PAGE 122.

1 Why it is important to be able to read critically in your academic studies?

It is important because we cannot rely on everything we find on books or internet. If we

assume that everything is true we may be wrong so that our research too. So we need to

look for information beyond that the given us.

2. 2 In your previous academic studies, were you expected to read critically?

Yes, as teachers to be we need to be always critical. Also the main feature of a foreign

language teacher from Universidad del Atlántico is that is a critical researcher always

willing to face new challenges.

1. 2

a. 1.2 a. you are going to read critically two extracts on the topic of the consumer society.

Before you read, discuss what ‘consumer society’ means to you.

- To me consumer society is one of the main problems of developing societies. Where

people only want to get things no matter if they do not need these things. Also people is not

into trying to help the environment in order to keep clean and safe.
b. Read Extract A and then discuss questions 1–6 below.

1 Does the title of the publication tell you anything about the writer’s position?

Yes, it shows a preview of the influence of brands in our society.

2 What general position does the writer take in the extract?

Writer has a neutral position in this text. He admits that brands are important in societies

but also says the problems it may carry.

3 What claims are made that lead the writer to this position?

I assume the writer wanted to show the importance of consume in our society. Somehow it

can help us to live better.

4 Does the writer provide any supporting evidence for claims?

Not at all. He just showed an image but it is not a strong evidence.

5 What alternative positions are there and does the writer acknowledge these?

There are lots of positions regarding to this subject but the writer ignored them. He just

want to show his own point of view.

6 Are you persuaded that the writer’s position is correct?

Writer did not show strong support to his writing so he could not persuade any one more

than generating confusion.

c Go through questions 1–6 from page 14 again to read Extract B critically.

1 Does the title of the publication tell you anything about the writer’s position?

At the moment of reading the title I thought I was going to be another unsupported text and

it was.

2 What general position does the writer take in the extract?

The writer is totally against consumption and also against the system which is not

providing good answer to people’s request in order to protect our nature.

3 What claims are made that lead the writer to this position?

The main aspect of this is that there is a freedom that allow people to but as much as they

want but they are not aware that with their actions are killing the planet.

4 Does the writer provide any supporting evidence for claims?

Not at all.

5 What alternative positions are there and does the writer acknowledge these?

There are positions that writer is not taking into account more than its own. I think it is

missing consumer’s position.

6 Are you persuaded that the writer’s position is correct?

At the moment of starting the text I was kind of persuaded because the writer show real

thins but there are not strong supports.

1.3 Is it necessary to read all academic texts critically? What text types do you not need to

read critically? Discuss your ideas with a partner.

- I think it is really important we develop a critic skill at the moment of reading academic

text as we are teacher who need to face different types of challenges and we need to be at

the same level that the society requires. One of the most important things to know about

reading critically is that we need to read about what we know or we have been studying

about.

2.1 You are going to read an extract from a journal article. Before you do, read the first

line of the abstract. What do you think were the aims of the research reported in the article?

- The first line shows me that probably this research aims to learning strategies because it

is about types of note taking.

3. 2 Work in pairs and evaluate each other’s notes. Check that the notes: • include all the

main points; • make a distinction between main and secondary points; • show connections

between information.

Since this assignment was done individually the notes I took where almost highlighting the

man ideas and the numbering then in my notebook. I was not able to find the main ideas but

I got lots of ideas about the subject. And I organized the information in order to follow a

pattern so I can study it properly.

3.3 Based on what is said in the extract, what further research do you think is needed on

the question ‘Does media literacy work?’.

I think it is necessary to research about it not only in high-school classrooms but also in

higher education classrooms in order to have a wide view of about this strategy. It may be

the beginning of an new stage of learning. On the other hand enterprises are not going to be

so supportive with this because they pay a lot of money for these ads .

4.1 Work in pairs. Look up any words you don’t know in these compound nouns from the

text in 3.1. Explain in detail what each compound means.

Advertising texts (line 4) : Excellent way for businesses to connect with consumers about

deals, promotions, upcoming events, and other offers and opportunities. It’s also an

underutilized platform of communication with lots of potential and excellent results.

Media literacy education (line 9) : Media literacy encompasses the practices that allow

people to access, critically evaluate, and create or manipulate media.

