Universitatea Babes-Bolyai

Facultatea de Sociologie si Asistenta Sociala

ACADEMIC READING

- intermediate level -

Cluj-Napoca

CONTENTS

PRESENTATION OF THE COURSE AND EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WORK SCHEDULE

THE SKILL AND PRACTICE OF READING

Bibliography

Books

Felea, Cristina, Academic Reading, 2008 (1^st year, 1^st semester) (Biblioteca facultatii)

Haarman, Leech, Murray, Reading Skills for the Social Sciences, OUP, 1988 (British Council Library)

Hutchinson, Tom, Ann Ward, Lifelines Pre-Intermediate, OUP, 1997 (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library) -

McCarthy, O'Dell, English Vocabulary in Use for Advanced Students. Cambridge University Press, 2002. (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Murphy, Raymond, English Grammar in Use A self-study reference and practice book for elementary students. Cambridge University Press, 1990 (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Naylor, Helen, Murphy, Raymond, English Grammar in Use. Supplementary Exercises. CUP, 1998 (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Redman, Stuart, English Vocabulary in Use for pre-intermediate and intermediate students. Cambridge University Press, 1997. (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Sanabria, Kim, Academic Encounters. Life in Society. Listening. Note Taking. Discussion. CUP 2004. Book and CD-s (British Council Library) Xerox copy at the Library of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work)

Brown, Kristine, Hood, Susan, Academic Encounters. Reading. Study Skills. Writing. Intermediate to High Intermediate. Cambridge University Press, 2002

Side, Richard, Wellman, Guy, Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency, Longman 2002. (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Vince, Michael, Advanced Language Practice, CUP, 1990 (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Vince, Michael, Intermediate Language Practice, CUP, 1998 (Biblioteca facultatii, British Council Library)

Links - for language learning

1. https://www.uefap.com/index.htm (site dedicat englezei academice)
2. https://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/videos/index.html (dezvoltati-va deprinderile de studiu)
3. https://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm (site dedicat exclusiv activitatilor de ascultare)
4. https://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/index.htm (site dedicat redactarii academice)
5. https://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/index.html (aflati cite cuvinte stiti)
6. https://esl.about.com/c/ec/1.htm (curs gratuit prin corespondenta pentru nivel intermediar, cu lista subiectelor de parcurs).
7. https://esl.about.com/od/intermediatelistenin1/ (exercitii de ascultare urmarind întelegerea vorbitorilor nativi­- modele utile pt. propria exprimare, dezvoltarea abilitatilor de ascultare în situatii mai complexe).
8. https://esl.about.com/od/listeningquizzes/ (lista cuprinzatoare cu actvitati de ascultare).
9. https://esl.about.com/cs/vocabulary/ (modalitati de organizare a vocabularului)

Links for sociology[1]

www.sosig.ac.uk (Prezentarea detaliata a ramurilor sociologiei)

https://www.wcsu.edu/socialsci/socres.html  (Portal de resurse in stiintele sociale; cultura si societate, etnie, feminism, familie, criminologie, teorie, cercetare, demografia în SUA, generalitati si subiecte diverse. De asemenea, pagina ofera acces la surse similare în antropologie, stiinte sociale, regiuni ale lumii si la alte liste. Atentie, nu va rataciti! )

https://openet.ola.bc.ca/socilinks/index.html#perspectives (Teorie si practica în sociologie)

https://www.sociology.org.uk/ (Facilitarea accesului la informatie în domeniul sociologiei)

https://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/index.html (Excelenta introducere in studiul sociologiei - recomandat tuturor acelora care sunt curiosi si au rabdare sa exploreze. Merita!)

Cautarea este un truc pe care poti sa îl înveti (cautarea link-urilor pe internet)

https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html (ghid pentru evaluarea paginilor web)

https://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/  (ghid pentru evaluarea paginilor web)

https://www2.fmg.uva.nl/sociosite/search/index.html  (Explica metode care sporesc acuratetea datelor cautate si ofera ghiduri specializate pe domeniul sociologiei si al stiintelor sociale. )

https://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/sociologist  (Un ghid pas-cu-pas de orientare pe internet pentru viitori sociologi creat de specialisti din universitati si organizatii profesionale din Marea Britanie.)

https://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/social-worker (ca mai sus, pentru viitori asistenti sociali)

https://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/anthropologist (pentru viitori antropologi)

