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Garnet Education. — 8 p. — Transferable Academic Skills Kit Task 8An international foundation course for developing students' key academic study skills and transferring them to a broad range of academic disciplines. Teachers can choose to use all 12 modules or select individual modules according to students' specific needs.Based on an online modular course used by universities in the UK and abroad, Transferable Academic Skills Kit (TASK) has been developed in collaboration with the University of Reading.
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,HesearEh and Heterencing Inlroduclion Task 2 Supportingevidence and arguments Preparationfor this module In this modulestudentsdeveloptheir researchand referencing skillsby'improving'an essayon the issue of homelessness, which lackssubstantiationano referencing.The modulerequiresstudentsto researchthe topic, identifyrelevantsourcesand selectappropriatematerialtoincludein their improvedessays.lf, in your teachingsetting,access to an English-language academiclibraryis not possible,you mightwant to sourceEnglish-language books and articleson the topic in advanceand make a mini-referencelibraryfor your studentsto use, as it is importantthat they learnto use and reference books and journalarticlesas well as Internetsources. 2.1 Individualwork Dependingon the levelof the students,the followingvocabularymay needto be pre-taught: homelessness; a root cause; to havea negativelpositive a symptom; impact; to target(aproblem); to havea (profound)effect; a problemwill be perpetuated; fo addressa oroblem: problem; the severityof its impact. a pressinglurgent to haveaccessfo,' adequatehousing; affordablehousing; to be impaired; domesticviolence; socialintegration; Unil l-*nuresearch? Answers: a) Not given- note:the text says homelessness is a 'pressing'and 'urgent'problem,but no facts or figuresare suppliedto substantiate the size of the problem. b) Poverty,a lack of ernployment,a shorlageof affordablehousing,domesticviolence,mental illnessand drug addiction.(paragraph3) c) A negativeimpacton physicaland mental health,senseof identityand social integration.In the case of homelesschildren, academicperformancemay be impairedas well. (paragraph4) d) Only if its root causescan be targeted.(final paragraph) At the end of this unit studentswill: r understandthe need to referto other sources; . be able to strengthenthe argumentin their essaysusingsupportingpointsand evidence. Task 1 Why research? 1.1 Small group work Your role is that of facilitatinga group discussion. Lead in by drawingthe students'attentionto the variousphotosand askingthem if they matchthe students'definitionsof homelessness. You could ensurethat studentsdiscussthe topics by moving from group to group and, where necessary, introducing the questions. 1.2 Plenary You could concludethe plenarydiscussionby pointingout that, withoutresearch,an essayrelies on the 'commonsense'knowledgeof the student. This often resultsin a limitedargumentor a mistruth.lf appropriate,you could elicitwhat happenedwhen Copernicusand Galileoclaimed that the Earthrevolvedaroundthe Sun. you could set this as a researchtask. Alternatively, 90 TaskrTeacher's Book- Modulel0 - Fesearch andFeferenEing 2.2 Small group work Lead in by explainingthat a tutor evaluatingthis essaywould haveto use a set of criteriato do this. Elicitfrom the studentswhat criteriathey would expectthe tutor to use and collectthe students' ideason the board.Then set Exercise2.2. 2.3 Individualwork/pairwork lf your group finds this task difficult,you may need to hold a plenarysessionin which you identify claimsmade in the essayand check if there is any substantiationprovidedfor the claims. Task 3 Academiccultures Individual work/pairwork Dependingon the levelof the students,the followingvocabularymay need to be pre-taught: