unit 2 contents • graduate attributes • teamwork and

Contents• Graduate attributes• Teamwork and intelligence• The surprising problem of too

much talent• Making groups work: University

students’ perceptions

UNIT 2 Collaboration: Reading

Introduction

Speaking: Thinking about the topicHere at UQ, and at all universities in Australia, students are often asked to study and do projects or assignments in groups.

1. Read through these discussion questions and think of your own answers. Then discuss them with a partner.

• Why do you think group work is valued at university? • Can you list some benefits of group work for students?• Can you think of any disadvantages of working in a group?

2. Read the statements below and decide whether you agree ( ), disagree ( ) or partially agree ( ½ ) with them.

Statement My opinion ½

1. A team’s goals are more important than the goals of the individual members.

2. The intelligence of a group is equal to the intelligence of its members added together.

3. Group members can communicate just as effectively using technology (IM, email, Zoom) as they can when face to face.

4. People who have similar interests and backgrounds work together better than people who are very different.

5. Teamwork is a more effective way to complete different tasks and projects than working individually.

3. Find a partner. Decide who will be A and who will be B. Then read the dialogue together.

A: Well, I agree with number 1.

B: Yes. me too.

A: Next, I don’t agree with number 2.

B: OK, I partially agree.

A: Oh…… So, I agree with number 3, 4 and 5.

B: I don’t agree with 3 but I agree with 4 and 5.

A: Teacher, we’ve finished now.

4. Analyse and evaluate the dialogue with your partner. Think about these questions:

• Do you think it sounds natural? • Does it show a range of language? • Does it show good interaction? • How could it be improved?

5. With your partner, discuss and explain your responses from task 2 above. Try to:

• use a range of expressions to show your opinion and to dis/agree.• listen to your partner and give appropriate responses or ask follow-up questions.

2 Unit 2 | Collaboration: Reading

Reading 1

Thinking about your readingAs a student in Brisbane, you’ll need to read a wide variety of texts in English both for study purposes as well as for daily life. However, not all texts should be approached in the same way. Exactly how you approach a text (which reading skills and strategies you use) will, to some extent, depend on the type of text.

Genre, Audience, Purpose, Style (GAPS)

In unit 1 you looked at “GAPS” which stands for Genre, Audience, Purpose, Style. Understanding these four elements will help you better comprehend each text that you read. It will also help you to write more effectively. • Genre: What type of text is it and what context is it found in? e.g. a menu, an

email, an essay• Audience: Who is reading the text? e.g. children, the general public, experts in

the field• Purpose: What’s the author’s purpose for writing this text? e.g. to entertain,

inform or persuade• Style: What language features are typical of this type of text? e.g. formal or

informal language

1. With a partner, look at the texts below and discuss what you think the Genre, Audience, Purpose and Style for each is.

a. b. c. d.

2. Now identify which text type above might be used for each reading purpose below.

a. to gain an overview of somethingb. to get specific information

(facts, data, etc.)c. to understand ideas or theoriesd. to understand the author’s viewpoint

e. to support your own views (using citations)

f. to learn new vocabulary and grammar

g. to relax and enjoy some free time

Purpose for reading

In your university degree, you’ll be expected to do a great deal of reading. You’ll be better able to deal with your reading load if you take a little time before you start reading to consider what you are reading, why you are reading and how you can adjust your reading to suit your purpose. So, before you begin to read the texts in this unit and generally in BE10, keep in mind the type of texts you’re reading, and what you want to achieve from reading them.

3 Unit 2 | Collaboration: Reading Unit 2 | Collaboration: Reading

Skimming

Skimming is useful for previewing a text. Use it when you want to quickly get a general idea of what it is about, or the author’s main argument. Skimming is also really useful as a method of reviewing, after you have read a text.

In skimming you ignore the details and look for the main ideas. Main ideas are usually found in the first sentence of each paragraph and in the first and last paragraphs. It is also useful to pay attention to the organisation of the text.

