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What is a seminar?
What is a seminar?
Seminars are small classes where students discuss certain issues in groups. It usually follows a lecture or a reading on a particular topic, and is used to explore a topic in more detail than is possible just by one lecturer talking to the group. The key skills for students in seminars are:
- Carrying out background reading and then paraphrasing and summarising other people's ideas.
- Active listening. This means thinking about a particular topic while someone's talking about it.
- Understanding other people's arguments and developing counter arguments.
- Interacting with others and responding spontaneously.
Seminars enable small groups to explore topics in more detail through discussion and active listening.
Task adapted from Anderson, Maclean and Lynch (2012, p. 97).
Task - presenting the ideas of others
Task - presenting the ideas of others
You are going to read a short text which you will then summarise in your own words to one of your classmates. Each student will read a different text on the topic of experiencing different cultures. Take two minutes to read one of the texts below: student A will take Culture Bumps and student B will read about Culture Shock.
- When the two minutes is up, close the text window before you start speaking to your partner. This is to ensure you use your own words to describe the concept rather than reading from the text.
- Take turns to tell your partner about the concept you've just read.
- Discuss the two concepts together in light of your own experiences. Have either of you ever experienced a Culture Bump, and was it positive or negative? Have you ever felt Culture Shock? If so, how did you overcome it?
Language analysis - reporting and critical discussion
Language analysis - reporting and critical discussion
The two themes that underpin our language course are carrying out background reading and forming our own views on what we've read. So a linguistic skill we need to develop is distinguishing between information we've read from other sources and conclusions that we've come to by ourselves. The UEfAP website has a useful section on language for reporting summarising and paraphrasing. Take a few minutes to read through the examples and make some notes in preparation for the next task.
For the critical discussion we also need language which allows us to interact with our peers and respond to what they've said. For example:
- ‘I see what you’re saying, you mean that [summarise/paraphrase]. Even so, I think...
- I’m looking at [immigration] in terms of [its social] rather than [economic effects].
- Even though I agree with you that [an international agreement on carbon emissions is unlikely], I still think that we should [explore the possibility].
Seminar discussion
Seminar discussion
We're going to look at a framework of 'cultural dimensions' that was proposed by Geert Hofstede back in the 1980s, originally with the intention of improving intercultural communication in business settings. The framework itself was based on data gathered from workplaces at IBM, and we're going to look at four of its criteria:
- Power distance
- Individualism/collectivism
- Masculinity/femininity
- Uncertainty avoidance
According to Hofstede, cultures can be usefully defined by where they sit on these four dimensions.
Discussions will be in groups of four, with each student reading and then reporting on one of the above dimensions. As with the previous task, take two minutes to familiarise yourself with the contents of the text, and when you're ready to discuss them, make sure the text window is closed so that you describe the text in your own words. Once each person has described their aspect of the dimensions, discuss the following questions as a group:
- Can you apply Hofstede’s analysis to your own national culture?
- If you have experience of another culture, how would you define it on the four dimensions?
- Do you think this analysis helps different cultures understand each other better?
- Do you have any criticism of this model?
- It should always be the responsibility of the immigrant, expatriate or visitor to understand and adapt to his or her new culture. Discuss.
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