中华人民共和国教育部主管,北京师范大学主办,ISSN:1002-6541/CN11-1318/G4

(中学篇)2020年第09期:基于语篇分析的阅读圈活动设计与实施(北京:苗兴伟、罗少茜)一文涉及的教学内容和阅读圈任务清单

 
附录1:案例课文            
 
Climate Change and a Low-Carbon Life
 
There is no doubt that the world climate has been changing in recent years. Many people blame this change on gases such as carbon dioxide. Animals and humans produce carbon dioxide when they breathe. However, many other human activities also let off carbon gases. Anytime something is burnt, carbon is put into the atmosphere. Cars and other vehicles burn petrol in their engines, and electrical plants most often burn fuels such as coal and oil in order to produce electricity. Therefore, the more petrol and electricity we consume, the more carbon we are letting off.
 
One thing we can all do to help solve this problem is to walk or use a bicycle when possible. Although we produce carbon when we breathe, the carbon we produce is much less than that produced by a car. Of course, there are times when we need to travel long distances. In this case, public transport such as buses and the underground is always a much better choice than a private car or a taxi. If you must drive a car, it is never good to travel alone. You should try to find other people to travel with you.
 
At home, you should use as little energy as possible. Turn off the lights and anything else electrical when not in use. Since factories use a lot of energy and also let off carbon gases, it is important to recycle as much as possible. In particular, metal products and paper products require a lot of energy to produce, so you should find ways to use these again without throwing them away.
 
Last but not least, you can plant a tree, because trees absorb the carbon dioxide in the air to produce oxygen. Planting a small tree is cheap and easy and two decades from now, when you look at what will have become a large tree, you will find a sense of satisfaction knowing that you did your part to help solve the problem of climate change.
 
                        (Advance with English, Student's Book 5, P39,译林出版社)
 
 
 
附录2:Worksheet for reading circles
Analysis Leader
Job
●Read and analyze the text, raise two questions based on the text and write down your answers. You can ask questions about main ideas, facts/opinions, or the meaning of a word. Questions encouraging critical thinking are preferred.
 
●Ask the prepared questions and share your answers with your group to start the discussion.
 
●Ask your group what they think of your questions or ask them to raise another one. You may ask “What do you think of my questions?”, “Do you have other questions?”
 
●Organize the discussion.
Example
My questions
 
●Question 1
 
How is climate change related to carbon dioxide?                                                                          
 
Possible answer:
 
Many people blame climate change on gases such as carbon dioxide. That is to say, carbon dioxide has caused climate change.                                                  
 
●Question 2
 
How is our life style related to carbon dioxide?                                                                              
 
Possible answer:
 
We consume petrol and electricity in our daily life. We are letting off carbon when we consume petrol and electricity. To be specific, we drive cars and other vehicles that burn petrol in their engines, and we burn fuels such as coal and oil in order to produce electricity.
 
Summarizer
Job
●Read and analyze the text and find the key points that everyone must know to understand the text.
 
●Retell the text in a short summary (one or two minutes) in your own words.
 
●Talk about your summary in your group.
Example
My summary
 
The world climate has been changing because of carbon dioxide produced by human activities such as burning of petrol in car engines and fuels in electrical plants. In order to solve the problem of climate change, we should live a low-carbon life. When we travel, we should walk or use a bicycle or choose public transport and should not travel alone when driving a car. We should use as little energy as possible and recycle as much as possible. We can plant trees so that carbon dioxide can be absorbed to produce oxygen.
 
Content Analyst
Job
●Read the text and analyze the text from the content perspective.
 
●Share with your group your analysis.
 
●Ask your group if they have anything to add.
Example
My Content Analysis
 
●What is the text about?
 
The text is about the causes of carbon dioxide and how we can live a low-carbon life in order to solve the problem of climate change.                                                                               
 
●Where does carbon dioxide come from? Pay attention to the verbs that describe the causes of carbon dioxide.
 
Carbon dioxide is produced by animals and humans when they breathe. Many other human activities also let off carbon gases, such as the burning of petrol in engines of cars and other vehicles and the burning of fuels in electrical plants.
 
●How can we live a low-carbon life?                                                                        
 
When we travel, we should walk or use a bicycle or choose public transport and should not travel alone when driving a car. We should use as little energy as possible and recycle as much as possible. We can plant trees.                                                         
 
●Language focus: verbs of doing, happening, sensing, being, saying, existing, behaving, and how they are related to nouns and adverbial phrases.
 
Attitude Analyst
Job
●Read the text and analyze the writer's attitude and reader-writer relationship.
 
●Share with your group your analysis.
 
●Ask your group if they have anything to add.
Example
My Attitude Analysis
 
● What’s the relationship between the writer and the reader and how is the reader positioned?
 
The writer constructs himself/herself as both an expert and an authority. Through the use of the pronoun “we”, the reader is positioned as a member of the same group or community as the writer, and the use of the pronoun “you”, modal verbs and the imperative mood indicates that the reader is also positioned as a person who should follow the writer's suggestions, and thus reinforces the writer's identity as an expert and authority. The writer also involves readers by imaging readers' experiences: if you must drive a car ..., when you look at ...                                                                      
 
● How is the writer's identity constructed?
 
The writer’s identity as an expert is constructed by the declarative mood, which means that “This is how things are; This is what we should do. I tell you this as a specialist.” The writer's identity as an authority is constructed by the use of the imperative mood, which means that “This is what you should do. I tell you this as an authority.” This identity is strengthened by the use of modal verbs, which means that “This is your responsibility, and this is my suggestion.”                                                                             
 
●What is the writer's attitude?
 
The writer holds the view that climate change is related to carbon dioxide produced by human activities and we should live a low-carbon life. The writer highlights evaluation and points of view by means of structures and expressions such as “It is never good to ...” “It is important to ...” “in particular” “last but not least”. The writer highlights certainty by using “of course” and “There is no doubt that ...”
 
Language focus: mood, modality, personal pronouns, and other language choices for attitude and evaluation.
 
Structure Analyst
Job
● Read the text and analyze its structure from both macro and micro perspectives.
 
● Share your analysis with your group.
 
● Ask your group to assess your analysis.
Example
My Macro-structure Analysis
 
Situation: There is no doubt that the world climate has been changing in recent years.
 
Problem: Many human activities let off carbon gases.
 
Solution: We should live a low-carbon life.
 
Evaluation: We could be satisfied with our part in solving the problem of climate change.
 
My Micro-structure Analysis
 
● How are ideas presented and developed?
 
Ideas are presented and developed at the macro-level by means of the problem-solution pattern. At the micro-level, cohesion in the text plays an important role in the development of ideas.                                                                          
 
● How is cohesion achieved?
 
Lexical cohesion: chains of verbs about the causes of carbon dioxide; chains of verbs and nouns about traffic; chains of verbs and nouns about the use of energy.                
 
Conjunctions: however, therefore, in this case, in particular, last but not least.        
 
Reference: we, you, this change, this problem.                                                                               
 
● Language focus: what begins each clause, how clauses are combined, the use of lexical chains, conjunction, reference.