the introduction

the introduction

 

This programme was first broadcast in 2001. This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript¹ of the programme.

ANNOUNCER: It’s time for Academic Listening - a series for students at English-speaking universities and people who want to improve their listening skills. The series is presented by Susan Fearn.

Susan:You’re studying architecture.   It’s Monday afternoon – time for your weekly lecture with the Professor.   You find a seat at the front of the lecture theatre, and silence falls.

You know the introduction of any lecture contains important clues about what’s to come, so you pay careful attention as the Professor begins.

CLIP: Professor

Good afternoon. Today’s session is the first of a series of three lectures on “Urban Planning”.   In this first lecture we’ll look at the important question of infrastructure² when planning any town or city; and then in the next two sessions we’ll turn our attention respectively（各自的，分别的）to: public building requirements and issues surrounding industry.

Now, infrastructure has been defined as 'the structure of a country'…

Susan:In the last programme, we saw that lectures tend to have a simple structure with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Of these, we argued that the first section, the introduction, is crucial because this is where the speaker sets the scene and outlines the content of their talk

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

The introduction’s so important because it gives the students signals of how to interpret what’s going to come up. 

Susan:Simon Williams teaches English in the Language Centre at University College London.

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

It’s going to put the lecture and those following it into context, e.g. in a series on urban planning the first lecture might be on infrastructure: transportation, power etc; the second one on public buildings; the third one on industry … so the student has an overview³ and gets the relation from week to week between the content of a lecture and the series as a whole.

Susan:The first part of a lecture has a number of functions. Speakers use the introduction to set the lecture in context: in terms of what’s gone before and what’s coming later in the series. They may also indicate the relative importance of today’s topic within the subject area as a whole. Now, we’ve said before that students can prepare for a lecture by reading through the course outline and reflecting on the title of the lecture. The introduction is a good opportunity to start matching your predictions （预言，预报）with

reality. Simon Williams advises students to listen particularly for clues on how the lecture will be organised.

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

The first section is important for alerting students how many parts a lecture is going to contain. There usually an introduction, a conclusion, and the crucial part is to know how many sections there are in the middle… That's very important in helping⁵ students to revise or to use their notes.

Susan:In the introduction you’ll also find details about the specific content of today’s lecture, and how the speaker intends to approach the subject. There are often other helpful elements to be found.

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

The sort of ingredients you might find in the introduction – apart from the lecturer giving an idea of the organisation⁶ so the student knows when different sections are finishing and starting

–

perhaps the definitions of key terms, the scope（范围） of the lecture, how much work students will have to do by themselves after the lecture is over. And perhaps why the lecturer is interested – it's often stimulating（刺激） to know why people are enthusiastic about a subject, and what personal relationship they’ve got with it; and perhaps why the students should be interested themselves

 

–

e.g. it’s topical or examinable. 

 

 

Susan:Well, bearing Simon Williams’ advice in mind, let’s return to our lecture on urban planning. Listen again to the professor’s introduction and focus on the vital（重要的） information it contains – some of which you may have missed the first time, perhaps because you weren’t expecting it.  

Remember: a good student will be looking for answers to questions like these: What’s the context of today’s lecture? How is the speaker going to organise⁴ his talk? How many sections will there be, what sort of approach is he going to take? How does the speaker define any key terms? How does he plan to limit the scope of his talk so he can finish on time? Finally, why is the professor doing this talk today? Does he have a particular interest in the subject, for example? Does he think it’s something I need to know for an exam or a tutorial discussion?

