The Advanced English Handbook Reading , Writing and Listening

Kathleen Saville, Margaret Shabka

Description

The Advanced English Handbook: Reading, Writing, Listening, is the companion volume to The AEH: Structure and Form. It provides critical reading, writing and listening strategies and practice for using English in an academic professional environment. With its companion volume, Reading, Writing, Listening is designed for bilingual

Sujets

• ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• Employabilité, métiers et formations

Informations

• Publié par: The Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 59
• EAN13: 9796500118420
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Advanced English Handbook Reading, Writing and Listening

Margaret Shabka

with Kathleen Saville

THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN BOOKSHOP

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c All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Dr. Margaret Shabka

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to a number of people for their contributions to the completion of this book and its companion volumeStructure and FormThe American University in: to Cairo for providing me with leave to complete this project; to Kathleen Saville, who took on the arduous task of acting as a second pair of eyes for me and who organized the recording of the Listening section; to my colleagues who so generously contribut- ed their voices for the recording sessions: Jonelle Husain, Leila El Badri, Carol Clarke, Tony Leoni, and Richard Byford; and last but certainly not least to my hus- band, Hussein Shabka who, in addition to being a creative source of ideas and infor- mation for the reading and listening passages, gave me loving support and encourage- ment throughout the long process. Many thanks to you all.

Margaret Shabka

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Table of Contents Introduction.............................................................................................................. 7 ReadingComprehension.........................................................9................................ Reading Comprehension Strategies..................................................................9 ReadingaPssgae.1..................................................................21..................... Reading........................saaseg2................................................................P81 ReadingPassage 3 ........................................................................................ 23 ReadingPassage 4........................................................................................ 29 Reading35Passage 5........................................................................................ ReadingPassage 6........................................................................................ 40 ReadingPassage 7........................................................................................ 46 Reading51Passage 8........................................................................................ Reading57Passage 9........................................................................................ Reading Passage 10........................................................................................ 62 Reading Passage 11........................................................................................ 68 Reading Passage 12........................................................................................ 74 Reading Passage 13........................................................................................ 81 ReadingPassage14........................................................................................87 Answer Key to Reading Passages....................................................................93 Essay Writing.......................................................................................................113 Basic Structure of an Essay............................................................................113 Key Elements of Good Writing..........................................................................114 The Writing Process........................................................................................117 GettingStarted..............................................................................................118 Reviewing and Revising ...............................................................................118 Proofreading .................................................................................................119 Tips for Those Preparing for a Writing Test................................................119 Writing Practice..............................................................................................120 Writing an Essay: Step By Step.....................................................................121 Sample Essays for Analysis............................................................................125 SampleOne..................................................................................................125 SampleTwo ..................................................................................................133 SampleThree ................................................................................................138 SampleFour .................................................................................................143 SampleFive ..................................................................................................151 SampleSix ....................................................................................................155 SampleSeven ...............................................................................................160 SampleEight ................................................................................................166 SampleNine .................................................................................................170 SampleTen...................................................................................................176 Topics For Practice Writing...........................................................................180 Listening Comprehension...................................................................................181 Strategies..........................................................................................................181 Transcript of Conversations..........................................................................181 Exercise................................D:1iate..ls....................1..81................................ Exercise2:Reversals ....................................................................................184 Exercise 3: Problems ....................................................................................186 Exercise 4: Implications ...............................................................................189 Exercise 5: Selections ...................................................................................191 5

Exercise 6 : Feelings and Emotions ............................................................193 Exercise 7 : Idiomatic Expressions .............................................................194 Exercise 8 : Assumptions ............................................................................195 Exercise 9 : Suggestions ..............................................................................196 Exercise 10: Problem Solving ......................................................................198 Listening Answer Sheet I................................................................................200 Listening Answer Sheet II.............................................................................213 Answer Key to Conversations........................................................................215 Transcript of Short Lectures.........................................................................221 BlackHoles..................................................................................................221 The Great Depression ..................................................................................222 Hurricanes....................................................................................................... 223 Whatisflexitime?.......................................................................................224 Reverse Culture Shock ...............................................................................225 Answer Key to Short Lectures...........................................................................226

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Introduction

The Advanced English Handbook: Reading, Writing, Listening, is the companion volume toThe AEH: Structure and Form. It provides critical reading, writing and lis- tening strategies and practice for using English in an academic/professional environ- ment. With its companion volume,Reading, Writing, Listening is designed for bi- lingual/advanced second language users or learners of English whose goal is to com- municate with ease in English in these environments.

