Learn the active vocabulary of the lesson

Unit 1. Information search

Warm-up activity

Discuss in pairs

1. What is information? Define the word.
2. What is a source of information? Give examples.
3. What types of information sources do you know? What are the main differences between them?
4. What information source can be considered the most powerful nowadays?
5. What search engines do you know? Which ones do you use? Why?
6. How do you retrieve data in the Internet?
7. What journals in you professional area do you know?
8. What databases do you use to search for the papers on your research interest?
9. Do you know any tricks how to formulate inquiry in search engines?
10. Read the saying below. Do you agree with this idea? Do you think that this statement is true if we speak about academic writing?

Being able to search for useful information that is relevant to your studies is one of the key skills that will improve your marks, as well as the overall quality of your study experience.

 

Active vocabulary

Learn the active vocabulary of the lesson

	academic setting	университетская среда
	academic writing	академическая письменная речь
	acceptable source	подходящий источник
	the next word (an adjacent word)	соседнее слово
	boolean operation	логическая операция
	conclusion	заключение
	data	данные
	database search	поиск в базе данных
	evaluation	оценка, анализ
	evidence	доказательство
	field of inquiry	поле запроса
	headword	заглавное слово
	index term	индексационный термин
	information access	доступ к информации
	information retrieval	выборка информации
	information search	поиск информации
	keyword	ключевое слово
	parentheses	круглые скобки
	phase searching	фазовый поиск
	placeholder	буквенный знак
	primary source	первоисточник
	primary feature	первичная особенность
	to refer to author	ссылаться на автора
	renewable	возобновляемый
	repository	хранилище
	search engine	информационно-поисковая система
	search logic	логика поиска
	secondary citation	вторичное цитирование
	source of information	источник информации
	truncation	сокращение, сжатие
	wildcard	Символ

 

Vocabulary task 1

Match the phrases with their translation. There are two extra words.

1.special features	a.адекватная оценка
2.access time	b.неопровержимое доказательство
3.primary importance	c.вторичное цитирование
4.web search engine	d.прийти к заключению
5.adequate evaluation	e.специальное хранилище
6.data retrieval	f.поиск данных
7.special repository	g.отличительные черты
8.come to a conclusion	h.электронная поисковая система
9.identify acceptable academic sources	i.обмен информацией
10.absolute evidence	j.находить подходящие академические источники
	k.логика поиска
	l.время доступа

 

Vocabulary task 2

Match the word combinations from vocabulary list with their definitions. There are two extra word combinations.

1) academic year	a) give facts that help to prove something
2) data	b)attempt to find information
3) provide evidence	c) process of getting back information
4) information retrieval	d) something that you decide is true after thinking about it carefully
5) conclusion	e) fact or information
6) truncation	f) place where large quantities of things are stored
7) repository	g) time during year when there is teaching at universities
8) information search	h) making something shorter
9) acceptable source	i) period of 365 days
10) field of inquiry	j) news about someone
	k) question intended to get information about someone or something
	l) accepted officially as being suitable in particular situation

 

Reading

Task 1

Task 2

Answer the questions in groups of three.

1. Who is the authority?
2. What are the different forms of evidence?
3. What is the translation of the phrase «raw data»?
4. What is the difference between primary sources and secondary sources?
5. What is the difference between secondary sources and secondary citations?
6. What sort of technique is in-teхt referencing?
7. What is the synonym for the word «academic» in the text?

Task 3

Discuss in groups of four.

1. Who is the authority for you?
2. Do you read any opinion column?
3. What is «academic writing» in terms of your university career?
4. What university assignments you had during your Bachelor studies?
5. What assignments were the most difficult for you to complete?

 

Task 4.

Task 5

Classroom video 1.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaRW7YPLMUU

Task 1

Task 2

Speaking

Task 1

How to search

Keyword searches is one of the most powerful ways of retrieving information. First, however, we will explore a couple of other ways of searching.

Author/title searches

Searching by author and/or title obviously assumes that you are searching for a particular author or book or article title, probably in either a database. Obviously particular search engines will vary, but the following are some general guidelines:

ü When searching by author, put the author’s last name first i.e. Kotler, Philip, not Philip Kotler

ü When searching by title, it helps if you enter the title as correctly as possible.

ü If searching for an organization, give the full name of the organization as it commonly appears, e.g. World Bank.

Snowball search

This is a good way of searching if your topic has a key work or author. Look in that work for the key people on whom that author draws, making a preliminary bibliography from that. Do the same for each of the subsequent authors.