Media production (line 12): Means the making of a motion picture, television show, video,

commercial, Internet video, or other viewable programming provided to viewers via a

movie theater or transmitted through broadcast radio wave, cable, satellite, wireless, or

Internet.

High-school English coursework (line 13) : Is a type of student learning work, in which

there are elements of independent scientific research. Writing such assignments prepares

students for the creation of the main work that serves as the result of the training: thesis.
Critical analysis skills (line 14) : Part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine

something, whether it is a problem, a set of data, or a text.

Advertising production processes (line 16) : Different stages that an ad producer has to go

through in order to create a successful ad.

Advertising messages (line 17): The visual and/or auditory information prepared by an

advertiser to inform and/or persuade an audience regarding a product, organization, or idea.

Product demonstrations (line 31): In marketing, a product demonstration (or "demo" for

short) is a promotion where a product is demonstrated to potential customers. The goal of

such a demonstration is to introduce customers to the product in hopes of getting them to

purchase that item.

5. 1 Find the sentences in the text in 3.1 which include these extracts. What sentence

connectors do the sentences begin with? What meanings do they have?

1 For example, Christenson (1982) developed a three-minute video … (line 21) : The

writer wants to support his idea.

2 Instead, Young argues that knowledge about … (line 42) In this sentence the connector

shows a contradiction or negation.

5. 2 Find the sentences which begin with these extracts. Explain the relationship between

the sentences and what comes before. For example, does 1 contradict, exemplify or add to

what came before it?

Boush, Friestad and Rose (1994) measured … (line 29) It adds information about what the

researchers did and how they did it.

Tactics included the use of … (line 30): It includes more information about the people

target to conduct the research.

6.1 a Complete the sentences with a noun phrase related to the words in brackets. Use

nouns from the same family as the underlined words.

1 … students also learn about the processes involved in PRODUCTION (how

advertising messages are created) (line 9)

2 Potter (1998) points out in building critical analysis skills. IMPORTANCE (how

important knowledge structures are) (line 14)

3 Boush, Friestad and Rose (1994) measured and effects, and. KNOWLEDGE. (what

middle-school students know about advertiser tactics; how skeptical they were of

advertising) (line 29)

4 Improving may have more potential for creating discerning consumers.

UNDERSTANDING (what students understand about the way advertising works) (line

34)

c Can you suggest reasons why nominalization is common in academic writing?

I think it is used in order to make the text easier to understand at the moment of being read

or consulted. Also to avoid repetition that sometimes can make our written seem to be

lacking of information.

7 Reading in detail

7.1 a Reword this sentence, replacing the three phrases in bold with one word. You may

need to make changes to word order. Check your answer in the text in 3.1

- Occasionally, […] students also learn about the processes before production, during production

and after production involved in the creation of advertising messages … (line 9)

Occasionally, […] students also learn about the pre-production, production, and post-

production processes involved in the creation of advertising messages.

b Why is ‘Singer’ repeated in this reference?

It is repeated because there are 2 authors with the same last name.

c What type of course is ‘elective’? : An elective course is one chosen by a student from a

number of optional subjects or courses in a curriculum, as opposed to a required course

which the student must take.

d When we refer back to ideas in a previous part of the text, do we prefer to use this or that

in academic writing? For example, would we use this information or that information?

(Check your answer in line 13.)

In academic writing it is preferred to use “THIS” This information.

e What do you notice about word order in the phrase in bold below?

Improving students’ understanding of the way advertising works may have more potential

for creating discerning consumers than has changing students’ general attitudes … (line 34)

In this phrase there is presented the use of nominalization instead of using verbs.

f Why do you think inverted commas are used in this extract?

Exhortations to ‘not believe everything you see on TV’… (line 35)

Research shows that in the written academic corpus, the most frequent adverbs that come

before less/more common are much and far. What other adverbs often combine with

less/more common?

1 much

2 ….far…

3 Significantly

4 slightly

5 consequently

6 somewhat

7 Rather

8 subsequently.

Divide the adverbs you have written into two groups, one meaning ‘a lot’ (less/more

common) and the other meaning ‘a little’ (less/more common).

MORE COMMON LESS COMMON

Consequently Much
Somewhat Slightly.
Rather Significantly
Subsequently.