Dictionare si biografii

https://www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/resources/biograph/index.shtml  (Scurt ghid al autorilor sociologi clasici si moderni realizat de membrii Universitatii din Cantbury. Prezinta curentul din care autorul face parte, cartile principale, domenii de studiu, bibliografie despre scriitor si link-uri importante. )

https://www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz/resources/glossary/index.shtml  (Termeni generali apartinând sociologiei. Accentul este pus pe industrializare, stratificare sociala, studii feministe si globalizare. Fiecarui termen îi sunt anexate referiri bibliografice si link-uri relevante.)

https://www.totalcamp.com/directory/go/www.arasite.org ( Abordeaza subdomenii variate ale sociologiei (teoreticieni si termeni), de la autori precum Althusser, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Freud, Garfinkel, Weber, Willis, la fenomene multinationale precum identitatea, ideologia, McDonaldizarea sau miscarea New Age. Unele fisiere trimit la informatii aditionale din aria studiului timpului liber (loisir-ul), mass-mediei si sociologiei. Exista o serie de note, recenzii, întrebari de discutii si ghiduri de interpretare ale articolelor recente si ale textelor clasice) sociologice.

https://openet.ola.bc.ca/sociglossary/  Dictionar alcatuit de sociologii de la Open University. Ofera o scurta descriere pentru începatori a termenilor de baza din domeniul sociologiei.

SITE-URI ROMÂNEsTI

https://www.insse.ro/ Site-ul oficial al Institutului National de Statistica. Exista o descriere a institutului, statistici, resurse umane, recensaminte. De asemenea, sunt prezentate detalii cu privire la metodologie, nomenclatoare, proiecte Phare, seminarii, evenimente si publicatii noi. Puteti sa va abonati la publicatii statistice.

https://www.insomar.ro/  Site-ul oficial al Institutului National pentru Studii de Opinie si Marketing. Ofera articole si publicatii, mass media, întrebari frecvente. Dispune de urmatoarele rubrici: prezentare a institutului, cercetare, oferta, cariera si linkuri catre alte institutii, institute de învatamânt, organisme internationale, firme private si ministere.

https://www.imas-inc.com/ Se constituie din urmatoarele rubrici: stiri, informatii despre departamentele de metode cantitative, calitative si de cercetare din cadrul institutului, studii actuale (barometre de opinie publica, alegeri), servicii, portofoliu (filme românesti, straine si institutii publice).

https://www.gallup.ro/ Site-ul Organizatiei Gallup din România. Contine stiri, sondaje (tipuri de cercetari de piata, sondaje de opinie publica si anchete sociologice, evaluari de impact, metode de cercetare si de intervievare), managementul performantei (publicatii, Universitati Gallup, solutii pentru companii si pentru persoane fizice).

https://www.iccv.ro/ Site al Institutului de Cercetare a Calitatii Vietii. Sunt prezentate activitatea stiintifica, cercetatori, publicatii, reviste, baza de date si biblioteca acestui institut. Principalele directii si teme de cercetare sunt diagnoza calitatii vietii si a saraciei si dezvoltarea sociala, si politici sociale.

INTRODUCTORY UNIT

THE SKILL AND PRACTICE OF READING

The reading process

Though reading is often considered a passive skill, research in the field of psycholinguistics has demonstrated that it is actually a highly complex process of interaction between reader and text. For example, it has been shown that the reader does not decode text in his first language in an orderly, linear fashion, word after word, but rather that his eyes move rapidly over the page, going forward and backward as he perceives meaningful groups of words and relates these to the non-verbal information at his disposal (that is, to his knowledge of the world and of the topic of the written text), thereby deriving meaning from the text.

Reading, thus, can be seen as the processing of information. The reader brings to the text his own store of general information deriving from his native culture, education, personal experience, and, normally, some specific knowledge of the topic of the written text. (We very rarely pick up a text dealing with a subject we know nothing about.) At the same time, the reader also possesses a linguistic competence, including a knowledge of words (lexis), of how these words are deployed according to the linguistic system in order to form sentences (syntax), and of the rhetorical patterns and linguistic conventions which characterize different types of text. (News stories, poetry and research reports are all distinctly recognizable text types or genres.)

