In this module you will

• practise information search skills

• talk about various sources of information and ways of information hunting

• read to identify main points

• make use of sequence words

• learn how to give instructions

• revisit Passive structures

Unit 1 Information Hunting
	Lead In

1. Do you know what the word literacy means?

Look up this word in the dictionary if necessary.

2. Complete the definition below with the words from the box.

Literacy is an individual's ability to ……, ……, and …… in a native language, and …… and …… problems at the levels necessary to effectively …… on the job and in society to …… one's goals, and …… one's knowledge and potential.

Reading

1. Work in groups of two or three. Within one minute make a list of verbs describing what you can do with information, e.g. extract information. Compare your lists as a class.

2. With a partner check the difference between the words browse, navigate and search. Use a dictionary if necessary.

3. Read the text and take notes of the main points. Make use of the Study help box. Guess the meaning of the highlighted words. Check them as a class.

As society changes, the skills necessary to solve life problems also change. In the early 1900s, a person who had simple reading, writing, and calculating skills was considered literate. To achieve success in the 21st century, people also need a thorough understanding of information in all its forms.

Study help To better understand the text you are reading take notes from it. - Read the text and focus on general understanding. - Review the text and locate/number the main ideas in the margins - Underline the important sub-points and examples of the main ideas - Highlight unfamiliar definitions and vocabulary - Now take notes from the text but don’t copy directly – Try to write or speak in your own words. At the same time don’t forget to use new words you have learnt.

A ccessing information has become increasingly important because databases which previously only library specialists could have access to are now available to students and other people directly. Browsing, searching and navigating online have become essential skills for all students. They need to be familiar with organizational systems such as cataloging, abstracting, indexing, rating because information is located in various sources across the globe.

Imagine a student who is asked to prepare a presentation based on information from the Web. That student can access vast quantities of information without a lot of understanding, because search engines make accessing information very simple. To use this amount of information effectively requires such skills as evaluating and synthesizing information from a variety of sources. Furthermore, as students access electronic resources, it is critical that they recognize the importance of the intellectual property of others by adhering* to copyright laws.

So, by information literacy is meant the ability to evaluate information across a range of media; recognize when information is needed; locate, synthesize, and use information effectively; accomplish these functions using technology, communication networks, and electronic resources.

Educators all over the world are concerned with the amount of information today’s learners have access to and need to cope with. To make this process less complicated they suggested an algorithm for solving information problems. It allows the learners to make effective search and accurate evaluation of sources.

(Adapted from the site http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/basiclit.htm)

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proprietary databases - частные базы данных

adhere - здесь, придерживаться чего-либо

Discuss

• Do you think you are information literate?

• Why do educators today address the issue of information literacy?

• Why do you think the 21^st century is called the Information age?

• What other types of literacy do you think an educated person should have nowadays?

Writing

Refer back to the definition of information literacy in the text and with a partner write down the steps of the algorithm for solving information problems. Check as a class.

Speaking

Choose one of the tasks below. Describe how to apply the algorithm you have worked out above to cope with the task. Make use of the sequence words in the Functional language box.

• Advise a secondary school student what computer program is the best to create a presentation

• Present the faculty courses at the University Open Days

• Speak about the latest achievements in your field of study at a seminar

• Make a conference presentation on negative effects of computer technologies on environment.

Functional language: Listing (2) First, … Second, … Third, … Another/Next, … Then, … Last, …/Finally, … The next step is … As soon as you …, move on to … .

Listening

Listen to the introductory lecture on information search on the Internet and complete the notes.

Discuss

• Have you learnt any new recommendations on how to perform information search on the Internet?

• Do you know any other strategies?

Focus on language

1. Read the sentences and explain how simple instructions are given.

• Think carefully about the keywords you can use to define the concept you are interested in.

• To search using a search engine, type words into a search box.

Simple and complex instructions To make simple instructions we use imperative e.g.: If you're looking for the Moscow University homepage, just enter Moscow University and click "I'm Feeling Lucky". Don’t rely on a date given on the search engine’s View Page. To add explanation use to-infinitive or by + -ing e.g.: To search using a search engine, type words into a search box. e.g.: Use keywords to form search phrases by putting quotation mark around the key words. To link instructions and stress their order use until + Present Simple, having + Participle II, after + Present Perfect, once + Present Perfect e.g.: After you have entered your search terms, try the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Continue this process until you reach the first single slash (/). To put instructions in order use sequence words: first, then, …, finally.

