BONG2 Reading the new1 sua Reading the News 1 EF D AV EF D AV Nguyễn Thị Cát Ngọc Đỗ Thị Thu Phượng (Đồng chủ biên) Trịnh Minh Phương Nguyễn Hồng Thúy Trần Thị Thu Thương READING THE NEWS 1 NHÀ XUẤT B.
EF - D AV Reading the News AV D EF - AV Nguyễn Thị Cát Ngọc - Đỗ Thị Thu Phượng (Đồng chủ biên) Trịnh Minh Phương - Nguyễn Hồng Thúy - Trần Thị Thu Thương READING THE NEWS EF - D NHÀ XUẤT BẢN ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI AV D EF - CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE TO THE READING THE NEWS SERIES INTRODUCTION NOTES TO USERS 12 AV MEDIA LITERACY 14 SECTION NEWS AND FEATURES .20 UNIT Influencer Marketing 22 D UNIT Climate Change 31 UNIT Social Media and National Security 38 EF - UNIT Higher Education and Finance 46 UNIT Environmentalism .53 UNIT Pursuit of Music Career 61 SECTION OPINION 69 UNIT Exploring the World 70 UNIT E-Commerce 79 UNIT The Future of Foods 87 UNIT 10 Freedom of Information 94 UNIT 11 Vaccination .103 UNIT 12 Public Opinions .111 LIST OF REFERENCES 119 AV D EF - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are appreciative of assorted sources of information and authors of the articles cited in Reading the News coursebook Without all of them, we would not have been able to compile the materials for this book We are grateful to our English Faculty, Board of Education and Training, Board of Directors for facilitating the compilation of this coursebook AV Our sincere thanks go to our English Faculty members, coordinators and students who have made substantive contribution to the meticulous compilation process We also thank the editorial personnel, who was a great help for us in getting the manuscript in publishable form EF - D Despite all the help we had, many errors and shortcomings may remain in the following pages; for these we alone are responsible PREFACE TO THE READING THE NEWS SERIES As many language teachers and learners now realize, reading is not simply an important skill It is also a critical basis for progress in language learning Effective reading skill enhances students’ abilities to pay attention, remember new grammar and vocabulary, process ideas, and respond appropriately As students develop their reading abilities, they feel more capable and confident in all aspects of language use AV Students at different levels need different kinds of reading skills and strategies, but most eventually encounter the need for academic reading More than merely enabling them to succeed in college lectures and discussions, effective academic reading allows students to build, synthesize and use knowledge in the target language As a result, they can fully participate in the exchange of authentic ideas about relevant topics D Recent progress in language teaching and testing has provided many new instructional approaches and strategies that help students develop good academic reading skills Reading the News incorporates these new ideas into a coherent, carefully sequenced approach that works well in classrooms Authentic Language and Active Reading EF - Each level of the series Reading the News comprises twelve units on specific topics which are accessible to students of all backgrounds The articles selected are written in an interactive style that models the natural, authentic language as well as active reading Key points are reinforced so that students can remember easier The activities that accompany each unit are designed to guide the reading process Students are encouraged to preview vocabulary, read with a clear purpose, extract main ideas, understand text organization, check comprehension, deal with unfamiliar words, link ideas, understand writer’s style, evaluate the text, react to the text, and write summary The activities also help students develop critical thinking skills, including: • Activating prior knowledge • Guessing meaning from context • Predicting information • Organizing ideas • Discriminating between main ideas and details • Reconstructing and summarizing main ideas • Transferring knowledge from each topic to other areas INTRODUCTION READING THE NEWS Reading the News is the first coursebook in the series of Reading the News The book is suitable for those who possess level B1-B2 in Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency, i.e they can use the language independently and communicate without effort with native speakers In English curriculum, the coursebook is primarily designed for sophomores who begin their ESP course at Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam It consists of 12 units based on topics of common interest in international studies This book features authentic texts reflecting the recent trends of the world The book is expected to help students enhance their ability to read the news in English effectively AV READING EFFECTIVELY EF - D Everyone reads with some purposes in mind: for instance, to keep up with the news, to obtain specific information, or simply for pleasure A reader’s purpose may also include the need to reproduce the content of the text in some way or other: in a discussion of the ideas it contains, for example; or in summarizing the text for a report or an examination Effective reading means being able to read accurately and efficiently, understanding as much of a text as one needs in order to achieve one’s purpose Not everybody can this even in his or her own language In a foreign language, the problems are of course greater, and comprehension failure is common This may be a simple matter of not knowing a word, but it is equally likely to be due to a deficiency in one or more of a number of specific reading techniques The exercises in this book can also help students develop these specific techniques Extracting main ideas Sometimes it is difficult for a student to see what the main ideas of a passage are, or to distinguish between important and unimportant information Students should be encouraged to read for the general sense rather than for the meaning of every word Reading for specific information It is not always necessary to read the whole of a text, especially if one is looking for information which is needed for a specific purpose Understanding text organization Students may sometimes have trouble in seeing how a passage is organized They should have practice in recognizing how sentences are joined together to make paragraphs, how paragraphs are combined into text, and how this organization is signaled Predicting Before reading a text, we usually subconsciously ask ourselves what we know about the subject matter This makes it easier to see what information is new to us and what we 10 Reading