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Файл:Improve your English with Movies. English conversation for Master’s students (Совершенствуйте свой английский с помощью фильмов. Разговорный английски
.pdf
Высокий уровень грамотности чтения: способность понимать
сложные тексты, критически оценивать представленную информацию, формулировать гипотезы и выводы продемонстрировали
только 2% российских учащихся.
Всеобщая грамотность обнажила тот факт, что школьное обучение не всегда дает на выходе компетентных людей. Однако
только с распространением новых каналов коммуникации проблему стало невозможно игнорировать. И если сорок лет назад ученые искали способ бороться с функциональной неграмотностью,
то теперь они ищут пути взаимодействия с ней. Настолько диагноз стал всеобщим
4. Write a review of the lm “Educating Rita” focusing on the role
of lifelong learning in our personal growth.
[https://emosurf.com/post/4457].
UNIT 2: THE DIGITAL ERA
WATCHING THE MOVIE: “SCOOP”.
I. PREVIEWING ACTIVITIES
1. Study the opening part of the article entitled “Stories From Ex-
perts About The Digital Life”
fi fty-fi fty-anecdotes-how-digital-life-has-been-both-positive-and-negative/]
us the major themes focusing on personal impacts of digital life. In
pairs discuss the relevance of these themes to your personal life.
Themes about the personal impacts of digital life
[https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/03/
. It o ers
THE POSITIVES OF
DIGITAL
LIFE
32
Glorious
connectedness
Invent,
reinvent,
innovate
Life-saving
advice and
assistance
Many argued that the internet has provided
one of the greatest boons to individuals: the
ability to reach out and connect directly with
friends, family, colleagues, knowledge, education, entertainment and more anywhere globally at any time in a nearly free and frictionless manner.
Digital tools enable people to invent or reinvent their lives and careers. They can also innovate through wide networking with people
and information that allows them to develop
businesses, fi nd the perfect job, and meet
soulmates, colleagues, new friends and fellow
interest-sharers.
People can tap into and share medical, safety
and health resources and support at a moment’s notice, which is crucial for personal
health and a game-changer for people engaged in child and elder care.
Effi cient
transactions
These experts also hailed the way the internet
revolutionizes life logistics and experiences.
They cited benefi ts including accessing online
education, researching purchases, fi nding the
best options for anything, making quick-hit
social connections, planning trips, or coordinating activities which allow people to be
more mobile, savvy and globally enriched.
THE
NEGATIVES
OF
DIGITAL
LIFE
Connectedness
overload
Low-friction instant access to nearly everything, anytime, anywhere is causing stress,
anxiety, sleeplessness and loss of patience.
Some experts noted that they witness people
missing out on or diminishing important faceto-face social interactions and experiences.
Some also noted that work demands and entertainment lures tug away at users
24/7/365 and that there is a loss of attention
to «real life.»
Trust tensions
The business model of internet platforms is
mostly built on an attention economy that rewards addictive products that heighten users’
emotions and perpetuate polarization. In addition, there are concerns among experts about
issues of security, surveillance and privacy.
Personal
identity issues
Self-promotion, narcissism, click bait, trolling, propaganda and pressures to conform
have become dominant in social networks,
causing some individuals to experience the
loss of self-confi dence and self-esteem. This
encourages them to lose faith in others and
adopt a negative world view.
Focus failures
Digital life fosters shallow engagement with
information as people glide through multiple
information streams daily, taking little time
for refl ection. People have a diminishing capacity to concentrate well enough to stay on
task and do long-term, deep-dive thinking.
[PEW RESEARCH CENTER AND ELON UNIVERSITY’S IMAGINING
THE INTERNET CENTER]
33
2. Read the following one-liners provided by anonymous respondents who assessed positive and negative impacts of the Digital Era.
Choose those one-liners which resonate with your life experience most.
POSITIVE THEMES:
• “I can get answers to questions about almost anything just by
asking my telephone.”
• “I can save money on everything, including clothing and shoes,
airfares, hotels and eat at better restaurants and drink better wine.”
• “Navigation via car has dramatically improved, with accurate
up-to-date traffi c information and destination wayfi nding.”
• “Digital life is being able to speak and see someone
less of where you are
—
on a phone you carry on your person.”
—
regard-
• “Most people I have dated and approximately all of my friends
knew me on the internet fi rst; before such digital connectivity I would
have just been lonely.”
• “Sharing photos of new generations instantly with loved ones
on the other side of the world and using video and chat to send/
receive money; to joke, to tease, to mourn.”
• “My son has grown up in a world in which he will never be
lost; he will never be without a person to talk to; he will never be
stopped from searching for an answer to a query.”
• “I work remotely for a company halfway around the world, and
so does my partner. No need to be at a main offi ce.”
• “The diff usion of webinars allows me to participate in many
events organized in diff erent countries without having to travel to
them.”
• “Digital technology allows me to have better knowledge that
empowers me to better support my own health when I face challenges.”
• “My job didn’t exist 15 years ago. I am a digital content manager.”
• “It means that we can participate in important moments that
time and distance barred us from in the past.”
“I feel more supported in good times and bad and laugh more
than before I was connected online”
[https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/03/the-positives-of-digital-life/]
34
NEGATIVE THEMES:
• “Digital technologies have made it more diffi cult for me to stay
on task and devote sustained attention. This interferes with my work
productivity.”
• “I can’t seem to get my brain to calm down and focus. It is
all over the place. I can’t concentrate. I just start thinking about
what I’m going to do next.”
• “Increased isolation is a negative eff ect I feel in my life; the
time I spend using digital technologies could well be spent in other
more creative and productive ways.”
• “I am becoming increasingly aware of the way constant access
to digital forms of communication can be overwhelming.”
• “It has become an ever-present overhang on all aspects of life.
There is no escape.”
• “The rise of hatred, the manipulation of politics and so on
—
these are not distant events with no personal impact.”
• “Digital life has tipped the balance in favor of John Stuart
Mill’s ‘lower pleasures’ and has made engaging in higher-order pleasures more diffi cult.”
• “One major impact is the overall decrease in short-term memory, and … what was the question?”
• “Real-life relationships are less bearable; everyone is so much
less interesting with the spoiling of technology.”
• “Digital technology radically increases expectations for instantaneous responses. This is unhealthy.”
• “It has become harder to take your eyes off a screen to enjoy
life as it’s happening.”
• “Technology is being driven by business across all areas for
money, money, money. Greed has taken over.”
• “Engagement with technology is starting very young, and we
don’t really know what the impact will be.”
• “We don’t understand what we can trust anymore.”
[https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/03/the-negatives-of-digital-life/]
3. Discuss the memes below commenting on the downsides of our
Digital Era.
35
Find your own examples illustrating pros and cons of the Digital Life
A)
A college student wrote, “I fear that as technology is perfected
to be more addictive and VR and AR advance to envelope everyone
that more and more people will fall into those worlds and not necessarily be able to return to that which we now consider to be real.
While digital life is good, the downsides are quite troublesome. My
brother spent a period between graduating school and obtaining a job
idly watching screens and interacting only via them. He spent all
day and into the night constantly immersed in this. The TV was
always on in the background while he played intense online video
games on his laptop, while also continuously texting or messaging
others about the game. Technology became his life. It was diffi cult
to separate him from his virtual world and to interest him in physical human interaction. He became grumpy, began sleeping less and
less, and stopped dedicating time to his own physical needs. Although
it was a scary time, he was later able to pull himself out of it and
eventually reconnect with the real world. While he was lucky to be
able to quit, some are not able to do so.
B) An anonymous respondent wrote, “Recently I participated in
a family reunion attended by a 2-year-old child. When the child’s
36
behaviour became too disruptive of adult conversation, she was given a tablet and shown the movie Frozen. The child became mesmerized and non-verbal, almost in a trance-like state. I compare this to
when my children were young and were entertained by non-digital
distractions
—
human contact, arts and crafts, a story — and I wonder what the impact of this very early digital exposure will be.
Engagement with technology is starting very young, and we don’t
really know what the impact will be.”
4. Watch the TED programme called “How the hyperlink changed
everything” presented by Margaret Gould Stewart
talks/margaret_gould_stewart_how_the_hyperlink_changed_everything]
5. Explain the terms you have heard in the programme:
[https://www.ted.com/
.
hyperlink; interface; a markup language; nonlinear storytelling;
hypertext
6. Fill in the gaps with the particles omitted in the sentences from
the TED presentation:
a) When I was ___ school, people didn’t have wide access ___
the Internet.