8.2 In pairs, discuss these questions.

1 What experience of group work have you had in your academic studies so far? To me

team work has been one of the most useful strategies to learn a language since a language

means getting social skills and the only way to develop them is working in groups.

2 Based on this experience, what other advantages and disadvantages of group work can

you think of?

As any strategy it has some disadvantages such as no all students have the same way to

learn something. So teacher needs to be careful at the moment of applying it in a class in

order to avoid students not motivated.

9.1 1.1 Listen to an extract from a group discussion, in which Ken talks about the chart

below. Why did he choose it? What limitation does he mention? AUDIO NOT

AVAILABLE.

9.2 a 1.2 Now listen to six extracts from the group’s discussion of the chart and complete

the gaps.

1 Can I just come in here? Yeah, I think it’s interesting …

2 Can I just ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- said about clothing?

3 Can I just ------- ------ ------- ------ ------- made a while ago?

4 Can I ------- --------- --------?

5 Can I just -------- --------- -------- --------- -------- said earlier?

6 Can I just -------- ------- --------- ---------?

AUDIO NOT AVAILABLE.

Images of Native Americans in Advertising

William M. O'Barr

1. Introduction

Throughout its history, American advertising has used language and imagery depicting

various ethnic and racial groups. A great many of these representations of non-White

people would today be labeled as racist and stereotypical. Some examples are going to be

presented next.

2. Cigar Store Indians: Uses of Native American imagery in advertising and marketing.

(1700s)

3. Advertising Trade Cards: They were inserted into cigarette packages. Colorful images of

beautiful women, flags of all nations, fish, birds, ships, captains, coins, and jokes. ( late

1800s)

4. Gratuitous Images: companies integrated the “Native American” idea not just into ads

but also into their brand names and logos, such as Eskimo Pies. (early 20th century)

5. American Indians in the Marketplace. Native American imagery and cultural artifacts are

widely used to promote brands such as Land O'Lakes dairy products, Argo cornstarch,

Eskimo pies, and Calumet baking powder.

6. Constructing the Idea of “American Indian” Culture:  American Indian references tend to

be an amalgam of lifestyles, practices, and artifacts of various indigenous groups. The idea

of American Indian culture as aboriginal is problematic.

7. A Typology of Native Americans in Advertising: Native American women are presented

as one of two quite different images: the American Indian princess (of which Pocahontas is

perhaps the most familiar example), and the squaw (typically depicted in gendered roles

like collecting and preparing food, caring for children, and so on). Men, by contrast, are

presented historically as either the noble savage  or the marauding warrior.

8. Talking Like an Indian: Frequent “Indian” words or expressions like wampum, ugh,

heap-big, are peppered into what otherwise is a broken English characterized by shortened

sentences, omitted words, and unusual usages of common English words.

9. The Preeminence of Plains Indian Culture in Imagery: If asked to describe the culture of

American Indians these would be the main descriptions:

- American Indian who rides a horse and lives in a tepee.

-  The men would be hunters

-  Their wives, sisters, and mothers would either be voluptuous princesses or middle-aged

squaws.

10. Eroticizing the Other: Movies, TV shows and so on) have sexualized Native Americans.

So young students want to do the same. They have kept the stereotype.

11. Native Americans Speak Back :  A notorious example of the appropriation of Native

American imagery occurred in a much publicized fashion show where an Anglo model
wore a war bonnet and various other paraphernalia intended to evoke indigenous American

culture. However people are more concerned about the usages of the indigenous people at

United States and they are facing new challenges at the moment of facing new ads that use

the image of the natives.

12. Public Service Announcements: The government is also getting concern about

indigenous images. This is how they created PSA. PSAs are directed at general

audience, whereas others are specifically oriented to Native American viewers.

13. Native Americans as a Niche Market: Advertising and marketing strategies are the main

purposes of the brands in order to get and make money. They focus on the groups that

somehow are are protected such as latinos, LGBT members, African Americas. Brands

want to show they support these people but the truth is that they are just making money.

14. Conclusion: Today, most advertisers and advertising agencies are hypersensitive to

issues of cultural diversity and take great care to treat race and ethnicity with sensitivity.