学术英语社科 academic english for social sciences. 4 we live in a world today that is...

学术英语社科Academic English for Social Sciences

4We live in a world today that is increasingly more complex. Why are the living conditions of our times so different from those of earlier times? How will our lives change in the future? These are the questions that lead us to the study of sociology.

The Study of Society and People

Unit 4The Study of Society and People

Unit Contents

Lead-in

Text A

Text B

Listening

Speaking

Writing

Lead-in

Task Listen to a talk twice and complete the following notes.


1 The questions the speaker raises in the talk are:

a Why does everyone ___________ ? b Why can’t people ______?c Why is she spending her money _____________?d Why doesn’t the government ____________________________?e Why is the state _____________in a _______________?f What about that ___________________________?

2 Sociologists study _______________________________, look for _________________________________________________________________.

need an SUVcarpool

on lottery ticketsinvest more in public transportation

running a lottery convenience storecup of premium coffee you bought

social patterns that many people share

organized and governedroot causes of such social patterns in the way society is

• Text A

– Critical reading and thinking

– Difficult sentences

– English language for

academic purpose

• Specialized vocabulary• Collocations• Formal and informal English• Signpost language


Text ACritical reading and thinking of Text A


Text AnalysisHow do the authors develop the text?

• Tragic mass murder at Columbine High School

• Ethnic cleansing

• War in Kosovo

• How do the authors describe the world we live today in? awash with change, marked by deep conflicts, tensions, social divisions; marked by the destructive onslaught of modern technology

1 Introduce the topic of sociology by using the example.

Text A

Critical reading and thinking of Text A


Text Analysis

2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope, nature& objectives, content, and functions.

What is sociology?

• Definition: the study of human social life, groups, and societies.

• Wide scope of sociological study: ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individual on the street to the investigation of global social processes.

How do the authors develop the text?

Text A


Text Analysis

Using the example of love to illustrate the nature and objectivities of sociology.

→ Love expresses a mutual physical and personal attachment two individuals feel for one another.

→ Falling in love is an experience arising from universal human

emotions.





Text Analysis

Romantic love (Para 7)

Among both rich and poor, the decision of whom to marry was

made by family and kin.

e.g. India (Para 8)

However falling in love is not an experience most people across

the world have; and having no connection with marriage.

e.g. In the Middle age and for centuries after ward (Para. 6)




Text A


Text Analysis

Content:

Sociology studies human life and social and historical influences

on it.

Sociology shows the need to take a much broader view of why we

are as we are, and why we act as we do.





Text Analysis

e.g. comparison between common people and sociologists in

explaining the mass murder.

Common people sociologists

• The two teens were obsessed with the video game.

• Many commentators denounced the easy availability of weapons.

• Others saw the tragedy as a symbol of the emptiness of suburban life.

• Look beyond the surface of their actions;

• Study the social context;• Compare this tragedy with

other mass murders to see if there was a pattern in the group characteristics (social class, race, gender, age, or cultural background);




Text A


Text Analysis

Functions sociology serves:

→ show us the need to look beyond the surface of people’s actions and study the social context;

→ teach us to try to identify general patterns of behavior and be systematic in explaining the social influences on these patterns.





Text AnalysisHow do the authors develop the text?

3 Explain how to think sociologically

How to think sociologically?

→ cultivate the sociological imagination.

That’s to say: “Think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew.”


Text A

Difficult sentences


passing encounters (Para. 3)

→ a short accidental meeting

The opinions of prospective marriage partners are quite often taken into account, but by no means always. (Para. 8)

→ In India, when parents arrange marriages they often listen to the opinions of their children, but sometimes they just do not consider their children’s wishes.

Text A

Difficult sentences


Neither romantic love, then, nor its association with marriage, can be understood as “given” features of human life. Rather, it has been shaped by broad social and historical influences. (Para. 9)

→ Nowadays the idea of romantic love and its association with marriage is taken for granted as if it has always been like that. In fact it is not always the case and has suffered changes throughout history.

Text A

Difficult sentences


A sociologist is someone who is able to break free from the immediacy of personal circumstances and put things in a wider context. (Para. 13) ( 结合最后一句理解 )

→ A sociologist must learn to detach himself/herself – to ‘think ourselves away’ — in order to observe things in a context wider than his/her own personal situations and arrive at fresh understandings.