37
b) You had to send ___ ____ the book.
c) In 1945 Vannevar Bush put ___ the idea of creating the “me-
mex”.
d) We can’t keep track ___ all the books we have read.
e) What if I could connect the ideas ___ a larger body of work?
f) They fi gured ___ that the text could be used as a link mark-
er.
g) You could create links ___ between the cards.
h) The hyperlink feels ___ a LEGO block, the basic building
block ___ a very complex web of connections.
7. Translate the article Pros and Cons of Citizen Journalism
By Crystal Lombardo
—
June 2, 2016
The popularity of citizen journalism has spread over the world
in this day and age. In fact, more and more people have begun to
take advantage of becoming content publishers. This can be seen in
TV news, such as photographs of snowfall in the winter, car accidents, or local sports events. However, it leaves a question on what
exactly is news anyway? What does it take to become a citizen
journalist? What is its impact in today’s fast pace society?
Basically, many have thought that this is a great thing and it can
be an excellent tool to promote interaction among people in the
media industry and the community. For this matter, there are pros
and cons here to help you decide which side has more signifi cance.
List of Pros of Citizen Journalism
1. Provides Diff erent Perspectives
This is a great way to hear from random citizens regarding their
personal lives and what simply happens in their locality on a daily
basis. In fact, this can get local citizens to be more engaged regarding issues that can positively aff ect their lives or otherwise.
2. Easy Access to Current Events
The proliferation of mobile gadgets such as smartphones, tablets,
and other portable devices has a great impact on the spread of citizen
38
journalism. Thus, with the addition of social media apps dissemination of news all over the online community is quite easier and
faster. With the eff ort of these netizens, the world can read or view
recent events fi rst hand even without waiting for the news on TV.
3. Assist Professional Journalists.
The public may have the chance to inform professional journalists
about the current events happening in a particular area. So even in
the most remote areas of the society, it can give preference to the
media to cover that event live depending on the value it contains.
At the same time, the reports written by these citizen journalists
should give them a huge advantage if ever they were unable to get
the report at the exact moment.
List of Cons of Citizen Journalism
1. Bias in Reporting the News.
While professionals were trained to look at both sides in a particular story before they make any report, citizen journalists are considered bias at some point. Aside from the lack of training, they
aren’t capable of providing credible information to the public.
2. Libel Law Training.
While professionals have training and background about what they
are doing, citizen journalists do not have prior training on libel law.
For instance, they may accuse the wrong suspects as well as conspirators for a particular crime that occurred. For this matter, they
will aff ect the investigation to take more time. Likewise, it can give
problems to the wrongfully accused.
3. Copyright Issues Can Be Overlooked
There’s a tendency for citizen journalists to overlook some necessary copyright laws. For instance, they may fail to keep the identity of some materials without the consent of the copyright owners.
Some of the possible photos, stories, or videos can be posted on
social media. Consequently, it shouldn’t be practiced because it can
violate the rights of the news sources that these citizen journalists
tend to use
[https://visionlaunch.com/pros-and-cons-of-citizen-journalism/]
39
8. Listen to the BBC 6 Minute English Programme discussing the
issue of social media and teenage health
health
6 Minute English — YouTube
Use the following key words when giving the gist of the programme:
(741) Social media and teenage
social media, addicted to social media; to aff ect mental health;
to develop depression and anxiety; to be exposed to hate-based contents; eating disorders
II. WHILEVIEWING ACTIVITIES.
THE MOVIE “SCOOP”
EPISODE 1
1. Comprehension check. While watching the rst part of the lm,
try to answer the following questions:
1. What was Joe Strombel by profession?
2. What kind of reputation did Joe enjoy among his colleagues?
3. What did he die of?
4. Where did Joe and Jane Cook meet?
5. What did Jane do and how did she die?
6. What kind of suspicion was Jane about to confi rm?
7. What clue did the police discover in the latest Tarot killing
and why did it implicate Jane’s employer?
8. How does Joe characterize the story about the Tarot killer?
9. Whom does Sondra Pransky try to interview and does she
succeed?
10. How could you characterize Splendini?
11. Why does Sondra fi nd herself in the box and what happens
in there?
12. What is Sidney’s initial reaction when he hears Sondra’s
story?
13. When does Sidney believe Sondra?
14. What does Sidney try to persuade Sondra to do?
40
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