To skim, you should move rapidly through the text. Don’t read every word or every sentence. Instead, focus on the headings and subheadings, content words, transition words/phrases and any words in boldface/italics or in bulleted or numbered lists.

Graduate attributesDo you know about UQ’s graduate attributes? In some universities, they are called graduate skills, or employability skills. Whichever name they have, they are a common part of all universities in Australia.

3. Some of the words in the text below have been hidden to help show that you don’t need to read all of them to get the gist. Practice skimming by reading the remaining words and sentences as quickly as you can.

Graduate attributes describe a set of qualities, skills and abilities that a University of Queensland graduate in addition to knowledge field of study. These graduate attributes, or transferable skills, important across environments valued by employers because many different ways many different situations. not discipline specific nor specific They include such things , problem solving teamwork. Being able to identify and develop transferable skills most important successful career.

Test-taking strategy: Gap fills

In your reading class or in a reading test, you may be asked to do a gap fill task, such as a summary or table completion task. In these tasks you may be given words to use to fill in the blanks or you may need to find/think of the words yourself. When completing a gap fill task, it’s a good idea to first identify what type of word (noun, adjective, adverb, verb, conjunction etc.) is needed for each gap by looking at the words around the gap and applying your grammatical knowledge.


4. Now answer these questions based on the paragraph in Task 3. Compare your answers with a partner.

a. What are graduate attributes?b. How do employers feel about graduate attributes?c. What can help students build a successful career?

Look at the first gap in the paragraph below. The word before it is ‘may’ which is a modal verb. Modal verbs usually proceed a verb in the infinitive (base) form. Thus, the missing word in gap 1 should be a verb in the base form.

Now look at gap 7. The phrase before it is ‘specific to any one’. That means the missing word is likely to be a noun, but should it be a singular or plural noun?

5. With a partner, quickly go through the rest of the paragraph and determine what type of word might be needed in each gap.

Graduate attributes describe a set of qualities, skills and abilities that a University of Queensland graduate may 1. in addition to 2. knowledge in their field of study. These graduate attributes, or transferable skills, are important across a 3. of environments and 4. and are 5. valued by employers because they can be 6. in so many different ways across so many different situations. They are not discipline-specific nor are they specific to any one 7. . They include such things as 8. , problem-solving and teamwork. Being able to identify and develop your transferable skills is one of the most important 9. in 10. for a successful career.

6. Now look at the words in the box below and identify their part of speech. Then use the words to fill in the gaps in the paragraph above.

profession

communication

specific

demonstrate

workplaces

preparing

range

applied

highly

steps

7. A student has made notes about the main skill areas described in the paragraph. Read the paragraph again to complete the notes. Then check your answers with a partner and discuss what you understand about graduate attributes.

1. Specific related to one’s field of study

2. Graduate attributes = skills

e.g. 2.1.

2.2.

2.3.


8. Below is an excerpt from the UQ Graduate attributes for postgraduate studies. Try to match the graduate attributes to the four skill areas in the notes in task 7. Write 1, 2.1, 2.2, or 2.3 next to each attribute below. If you’re not sure which skill the attribute matches, write a question mark (?)

9. Compare and discuss your choices with a partner. You can use these prompts to help in your discussion.

• Which attribute did you match with …?• Why did you choose …?• What made you choose …?

10. Highlight key words/phrases from the Graduate attributes text that are related to group work.


Reading 2

1. Here is a word cloud based on an article you’re going to read. With a partner, predict what you think the text will be about based on the biggest words in the word cloud. (Don’t look at the text yet).

