AAE-Lesson 5-6

Advanced Academic English - FL6383 Lesson #5 & 6: Culture
LESSON 5.
Activity 1. Sample analysis

Read two student texts (A and B) evaluating healthy eating campaigns.
For each text, identify:
1. the writer’s stance: supportive, critical?
2. types of evaluation the writer uses: precision, extent, basis, consistency, usefulness?
3. confident evaluation (if any)
4. tentative evaluation (if any).
A. The process of school food reform in the UK 1. the writer’s stance

was dramatically accelerated by the 2005 campaign
by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to encourage healthy 2. types of evaluation
eating among children by ensuring that only the writer uses
healthy lunches were served in school canteens.
Despite some initial resistance from children and
some parents, these reforms have undoubtedly 3. confident evaluation
made a significant contribution to the promotion of
healthy eating habits from an early age, and thanks
to support from government and education 4. tentative evaluation
authorities, the momentum of the initial campaign
has been sustained.
B. The '5-a-day' programme, aimed at encouraging 1. the writer’s stance
greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables,

which has operated in various forms across the 2. types of evaluation
world, may have raised public awareness of the the writer uses
benefits of healthy eating. However, the
effectiveness of this message seems to be
contradicted by other emerging trends in eating
3. confident evaluation
habits. With a growing proportion of the food we
consume now coming from pre-prepared and
away-from-home sources such as take-aways,
rather than being cooked at home from fresh
ingredients, many people apparently have limited 4. tentative evaluation
control over their intake of fresh vegetables. Fried
potatoes, for example, account for 35% of
away-from-home vegetable consumption (Stewart &
Blisard, 2008).
1
Activity 2. Sample analysis

Read a section of a scientific report about individual food preferences, and a sample
critical response to it.
One man's meat is another man's poison

One of the strongest environmental influences on food preference is taste. This can
affect an individual's likes and dislikes from the earliest stages of life; the maternal diet can
influence the child in utero. In a series of studies at the Monell Chemical Senses Center,
USA, Julie Mennella and her colleagues demonstrated this phenomenon by assigning
pregnant women who were planning to breastfeed to one of three groups. Women were
asked to drink carrot juice regularly either in the last trimester of pregnancy, while
breastfeeding, or not at all. Babies born to the mothers in either of the carrot juice groups
had less negative responses to carrots during weaning, and were perceived to like them
more by their mothers than babies of mothers in the control group (Mennella et al., 2001).
Similar results have been documented in rats, dogs, sheep, rabbits and piglets.
Evidence for the ability of exposure to promote liking for certain foods has been
building over the past three decades. Surveys in children of food consumption and
preferences have linked early taste experiences to subsequent food acceptance (Cooke et
al., 2004), which is consistent with an exposure effect. Experimental studies have also
shown that exposure increases liking and acceptance in animals, children (Sullivan & Birch,
1990) and adults (Pliner et al., 1993). One study that compared children's acceptance of
three varieties of a new food - plain, salted or sugared tofu - showed that children preferred
whichever variety they had been exposed to earlier (Sullivan & Birch, 1990).
These findings have been replicated in the outside world. In one study, school
children were randomly divided into three groups: exposure to the food (red pepper),
exposure plus reward, or no exposure. After eight days, the children exposed to red pepper
had significantly increased their liking and intake of it, compared with the control group
(Wardle et al., 2003b). The same effects were achieved when the intervention was delivered
by mothers who had been taught exposure feeding techniques. When offered a vegetable
that they had initially disliked, children in the experimental group showed a greater increase
in liking and intake after 14 days than those in the control groups, who had received no
treatment or had been given leaflets about healthy eating (Wardle et al., 2003a).
In animals, food preferences are thought to be socially transmitted: the sight of
members of their own species eating, or even the smell of food on their breath can
encourage consumption. In one study, lambs were exposed to three treatments: they ate a
new food with their mother, observed her doing so but were unable to eat it themselves, or
the mother ate the food out of their sight. Lambs that were with their mother while she was
eating showed a stronger preference for the food in a subsequent test, even if they had not
eaten the food themselves (Saint-Dizier et al., 2007).
These modelling effects have also been observed in humans. In one study, children
drank different flavours of new drinks while watching a video of a model expressing a like or
dislike of the same drink (Baeyens et al., 1996). The children were found to prefer the flavour
that the model had liked. This suggests that in the home, if parents, or better still peers,
show that they like a food, the child will be more inclined to taste and accept it.
SOURCE: Wardle, J. & Cooke, L. (2010). One man's meat is another man's poison. EMBO
reports, 11: 816-821.
2
Checklist - Evaluation criteria for a critical response
1. Present a clear stance

