SESSION
29: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2.
EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 REFERENCE: Where is the best source of information? Think of the pros and cons of the following sources:
- books
- wikipedia
- teachers
- newspapers
- word of mouth
2.2 DIGITAL END: Which of these things are, or would you be sad to see end and go digital?
- books
- banknotes and coins
- vinyl records
- newspapers
- homework
- tickets
- photographs
- museum paintings
2.3
DISCUSSION: HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS WHICH YOU CAN THINK
ABOUT AND TRY ASKING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COME TO OUR DISCUSSION ON
WEDNESDAY:
| a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘encyclopaedia’? | |
| b) What are your earliest memories of encyclopaedias? | |
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c) Do you keep paper-based encyclopaedias at home? Do you use them at the moment? |
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d) Have you ever consulted the Encyclopaedia Britannica? Have you ever heard of her? If so, what concept do you have of this prestigious encyclopedia? |
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e) What do you think of Encyclopaedia Britannica ending its printed version? Do you think it´s logical and that it goes with the times? |
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f) Which do you think is better, Encyclopaedia Britannica’s online resource or Wikipedia? |
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g) When you are in a hurry and you need quick information, where do you go to search for information? |
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h) Would you like to own a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica? |
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i) Do you think Encyclopaedia Britannica can fend off the competition |
| j) Do you prefer looking for information in books or online? | |
| k) What do you think of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s selling price? | |
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l) What’s your favourite encyclopaedia on the Internet? |
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m) Do you think all books and libraries will be digital in the future? |
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n) What advantages and disadvantages are there of a physical encyclopaedia over a digital one? Which one has the most advantages? |
PREPARING
A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE
DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND
EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY
LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU
WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO
TALK ABOUT IN THE ORAL SESSION.
FINAL
TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU
MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A
LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND
WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 29, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Advantages and disadvantages of digital devices over physical ones.
- 'Editorials will not publish physical books in the future'. Express your opinion.
Year by year our world is advancing and a million of new digital devices are launched to the market, between them we can find electronic books, mp3 or mp4 files, tablets , smartphones... In general, all this kind of devices make our lives easier, but, Are everything advantages?.
ReplyDeleteThe first and the most important advantage of digital devices is the capability of storage, for instance, in a simple DVD you can store the equivalent of 20 books, or in a small pendrive, which size can be less than a bottle top, you can store it more books than you can read in your whole life.
Furthermore, have all information in a digital format, give us the posibility of take with us plenty of this and use it whenever we want, this gives us a great accesibility to information and it is faster when searching for data.
on the other hand, the most important disadvantage of electronic information is, how volatile is the information. Lose information or breakage of a devices is very common, in situation like this you can lose everything, by the contrary with physics devices, or traditional books or documents is more dificult.
In my oponion, I think that electronic data is one of the best advances of our age, but nothing comparable with read, smell and touch a tradicional good book
In the past, about three hundred years ago, the first modern encyclopaedia appeared en our society. This situation has recently changed and nowadays, the most important editorials in general and the British Encyclopaedia are leaving paper support in favour of digital formats and devices.
ReplyDeleteDigital devices over physical ones have both pros and cons. On the plus side, we can store hundreds or thousands of books in a ridiculous space, as big as a folder. For instance, we can carry two novels written by Leon Tolstoi as “War and Peace” or “Anna Karennina” everywhere we wish, without dying cause of the enormous weight. What is more, we are able to read several books at the same time. All in all, we can get whatever book, essay or text whereas we are sitting at home.
On the other hand, there are important disadvantages. Opponents assert digital devices never replace physical devices as books. One disadvantage of digital devices is that they need power supply, so we will have our reading time limited. Another point is that these kinds of devices don’t bear big blows. Moreover, It is particularly difficult to give somebody a masterpiece signed by the author or dedicated by yourself. Last of all, any electronic device will never have the pleasant sense of touch of a book made with paper.
To sum up, I believe that if a digital device shows us its usefulness, nearly everybody will succumb to its charms, because we usually attach importance to that kind of things, despite the disadvantages.