预览unit-2-space-invaders-teaching-plan综合教程四

UNIT 2 SPACE INVADERS

Learning Objectives

1) First listen to and then talk about personal space.

2) Learn text I Space Invader.

3) Wrote a letter to describe a crowdy situation.

4) Listen to A typical English conversation.

5) Read supplementary material Space and Distance.

Warm-up Questions

1) How do you feel if you are one of the passengers?

2) Is personal space important to you? Why or why not?

3) What do you usually do when you are in a crowded bus or subway?

4) If people stand too close or too far to you, how do you feel? And what wouldyou do?

5) Do we have a weaker sense of personal space than the Westerners?Why or why not?

6) What elements affect people’ s personal space sense?

Cultural background

Personal space

Personal space can be imagined as a kind of bubble surrounding a person thatprotects his or her privacy and which other people may not normally enter. Allowingsomebody to get very close and enter your personal space may be a sign of trust orlove. On the other hand, intruding other’ s personal space can be rather offensive.

The amount of space people need to feel around them varies with various factors,such as culture, sex, familiarity between people, crowdedness of the situation, etc.For example:

● people from cultures that like a lot of personal space feel awkward andembarrassed when somebody comes too close to them;

●people of the same sex may sit or stand closer to each other than to somebodyof the opposite sex;

●strangers and casual acquaintances usually need more space than friends andmembers of the same family who know each other well;

● in a noisy street people may need to stand closer than they would normally,simply in order to hear each other.

Text I

SPACE INVADERS

Richard Stengel

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Global Reading

I. Structural analysis of the text

In the text, the writer first points out the fact that nowadays people are moreconcerned about themselves and want to have a larger personal space than decadesago, and then he analyses the causes of space invasion.

The text can be divided into three parts.

Part I (Paragraphs 1 – 2) : The writer calls the reader’ s attention to the invasionof personal space by relating an experience of how his personal space was invaded.Part II (Paragraphs 3 – 7) : The writer analyzes some likely causes of the shrinkageof personal space, and attributes the invasion of personal space to the generaldecline of good manners.

Part III (Paragraph 8 – 9) : The author presents his view about the essence ofpersonal space, i.e. it is psychological, rather than physical, and urges peopleto “expand the contracting boundaries of personal space” .

II. Rhetorical features of the text

A vivid and accurate description of the behaviour of the space invaders and thosewhose personal space is being invaded is achieved by a delicate selection of verbs.Some of the examples are as follows.

Verbs and verbal phrases used to describe the behaviour of space invaders:- a man„started inching toward me„ (Paragraph 1)

- In elevators, people are wedging themselves in just before the doors close . . .(Paragraph 3)

-Inmovie theatres these days, people are staking a claim toboth armrests, annexingall the elbow room . . . (Paragraph 7)

Verbs and verbal phrases used to describe the reactionof those whose space is beinginvaded:

- I minutely advanced toward the woman„in front of me . . . (Paragraph 1)-„who absent-mindedly shuffled toward the white-haired lady ahead of him . . .(Paragraph 1)

Detailed Reading

Questions

1. Is “personal space” a term of the seventies? Is it out of date nowadays? Whyor why not? (Paragraph 2)

Answer: “Personal space” was a term popularly used in the seventies but seldommentioned nowadays. However, it doesn’ t mean that it is out of date. People,whatever periods they are in, need personal space, which is not to be penetrated.

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The only problem is that the world is becoming so crowded that it is impossible forpeople to protect their personal space as well as they used to do.

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2. What does the author mean by saying “personal space is mostly a public matter” ?(Paragraph 5)

Answer: Personal space, first of all, is the space you expect and are expected tokeep between you andother people inpublic places in order tomaintain anappropriateinterpersonal relationship. Edward T. Hall in The Hidden Dimension, for example,describes the social values appliedbyAmericans to certaindistancesbetweenpeopleas falling into fourmain categories: “Intimatedistance (0 – 1&1/2 feet) , Personaldistance (1&1/2 – 4 feet) , Social/Consultative distance (4 – 10 feet) , andPublicdistance (10 or more feet) . ”

3. Do you agree with the writer’ s view that the contraction of the outer, personalspace is proportional to the expansion of the inner-space of modern man? (Paragraph

8)

Answer: Yes, people in the present society tend to be more self-centered,concentrating on their private affairs and ignoring the outer world around them.They say they have no time or energy to care about others in a society of fast tempo.As a matter of fact, they do not want to bother about it.

