Unit 1: Study Skills

1.1 Listening
It seems clear that students who join universities from high schools are often faced with new demands
while undertaking their academic studies. They are usually required to work on their own and meet these
demands if they have to become successful in the university studies. This means that they need to be
equipped with skills and strategies which will enable them not only to gain knowledge in their specific
fields of study but also to display this knowledge as and when necessary. The aim of this Unit, therefore,
is to help students develop the skills and strategies that they need in order to become independent
learners. Accordingly, the Unit focuses mainly on taking notes from lectures and making notes from
reading.
Activity 1.1.1: A short survey
Students first work individually and indicate their choices in the table. Then, in pairs, they tell each other
whether or not they are going to try the habits that they have not developed already and give reasons for
their decisions. This will be followed by whole class discussion in which some students tell the class their
choices and the reasons for their choices. The instructor and other students may react to the choices made
and the reasons given.
Activity 1.1.2: Pre-listening
In groups students discuss their answers to the first four questions and then one student in each group will
report the results of the discussion to the class.
1. Lecture: a talk or speech given to a group of people to teach them about a particular subject.
2. A lecturer is a university instructor or professor who gives lectures.
For questions 3 and 4 students tell each other whatever experiences they have had before.
5. Vocabulary: Check if students know any of the words. Then provide the meanings.
transient: not lasting long; passing quickly as in speech
distractions: things that make it difficult to pay attention or concentrate during listening
verbatim: word for word; writing down exactly as spoken
cue: a signal (such as a word, a phrase or a gesture) that indicates something important; a hint
discriminating: recognizing differences; selecting
Activity 1.1.3: While-listening
1. Let students listen to the talk once. Read the text at normal speech rate – not too slow, not too
fast – making pauses as necessary. Tell students that they do not need to take notes to
complete this activity but that they need to concentrate while listening. As they listen, they
write the letter of the correct answer against the items in column A. Allow students to look at
the table for about two minutes before they listen.

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At the end of the first listening, students check their answers with those of their partners. Then
check answers at the whole class level.
Answers: 1. d 2. e3. a 4. c 5. b
2. Students listen to the talk once again and take detailed notes while listening. Before they listen, pay
their attention to the notes given about how to take notes. Emphasize that they do not need to use
complete sentences in taking notes. Also give them examples of some abbreviations and symbols and
point out that students can abbreviate words in their own ways as long as they know what words their
abbreviations stand for. Let students look at the questions for one minute before you read the text.

At the end of the lecture, students sit in groups of three and compare their notes. Then, they write answers
to the questions individually.
Answers to the questions:
1. The speaker says that the talk will focus on:
 factors that make lecture note taking a challenging task;
 preparations students need to make before the lecture;
 what they need to focus on during taking notes; and
 how best they can use their notes after the lecture.
2. Difficult to control the speed of spoken language, unlike reading.
3. In their lecturing style, speed and method.
4. To be able to sort out the notes later.
5. By providing cues (tone, voice, gestures), repeating main points or using diagrams.
6. The notes are likely to be incomprehensible.
Activity 1.1.4: Paragraph writing
Individually, students take some two or three minutes, think about the problems they have in taking
lecture notes and write down points which they will use to write a paragraph. Let them organize their
points and write the first draft of the paragraph. They exchange their paragraphs and get comments from
their peers. They then write a second draft which the instructor will collect for further feedback.
1.2 Grammar Focus: Ways of Giving Advice
This section is meant for students to practice some of the ways of giving advice. Let students pay
attention to the notes given. Elicit from students other ways of giving advice which they know. You can
also add some yourself.