TeamPsychologistsIntelligenceGroupEmotion

More

Work

Ability People

VolunteerMembers

Others

Smart

TaskOne

Characteristics

Individual

Teamwork

Online Study

Eyes

Face Read

Average

GeneralProblem

Whether

Matter

Women

Good Make

Much

Two

Complete

AnotherE�ectHaving

Higher

Equal

Solve

Words

Each

TestTime

Well

Men

See

Distinguished

Communicated

Consistently

ParticipantsContribute

ExplainedImportant

Published

Assigned

Decision

EveryoneIn

volved

Random

ly

Surprise

Together

Complex

Earlier

Finding

Measure

Operate

Project

ScienceAnsw

er

Called

Define

Leader

Reason

Simply

Skills

First

Known

Score

Still

Whose

Feel

Half

KindLast

Long

Many

Meet

Mind

Same

Step

TakeVary

LotNew

Out

Brainstorming

Circumstances

Collaboration

Dysfunctional

Organizations

UnderstandingCoordination

Outperformed

Surprisingly

Vocabularies

Charismatic

Confronting

Consequence

Demonstrate

Discussions

Establishes

Experienced

Expressions

ExtrovertedIngredients Interaction

Mindreading

Necessarily

Adaptation

Colleagues

Committees

ConditionsEmphasized

Especially

RegardlessReplicated

Situations

Cognitive

Defendant

Determine

Di�erent

Directors

Diversity

Fashioned

Initially

Motivated

Possessed

Represent

Suspected

Teammates

Terrorist

Although

Appeared

Changing

Consider

Constant

Convened

Creative

Distinct

Dominate

Enabling

Facebook

Horrible

Instance

Learning

Messages

Nowadays

Planning

QuestionReliably

RemainedReported

Selected

Smartest

Students

Widening

Believe

Browser

Century

Convict

Crucial

Decides

Endless

Finally

Forward

Idolize

Instead

Journal

Letting

Numbers

O�ine

Perform

Periods

Privacy

Require

Results

Several

Society

Success

Visible

Actors

Better

Create

Credit

Exists

Facial

FieldsFollow

Genius

Google

Images

Indeed

Manage

Partly

Policy

Purely

Puzzle

Second

Series

Showed

Social

States

Strike

Theory

ThingsThough

Typing

Wanted

Wisdom

Array

Board

Cause

Drive

Email

Great

Lower

Moral

Never

Occur

Short

ToolsTried

Vital

Back

Best

Didn

Even

Fact

Five

Gave

Help

Hide

Hope

Jury

Keep

Know

Lost

Made

Math

Over

Part

Real

Rest

Rise

Tend

Upon

Year

Bit

Old

Set

Try

Up

2. Practise skim reading by following these instructions. Your aim is to communicate the main ideas of the article to your partner.

a. Skim the article in the next page in 1 ½ minutes. b. Your teacher will tell you when to start and stop skimming. c. Close your book and tell your partner what you remember about the article.


Scanning

In addition to skimming, another skill you’ll need for reading is scanning. Scanning a text means looking through it extremely quickly to find specific information such as words, numbers, ideas or the answers to specific study questions. To scan, move your eyes quickly over the words until you find the particular information you are looking for. Try to ignore everything except the specific information you want.

3. Practise scanning by following these instructions. Your aim is to answer the questions as quickly as you can.

a. Scan the article to locate the numbers. b. Read the sentence/s around the numbers to match the information they relate to.c. When you complete the task, close your book to show you have finished. d. While you’re waiting for others to finish, think about how you moved your eyes across

the page in this task compared to in the skimming task before.

Number Related to

1. one or two a. the number of teams working together online

2. 2010 b. the number of participants in the third study

3. 697 c. the year of publication of one of the studies

4. three d. the number of members who may dominate the team

5. 68 e. the number of participants in the first study

6. half f. the number of features that characterised smart teams

4. Practise thinking critically about a text by considering some of the GAPS features. Look at the text again and quickly complete the following questions. Compare your answers with a partner.

a. Where was the article published?

b. When was it published?

c. Who is the intended audience of this article?

d. Who was it written by?

e. What are the authors’ jobs?

f. What is the authors’ main purpose in writing this article?

Annotating texts


Article

Why some teams are smarter than othersBy Anita Wooley, Thomas W. Malone and Christopher F. Chabris Jan 16, 2015

Endless meetings that just waste everyone’s time; dysfunctional committees that take two steps back for every step forward; project teams in which one does all the work and the others take the credit. Everyone who has ever been part of team has likely experienced these and other problems that can occur when people try to work together in groups.

