"New Technological Developments - PCs and the Internet":
A general survey
The chief aim of the project is to train the following essential faculties:
- collect the basic facts of a given text as quickly and thoroughly as possible;
- co-operate in a team so that certain aims are achieved unanimously in due time;
- provide essential information for others who do not know anything about your specific subject matter;
- communicate in English fluently;
- be able to perform certain tasks within a given period of time.
The project is subdivided into four phases:
I. Working alone
- Read your newspaper article carefully once, then sum up the gist of the text in not more than three sentences! Take notes!
- Read the text a second time , underline important passages, take marginal notes, etc.. All in all, prepare the text so that you can discuss essentials together with your team without having to read the text again and again.
- There will be 20 minutes for you!
II. Working in your team
- Image that your team meets at an international conference and that your colleagues are from different parts of the world. Thus you have to use the global language English in order to make yourself understood.
- One member of the group is the chairman / woman. His/her text has got a red spot on top. He/she leads the discussion, takes care that everyone participates and that the required results can be achieved within the given time; furthermore he/she assures that everybody talks in English!
- Task 1: First, the members of the team compare their personal notes about the gist of the newspaper article and try to agree upon one universal solution which should be taken down by everyone.
- Task 2: Discuss the essentials of the given text in your team. Your aim is to collect the most important facts so that you can later inform other people about these facts quickly and thoroughly and in a well-reasoned way. Thus personal note-taking is important. Keywords will do!
- There will be 25 minutes for your team!
III. Sending experts to a new team
- Now your team consists of experts who are all capable of informing others about your text. Therefore your original team is split up and new groups are founded. Your new partners are those who have got the same number on top of their texts! Find them and sit together.
- One expert member of the new group ( = in alphabetical order of your first names) starts to inform the others about his/her text in English. First talk about the gist, then add essential details. Use your notes, but don’t forget to address your partners (eye-contact, etc.).
- Every expert has got three minutes to provide information.
- Afterwards the other members of the group ask the expert questions (at least one question per person!) within two minutes.
- Then the next expert takes over, and so on.
IV. Feedback
The project will end with a general feedback about your personal experiences.