the News already know, as we read the passage If we can transfer this skill to a foreign language, we can ensure that as we read we are not overloaded with too much new information Checking comprehension Under certain circumstances (such as examinations) students may need to study a passage very closely in order to answer a question correctly, and exact understanding of points of detail may be crucial Comprehension questions in each unit could train students in this kind of careful reading Inferring A writer may decide to suggest something indirectly rather than state it directly The reader is required to infer this information – which may be essential for correct understanding Some students may need practice in seeing such implications AV Dealing with unfamiliar words Linking ideas D One of the commonest problems facing a student is simply not being able to understand a word or expression But it is often possible to guess its general sense by looking for clues, whether in the context or in the form of the word itself The exercise of explaining words and expressions as used in the article will help develop the techniques needed to make reasoned guesses about the meaning of new vocabulary EF - In any passage an idea may be expressed by a number of different words or expressions It is necessary for students to see how different words are related to the same idea Understanding complex sentences Some writers, consciously or unconsciously, use a complicated style in which it may be difficult, for example, to distinguish main clauses from subordinate clauses Struggling with complex syntax can make it easy to lose sight of the general sense of the text Students should learn how to “decode” long and complicated sentences Understanding writer’s style An important part of the pleasure in reading is being able to appreciate why a writer chooses a certain word or expression and how he/she uses it A number of stylistic devices and features are presented in this book Evaluating the text A full understanding of a passage may depend on appreciating why it was written, or what purpose particular parts of the text serve It may, for instance, be important to distinguish between a statement of fact and an expression of the writer’s opinion Students are expected to develop the students’ more critical faculties 16 Reading the News information to learn and update news is of great importance for students If you read news from the Internet, be skeptical and critical because who knows where the Internet can lead you to The following part will guide you how to be skeptical when you read online II HOW TO BE SKEPTICAL ON THE INTERNET AV It’s important for you to recognize that every time you click on something, you’re creating a trail that brings information to yourself The question students always ask is that should we trust everything we read online, especially the potential of the problems may arise when almost everyone can publish a blog or web page? For example, the “Help Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus from Extinction” site (https://zapatopi net/treeoctopus/) looks reliable and seems to provide trust-worthy information about an endangered species of octopus dwells in the trees of the Pacific Northwest However, you must be surprised to learn that no such animal as a tree octopus exists and you had fallen for an Internet hoax These are three strategies to read critically on the Internet: D Examining initial markers or superficial characteristic of a website that can help us make an initial judgment about its credibility EF - Many students were convinced of the site’s validity because of the numerous images (for example, the image that shows an octopus residing in the branches of pine tree in the abovementioned site), the large amount of text (which included scientific names), the professional-looking layout of the site, and numerous links to other sites about octopuses and endangered species (many of which lead to legitimate sites) However, none of these markers were guaranteed indicators of the validity of information on a site These are some of the features of a web page that would give it credibility First, students should look for information about the author or sponsoring organization of a website Sites that prominently displayed contact information can be more reliable than those that not If can identify an author, we can learn through further research about any credentials the author might have Identifying the author of a site may also help us in determining possible bias of that author or the author’s motive for publishing this information online Another marker that we can look for is the timeliness of the site Students can look for a note on the web page about when it was last updated, which will often appear near the top or bottom of a web page A site that is rarely updated or posts no information about when it was last updated might be less trustworthy More importantly, when we are looking for relevant and timely information online, sites that haven’t been updated for a long time might not be appropriate for our needs or may not even be correct anymore as more new information that has come to light since the site’s publication 17 Reading the News The next marker that students can follow when examining a site is to examine the content of the connected sites A site seems more credible if the author provides links to source materials for the information, not links to other sites of interest To examine a website, students can enter “link” into a Google search box You can see other sites linked to the doubtful site which are personal blogs but no other scientific sites that discussed the endangered animal This may make you to think twice before accepting the information AV Finally, students can look at the overall layout and at any additional content on a website The abundance of advertisements on a site could be a clue that the site’s author might be more interested in commercial gains than in distributing accurate information A site with numerous grammatical errors or an amateurish appearance could also be suspected However, some personal blogs or forums are physically formatted in a recognizable way; which may lure students to believe in the information founded in these sites Students should be careful with such sites since they tend to be forums for personal opinion or supposition rather than sources of factual information Students should keep in mind that many sites can look professional and polished, offer a lot of information and link to legitimate sites but still contain questionable information Corroborating information (or confirming information) EF - D First, students can use their common sense to judge the information For example, if something we encounter on the Internet sounds too good or too odd to be true, then it most likely is If information we find online does not seem to match what we already know, it is also likely to be suspected When reading something on a website, we should pause and think before accepting the information as the truth However, our common knowledge sometimes is not strong enough to make judgment about what we are reading In this case, the easy access to information provided by the Internet is a wonderful tool For example, a Google search for the key word “tree octopus” allowed students to find other sites that exposed the truth about this fictional animal Another link that students prefer to visit for information is Wikipedia because it’s quick and easy to read and understand Given Wikipedia’s controversial history in academic circles, we encourage students to check what they find with more trusted encyclopedic sites such as Encarta (http://encarta.msn.com) or Encyclopedia Britannica Online (http:// www.britannica.com) to confirm the information Determining author bias Along with helping students see the value of information, it’s also important to recognize the author behind the information People publish on the Internet for many reasons, and not all of these are noble or unselfish Recognizing whether authors have bias or a hidden agenda can be particularly challenging for students Below are a series of questions the students could ask themselves about a site and its author: 18 Reading the News • Who is the author? What you learn from a Google search on him or her (or organization that sponsors the site)? • What you think the author’s purpose in publishing this information is? Does the purpose seem legitimate or trustworthy? • Is the author trying to sell something? Is there a product attached to the information or commentary on the site? • Examine use of language in the website Are any of the words used particularly hateful or provocative? Does the author (through his or her words) seem to be trying to incite you to a strong emotional reaction? • Does the content of the site seem to be largely opinion or you see a fair amount of facts that you can corroborate? AV With asking yourselves these questions, you can understand the author’s intent and possible bias Students should distinguish between facts and author’s bias to get exact information III HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE NEWS D With resources like Google at our fingertips, information isn’t hard to find What is challenging is determining whether that information is credible and can be trusted EF - A Google search is often our first stop to gain a basic understanding of the main ideas about a topic, but since anyone with access to a computer can publish anything online, it is crucial that you evaluate the information you find, especially when completing a research paper, or looking for important information (like health, election, or financial information) There are some strategies that students can use to choose a reliable website to read and get information: • CURRENCY: How recently was this information published/posted/updated? Can you find a publication date? • RELEVANCE: Does the information relate to your topic? Who is the intended audience? How does this source compare to other sources you may have found on the topic? • AUTHORITY: Who wrote the information - are they an expert or knowledgeable in their field? (i.e for health information, did a doctor or nurse write it? For science information, did a scientist or researcher write it?) • ACCURACY: Where does the information come from? Is it supported by evidence? Has it been reviewed or refereed? Can you verify the information in one or more other sources? 19 Reading the News • PURPOSE: Why was it written? To sell something? To sway opinion? To educate? What is the point of view? IV HOW TO IDENTIFY RED FLAGS OR UNRELIABLE WEBSITES Here are some tips to identify whether websites are credible enough to use for research or updating information • Website does not look professionally designed • Lack of citations or links to verifiable information • No author/sponsoring organization is listed, either on the main page or in an ‘About Us’ section AV • The page’s purpose is to sell something (almost all com) • There is a lot of advertising on the page • The publisher is promoting a specific point of view D V SUGGESTED SITES TO READ NEWS EF - We suggest that you read news from the following sites in order to update information as well as to enlarge your background knowledge in English: • Encarta: http://encarta.msn.com • Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com • The Asia Times: https://asiatimes.com/ • The Diplomat: https://thediplomat.com/ • The Economist: http://www.economist.com/ • The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/ • The Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/ • The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/ • The Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/news • The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ • VN Express: https://e.vnexpress.net/ SECTION NEWS AND FEATURES NEWS People primarily read the newspaper for … news! News can be a breaking story, where the facts are changing moment by moment, or it can involve a recent event in a longrunning story, where it is important for the reader to know the background With hard news the most important factor is that it is read today – we rarely pick up yesterday’s newspapers to read about current news AV Think about an article you have read in the newspaper recently Why was it in the news? Was it a breaking or long-running story? How important and significant was it? UNDERSTANDING NEWS ARTICLES • What happened? • When did it happen? EF - • Who was involved? D News stories answer the following questions: • Where did it happen? • Why/How did it happen? Those questions are answered briefly in the first or second paragraph of the articles, as the purpose of the article is to elaborate on the answers FEATURES Feature articles are less “time-dependent” In other words, they are not so tied to an exact moment in time, but address contemporary areas of interest to the reader Before reading a feature, it is useful to ask yourself what you know about the subject In doing so, you will the following: • Predict vocabulary which may occur in the article; this can help reduce the “processing load” – the amount of new information you need to cover in order to understand the text