Specialized vocabulary

•social division •social being•intellectual life•human emotion•social class

Text A

English language for academic purpose


社会分工社会人精神生活人类情感社会阶级


•人类社会生活•全球社会进程•婚姻幸福•公共场所•社会环境•行为模式•文化背景

Text AEnglish language for academic purpose


global social process

marital happinesspublic placessocial contextpatterns of behaviorcultural background

human social life

Collocations


•be awash with•control our destiny•shape our lives•be skeptical of•in the form of marriage•keep property in the hands of family•in private•in the aftermath of •easy availability of sth.•a wide array of evidence


Signpost language

Listing

It presents a list of items in no specific order.



Do the task on Page 76.

Words that signal a listing pattern: Words that predict a listing pattern:

and, also, another, in addition to, first, second, third, firstly, secondly, finally, lastly

categories, kinds, types, ways, examples, groups, parts, etc.

Formal and informal English

Text A

English language for academic purpose


See Page 76.

Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the blanks according to the text.

Text ASuggested answers

Critical reading and thinkingUnit 4The Study of Society and People

Using the example of ________________________________.mass murder at Columbine High School

The study of sociology

Introducing the topic of sociology




Sociology is the study of _______________________________.

Using the example of ____ to illustrate the __________________ of sociology.

love

nature and objectives


What is sociology

human social life, groups,

and societies




Sociology studies _____________ influences.


What does sociology study?

social historical




Sociology shows people the need to ______________________________________.

Sociology teaches people to _____________________________ and be systematic in explaining _________________________________________.behavioral patterns


What function does sociology serve?

people’s actions look beyond the surface of identify general patterns of behavior

the social influences on these




Cultivate _____________; “think ourselves away” from _____________________________________________________.them anew


How to think sociologically?

the imaginationthe familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at

Task 2 Answer the following questions.


Critical reading and thinking


1 How does the author describe the world we live in today?

2 Why does the author raise the three questions in Paragraph 2?

3 Why do people fall in love according to the authors?

4 Why did men and women marry in the Middle Ages?

The author describes that the world we live in today is intensely worrying, yet full of the most extraordinary promise for the future.

The author wants to show us what is the prime concern of sociology.

Because love expresses mutual physical and personal attachment two individuals feel for one another.

Mainly in order to keep property in the hands of family or to raise children to work the family farm.





5 Where did romantic love make its first appearance?

6 How were the relations between husband and wife among aristocratic groups?

Its first appearance made in courtly circles.

The relations are cool and distant.





7 What is basic to the sociological outlook?

8 What are the differences between ordinary people and sociologists in explaining the mass murder at Columbine High School?

Understanding the subtle yet complex and profound ways in which our individual lives reflect the contexts of our social experience is basic to the sociological outlook.

Ordinary people’s explanations focus on the social causes of violence in the United States, whereas sociologists can bring an even deeper understanding. For example, sociologists might study other mass murders and consider if there was a pattern in the group characteristics.

Task 3 In Paragraph 12, the authors roughly explain how a sociologist would study the Columbine High School massacre. Suppose you were a sociologist, work in pairs and examine the case. You may:




1 Search the Internet for more information about the mass murder, the U.S. young generation, their living conditions etc.

2 Explore the case like a sociologist.

3 Have a discussion about it with your partner.

4 Report your findings to the class.

Task 4 Consider the simple act of a Chinese drinking a cup of coffee. Work in pairs and explore the behavior from a sociologist’s view. Think about:




• What is coffee? What does it symbolize?

Coffee is not just a refreshment. It possesses symbolic value as part of our day-to-day social activities. Often the ritual associated with coffee drinking is much more important than the act of consuming the drink itself. Two people who arrange to meet for coffee are probably more interested in getting together and chatting than in what they actually drink.





• What are the relations between coffee drinkers and the people involved in the production, transport, and distribution of coffee?

An individual who drinks a cup of coffee is caught up in a complicated set of social and economic relationships stretching across the world. The production, transport, and distribution of coffee require continuous transactions between people thousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Studying such global transactions is an important task of sociology, since many aspects of our lives are now affected by worldwide social influences and communications.





•What does the Chinese people’s act of sipping a cup of coffee remind you of? (e.g. social and economic development, Western lifestyles, origin of coffee etc.)

The act of sipping a cup of coffee presumes a whole process of past social and economic development. Along with other now-familiar items of Western diets — like tea, bananas, potatoes, and white sugar– coffee only became widely consumed from the late 1800s. Although the drink originated in the Middle East, its mass consumption dates from the period of Western colonial expansion about a century and a half ago.