2. Complete the instructions with the correct form of the word in brackets.

1. ………….. (focus) on a particular meaning of a keyword, put a minus sign "-" in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid, e.g.: intelligence –computing.

2. You can restrict your search to only one specific website by ………. (do) site: search. …………, type the word “site” and a colon. ……….., add the domain name and ………….., press the search button. (sequence words)

3. …………… (set, having + participle II) ranges for everything from dates (von Neumann 1933…1945) to weights (5000...10000 kg truck), you can easily search for specific information within the range of numbers.

4. Attach a “+” sign to a word or digit ……………. (narrow) your search, e.g.: World War +П.

5. Keep truncating back the URL until ……………………… (find) the page’s publisher.

6. Once………………………… (link) to a retrieved site, check to see if

any information about the page’s creator is provided.

Get real

Visit various search engines and learn how they recommend looking for the information you want. Report back to the class on different search strategies you have learnt about.

Useful sites to search http://www.brainboost.com/ http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/ http://search.ask.com/ http://www.altavista.com/ http://search.yahoo.com/

Speaking

Work in pairs. Talk to your partner partner, take turns

to find out

• how to use Brainboost

• how to conduct field search

• how to find sites that have phrase ‘information literacy’ in the title

• how to find information on recent developments in your field of science

published within the last two months

• how to find a definition of a word.

Be sure you use various types of instructions.

Example:

Reading

1. Before you read the text, answer the questions.

• Is WWW a good source of information?

• Is the information on the Web regulated or monitored in any way?

2. With a partner discuss if it is necessary to evaluate the information you find on the Internet. Give your reasons.

3. Read the text and check your guesses.

Thinking about what we have found!

By now everyone has heard the terms “Internet”, “World Wide Web”. It seems you can’t pick up a magazine or watch news without them being mentioned somewhere. There is so much information across the Internet and the Web can link together information from anywhere in the world and make it available to anyone.

The Internet has brought so much to society. It helps a great number of people to express themselves, find one another, exchange ideas, suggest a lot of other things to anyone who comes and clicks. And that's great treasure.

Having access to huge amounts of information is a part of the Internet’s

charm, but perhaps only a small part; more significant is the ability to find, view

and make use of the information.

The World Wide Web is a great place to do research on various topics, you can find research documents, encyclopedia entry or any other information almost on any subject. Nowadays many students prefer using the Web instead of travelling to a library to find this information.

But there is one thing – you have to evaluate carefully whatever you find on the Web. Documents can easily be copied and falsified or copied with omissions and errors. In the general World Wide Web there are no editors (unlike most print publications) to proofread and "send it back" or "reject it" until it meets the standards of a publishing house's reputation. Anyone can put articles on the Web. How do you know whether the information is reliable and free of error?

Moreover most pages are designed with some purpose in mind. Businesses advertise and sell products and services; mass media’s primary purpose is to provide extremely current information. Their URL addresses frequently end in .com (commercial). Political parties and non-profit organizations try to influence public opinion. Their URL extensions will frequently be .org. Education and government institutions design web pages to present factual information such as statistical data, directories, transport schedules, annual reports, etc. Their addresses often end in .edu, .gov or even country codes. The two letters at the end of any internet address indicate the country of origin (except for the United States), e.g., .ru stands for Russia, .ua – for Ukraine.

A great number of web pages are published by individuals who may or may

not be affiliated* with a large institution. This doesn’t mean they are necessarily ‘bad’ but it takes time to double-check the quality of the information in the web site. Though the URL addresses may have a variety of endings: a personal name (baker) following a tilde (~), a percent sign (%) or the words “users”, “members” or “peoples”.

Using the Web as a Research Tool has become nowadays a real challenge. Remember that you are looking for quality not quantity!

