Lectura Académica Estratégica 25

Inglés - Nivel Medio 2020

TEXT 4: Academic Freedom

ANTICIPATE

During this class we are going to read a whole article. Work in small groups and then be ready
to share your answers with the whole class:

1. Pay attention to the paratext and complete the chart below:

Title

Author

Date

Source

Volume

Length

Field

2. Read the highlighted sentences. What is this text about? Provide a general reading
hypothesis.
3. What do you think academic freedom is? Think about your own ideas and perception of
the concept.
4. Scan the text for the description of academic freedom. Where is it stated? How is
academic freedom defined? Which linguistic elements tell you that?
5. Read the first and the last paragraph and circle key words and phrases. Who is the
author addressing?
6. Scan paragraph boundaries and:
circle connectors
choose 8 key words

7. Write your specific reading hypothesis.

8. Read the whole text, now.
9. Is your hypothesis appropriate? Are you on the right track?
 Lectura Académica Estratégica 26
Inglés - Nivel Medio 2020

VERIFICATION

After reading the text get into groups and find the answers to the following questions.

1. Paraphrase the description of academic freedom given in the text. Remember to use
your own words.

2. Conceptualize lines 32 to 44 and 94 to 118. Keep in mind that concepts should be

expressed in noun phrases.

3. “Africa exhibits several contradictory trends”: Explain what it refers to.

4. What point is the author trying to make by providing so many examples? What do you
think?

5. Choose the ONE paragraph that you consider the most important. Support your choice.

INTERNALIZATION

Now, write the main idea in one well-written sentence.

MOVING FORWARD

1. What's the importance of "In short" (l.30)? Discuss it with a companion.

2. What can you say about the following lexical items? Why is it important to recognize
them?

"constrained" (l.3)/ "contraints" (l.37) “undermined” (l.131)

"threat" (l.80, l. 112, l.154) “diminished” (l.180)

3. Look for the correlative of "not only" (l.59). What ideas does this conjunction express?
 Lectura Académica Estratégica 27
Inglés - Nivel Medio 2020

4. "However" (l.64) expresses: ..............

Does it have the same meaning as in line 140? What about line 156?

5. What does "such issues” (l.164) refer to?

Which of the following Spanish equivalents of issue provided by a bilingual dictionary
can be used if we want to paraphrase the sentence?

Resultado / consecuencia

Problema / cuestión

Edición / tirada

Descendencia

6. The word "Actually" (l.32) used at the beginning of paragraph 3 is a false cognate.
(Check the Grammar Dictionary). What is the Spanish equivalent for it?
Do you remember other false cognates? Try to make a list with your classmates.

METACOGNITIVE REFLECTION

1. Pay attention to text organization. Compare and contrast it to what we have

discussed about text organization so far. Where is the most important
information expressed in this excerpt?
2. How easy/difficult was it for you to choose the one most important paragraph?
why?
3. Read your main idea again. Is there anything you would like to reformulate?
 Lectura Académica Estratégica 28
Inglés - Nivel Medio 2020

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
You will find the following instructions in our virtual classroom in the forum for text 4. Let's give it a try:

FORUM: BEYOND THE TEXT

The aim of this exercise is to interrelate information from the text ACADEMIC FREEEDOM (by P.
Altbach) and the text DEFINING ACADEMIC FREEDOM (by Cary Nelson).
a. Skim and scan the items presented in both section (Part 1: What it does do and Part 2: What
it doesn't do) of the text DEFINING ACADEMIC FREEDOM.
b. Choose 2 items from each section that you think are present in the text ACDEMIC FREEDOM.
c. Choose 2 items from each section that you think are NOT present in the text ACADEMIC
FREEDOM.
d. Hit "responder" and share your choices with your companions. Support your ideas.
e. You should also comment on any of your mates' posts.

 ACADEMIC FREEDOM: International Warning Signs - by P. Altbach, 2001.

(https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ihe/article/view/6938/6155)

 DEFINING ACADEMIC FREEDOM - by Cary Nelson, 2010.

(https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/12/21/defining-academic-freedom)

© 2020. Otero, A.M.A. Guía Texto 4: Academic Freedom- Lectura Académica Estratégica -
Ingles Nivel Medio - Cátedra de Inglés -Departamento de lenguas Modernas - Facultad de
Filosofía y Letras - UBA

Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución – No Comercial – Sin Obra Derivada
4.0 Internacional.