Language building-up


Task 1 Specialized vocabulary

1 Translate the following sociological terms from English into Chinese or vice versa.


1 social division

2 social being

3 intellectual life

4 human emotion

5 social class

6 人类的社会生活

社会分工

社会人

精神生活

人类情感

社会阶级

human social life




1 Translate the following sociological terms from English into Chinese or vice versa.


7 全球的社会进程

8 婚姻幸福

9 公共场所

10 和他人交往

11 社会环境

12 行为模式

13 文化背景

socialize with others

global social process

marital happiness

cultural background

public places

social context

patterns of behavior




2 Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the terms in the box.


cultural background intellectual life marital happinesspattern of behavior public place social class

1 This study examines the effects of __________________ on the acceptation of information and communications technology in developing countries.

2 ________________ is a judgment made by a spouse that indicates the sense of well-being or satisfaction he or she experiences in the marital relationship.

3 When sociologists talk of ___________, they refer to a group of individuals who occupy a similar position in the economic system of production.

cultural background

Marital happiness

social class




2 Complete the following sentences with the correct form of the terms in the box.


cultural background intellectual life marital happinesspattern of behavior public place social class

4 If we understand that a child works to perfect the adult she or he will become, then we must look at the _________________ that emerge in childhood as indicators of the adult personality.

5 It is now common practice for smoking to be banned in workplaces suchas offices and in other enclosed ____________ such as cinemas, buses and trains.

6 Yale Law School enhances the _____________ of its academic community by sponsoring a variety of centers, programs, and workshops, inspired by the interests of its faculty and students.

pattern of behavior

public places

intellectual life



Task 2 Signpost language

Complete the sentences with the words and expressions listed above. There may be more than one correct answer.


1 A new security system was installed. _________, extra guards were hired.

2 ______, I would like to thank all those people who helped make the conference such a success.

3 ___________ catching errors, object-oriented systems can shelter the user from the complexity of dealing with lots of different kinds of data.

4 ____, Jack would not allow it, and _______, I don’t think mom would like it much either.

In addition

Finally

In addition to

secondFirst



Task 2 Signpost language

Complete the sentences with the words and expressions listed above. There may be more than one correct answer.


5 Here are some quick hints that can help make revision easier. ____, set your first draft aside for a while. You can then come back to the draft with a fresh, more objective point of view. _______, in revising a paper, you should read and reread it several times, for it is impossible to notice all the errors and things that need changing in one or two hasty readings. ______, as you read your paper, add your thoughts and changes above the lines or in the margins of your paper. Your written comments can serve as a guide when you work on the next draft.

Finally

FirstSecond



Task 3 Formal English

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

1 Romantic love first made its appearance in courtly circles as a characteristic of extramarital sexual adventures indulged in by members of the aristocracy.

appearedKey:

2 A brief example will provide an initial taste of the nature and objectives of sociology.

Key: goals

3 The theory might assert that high inflation arises when the government prints too much money.

Key: appears






4 Sociology demonstrates the need to take a much broader view of why we are as we are, and why we act as we do.

showsKey:

5 Some countries are industrializing and may suffer some of the disruptions that analogous parts of the West encountered at similar stages of their development early in the 20th century.

Key: met

6 Learning to think sociologically — looking, in other words, at the broader view — means cultivating the imagination.

Key: developing






7 … we need to imagine, for example, what the experience of sex and marriage is like for people — the majority of humankind until recently — to whom ideals of romantic love appear alien or even absurd.

strangeKey:

8 Studying sociology cannot be just a routine process of acquiring knowledge.

Key: gaining

9 The sociological imagination requires us, above all, to “think ourselves away” from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew.

Key: in a new way


• Text B

– Critical reading and thinking

– Difficult sentences

– English language for

academic purpose


Text B



Text Analysis

What is the main reason according to sociologists?

The sociological debate: the gender pay gap

Sex segregation or gender typing.

Text BCritical reading and thinkingUnit 4

The Study of Society and People Text Analysis

Sex segregation → the fact that men and women are concentrated in different occupationse.g. In 1989 jobs that were over 80 percent female and jobs that were over 80 percent make are as follows:

Jobs for female Jobs for male

•Secretary•Childcare worker•Hairdresser•Cashier•Bookkeeper•Telephone operator•Receptionist•Typist•Elementary school teacher•Librarian and nurse

•Doctor•Lawyer•Dentist•Taxi driver•Plumber•Electrician•Carpenter•Firefighter•Auto mechanic•Machinist•Truck driver

Text B



Text Analysis

•The gender composition of a job is associated with the pay received for that job.

•Jobs pay less if they contain a higher proportion of females.

•An Equal Pay Act in 1963 has done little to eradicate pay differences attributable to gender.

Text B



Text Analysis

How occupational segregation leads to a gender gap in pay?

Sociologists and economists differ in their explanations.