 

CLIP: Professor

Good afternoon. Today’s session is the first of a series of three lectures on “Urban Planning”.   In this first lecture we’ll look at the important question of infrastructure when planning any town or city; and then in the next two sessions we’ll turn our attention respectively to: public building requirements and issues surrounding industry. Now, infrastructure has been defined as ‘the structure of a country, society or organisation which helps it to function effectively’.    And I’ll be using the term specifically today to highlight three important areas:roads and transport; essential services such as power and water; and communication networks such as telephones, cable television and so on. By the way, I’ll be drawing throughout this lecture on my recent article: “Housing in Crisis: a planner’s problem – the architect’s solution”. And you might like to take a look at that more closely before your start working on your “Design a City” Project next month. You’ll find some ideas for further reading and some pointers on the kind of approach to take. I’ve got copies of that article to give at the end of the session. OK … Now, traditionally towns and cities have grown up at crossroads…

Susan:If, as a student, you’re aware that lecturers use their introduction to indicate the plan or organisation of a talk, and to identify the key points they’ll cover, you can use this information to help with the difficult but important task of taking notes. Christine Reeves teaches at Bell Norwich, a language school in the East of England.

 

CLIP: Christine Reeves

I think one of the main problems is the really difficult skill of listening for the the main points, understanding the main points and processing the main points and actually taking notes at the same time. This is definitely what the students have expressed most difficulty in to me - as a teacher.

Susan:Even though lectures play a key role in university teaching, many students find that they’re the most daunting（令人畏惧的） aspect of university life. This is often because they find it difficult to listen and take effective notes at the same time. So what advice can we offer? Simon Williams once again.

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

Good note-taking technique is a matter of confidence. It's no good trying to write down everything because you won’t then understand what’s important and what can be left out. What is important is to understand how things fit together. So it’s trying to keep a balance between understanding and having detail – in other words, knowing what the general ideas are and having concrete （具体的，实体的）examples to back up those ideas. You don’t need to keep a complete record – otherwise take in a tape recorder. Partly it's a matter of digesting（消化） what’s being said, of understanding the main points and also, a revision（校订，修正） aid. It's going to be useful to reconstitute（重新构成） the information into essays and other texts, to manipulate（操纵） this material: either for assessment⁷ purposes – essays or exams - or formulating（明确的叙述） a list of questions you want to put to the lecturer or tutor in future meetings. This might help you in future study directions.

Susan:When you read a book you can stop and start as you please. You can re-read sentences and reflect before moving on. This isn’t possible in a lecture. Unless you have access to a recording⁸ of the lecture, you only have one chance to hear it. It’s physically⁹ impossible to write down every word – so it’s important to be brief and to select very carefully what you decide to include in your notes. That’s why we’ve spent some time focusing on how to recognise the most important information in the lecture by looking for clues particularly in the outline in the introduction. OK – so that’s the theory – that’s what the teachers say. But what about our WS class members? What advice do our students have to offer?

 

CLIP: Students

During the lecture I used to take a lot of notes - a lot of the time, although it might seem a bit funny, I'd write down exactly what the tutor said so I could go back and if you didn't understand there was a way . At the beginning I used to write as much as I could. 

When you go to a lecture and the lecturer is speaking and you have time to make all the notes you want, then at first I used to make notes very strictly¹⁰ summarising the points, and then with time I started to be more confident and I could make notes about the relations between what he was talking about to my subject. 

Obviously I try and write as few [notes] as possible… A problem is that if you try to take notes you can lose concentration and maybe you can write but when you try and read again later it won't make sense. So I tried to use specific words to make sense of the lecture.

Susan:Well, there are almost as many different styles of note-taking as there are students! Some try to focus only on the key points, as we’ve been suggesting. Others feel more secure if they write down as much as they can - in the early days at least. Well, how does Simon Williams respond to that?

 

CLIP: Simon Williams

It's probably important to do whatever is your personal style – you can’t change overnight. So if you like to take down everything, write down all the details, and review it afterwards. It’s important to review as soon as possible and then use highlighters, marker pens to underline, to make connections, to try to identify really important points. So later, when you're revising, you can take out those points, either for exams or writing essays.

ANNOUNCER: And that brings us to the end of this edition of Academic Listening, in which we’ve focused on the important first section of a lecture: the introduction … and in which we’ve heard some advice on effective note-taking. (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

 

 

 

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

3 overview   

n.概观，概述

参考例句：

• The opening chapter gives a brief historical overview of transport.第一章是运输史的简要回顾。
• The seminar aims to provide an overview on new media publishing.研讨会旨在综览新兴的媒体出版。

4 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

10 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。