But does teamwork have to be a lost cause? Psychologists have been working on the problem for a long time, and for good reason. Nowadays, although we may still idolize the charismatic leader or creative genius, almost every decision of consequence is made by a group. When Facebook’s board of directors establishes a privacy policy, when the C.I.A.’s operatives strike a suspected terrorist hide-out or when a jury decides whether to convict a defendant, what matters is not just the intelligence and wisdom of the individual actors involved. Groups of smart people can make horrible decisions — or great ones.

Psychologists have known for a century that individuals vary in their cognitive ability, but are some groups, like some people, reliably smarter than others? In other words, is there a collective intelligence that can determine a group’s ability to perform tasks? Working with several colleagues and students, we set out to answer that question.

In our first study, which was published in 2010 in the journal Science, we randomly assigned 697 volunteer participants into teams of two to five members. Each team worked together to complete a series of short tasks, which were selected to represent the varied kinds of problems that groups are called upon to solve in the real world. One task involved puzzle solving, another brainstorming; others emphasized coordination, planning and moral reasoning.

Individual intelligence, as psychologists measure it, is defined by its generality: People with good vocabularies, for instance, also tend

to have good math skills, even though we often think of those abilities as distinct. The results of our studies showed that this same kind of general intelligence also exists for teams. On average, the groups that did well on one task consistently did well on the others, too. In other words, some teams were simply smarter than others.

In a follow-up study in the same year, we tried to define what characteristics distinguished the smarter teams from the rest, and we were a bit surprised by the answers we got. We gave each volunteer an individual I.Q. test, but teams with higher average I.Q.s didn’t score much higher on our collective intelligence tasks than did teams with lower average I.Q.s. In other words, having a lot of smart people in a group did not necessarily make a smart group. Nor did teams with more extroverted people, or teams whose members reported feeling more motivated to contribute to their group’s success.

Instead, the smartest teams were distinguished by three characteristics. First, their members contributed more equally to the team’s discussions, rather than letting one or two people dominate the group. Second, their members scored higher on a test called Reading the Mind in the Eyes, which measures how well people can read complex emotional states from images of faces with only the eyes visible. Finally, teams with more women outperformed teams with more men. Indeed, it appeared that it was not “diversity” (having equal numbers of men and women) that mattered for a team’s intelligence, but simply having more women. This last effect, however, could be partly explained by the fact that women, on average, were better at “mindreading” than men.

In a new study that we published in 2014, we replicated these earlier findings, but with a twist. We randomly assigned each of 68 teams to complete our collective intelligence test in one of two conditions. Half of the teams worked face to face, like the teams in our


earlier studies. The other half worked online, with no ability to see any of their teammates. Online collaboration is on the rise, with tools like Skype, Google Drive, and old-fashioned email enabling groups to complete complex projects without ever meeting. We wanted to see whether groups that worked online would still demonstrate collective intelligence, and whether social ability would matter as much when people communicated purely by typing messages into a browser.

And they did. Online and offline, some teams consistently worked smarter than others. More surprisingly, the most important ingredients for a smart team remained constant regardless of its mode of interaction: members who communicated a lot, participated equally and possessed good emotion-reading skills.

This last finding was another surprise. Emotion-reading mattered just as much for the online teams whose members could not see one another as for the teams that worked face to face. What makes teams smart must be not just the ability to read facial expressions, but a more

general ability, known as “Theory of Mind,” to consider and keep track of what other people feel, know and believe.

A new science of effective teamwork is vital not only because teams do so many important things in society, but also because so many teams operate over long periods of time, confronting an ever-widening array of tasks and problems that may be much different from the ones they were initially convened to solve. General intelligence, whether in individuals or teams, is especially crucial for explaining who will do best in novel situations or in ones that require learning and adaptation to changing circumstances. We hope that understanding what makes groups smart will help organizations and leaders in all fields create and manage teams more effectively.