Keyword searches

Keywords are a way of searching through subject/topic. Most library catalogues and databases will include an option to search by keyword and an alternative to author and title. Searching by keyword can be very effective, providing you select terms that accurately describe what you are looking for, and ones that are likely to have been picked by other writers on the subject. In fact, part of the reason why keywords are effective is because writers often pick out their own keywords to describe an article, which means that they come up more easily in a search. Some search tools understand natural language, and automatically try and find as many of your words as possible, but not necessarily in useful relationship to one another.

One way of making your search more specific is by using operators from Boolean logic. This way, you can use terms such as AND, OR, NOT, as well as punctuation such as “ “, (), to link words together and make ‘search strings’.

Wildcards

Ways of dealing with different spellings: for example, analyse/analyze can be dealt with by placing a? or * in the place of the ‘s’/’z’.

Truncations

This allows you to search all the variants of a word by putting a * after its stem. It can be useful in dealing with verbal forms of nouns e.g. analys* for analyse/analysis, but take care that you don’t select a root which also applies to many other words. For example, archiv* for archival/archive research would also yield results that relate to archives generally.

Two final points about using keyword searches in individual databases, library catalogues and search engines: individual databases will have different rules about syntax, operators etc. and you are advised to look at their help pages for guidance. Some databases and search engines structure their search mechanisms around Boolean searching, as for example the ‘Advanced search’ option of Google, or that in Emerald’s Fulltext, which allows you to search a phrase (otherwise “ “) or use and/or etc.

Practical task

Make up a 3-minute report on one of the topics:

ü Effective methods of WebSearch

ü Databases for scientists

ü Reference management software

ü Research networks as the sources of information (Google Scholar, Research Gates etc.)

Warm-up activity

Discuss in groups of four

1. Do you take all the information for granted?

2. How do you evaluate information?

3. How do you decide whether the information is accurate?

4. Have you ever evaluated any academic paper? If yes, tell us in details.

5. What problems do we face while evaluating any scientific resource or article?

6. What should we do in order to decide whether it is appropriate to refer to or not?

7. How do you understand the phenomenon ‘plagiarism’?

Active vocabulary

Vocabulary task 1

Vocabulary task 2

Vocabulary task 3

Reading

Task 1.

Evaluating Sources

The world is full of information to be found; however, not all of it is valid, useful, or accurate. Evaluating sources of information that you are considering using in your writing is an important step in any research activity. The quantity of information available is so bulk that we cannot know everything about a subject. And there's the problem of trying to decide which studies have produced reliable results.

Evaluating sources is an important skill. It's been called an art as well as work – much of which is detective work. You have to decide where to look, what clues to search for, and what to accept. You may be overwhelmed with too much information or too little. The temptation is to accept whatever you find. No matter what you're working on, keep in mind that not all sources are appropriate for your project; just because someone has written something down doesn't mean it is worthy of discussion. Before you decide to rely on a source, you should evaluate the source and decide whether it is appropriate to use in your paper. You should always determine the qualifications of the author, the purpose of the source, the scope of the source (what it covers and in what depth), and, where relevant, the currency of the source.

The library provides access to thousands of journal (periodical) titles, both print and electronic. Electronic databases of full text articles come via publishers who aggregate the contents of thousands of journals. Effectively, journal issues are dismembered, digitized and reassembled. This makes for easier searching and identification of relevant material across a span of years. But the absence of the customary navigation aids e.g. tables of contents, layout, fonts, general look, feel, smell, etc. can make it difficult to judge the 'worthiness' of individual articles.

Academic writing is not confined to journals. Non-textbook academic sources such as monographs and books of edited readings may contribute to the development of your ideas. And some research literature is openly available on the internet. Applying evaluation measures will enable you to recognize acceptable sources.

The documentation of the evolution of ideas is a fundamental process in academic research. A bibliography shows the sources used by the writer. The reader can examine those sources in order to decide for themselves the validity of the conclusions presented. Sources that come from scholarly and peer reviewed publications would suggest that the article or conference paper might be a worthy contribution to the body of knowledge in that field.

Failure to acknowledge the source of ideas and passing them off as your own is 'plagiarism'. Plagiarism is defined as taking, using, and passing off as your own, the ideas or words of another. It is a serious academic offence and can result in your work being failed automatically. The best way to avoid it is to take careful notes of where you found your information, and to always acknowledge the work of others i.e. finish your essays with a bibliography.

 

Task 2.

Choose the right variant.