Text BCritical reading and thinking


Text Analysis

Economists sociologists

Focusing on the occupational choices women make Endorsing a human capital theory explanation1) Women intentionally select occupations easy to move in and out of2) Women seek undemanding jobs

Focusing on the constraintswomen face Critiquing human capital theory1) There are some forces blockingwomen from freely choosing occupations.2) Human capital theory neglectspower differentials between menand women in the workplace andsociety.

Text B

Difficult sentences

•The reason that sex segregation is problematic is because the gender composition of a job is associated with the pay received for that job. (Para. 4)

→ If there is sex segregation in occupations then the pay received for certain jobs are not based on the intrinsic value of the work but on the gender composition, that is to say, if an occupation is predominantly female, the jobs are paid less.


Text B

Difficult sentences

•Central to this argument is the assumption that women’s primary allegiance is to home and family; thus they seek undemanding “dead-end” jobs that require little personal investment in training or skills acquisition so that they can better tend to their household responsibilities. (Para. 7)

→ The main assumption behind the argument is that …women try to find jobs that are not challenging, and are not promising because such jobs do not demand much training and skills. They do this because they want to devote much of their time and energy to household work.


Text B

Difficult sentences

• …girls may choose occupations such as teacher or nurse, which are viewed as compatible with “feminine” traits such as warmth or nurturance. (Para. 8)

→ …girls may choose jobs such as teacher or nurse. These jobs are regarded as suitable for girls as they fit the descriptions of warmth or nurturance which are often associated with women.



Text BEnglish language for academic purpose

•gender pay gap•sex segregation•gender typing•public policymaker•human capital •Socialization•gender role•gender ideology


性别隔离性别特征

人力资本

男女收入差距

决策人

社会化性别角色性别意识

Collocation

Text BEnglish language for academic purpose

•be disadvantaged by •eradicate pay differences•be attributable to•formal schooling•on several grounds•be compatible with•provide backpay


Task 1 Economists and sociologists differ in their explanations of how occupational sex segregationleads to a gender gap in pay. Work in pairs and complete the table about how theydiffer.

Text BSuggested answers



Economists’ explanations Sociologists’ explanations

Focusing on the occupational choices women make

Focusing on ________________________.

Endorsing a ___________________ explanation:1 Women intentionally _________________________

——————————————.2 Women seek _________________.

Critiquing ___________________:1 There are some forces______________________________________________.2 Human capital theory neglects_________________________________________________________________.

the constraints women face

theoryhuman capital human capital theory

select occupations that are

easy to move in and out of

undemanding jobs

choosing occupationsblocking women from freely

society

power differentials between men and women in the workplace and

Task 2 Work in pairs. Discuss whose view you are in favor of, the economists’ or the sociologists’, and explain why.

Text BSuggested answers



Researching

Task Work in groups of 4-5. Carry out a research about whether there is a gender pay gap in China. You may search the Internet or libraries for relevant statistics, factors, examples etc.

1 Define what is a gender pay gap.2 Search the Internet for related statistics and cases.3 Find out possible reasons.4 Discuss and give possible solutions.5 Present your findings to the class.

• Listening

– Note-taking symbols (1)

– Listening tasks


Note-taking symbols (1)

Symbols and abbreviations are useful to enable effective note-taking.

Listening

Academic activities


Some commonly shared symbols:

and → & Less, minus → -

Listening


Times, multiplied by →xFor example →e.g. Plus, positive → +Divided by → /Compare → cf.

You may use your own ways.

Note-taking symbols (1)

Listening tasksListening


Task 1 Listen to a lecture. Complete the sentences according to what you have heard.

1 The topic is ___________, which refers to ____________________________.

2 Demographers use a number of _________________ in translating a locality’s raw totals — ____, _____, ______________________ ________________ — into _______________that allow them to _____________.

demographythe scientific study of population

standard measures

identify trends

birth deathgeneral statistics moving in and out

and the number of those



Task 2 Listen to the lecture again and complete the following sentences about the definitions.

1 The birthrate refers to ______________________________________________.

2 The death rate is ______________________________________________.

3 The fertility rate is _______________________________________________.

4 Suppose there were 900 births in a city of 50,000 in a specific year. The birth rate for the city is ___ .

people in a given yearthe number of births per 1,000

women of the world

the number of deaths per 1,000people in a given year

the number of live births per 1,000

18



Task 3 DictationListen to the first part of the lecture for three times. While listening for the first time, try to get the main idea. For the second listening, it will be read sentence by sentence with the interval of 15 seconds. Try to take down every word. For the third time, try to check you answer. Apply the note-taking symbols you have learned.