Slightly adapted from nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/why-some-teams-are-smarter-than-others.html

Fast finisher?If you’ve finished quickly, try this mini Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. Look at each pair of eyes. Choose one of the four emotion words that best decribes the emotions that the eyes are showing. Compare your answers with your classmates’.

What are these people feeling?

a. thoughtful irritated comforting bored

b. guilty horrified friendly suspicious

c. shocked reflective depressed shy

d. curious excited apologetic bored


https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/why-some-teams-are-smarter-than-others.html



annotate

(ænoʊteɪt)

Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense annotates, present participle annotating, past tense, past participle annotated

VERB

If you annotate written work or a diagram, you add notes to it, especially in order to explain it.

Historians annotate, check and interpret the diary selections.

...an annotated bibliography.

Synonyms: make notes on, explain, note, illustrate

5. Discuss with a partner / group what you know / don’t know about text annotation and what experience you have had, if any, with annotating texts. Then read the information in the box below.

Text annotation

Annotating, which is sometimes called “close reading”, is a way of deliberately interacting with a reading text to improve the way you understand or remember or respond to it.

A lot of students in BE approach every reading text like it’s a test, reading as quickly as possible just to answer questions and then quickly forgetting about the text afterward. But a lot of what you read can help you learn about new information, grammar and vocabulary, as well as give you ideas that you can use in your essays or discussions.

How to annotateThe process of annotating a text helps you to stay focused and concentrate better. It also helps you to monitor and improve your comprehension so that you understand the information more thoroughly and store it in your memory better.

It is true that annotating takes time, but it’s not time wasted – it’s time invested.

It’s a good idea to skim the text quickly first to get the gist, then read more carefully while annotating.

There is no exact rule for how detailed your annotation should be, but here are some general suggestions:• Highlight main ideas in each paragraph.• Circle terms, definitions and meanings.• Write key words and definitions in the margin.• Signal where important information can be found with key words or symbols in

the margin.• Highlight and makes notes about any useful vocabulary or grammar for

language learning.• Stop at the end of each paragraph/section and add a short 1-4 word summary in

the margin BEFORE moving on the next paragraph or section. • Show steps in a process by using numbers in the text or margin.


• Highlight information in the text that shows the author’s opinion and write key words in the margin.

• Ask yourself questions about the content as you go through the text and write these in the margin.

• Use symbols to show your own opinion about or reaction to points raised in the text.

6. Look at the first three paragraphs of the article and think about how you would annotate them. Then look at the example annotation below. With a partner, discuss what techniques from the information box above you can see in the example.

7. Now read the rest of the article closely. While you read, use the annotation techniques from the previous page to annotate the article.

8. When you’ve finished, compare your text annotation with other students in your group.

• What’s similar or different about your annotations? • Is there something from a classmate’s annotation that you could learn from?

Go Deeper

Want to know more about Theory of Mind? Watch this video or read this article in your free time.

youtu.be/ XDtjLSa50uk

verywellmind.com/ theory-of-mind-4176826


https://youtu.be/XDtjLSa50uk

https://youtu.be/XDtjLSa50uk

https://www.verywellmind.com/theory-of-mind-4176826

https://www.verywellmind.com/theory-of-mind-4176826

Test taking strategy: Note completion task

You can approach a note completion task in the same way you do most other gap fill tasks. 1. Check how many words and/or numbers are required for each gap. 2. Try to identify the type of word(s) that are needed for each gap (e.g. noun,

verb, adjective etc.). 3. Find and carefully read the relevant section of the text. 4. Select a word or words from the text that accurately fills the gap.

Remember: Numbers can be written using figures or words. Contracted words are not tested. Hyphenated words count as single words.

NotetakingAfter students have spent time annotating a text, they may also take notes, often in outline form, on a separate paper or notebook. This helps them further consolidate what they have read and may be used later for review or for a follow-up task.