The Advanced English Handbook: Reading, Writing, ListeningTheis in three parts. Reading section provides a discussion of reading strategies and includes: identifying writing strategies and their rhetorical effect; recognizing key words and phrases and their role; annotating for critical analysis; interpreting fact, allusion and tone; making inferences; and identifying bias and intended audience and purpose. The practice reading passages cover a range of subjects, including sociology, science, biography and history, and are followed by comprehension questions for each passage and an Answer Key.

The Writing section includes a discussion of the basic structure of an essay and of the key elements of good writing and includes: unity, organization, development, coherence, conciseness, style variation, clarity, conciseness, coherence, recognition of audience, drafting, revising and editing. A number of sample essays follow, with detailed error analysis and editing of the writing to transform it into clear, concise and coherent expository and/or persuasive prose. The section also includes a number of suggested topics for writing practice.

The final section, Listening, provides practice in recognizing rhetorical context in oral communication. The DVD recording includes a number of dialogues, of increasing complexity, followed by mini-lectures on a range of topics. Multiple choice comprehension questions on the dialogues allow the construction of meaning through eliciting responses to details, reversals, problems, implications, selections, feelings and emotions, idiomatic expressions, assumptions, suggestions, and problem solving. Comprehension questions on the mini-lectures are open-ended. A transcript of the recordings and an Answer Key are included in the text.

WithStructure and Form,the purpose of this book is to provide bi-lingual/advanced users or learners of English with the tools that enable them to manipulate the structures and forms of English with accuracy and sophistication and to communicate with confidence. 7

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading closely and critically is a form of interactive multi-tasking. To fully grasp what you are reading, you need to be alert both to explicit meaning and to clues to im- plicit meaning beyond the obvious.

Read each passage once, straight through. Do not make notes. Focus on grasping the explicit meaning and getting an overall idea of what the passage says.

Now read the passage a second time and interactively multi-task.

This is like having a conversation with the writer: agreeing, disagreeing, saying to him/her:

"Ah, that's what you mean." "Oh, that's interesting." "I didn't know that; that's an interesting piece of information." "But that doesn't make sense," "That's not necessarily true," etc

Have a highlighter, a pen or a pencil ready to mark the passage as you read and to make notes in the margin. A well-read piece of writing shows the conversation with the writer.

Ten things to do as you read:

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1. Look for the main ideas. • Pay particular attention to the beginning and end of each paragraph, as this is where main ideas often appear. • Highlight or underscore each main idea.

2. Highlight or underscore significant words, phrases or sentences. These are: • Sentences that carry the meaning forward or change its direction. • Phrases and sentences that provide important information.

3. Note the connections established through coherence and transitional devices.

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The Advanced English Handbook

• Check that you are clear about the relationships they convey. • Is the connection one of: o Cause and effect? o Exclusion? o Addition? o Possibility? o Certainty? o Contrast? o Clarification? o Conclusion? o Reason? o Consequence? 4. Note related points. • What are their similarities? • What are their differences? • What do those similarities and differences add to the meaning? 5. Note significant terms or concepts. • What information does their use give you about the writer? • Do they indicate the writer is an expert on the subject?

• Do they indicate bias on the part of the writer?

6. Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context.

• Reread the section.

• From the sentences the immediately before and after the unfamiliar

word the meaning is often clear or can be guessed at.

• After you finish your interactive reading, check the unfamiliar word(s)

in a dictionary.

7. Note the pronoun references.

• Clarity about whom or what pronouns refer to prevents

misunderstanding.

• Be aware that pronouns can precede the nouns to which they refer.

8. Note repetition of key words and phrases, recurring images, examples and

illustrations.

• What is the purpose of the repetition?

• How does it add to meaning?

9. Identify facts, allusions and tone.

• How can the facts presented be interpreted?

• What can you infer from the allusions and tone?