Activity 1.2.1

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This activity is just for students to practice the correct forms of the three ways of giving advice, namely,’
should’, ‘ought to’ and ‘had better’. So it should be done quickly.
Activity 1.2.2
In pairs, students take turns and complete the dialogue by giving and receiving advice. The advice given
may vary in each case but Insist that students should use the different modals they practiced in activity
1.2.1. One or two pairs may act out the dialogue in front of the class before the activity begins.
1.3 Reading for Study
Activity 1.3.1
Let students think about the first three questions individually and then discuss them in groups of three or
four. Group representatives will then report the results of their discussions to the class. Accept ideas from
three or four representatives and hold the discussion at the whole class level.
For question four (vocabulary), first, ask if students know these words and then provide the meanings
yourself.
Activity 1.3.2
1. Students read the text silently in class and answer the different questions in writing on the basis of the
information in the text. Ask some students to read their answers to the class and make sure that students
have the right answers to all the questions. Give additional explanations where necessary.
Answers
a. Reading is one major way through which students gather information and gain knowledge in their
fields of study and that they have to do a huge amount of reading in order to succeed in their
studies.
b. Reading is the main way of accessing academic debate in all fields of study. Through reading
students in various disciplines can discover the fundamental and essential aspects of a subject, its
basic assumptions, the facts upon which it is built and how these are examined.
c. Glancing, for example, through a newspaper only to pick out the main news items and ignoring
the details, reading in detail for academic study, scanning a text to pick out some specific
information.
d. Our ways of reading vary according to our purposes for reading.
e. The two types of students are different in that the former view reading negatively while latter
look at reading positively.
f. The writers mean that others believe that reading is something that can be done without any
thought and effort.

2. Students should support their answers with evidence from the text.

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 a. true b. false c. false d. false e. true f. false
3. Explain to the students what reference means, using a few examples of your own. Let students do the
activity, first, individually and then compare their answers with those of their partners.
1. reading
2. gathering ideas and information and assimilating them into your own view of the world
3. the fundamentals and essential aspects of a subject, its basic assumptions and the facts upon
which it is built
4. glancing through a newspaper to pick out the main news items and reading for study
5. new students’
4. Guessing the meanings of words and phrases
Students work individually and guess the meanings of the words and phrases as used in the text. Then in
groups of three they discuss both their answers and how they were able to arrive at the meanings. Ask
some students to tell the class the meanings and the clues they used to arrive at the meanings. Discuss the
answers with the class and explain how textual clues can be used to guess meanings.
5. Completing a summary of the reading text using appropriate notes.
Tell students what is meant by summarizing a text and how it can be done. Then emphasize that
summarising is a very important academic skill that students have to develop to be successful in their
university study. This is so particularly for doing course assignments and answering examination
questions.
Summary
Reading seems to be the main way to access information that you need in your field of study. It is
therefore a very useful skill to develop in order to succeed in your university study. It is also through
reading that academic disciplines prepare students for their future careers. One major objective of
reading at university or college is to gather ideas and information and to make them part of your own
world view, and then express that view when necessary. This means that students need to put the
necessary effort into reading and make the best out of their reading experiences in order to be successful
in their university studies. It is also important to note that the approach to reading varies according to the
purpose for reading, and there are different ways of tackling reading based on both what is to be read and
the particular task to be accomplished. Thus, to make the best use of their reading, students need to
further develop their reading skill in addition to using the abilities that they already possess when they
come to university.
1.4 Grammar focus
Activity 1.4.2
1. played 2. have cleaned

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3. have just read 6. bought
4. met 7. have changed; started; had; have expanded
5. has ever visited 8. has become; took; was; has changed

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Unit 2: Health and Fitness
2.1 Listening: Zinedine Zidane
Activity 2.1.1: Pre-listening
It would be advisable if you pre-teach the meanings of any of the following words form the listening text
to help students understand the listening text better.
honing debut prone maneuver
linchpin culminated coveted charity

It would be also helpful if you know how some of the French city names such as Marseille, Cannes and
Bordeaux are pronounced before you go to class. You can google the correct pronunciation of these
names.
Activity 2.1.2: While-listening
1. Full name ZinedineYazidZidane
2. Date of birth June 23, 1972
3. Place of birth Marseille, France
4. Known for his excellent all-around play
5. Playing position Midfielder
6. Played for Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus, Real Madrid
7. Went to Real Madrid for record fee of 66 million dollars
8. Games won France beating Brazil 3-0 in the final match
of the 1998 World Cup; France beating
Italy 2-1 in the 2000 European
Championship;
9. Special points (if any) Named best European soccer player of the
past 50 years; Appointed a United Nations
Goodwill Ambassador in March 2001