Because notetaking is an effective way to show understanding of the main ideas and details of a text, note completion tasks often appear in reading tests.

9. Team challenge

Your goal is to work as a group to do a note completion task in a given time frame. Follow these instructions. Good luck! 1. Form a group of between 3 - 4 members. 2. In your group, spend 3 minutes planning your team’s strategy for completing the

work and checking your answers together. 3. When your group has finished planning, spend 5 minutes doing the note completion

task below using one word or a number from the text 4. If your group finishes quickly, do the extra activity; ‘fast finishers’.5. Your teacher will tell you when to start and stop the task.6. When you’ve finished and checked your answers with the class, compare your group’s

strategy for achieving this goal with other groups’. • What worked/didn’t work well in your group? • Which group was the most effective? Why?

Study Notes:

Study 1: 2010

• 1. participants, divided into teams of 2-5 ppl.• each team performed collective intelligence test – series of

short problem-solving 2. • included coordination, moral reasoning, 3.

Findings:• some groups performed 4. well across tasks =

some groups are 5. than others.


Study Notes:

Study 2: 6.

• Same participants as in first study• Each participant given an 7. test

Findings:• individual intelligence tests didn’t have a significant influence

on team performance, nor did being more 8. or 9.

• 3 key 10. for team success:• members communicated and contributed 11. ,

no one dominated• better at understanding others’ 12. states• groups contain more 13.

Study 3: 14.

• same collective intelligence test as first study.• 15. teams divided into 2 conditions

16. 17.

Findings:• smart groups were reliably successful in both conditions• similar 18. for team success as previous study

regardless of method of 19. • members understand other’s emotions from their facial

20. but also more generally from an 21. called Theory of Mind

Fast finishers?If your team has finished quickly, work together to create 2 or 3 comprehension questions about the article to test the other teams. Write your questions out clearly and be sure that your answers can be found in the text.

Reading comprehension

10. Researchers usually create questions that they use to test their hypotheses in their research. Below are four research questions relating to collective intelligence. Match the research question to the appropriate study. One question is not relevant.

Study Research question

Study 1 a. Does the interaction method influence collective intelligence?

b. How does collective intelligence affect Theory of Mind?c. Does collective intelligence exist in teams? d. What factors contribute to collective intelligence?

Study 2

Study 3


11. Sometimes you might encounter sentence structures in your reading that are difficult to understand. In this case, spend a little more time thinking about their meaning and possible paraphrases. Identify if each pair of sentences has the same or a different meaning. Write S for Same and D for Different.

Sentence 1 Sentence 2

1. What matters is not just the intelligence and wisdom of the individual actors involved.

The intelligence of the individual actors involved is the only thing that is important.

2. It appeared that it was not “diversity” (having equal numbers of men and women) that mattered for a team’s intelligence, but simply having more women.

Having a larger number of women than men on a team had a greater influence on a team’s intelligence than having an even ratio of men to women.

3. Emotion-reading mattered just as much for the online teams whose members could not see one another as for the teams that worked face to face.

Both for teams that performed their tasks face-to-face and those that did so online, the ability to read the emotions of team members was equally important.

4. What makes teams smart must be not just the ability to read facial expressions, but a more general ability, known as “Theory of Mind”.

Neither the skill of reading facial expressions nor the “Theory of Mind” ability makes teams intelligent.

SummarisingAfter annotating texts and taking notes, it’s sometimes a good idea to also write a summary of the article. Doing this helps you to check that you have understood the article and helps you better remember the information.

Test-taking strategy: Open cloze

For the previous gap-fill tasks in this unit, you needed to find content words (words that carry meaning including nouns, main verbs, adjectives and some adverbs). However, for this type of gap-fill task, you’ll need to think about function words, also called grammatical words, which include auxiliary verbs, pronouns, articles, prepositions, determiners, adverbs, and conjunctions.

To complete an open cloze task• read the complete text first before attempting to answer any questions.

Having an overview of the content will sometimes help you to identify missing words.