The scientific study of population is known as demography. The word comes from the Greek for “measuring people.” But counting heads is only a small part of what demographers do. They also attempt to calculate the growth rate of a population and to assess the impact of such things as the marriage rate and life expectancy, the sex ratio, the age structure on human behavior and the structure of society. They are interested in the distribution of population and in movements of people. Put another way, demographers study the effects of such numbers on social trends.

• Speaking

– Making a counterargument


Making a counterargumentSpeaking


Task Mock debateWork in groups of 4 or 6. Divide the group into two teams and carry out a debate about “Occupational Segregation Leads to a Gender Gap in Pay”. One team take the economists’ side and the other take the sociologists’. Use the above language patterns while debating

• Writing

– Avoiding plagiarism

– Writing tasks


Avoiding plagiarismWriting


Plagiarism is defined as the use of somebody else’s words or ideas without acknowledging the source. To avoid plagiarism, you need to quote, paraphrase and reference correctly.


A key factor in explaining the sad state of American education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our universities even in underpopulated states. The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. Few succeed. Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.


Original source


American education is overly bureaucratic. This is manifest in the increasing size of educational institutions, even in small states. Bureaucracies are bad because they tend to work to promote their own survival and growth rather than that of the institution, as was their initial objective. Most bureaucracies fail because they have a conscience or a soul. I believe that bureaucracies are the biggest stumbling block on the road to the educational future.


Paraphrase 1


Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block on the road to our educational future. American institutions have become factories that are more conducive to the growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the students who attend them. Bureaucracies have to work long and hard to keep from promoting their own survival rather than the educational goals that were their primary objective.


Paraphrase 2


Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block on the road to our educational future. American institutions have become factories that are more conducive to the growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the students who attend them. This means that, as Edward T. Hall says in his book, Beyond Culture, today's educational institutions “have no soul, no memory, and no conscience.”


Paraphrase 3


In his book, Beyond Culture, Edward T. Hall discusses the problems posed by the increasing bureaucratization of American educational institutions. Hall maintains that overbureaucratization is one of the key factors governing the state of education in America today. He points to the tendency of bureaucracies to promote their own growth and survival first and foremost, and observes that few overcome that tendency. He believes that this is responsible for the fact that many public schools bear a closer resemblance to factories than to educational institutions. In Hall's words, “Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience.”


Paraphrase 4


Paraphrase 1 is unacceptable because this paraphrase retains most of the original author’s ideas (though not quite accurately), as well as his way of structuring and expressing them. The paraphraser has made no effort to acknowledge the original author, and the use of the expression “I believe” suggests that the ideas in question are the paraphraser's own.


Suggested answer


Paraphrase 2 is unacceptable as it retains most of the original author’s ideas and several key phrases, although it juggles their order around and rephrases them. The writer has not acknowledged the original author.


Suggested answer

Paraphrase 3 is also unacceptable. Although the writer does credit the original author, she only credits him with one of the ideas/phrases she uses and she misrepresents the emphasis of the quoted words.


Paraphrase 4 is acceptable in that the writer has avoided using too many of Hall's key phrases and clearly attributes his ideas to him without distorting their meaning.


Suggested answer

Writing tasksWriting


Task 1 Paraphrase the following sentences according to the above strategies.

1 Source: Few issues challenge a society’s ideas about the natures of human development and justice as much as serious juvenile crime.

Paraphrase: Steinberg believes that of all the problems facing a society, the problem of “serious juvenile crime” is among the most difficult to grapple with.

Writing tasksWriting


Task 1 Paraphrase the following sentences according to the above strategies.

2 Source: Many free-speech controversies, especially on college campuses, are grounded in concerns for civility, politeness, and good taste. They also tend to follow the same path and end the same way. A government entity regulates speech in an effort to elevate discourse, limit the profane and protect public and personal sensitivities; courts strike down the regulations as violating the First Amendment freedom of speech; and we end up right where we started.

Paraphrase: Howard M. Wasserman sees a recurring pattern to many First Amendment challenges. He says that when the government tries to create a more mannered atmosphere by setting rules to reduce instances of profanity and “protect public and personal sensitivities,” the efforts are struck down in court as a violation of free speech.

Writing tasks

Writing


Task 2 Check the paper you are working on and make sure to avoid plagiarism.

Do the following tasks:

Get ready for the next unit


1. Find out main points of Text A;

2. Define the key terms with examples;

3. Mark the specialized vocabulary and explain them.

4. Underline the collocations you think important.

学术英语 社科 academic english for social sciences. 4 we live in a world today that is...

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学术英语社科 academic english for social sciences. 4 we live in a world today that is...