Notetaking Preparation

1. Deciphering Notes

Sometimes you may for one reason or another miss a lecture and have to ask a classmate to share his or her notes. If your classmate has taken good notes, you may be able to reconstruct much of the message of a lecture.

Imagine that you missed a lecture in which your professor discussed some basic differences between U.S. colleges and universities and those in foreign countries. You can use these notes to answer your teacher's questions. Work with a partner.

Educ. System in Coll. or Univ.

1. Kinds of courses

a. required (sometimes choice among some req. courses = alternatives)

b. elec.-- students choose

c. prerequisites -- req. before another course can be taken

2. Schedule

-- very flexible

--late afternoon/ even. courses (working stud.)

3. Classes

-- diff. people class to class

-- great variety of kinds of peop. (difficult for some young freshmen from small homogeneous h. schools, big change)

2. Answer in complete sentences.

a. What are prerequisites?

b. What is the difference between an alternative class and an elective class?

c. Why are the same classes sometimes offered both during the day and in the late afternoon or evening?

d. Why do incoming freshmen from small high schools sometimes suffer from a kind of culture shock?

 Listening

A. The lecture begins with an introduction about the diversity of the student body at a typical American university or college. Listen for the signals that help you recognise when the lecturer is about to change to another major subtopic. You'll listen to the lecture again.

B. Write down the main subtopics and as many of the relevant supporting details as possible.

C. Now it is a good time to check to see if you answered your Predictions questions about the lecture correctly.

 Postlistening Activities

Accuracy Check

Listen to the following questions, and write short answers. Your will hear each question one time only.

 Speaking

Exercise 1

Discuss these questions with a partner or in small groups and report to the class.

• How is our student body different from the student body in the United States?

• What is an "average" student in our country like?

• What is an "average" class like?

• Approximately how many students are there at these schools?

• How is the examination system different?

• How do professors in our country conduct their classes?

• How is graduate school different from undergraduate school?

Exercise 2

Discuss the following questions about general education issues in small groups. Appoint one person to report your group's opinions to the class.

• Is it better for students to be evaluated by examinations or by some other way? What other ways could be used to evaluate students?

• Should students evaluate their teachers? Why or why not?

• Do students learn better from a strict, authoritarian teacher or from a friendly, democratic one? Why?

Exercise 3

Interview an American university student. Before the interview, prepare questions as a class to ask.

• general background information (age, hometown, major)

• whether he or she is a graduate or undergraduate student

• how many hours a week he or she is in class

• how large the classes are and whether they are lecture or discussion classes

• how much preparation his or her classes require

• whether he or she also has a job and, if so, how many hours a week he or she works

• any other question your class is interested in