(Adapted from the Internet sites)

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may be affiliated with – здесь иметь отношение, принадлежать к организации

4. Answer the questions.

1. What types of web pages are described in the text?

2. What goals do the web page owners have in mind?

3. What kind of information can you learn from an Internet address?

5. Fill in the sentences with the prepositions if necessary. The text you have read may be of help.

1. The main idea behind the WWW is to make as much information as possible available … anyone.

2. Nowadays more people have easy access … the Internet resources.

3. The abbreviation HTML stands … HyperText Markup Language.

4. You can use this form to look … the pages of Popular Science magazine.

5. News Web pages provide … the most up-to-date information.

6. The 5-week WWW search course ended … a project work.

7. This small interest group will be very difficult to influence … public opinion.

8. Anyone can put anything … the Web for pennies in just a few minutes.

6. Look back in the text and find words and phrases that have similar meaning.

Example: point and press - click

connect	assess
to invest time	to create a web page
check twice	to read and correct
trustworthy	point to

7. Within one minute complete the word web for the noun information with as many adjectives as possible.

Project work

“The World Wide Web: the battle for your mind at your fingertips”

To achieve good results in studies it is important to have the ability to search and find relevant information and evaluate its quality.

You are members of a team which is formed to work out the guidelines for

evaluating Web pages. The aim of the team is to help your fellow students to use the Internet resources for information retrieval.

Study help When you present your oral reports, follow this procedure: - one student introduces the group and gives an introduction to the work conducted by the group; - the next few students present one or two of the points and some interesting comments; - the last student concludes the presentation by summarizing and interpreting the information, e.g.: It surprised us to learn that … .

1. Work in teams of five or six. Within your teams divide into pairs and do research on the types of Web pages and their purposes; criteria for evaluation; recommendations and search strategies/techniques.

2. When your team meets again, share and summarize the information you have collected. Write the guidelines for effective information hunting. Use simple and complex instructions.

3. Prepare an oral presentation of your work. Make use of the Study Help box.

In the Realm of Science

1. In the Internet and the WWW, as well as in many other spheres of our life,

there are a great number of symbols. Read and remember them.

+	plus	*	asterisk
-	minus (math symbol)	()	brackets
~	tilde	#	lattice
-	dash/hyphen (linguistic symbols)	_	underscore
%	per cent	@	at
“”	quotation marks	&	and
‘	apostrophe	/	slash
:	colon	.	dot

2. Here are some of the widely used URL extensions. Check if you know them.

.com	commercial	.info	informative/general use
.edu	education and research	.biz	business
.gov	government	.web	web-related
.org	non-profit organization	.tv	entertainment or media industry
.name	individuals	.mil	military
.net	network	.mobi	easy viewing on mobile devices

3. Look through some of the country codes used in website addresses. With a partner add some more to this list.

Country	Country code/extension	Country	Country code/extension
the United States	.us	Germany	.de
Japan	.jp	the United Kingdom	.uk
Italy	.it	Soviet Union (USSR former)	.su
France	.fr	the European Union	.eu
Russia	.ru	China	.cn

(http://www.idcwebs.com/Understanding_Web_Extensions.htm)

4. Here are some of the abbreviations used in the Internet

URL	-	Uniform Resource Locator
FTP	-	File Transfer Protocol
HTTP	-	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IP	-	Internet Protocol
ISP	-	Internet Service Provider
GPS	-	Global Positioning System
USB	-	Universal Serial Bus
MB	-	Megabyte

Unit 1. Progress Monitoring In this unit you have worked on the vocabulary related to the topic “Information search” to look for/hunt for information search engine to access/extract/retrieve information source of information to evaluate/double-check a source of information to proofread the material to have access/to access information literacy search strategy/technique/tips to browse/a browser available/relevant/up-to-date information to search/conduct search to perform information search to stand for Tick (V) the points you are confident about and cross (X) the ones you need to revise.

Unit 2 Treasure House
	Lead In

1. What is a library?

2. When did you first start using a library? Did you have any problems finding necessary books or information?

3. Are you a confident library user these days? Why?/Why not?

4. How often do you need to work in the university library? What kind of information can you find there?

Reading

1. Before you read the text, answer the questions.

• What information sources do you know? Which of them have you worked with?

• What is the difference between a newspaper and a magazine, a journal and a magazine?

2. Read the text. How many sources of information are mentioned? Pick out key words and phrases that go with each source.