English for Academic Purposes:

（单词翻译）

Academic ListeningPart 1 - English for Academic Purposes:
　　IntroductionThis 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.
　　Imagine: today is the first day of your uni life … How do you feel? Excited and confident? Or maybe a little anxious? How do you think you’ll cope? And how can you make the learningexperience easier? For an insight, join Susan Fearn and members of the World Service class of 2001.
　　Susan: Well, if you think you might have problems, don’t worry. You’re not alone.
　　CLIP: StudentsAngelica: Entering into the English speaking educational system for me was quite a change -the main problem was understanding lectures - academic English is quite high level of speakingtherefore the first was to become familiar with the listening understanding.
　　Constant: I think the pronunciation of English people is not the same as I learned at school - Icome from Ivory Coast, it's in West Africa - the teacher in my country had a French accent -the teacher of English - and it's not the same accent here, so I think the pronunciation, theaccent is quite different .
　　Emma: You know how to express yourself in your own language - you know what you wantto say but it's difficult to put it in the exact words.
　　Susan: In this series we’ll enter the world of further education and focus particularly onsome of the linguistic² problems experienced by students like you. And we’ll tryto identify strategies for coping with study in another language. Students andteachers will share their tips on effective learning, and give advice on some of the pitfalls³ to avoid. There’ll be a mix of theory, practice and personal experience.
　　In this first programme, we focus on a special kind of English course, designedto prepare students for their studies. It’s called EAP.
　　CLIP: Christine ReevesEAP is actually studying English for Academic Purposes.
　　Susan: Christine Reeves teaches at Bell Norwich, a language school in the East of England.
　　CLIP: Christine ReevesThat means studying English - the kind of English that you're likely to need to cope with life and studying at a British University or any other English speaking university - it could be theUnited States it could be Australia - and it prepares them and gives them necessary skillswhich enable them to manage their studies.
　　Susan: English for Academic purposes is a particular kind of English – used by aparticular group of people. If you speak Academic English, you’ll know aspecial vocabulary associated with your subject, and you’ll be used to writing orspeaking in a particular way. You’ll know how to structure an essay or areport, for example; and you’ll be familiar with the language used in lectures,seminars and tutorials.
　　If you study EAP, you’ll practise special language skills for studying at a highlevel, and you’ll gain a number of useful strategies to make your learning more effective. Christine Reeves again.
　　CLIP: Christine ReevesMost EAP courses would cover various components⁵ （组件）- for example here at Bell thecomponents we would always cover would be study skills, the students would also do quite aheavy component⁴ of writing, there would be a lecture, a weekly lecture, and there wouldnormally be a component of social English to help them manage at the bank, for example, thatsort of thing.
　　Susan: An EAP course introduces you to the special language associated with theacademic world – common words, expressions, particular structures. Itprovides a range of advanced study skills.
　　A good EAP course will give you training in general English as well. Duringyour university course, you’ll lead a double life. On duty: as a student -grappling with academic ideas in academic English… and off-duty, in everyday situations, using less formal English. It’s not unusual to have problems in bothareas.
　　CLIP: StudentsConstanza: I would like to be more fluent with my speaking because I've got ideas in my mindbut I don't have enough language to transmit my ideas - that's my problem.
　　Jose Arturo: In the case of English language, there are many different accents, and when youlearn the English in your country, you only learn the English prepared for learning English -that is a more careful accent, that is not very fast. And when you come here - honestly,sometimes I can't understand anything. Some people speak fast, some people speak with notcare of stressing the words that they say, so sometimes it's very difficult to follow them.
　　CLIP: Christine ReevesInitially the problems they face are probably of an academic nature, for example they go tolectures and they find that they can’t understand, or they can’t take notes very quickly. They have quite a lot of reading to do and don't know how to cope with it. On top of that it could betheir first experience of living in another country, so they're unfamiliar⁶ with some of thesystems that we have here, like registering with a doctor, and then just basically making friends- they could feel incredibly lonely and isolated⁷. These are the problems they’ll face whenstarting university.
　　Susan: Simon Williams teaches EAP in the Language Centre at University College,London. He believes that difficulties experienced by language learners inlectures and other academic situations occur chiefly because they just don’thave enough mental energy.
　　Talk aCLIP: Simon WilliamsThe sort of problems that non-native speakers might have are summed up in one word, andthat's “overload”. The listener is paying so much attention to decoding⁸ words that theyrecognise and phrases that they recognise – it's almost like trying to do a word-by-wordtranslation. You can’t translate in that way. You have to get a global picture, as well aslooking at individual items. The student pays so much attention to the language that they missout on the content. They’re looking at the vehicle, rather than what the vehicle contains.
　　Susan: As well as coping with new vocabulary and lecturers who speak quickly andwith unfamiliar accents, you may find it very difficult to listen out for the mainpoints of a lecture and take notes at the same time. So what can you do?
　　CLIP: Simon WilliamsGet hold of some texts, perhaps over the internet, or through a library, or through journals ormagazines that might be available in newsagents, or through friends, and then study recurringspecialist words in those texts; but also look at the kind of structures the kinds of organisationused, because different subjects typically use different organisation⁹ or genres¹⁰ to put thingstogether.
　　Susan: Preparation is the key. Be prepared! According to Simon Williams, studentscan make their academic life much easier by getting to know specia list vocabulary in advance. And Simon Williams advises students to obtain anEnglish-English dictionary, and maybe a subject dictionary（字典） - of Medicine, ofLaw, of Linguistics¹¹. Listening to the radio, watching TV - these are all methodsof improving both general and specialist English – as members of our WorldService class will tell you.
　　CLIP: StudentsConstant: I'm a computer engineer and so I always use internet and most of the websites arein English so I think internet is a very good way to improve your English. I think especially thereading - reading and vocabulary.
　　Constanza: I usually watch TV programmes in English so it helped me with listening andsometimes when I watch TV I prefer to use subtitles¹² in English too - so you can practisetogether listening and reading.
　　Jose Arturo: Try to read books related with your subject. Even material you already know inyour language because some people can say 'oh that book, I know it, I've already read it inSpanish three times'. You have to read it in English to see if you notice substantial differences.
　　Susan: During this series we’ll focus on some of the strategies you can use to improveyour listening ability and your performance in other academic situations. We’vesaid already that preparation（准备） is important. Simple things like looking upspecialist vocabulary, reading the course outline, looking at the title of a lecture,for example, they can all help you predict its language and content. Here’s anexample of this from some research carried out by R. Anderson and colleagues.
　　It illustrates¹³ that “prior information about a text” can help you to makepredictions about its content and influence your interpretation¹⁴. Here, “priorinformation” comes in the form of the title.
　　CLIP: Actor's voiceA Prisoner Plans His EscapeRocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought.
　　Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that heldhim was strong, but he thought he could break it.
　　Susan: Now here’s that story again – same words – and same actor! - only the title haschanged. Notice how this new “prior information” changes your interpretationof individual words and overall content.
　　CLIP: Actor's voiceA Wrestler¹⁵ in a Tight CornerRocky slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought.
　　Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since thecharge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that heldhim was strong, but he thought he could break it.
　　ANNOUNCER:
　　That was your introduction to English for Academic Purposes presented by Susan Fearn. Atthe beginning of the programme, Susan invited you to reflect on some of the problems thatEAP students experience - and asked you to think about how they might cope. I wonder howaccurate your predictions were. Next time you listen to some English - whether it’s a radioprogramme or a university lecture - listen out for clues about what’s coming next… and see ifit helps.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）