reading