2. Present an organized, coherent flow of ideas
3. Clearly but concisely explain main points from the text
4. Link evaluative comments to the points from the text
5. Use appropriate evaluative language
6. Use appropriate language to express confident or tentative evaluation.
Evaluate the quality of the sample critical response, using the given checklist.
Sample critical response
Wardle and Cooke (2010) present evidence from a number of sources suggesting
factors that may influence an individual’s food preferences. They divide these into three
broad groups, taste, exposure, and social transmission, and report on a variety of studies to
support each potential influence. Whilst the research reported is all from relatively recent
studies, published between 1990 and 2004, it uses a wide range of subjects, including
babies, young children, adults, and in several cases, animal experiments. This disparate
range of subjects, experimental contexts, and food types tested make it difficult to draw
direct inferences that can be applied more widely.
Perhaps the most convincing of the three influences put forward by Wardle and
Cooke (2010) is the idea that exposure promotes a liking for certain foods. They offer a
number of studies, largely in children (Cooke et al., 2004, Sullivan & Birch, 1990, and Wardle
et al., 2003) that show repeated exposure to a new food, in both experimental and more
natural settings, increases a child’s acceptance of it, a finding which intuitively fits with our
own experiences of food. Whilst this finding has interesting implications in the area of child
health and nutrition, it seems clear, however, that there may be other important influences at
work that are not mentioned in this extract, such as genetic, biological, or even cultural
factors, that need to be explored to build up a more complete picture.
Your comments: __________________________________________________________
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3
LESSON 6.
Activity 1. Oral summary of a text for a discussion

Here are the main ideas of a text used to discuss the topic: “How do differences in
academic culture affect international students at institutions in English-speaking countries?”
● Culture shock affects immigrants and sojourners, who must

choose to persist in interacting with the host culture or
withdraw (Oberg 1960).
● East Asian students, despite prioritizing English learning,
face difficulties abroad including loneliness, uncertainty,
and academic challenges (Dörnyei et al. 2004; Chataway &
Berry 1989; Ying 2005).
● Sociocultural values in China, such as face protection and
deference to authority, may contribute to reluctance in
speaking English (Wen & Clément 2003).
SOURCE: Gallagher, H.C. (2012). Willingness to Communicate and

Cross-cultural Adaptation: L2 Communication and Acculturative Stress as
Transaction. Applied Linguistics, first published online June 24, 2012.
➔ Read the main ideas. How will you use those ideas to discuss the given topic?
➔ Work in pairs. Present your argument for this discussion. Remember to:
1. give a brief summary of the text
2. make your argument
3. include examples and evaluations based on the text.
4
Activity 3. Feedback
Use the marking criteria below to assess participants in the seminar, then give
constructive feedback to your peers.
Content (3/10) Language (3/10) Manner (2/10) Preparation (2/10)
Relevance and Accuracy of Engagement Organization

coherence of grammar and with other and structure of
ideas syntax participants seminar
Critical analysis Range and Body language Quality of visual
and original appropriateness and eye contact aids or handouts
insights of vocabulary Voice projection Time
Use of Fluency, and pace management
supporting pronunciation Handling of Evidence of
evidence and and intonation questions and research and
examples discussion preparation
Your comments: __________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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Advanced Academic English - FL6383 Lesson #5 & 6: Culture

Activity 1. Sample analysis

A. The process of school food reform in the UK 1. the writer’s stance

B. The '5-a-day' programme, aimed at encouraging 1. the writer’s stance

greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables,

Activity 2. Sample analysis

One man's meat is another man's poison

Checklist - Evaluation criteria for a critical response

1. Present a clear stance

Sample critical response

Activity 1. Oral summary of a text for a discussion

● Culture shock affects immigrants and sojourners, who must

SOURCE: Gallagher, H.C. (2012). Willingness to Communicate and

Content (3/10) Language (3/10) Manner (2/10) Preparation (2/10)

Relevance and Accuracy of Engagement Organization

Your comments: __________________________________________________________

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