TOEFL 6
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vocabulary |
Word Form |
Definition/Explanation |
|
Stereotype |
Noun / Verb |
Stereotypes perpetuate cultural bias and often lead to racism. |
|
Pigeonhole |
|
|
|
Perpetuate |
|
|
|
Perception |
|
|
|
Inept |
|
|
|
Outcome |
|
|
|
Prevalent |
|
|
|
Array |
|
|
|
Embrace |
|
|
|
Diversity |
|
|
|
Maim |
|
|
|
Enlightened |
|
|
Independent Task
E Speaking Activity: top
Instructions: Read the following question. On a piece of paper, take notes on the main points of a response. Then respond to the question.
----- Preparation Time: 15 seconds ----- Response Time: 45 seconds -----
When meeting someone for the first time,
some people rely on their first impressions; others prefer to take the time
to get to know someone before making an assumption of his/her personality.
Which method do you find more practical?
Note to instructor: For a variation on this activity, assign the students 10 minutes to formulate their answer to this question on a piece of paper. Have the students share their responses with the rest of the class/group. As a follow-up, select two students to write their responses on the board for peer/instructor editing.
Integrated Task Part
1
$
Reading Activity
top
Instructions: Read the following article from a college newspaper. On a piece of paper, take notes on the main points of the reading passage.
----- Reading Time: 3 minutes -----
How do you describe yourself and what words do you use to describe others? When we pigeonhole people (assign them a label), we project our perceptions and in turn, perpetuate our prejudice. We often feel that these categories are justified, except of course, when others slot us into these confines. So, you don’t think you’re guilty of this? Can you remember the last time you labelled someone as a conservative, a feminist or even an intellectual? The psychological effects of labelling have been well documented and include stereotyping, depersonalization and self-fulfilling prophesy. Labelling leads to assigning a preconceived personality or stereotype. For instance, a bookish person is perceived as being socially inept and somewhat reserved. An athlete is viewed as aggressive and ultra competitive.
Stereotypes allow us to form quick evaluations of individuals and predict how they may react or interact in a given situation. Without a doubt, we all rely on this practice throughout our daily interactions. Notwithstanding the usefulness of stereotyping on some level, it does entail some significant negative consequences. By placing people into ‘groups’, we underestimate the variability between members within a group and we overestimate the differences between groups as a whole. Stereotypes were prevalent during the Cold War and contributed to perpetuating ‘perceived’ differences between Western and Eastern cultures that did not exist. The worst possible outcome of stereotyping occurs when an individual lives up to that assigned label. For instance if a child is stigmatised as being ‘dumb’, (s)he could ultimately assume that role; this is referred to as a self-fulfilling prophesy.
In an increasingly globalized society, it is virtually impossible to avoid contact with a vast array of cultural and ethic diversity. Acknowledging our dependence on stereotyping is the first step in breaking down the categorization of individuals. Instead of focussing on perceived differences, we should embrace real similarities. Words entail power and words can either heal or maim. I’d like to end this article with a quote from Don Juan (Carlos Castaneda). “There is a flaw with words, they always force us to feel enlightened, but when we turn around to face the world they always fail us and we end up facing the world as we always have, without enlightenment.”
NOTES:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Integrated Task Part 2
Instructions: Listen to the following lecture given in a Psychology Class. The professor is discussing Rosenhan’s Study of Psychiatric Labelling. On a piece of paper, take notes on the main points of the lecture.
NOTES:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
¤ Now answer the following question:
----- Writing Time 20 minutes -----
How does the information presented in the listening passage add to the ideas presented in the reading passage?
Follow-up Task
Instructions: Read the text and answer the questions which follow.
[1] Picking up where we left off last week on our discussion of status and stereotyping, I’d like to direct your attention to Chapter Five in your text which focuses on David L. Rosenhan’s study entitled On Being Sane in Insane Places. Rosenhan offers some compelling empirical support for the idea that having preconceived expectations can indeed influence how we treat others and more to the point, the medical profession is by no means immune to this practice. The dangers of treating patients as a “type” and not as an “individual” can have rather frightening consequences.
[2] Rosenhan hypothesized that “psychiatrists cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and those who are insane.” The 1973 study examined the difficulty that psychiatric patients have in shedding the “mentally ill” label that is often assigned by the medical profession and society as a whole. Rosenhan decided to validate this hypothesis by conducting field tests within various mental institutions.
[3] Rosenhan and seven associates sought medical treatment by attempting to gain admittance to 12 different hospitals dispersed among 5 states in the USA. The pseudo-patients telephoned the hospitals to arrange an appointment. Upon arrival at the hospital, the patients claimed to be hearing voices but presented no other ‘unusual’ symptoms or behaviour. None of the patients was detected by medical staff and all but one was diagnosed as schizophrenic. Quite alarmingly, the pseudo-patients were kept in the hospital for 7 to 52 days.
[4] While under hospitalization, the participants in the experiment acted ‘normally’ and participated in all ward activities. Asked how they were feeling by staff, the patients reported that they were no longer hearing voices. Surprisingly, each ‘patient’ was told that (s)he would only be released by convincing staff that (s)he was indeed sane. An unusual anecdote of the study was that despite the medical staff’s inability to identify the ‘bogus’ patients, other patients on the ward quickly determined that something was amiss. In fact, many of the psychiatric patients questioned the researchers and asked them if they were journalists. Rosenhan asked the pseudo-patients to keep a journal while they spent their time on the psychiatric ward. Medical staff misinterpreted this behaviour as abnormal and symptomatic of their schizophrenia. Ultimately, all the pseudo-patients were released with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission.
[5] Rosenhan’s experiment proved that the medical establishment is not infallible when it comes to assessing an individual’s sanity. The study validates that once a patient is labelled, (s)he is no longer treated as an individual but as an embodiment of a set pattern of behaviours. Rosenhan suggests that as an alternative to labelling a person as ‘insane’, the patient would be better served if the medical staff focussed on specific problems and behaviours. Finally, Rosenhan noted that hospitalization often entails a sense of “depersonalization” and “powerlessness”.
1. The word “status” (in paragraph one) could be replaced by: (a) domination (b) position (c) control (d) sight
2. A synonym for the phrase
“spread out” can be found in paragraph ______ .
The word is: ___________ .
3. The word “insane” (in paragraph five) is: (a) a noun (b) a verb (c) a participle (d) an adjective
4. Based on the information presented in this text, all of the following statements are true EXCEPT: (a) David L. Rosenhan was one of the participants in the field study. (b) Upon their arrival at the hospital, the pseudo-patients presented various symptoms associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. (c) The psychiatric patients proved to be keener observes than the medical staff. (d) Keeping a journal while institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital was considered to be abnormal behaviour.
5. Provide your own synonym for the word “amiss” (in paragraph 4) _________________.
Can you provide an antonym? ______________________
6. What does the prefix “pseudo” mean (as in pseudo-patient)? Provide your own example of a word using this prefix and illustrate its usage by composing your own sentence.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
7. What does the phrase “quite alarmingly” (in paragraph three) mean and why would the author choose to use this phrase in this context? (Write your answer using sentence format.)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
8. Go through the text and circle all of the transitional words and phrases.
Independent Writing Task
? TWE (Test of Written English) top
----- Writing Time 30 minutes -----
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
You can’t always judge a book by its cover.
Use specific reasons and examples to defend your response.