1. What is considered the essential activity in any research?

a) Evaluating sources

b) Determination of the author’s qualification.

c) Surfing the Internet

d) Communication with the friends

 

2. What simplifies searching and identification of any relevant material?

a) Electronic databases

b) Dismembered and reassembled journal issues

c) Absence of the customary navigation aids

d) Full text articles

 

3. What can we find with the help of a bibliography?

a) Sources used by the author

b) Results of the research

c) Introduction to the research

d) The most important conclusions of the scientific work

 

4. What are the components of the biggest problem in any research called “plagiarism”?

a) Taking and using the ideas of another author

b) Passing off the thoughts of a scientist as someone’s own

c) Finishing the essay with a bibliography

d) Writing the references

Discussion

Task 3.

Classroom video 1.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx3RiK_aceQ

Task 1

Task 2

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Project Work

1. Find a scientific paper/website relevant to your research and evaluate it with the help of the CRAP test given.

2. Present your work in written form to your tutor and then discuss it with your groupmates.

 

 

Unit 3. Presentation Skills

Warm-up activity

Discuss in pairs

This unit has been compiled in hopes of providing some helpful guidelines on effective ways to present scientific information. It is aimed at improving the quality of presentation and is designed primarily for students who might be approaching their first professional conference. Before we start look at the following quotations.

1. Do you agree with these ideas? Do you think that these statements are true if we speak about academic presentation?
2. What types of presentation do your know? What are the main differences between them?
3. What are the general characteristics of academic presentation?
4. Have your ever prepared academic presentation? Tell other students about your experience.

Active vocabulary

Vocabulary task 1

Vocabulary task 2

Vocabulary task 3

Vocabulary task 4

The teacher will read you a list of words to test your memory.

You will need to listen carefully and cannot write any of the words. Later the teacher will test and see how many words you remember.

Watch the instruction for the exercise in the syllabus.

Discussion

Discuss in groups of three.

1. Why is it important to follow a certain structure when you prepare an academic presentation?
2. What is the purpose of the academic presentation?
3. How does the purpose depend on the target audience?
4. What are the compulsory parts of the presentation?
5. What parts can be considered optional?
6. How do you think what information should be included into various sections of presentation?
7. Do you know any ways to hook the audience?
8. What are the ways to grasp the audience attention?

Reading

Task 1

Discussion

What spoils a talk? 1) You have probably also found yourself attending some poor or badly given talks. What qualities did these speakers display that detracted from your enjoyment of the presentation? How significant are the following: Inappropriate level of subject matter? Unhelpful slides? Over-long presentation? You might add other problems to this list.

2) Why do we need visual aid? Continue the following list:

· crystallize ideas; · help information retention; · ·

3) What are the main difficulties that you have to overcome when 1) you prepare academic presentation 2) present your report?

Task 2

Task 3

Discussion

Classroom video 1

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFxVihJ1KSo

Task 1

Task 2

Speaking

What is the task?

Introducing yourself

• Hello. My name is Mark Pavlov and I am a master student from South Ural State University.
• Good morning everyone. Let me introduce myself; my name is Mark Pavlov and I am a master student from South Ural State University.

Starting the presentation

• To begin with ….
• To start with ….
• Let’s start/begin by looking at ….
• I’d like to start by looking at ….

Finishing and thanking

• Thank you for your attention.
• That brings the presentation to an end.
• That brings us to the end of my presentation.
• Finally, I’d like to finish by thanking you (all) for your attention.
• I’d like to thank you (all) for your attention and interest.

Inviting questions

• If anyone has any questions, I’ll be pleased to answer them.
• If anyone has any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.
• If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask them now.
• If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask them and I’ll do my best to answer.

Project work

Task 1

Make up your own academic presentation according to all the requirements of the unit. You can use the information from your Bachelor thesis. Present your research to your group mates (time limit for your presentation speech 5 minutes).