Furthermore, in an ideal situation, the reader approaches a text with a genuine motivation to read and a reading purpose. He may pick up a telephone book to prepare for an examination, or a novel for pleasure. Whatever the text, he will also have some expectations or predictions regarding its content, based both on graphic cues (headline, photographs, tables, etc.), and on his knowledge of the subject matter and regarding how the text is likely to be organized depending on its genre. As he reads, these predictions are confirmed (or not confirmed) by the text. The better the predictions, the faster the processing of text, since the mind is 'prepared' for the information encountered and thus perceives meaning more readily. Depending of his reason for reading, he will use one or more specific strategies : he will search rapidly for his friend's name in the telephone book or read a book carefully in preparation for the exam.

2. Reading strategies

When we read in our own language we use - often unconsciously - a variety of reading strategies and techniques depending on the text and our reason for reading: for example, we would not normally read a newspaper and a textbook in the same way. There are four principal "styles" of reading:

Skimming involves moving our eyes rapidly over the page or pages in order to get a general idea of what the text is about, focusing on certain key words or phrases. Thus, after skimming a chapter in a textbook on Mexican history, we would be able to say, for example, that the particular chapter treats the rise and the fall of the Aztec empire. When the reader already has some knowledge of the subject or the author, skimming the text may have more specific objectives, e.g. that of understanding the author's approach to his subject.

Scanning, instead, is the strategy we use when we seek specific pieces of information in a text, such as names, dates, statistics, or whether a particular topic is treated. Here our expectations are heightened by our awareness of certain lexical fields or other textual features which are likely to signal the presence of the information we are looking for. We might scan the chapter on the Aztec empire, for instance, in order to find out the historical period in which it flourished, the names and dates of important battles, etc.

Intensive reading is the style we use when we wish to have a very clear and complete understanding of the written text. This implies a careful decodification of the writer's discourse, usually with the aim of comprehending not only the literal meaning of the text, but also the writer's deeper purpose, his position, and other eventual text subtleties such as irony for example. After applying such a reading style to our chapter on the Aztecs, we should be able to refer to its contents in a complete and, if necessary, exhaustive manner to a friend or a teacher, including remarks on the writer's position with respect to his material (e.g. whether or not he agrees with standard treatments of the subject, whether or not he presents his material clearly).

Extensive reading is the term used to describe the strategies called into play when we read longer texts either for pleasure or for information, and may involve all the strategies previously mentioned, which the reader applies according to the individual text and his interest in its various parts. In our chapter on the Aztecs, we may be particularly interested in the writer's treatment of religion or military history. In this case, after skimming, we would scan to be sure these topics were dealt with, read rapidly and superficially sections treating, say, agriculture or trade, then read intensively the passages of particular interest.

SO, PLEASE NOTE.

the reading style we apply to any given text should be a function of the type and content of the text on the one hand, and our reading purpose on the other. It is important to use these strategies appropriately and flexibly: obviously not all texts need to be read intensively, though language learners often apply only this strategy to texts in foreign languages. In reading English for academic purposes, for example, it will often suffice to have a general idea of whether certain information is contained in an article and, if so, where, so that it might be consulted at a later date. On the other hand, information which is of interest may be located quickly and selected passages focused upon for the purpose of extracting and annotating specific information.

Needs and requirements analysis

What do you need English for?

Work

Holidays

Meeting new people

Chat lines

Study

Other (specify_

If you need English for study, which of these areas will you use it most in?

Academic meetings

Presentations

Accessing alternative bibliographical resources

Writing application letters and CV-s

How long have you been studying English?

Less than two years

Three years

Four years

More than four years

Which area(s) of English do you find the most difficult, and would most like to improve?

Speaking

Pronunciation

Grammar

Reading

Vocabulary

Writing

Listening

How much of your English lesson do you think should be spent on the following?

Speaking

Listening

Grammar

Writing

Vocabulary

When should the teacher spend time talking during a lesson?

Only to give instructions and explain grammatical rules

To talk about himself/herself and his/her experiences

To give general information about his/her culture

When you are having a discussion in your group should the teacher

Interrupt you every time you make a mistake?

Interrupt you only if you keep making the same mistake?

Never interrupt, but note down the mistakes for explanation later?

Which do you think is better?

To speak slowly and very accurately?

To make more fluently and make quite a few mistakes?

If you are given a course book, do you expect to:

Do every exercise in the book?

Do most exercises?

Use the book principally as a reference point?

Whatever the teacher thinks is best?

How much homework do you think you should do and how much do you think you will really do?

An hour or more a day

Three to six hours a week

Two hours a week

none