Text II

SPACE AND DISTANCE1

Larry A. Samovar et al. 2

Lead-in Questions

What are some of the ways in which space and distance are used to communicate?Could you find any gender differences in the use of space?

Main Idea

Notes

1. About the text―This text is taken from Communication between Cultures (Third

Edition) written by Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Lisa A. Stefani andpublished by Wadsworth in 1998.

2. About the author―Larry A. Samovar is a teacher of San Diego State University.

3. proximics (Paragraph 1) ―the study of space and distance between people

4. stand one’ s ground (Paragraph 2) ―stick to one’ s position or opinion

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5. collective cultures (Paragraph 2) ―cultures that emphasize collectivism

6. Condon (Paragraph 2) ― Condon, and also Ruch, Hall and Hall, and Leathers,appearing in later paragraphs, are names of authors listed in the bibliographyof the book from which the text is excerpted. Presumably these people have alsomade contributions to the area of intercultural communication. Most probably oneof the Halls in “Hall and Hall” refers to the famous 20th-century Americananthropologist Edward T. Hall, whose book The Hidden Dimension (1966) is a studyof “social and personal space and man’ s perception of it. ”

7. function (Paragraph 5) ―party; reception

8. arranged hierarchically (Paragraph 7) ―arranged according to one’ s rank orimportance

9. co-cultures (Paragraph 8) ―In cell biology, co-culture means the growth ofdistinct cell types in a combined culture. Here it refers to the cultures thathave derived from the combination of different cultures.

10. at a premium (Paragraph 8) ―very difficult to get because it is so little inamount

Additional notes

1. Culture influences the manner and meaning in seating arrangements. (Paragraph

4)—Culture influences the way seats are arranged and the meaning sucharrangements convey.

2. The Chinese often experience alienation and uneasiness„(Paragraph 4)—TheChinese often feel isolated and anxious„

3. Prostitutes, for example, are very possessive of their territory. (Paragraph

8)—Prostitutes, for example, have a strong sense of possession about theirown particular territory, i.e. they do not want other prostitutes to trespasson their area of “business. ”

Questions for discussion

1. Do you keep the same distance from other people, when interacting with them?

2. Where do you usually sit in a meeting room if you can make your choice? Try toexplain why you have such a preference.

3. Suppose a friend comes to see you when you are watching an interesting TV playin your sitting room. Will you turn off the TV before you start your conversation?Key to Questions for discussion

1. No. The distance we keep from other people depends on our interpersonalrelationship. We tend to keep longer distances from strangers and shorter fromclose friends and family members. (In answering this question, you can be more

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specific through exemplification. )

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2. Tell your classmates whether you prefer to sit in the front, in the middle, orat the back of the meeting room. There can be different reasons for differentpeople to make the same choice. For example, if you prefer to sit in the front,you might want to hear the speakers more clearly, or to catch the attention ofthe chairman or the speakers. But of course there are other reasons, non-physicalones, that determine your choice.

3. In most cases we will turn off the TV before the conversation starts. Any delaywill mean that the visitor comes at a wrong time and therefore he or she is notwelcome, at least at this moment.

Memorable Quotes

Let there be space in your togetherness.

—Kahlil GibranCivilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’ s wholeexistence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the processof setting man free from man.

—Ayn RandKahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931) was a Lebanese-American philosophical essayist,novelist, mystical poet, and artist. In the 1960s, Gibran’ s works influencedespecially American popular culture. His most famous book is The Prophet (1923) .Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright,and screenwriter. She was known for her two best-selling novels and for developinga philosophical system she called Objectivism.

Questions for discussion:

1. Some people say “Distance breeds beauty” . How do you understand this in termsof “personal space” ?

2. Do you agreethat the enhancementof people’ s sense of privacy is arepresentationof the progress of civilization? Explain and give examples.

Guidance:

1. Suggestion: what is “personal space” ; “personal space” exists in all culturesand in all relationships; inappropriate violation of “personal space” evokesoffence; “Let there be space in your togetherness” .

2. Suggestion: a comparison of the barbaric tribal life and the modern civilizedlife

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