Task 2

Excellent

Good

Satisfactory

And below - Bad

Table 1

	Max Score	Score
Content Assessment
Introduction
Gives a clear statement of a study
Provides synopsis of the relevant research projects
Methods
Gives a description of participant enrollment, procedures and measurements
Gives an overview of the techniques used for data analysis
Results
Gives an account of the major findings of the research
Provides an adequate representation of the research data using appropriate graphical aids (tables, figures, graphs, charts etc.)
Discussion
Makes clear, accurate, and well-articulated conclusions
Suggests practical application of the study results
Relates findings to the ongoing research
Considers areas for prospective studies
Slides
Text Organization
Sequential, logically progressing information
Complies with the format requirements in each section: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion	1-4
Sufficient linguistic competence of each section: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (using academic collocations, terminology relevant to the subject)	1-4
Visual Support
Conspicuous titles and easily readable text
Total for the section
Competences of professional communication	Score
Interaction component
Ability to arouse interest to the report: questions, comments from the listeners.	1-2
Perceptive component
Understanding the content of the peers’ reports (questions, opinions, comments).	1-3
Understanding the peers’ questions (answers to the questions on the report)	1-3
Communicative component (verbal)
Grammatical range and accuracy (both simple and complex constructions)
Pronunciation
Cohesion and coherence (linking words)
Fluency
Logical synopsis
Use of abstract notions, professional terminology
Validity of the statements
Conciseness
Communicative component (non-verbal)
Eye-contact
Gestures relevant to the situation
Facial expression
Dress code
Total for the section
TOTAL

Warm-up activity

Discuss in groups of four

1. What is a discussion?
2. What is an academic discussion?
3. What is the purpose of an academic discussion?
4. How can we do it effectively?
5. What are the differences of an informal discussion language and academic discussion language?

Active vocabulary

Vocabulary task 1

Vocabulary task 2

Match pares of synonyms.

view	member
essential	record
weak point	environment
participant	disadvantage
make notes	opinion
setting	significant

Vocabulary task 3

Reading

Task 1.

Make Declarative Statements

Perhaps the most important part of academic style is creating declarative statements. They are the same as "I" statements, only the "I" is hidden. For example:

"I" Statement:	I think that school uniforms benefit students by eliminating competition based on designer labels.
Declarative Statement:	School uniforms benefit students by eliminating competition based on designer labels.

Avoid Casual Language

Be formal. Remove the "sound" of your casual conversational style and avoid contractions like "can't" or "don't." Think about the language you read in a textbook or academic journal - most academic publications do not use contractions, words like "okay," or storytelling indicators like, "then," "next," and "after that." They also do not address the reader casually with the word "you."

Task 2

Task 3

VIDEO

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQgd2sPxpk&t=202s

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Task 4

Replace the phrasal verbs in the sentences with a more ‘academic’ verb from the box. Don't forget to keep the same tense.

Fluctuate investigate eliminate raise reduce propose intervene establish

1 Researchers have been looking into the problem for 10 years. ______________________

2 The issue was brought up during the seminar. __________________________

3 They know what is happening and will therefore step in if there is a problem._________________________

4 Schools cannot get rid of the problem of truancy. _________________________

5 The financing of the project has been cut down recently. _____________________

6 It was difficult to find out the reason. _______________________

7 Food prices have a tendency to go up and down. _______________________

8 The solution was put forward 5 years ago. _____________________

 

Task 5

Practical Task

Unit 1. Information search

Warm-up activity

Discuss in pairs

1. What is information? Define the word.
2. What is a source of information? Give examples.
3. What types of information sources do you know? What are the main differences between them?
4. What information source can be considered the most powerful nowadays?
5. What search engines do you know? Which ones do you use? Why?
6. How do you retrieve data in the Internet?
7. What journals in you professional area do you know?
8. What databases do you use to search for the papers on your research interest?
9. Do you know any tricks how to formulate inquiry in search engines?
10. Read the saying below. Do you agree with this idea? Do you think that this statement is true if we speak about academic writing?

Being able to search for useful information that is relevant to your studies is one of the key skills that will improve your marks, as well as the overall quality of your study experience.

 

Active vocabulary

Learn the active vocabulary of the lesson

	academic setting	университетская среда
	academic writing	академическая письменная речь
	acceptable source	подходящий источник
	the next word (an adjacent word)	соседнее слово
	boolean operation	логическая операция
	conclusion	заключение
	data	данные
	database search	поиск в базе данных
	evaluation	оценка, анализ
	evidence	доказательство
	field of inquiry	поле запроса
	headword	заглавное слово
	index term	индексационный термин
	information access	доступ к информации
	information retrieval	выборка информации
	information search	поиск информации
	keyword	ключевое слово
	parentheses	круглые скобки
	phase searching	фазовый поиск
	placeholder	буквенный знак
	primary source	первоисточник
	primary feature	первичная особенность
	to refer to author	ссылаться на автора
	renewable	возобновляемый
	repository	хранилище
	search engine	информационно-поисковая система
	search logic	логика поиска
	secondary citation	вторичное цитирование
	source of information	источник информации
	truncation	сокращение, сжатие
	wildcard	Символ

 

Vocabulary task 1