Oxford`s teachhing methods of english language — страница 7

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our students need for every task we assign. The guidance we give for taking notes will depend on various aspects. One of them is language level. Raimes suggests providing beginners with a skeleton outline to fill in or expand to make their listening more directed. She also proposes letting the advanced students listen to longer passages and make notes as they listen. Guidance provided will depend on the degree of difficulty of the task involved. The reasons for taking notes and the follow-up activities are also important. If the students only take notes of simple figures, letters, or single words as the basis for a discussion to take place immediately, they will not need much guidance. But if they are supposed to take notes of a higher complexity to use in writing a report for

homework, they will need more preparation. Using note-taking in our classes Assuming an extreme position when defining the concept of note-taking, we can say that even checking or ticking items on a list is a form of note-taking, as long as what students have to "tick" represents the content of the reading or listening passage. If we give students a multiple-choice exercise, a list, or Yes/No questions, and ask them only to tick the correct answer, they will be taking notes. This could be considered the most basic form of note-taking. Nevertheless, if we analyze the task in detail, we find it is not as simple as it seems. To answer accurately, the students will first have to understand the statements and determine whether their choices are correct or not. Furthermore,

they have to predict and speculate about what they are going to perceive. When revising any topic we may practice it and use this technique giving students a skeleton to fill in while listening. Example: Hypertension Instructions: Listen to the interview with the patient and tick (v) the correct answer: Patient's name: Mrs. Kelly. Main Symptoms: high blood pressure headache dizziness Other Symptoms: obesity blurred vision trouble breathing swollen ankles urinary problems pain in the back chills and fever Past History: heart disease chest pain kidney infection Family History hypertension diabetes kidney disease stroke heart attack Any other information? With this last question, we are prompting the students to note down other information, not limiting them only to what the chart

asks for. Not all the students will be able to take further notes, but the most skilled will not get bored while their classmates are engaged at a more elementary level. Another instance that calls for note-taking is reporting on medical cases. To do this, the class may be divided into teams of three or four students. Each team prepares a case for the others to analyze. One variant would be having each team first brainstorm, then prepare a skeleton outline with the sort of information they need the other team to provide in order to write a full case report. Once ready, they exchange skeletons, brainstorm again, and note down the information the skeleton forms ask for. The teams should give neither the diagnosis nor the treatment. As soon as they finish, they swap these

"problem-cases," analyze them, and confer on the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the patient. Next, they write a full case report that everyone reads and discusses. The class then moves around, reads, and comments on them. Finally, they decide which of the skeleton forms are better and which reports are the most coherent and faithful to the information provided. A simpler variant would be having each team ask for the information orally from one another, take notes on it and then report on the case orally or in writing. In teaching Medically Speaking , I suggest taking notes while listening to the dialogues or reading the case studies given in the text. Instead of having the students take down all the information, teams are formed to take notes on specific parts.

Appendix Instructions for preparing and presenting a case report First think of an interesting case you would like to report on and discuss with your classmates. Consult your professors, look for information about your case and associated diseases or cases in magazines, books, journals, etc. Note down this information. Then make an outline of the elements you need in order to report on a case 1. Patient's characteristics: Age: Sex: Race: Weight: Height: 2. Main symptom: 8. Physical findings 3. Other symptoms: 9. Diagnostic procedure: 4. Past history: 10. Differential and definitive diagnosis: 5. Family history: 11. Therapeutic procedures: 6. (Toxic) habits: 12. Possible complications 7. Medications: 13. Prognosis Before presenting your case orally, copy the outline on the board,