Activity 2.3.2: While-reading

Paragraph Main Idea
Paragraph 1 Team sports as one of the best ways to exercise
Paragraph 2 Team sports help you to continue exercising
Paragraph 3 Team sports allow for competition and they are fun

Paragraph 4 There are different types of sports from which to choose

Paragraph 5 Don’t limit yourself to one sport

Activity 2.3.3: Post-reading

1. a. Team sports encourage one to have regular exercise and games
b. Team sports allow one to have the chance to take part in healthy competitions
c. Team sports help one to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and have fun
2. False
3. ‘them’ (paragraph 1, line 3) refers to team sports
4. ‘It’ (paragraph 2, line 3) refers to joining a team sport
5. ‘Each one’ (paragraph 5, line 1) refers to sport
6. a. acceptable (But students can choose any other answer and may argue for it by supporting
their arguments with evidence or personal experience)
Activity 2.4.1: Building vocabulary
1. a. routine b. sportsmanship c. a whole bunch of

Unit 3: Cultural Values

Activity 3.1.1 Defining culture and cultural values
1. You can give your students copies of these definitions or read the definitions to them:
‘Culture is the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people,
but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next.’ Matsumoto (1996, p.16)

‘Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies,
procedures and behavioral conventions that are shared by a group of people, and that influence
(but do not determine) each member’s behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of
other people’s behavior.’ Spencer-Oatey (2008, p.3)
2. You can tell students that the following are other characteristics that can distinguish one cultural
group from another:
literature food architecture language music
art technology agriculture clothing
Activity 3.1.2: Pre-listening
3. the Grand Tour: a tour of Europe that was regarded as part of the education of a wealthy young
man. The tour sometimes took several years and usually included visits to Paris, the Alps,
Florence and Rome.
advance guards: a group of soldiers who go somewhere to make preparations before other
soldiers arrive
4. a. urban/facilities b. solidification/exotic c. commentators/harm/mass
5. The following sentences are found in the lecture:
 This form of tourism is also becoming generally more popular throughout the world.
 What is the difference between cultural visits on holiday, cultural tourism and cultural visits
undertaken during leisure time at home?
  In spite of these problems policy makers and tourist boards and cultural attraction managers
around the world continue to view cultural tourism as an important potential source of tourism
growth.
Activity 3.1.3: While-listening
1. Explain what a source is and how it is included in a text.
Types of tourism or Sources cited by Names of organizations Benefit(s) Criticism
tourists mentioned the speaker mentioned of cultural against
tourism cultural
tourism
-cultural/culture - Water (1993) - contribute - penetrate
tourism -European -OECD (the a great deal sensitive
-industrial tourism Commission (2002) Organization for to the cultural
-creative tourism -Richards(1996, Economic Cooperation economy environment
2001) and Development) and support
- the Association for - World Tourism of culture
Leisure and Organization
Tourism Education
(ATLAS)

2. a. False b. False c. False d. False e. True f. False g. True

Activity 3.2.2: Uses of tenses

1. Matching
 1. c, f and i 3. a, e and g
2. d and h 4. b
2. a. expresses an action that happens again and again
b. expresses a fact that is always true
c. expresses a fact that is true for a long time
d. expresses a finished action in the past
e. expresses a past situation or habit
f. makes clear that one action in the past happened before another action in the past
g. expresses an action that began in the past and still continues
h. expresses an experience that happened at some time in one’s life
i. expresses a past action that has a present result

Activity 3.4.2: While-reading

1. a. False
b. False
c. True
d. False
e. True
f. False
2. a. An intentional community is one that is intentionally created by a group of people who
share similar belief system and values.
b. because their land is not suitable for agriculture
c. hopes to earn more money in order to build potable water and sewage systems, pave
the road, and create an education fund for the children.
d. students’ own answers
3. a. norms b. egalitarianism c. alleviate d. lauded e. obscene
f. diligent g. infested h. ostracized i. initiative j. endeavor
4. a. paragraph 6 b. paragraph 1 c. paragraph 2
d. paragraph 4 e. paragraph 3 f. paragraph 5