• pay attention to the clauses and words around each gap as these will usually help you identify which part of speech is missing - a verb, a conjunction, or a pronoun, for example.


12. Read the summary below and write the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. An example has been done for you.

Summary

In recent research, Swaab and colleagues wanted 0. to find out if there is a common factor 1. determines a group’s success and predicts the group’s future performance. Simply put, they wanted to know if some groups are characteristically “smarter” 2. others.

In their first two studies, the researchers assigned volunteer participants to groups and gave them a range 3. tasks to complete. Teams were then identified as more effective and therefore “smarter” than others based 4. how well they performed across all tasks. The researchers described this level of “smartness” as a general collective intelligence factor (termed “c factor”). Swaab et al. then examined a number of group and individual factors 5. might explain the c factor. They found that collective intelligence was not strongly correlated with the average or maximum individual intelligence of group members, nor 6. their level of motivation or extroversion. Instead, they discovered that it correlated with the average emotional sensitivity of group members, 7. equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of females 8. the group.

The researchers later investigated whether these same findings 9. true in both face-to-face and online situations. This later study found that a collective intelligence factor characterized group performance approximately as well for online groups 10. for face-to-face groups, and that surprisingly, the Theory of Mind measure 11. equally predictive of collective intelligence in 12. face-to-face and online groups, even though the online groups communicated only via text and 13. saw each other.

Vocabulary

13. Scan the article to find these words. With a partner, make notes about the meaning and part of speech for each word. Discuss the pronunciation of each word.

vary

contribute

consistently

interaction

period

dominate

complex

series

participate

define

Word patterns

In English, it’s common to find patterns of two or more words that are often used together in a way that sounds correct. This is called collocation. For example, we usually say significant impact rather than important impact. English is filled with such word combinations and learning them will help you sound more natural and make your texts more cohesive.

You can also pay attention to the grammatical patterns that words appear in. This is sometimes referred to as colligation. For example, in a sentence which contains the collocations significant impact, you might notice that the other words surrounding the collocation are in the grammatical pattern; ‘have a significant impact on + noun’.

Remember: When learning or reviewing vocabulary it’s important to pay attention to the phrases that they appear in.


14. Now complete the following sentences with words from the box. When you’ve finished, search for and highlight any word patterns relating to the key words.

1. He continued to the discussion with his ideas about the project. He really should have let others speak.

2. A group with good cohesion should be able to solve highly problems 3. Our grades became higher after we decided to form a study group. 4. Collaboration improves when we can clearly the roles of individual

team members.5. As a BE student, it is important for you to actively in all opportunities

for language practice. 6. Course assessments at UQ greatly in task type, completion time and

weighting.7. A social is an exchange between two or more individuals and is a

building block of society.8. The researchers’ efforts will significantly to developing our

understanding of the science of teamwork.9. In just a short of time the students figured out how to work effectively

as a powerful team.10. The group held a of meetings to plan for the project.

15. Go back to the text and search for more collocations of the key words. Write them in the table below. An example has been provided.

vary• the varied kinds of + Ns• Ns + vary in N/NP

contribute consistently

interaction period dominate

complex series participate

define

Note: Ns = plural nouns, NP = noun phrase

Word families

When you learn a new word, you can really boost your vocabulary power by spending a little extra time learning the word family instead of limiting your study to just the individual word.

Doing this means you’ll strengthen your knowledge of affixes in English which can increase your ability to recognise or guess the meaning of new words in your reading and listening. It can also help you strengthen your grammatical knowledge of words which means you are more likely to use them accurately in your speaking and writing. Finally, knowing word families means you’ll be better able to recognise and use paraphrasing.


16. Complete the word family table of these words. At first, do not use a dictionary or other online tool. Work with your group to fill in as much of the table as you can.

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

vary

(in)consistency consist consistently

period

complex

participate

contribute

interaction

dominate

series

define

17. Now go to UEFAP and check your answers. Then identify which word in the word family is the most common. uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm

18. Practice using some of the word families from task 16 in this mini-paraphrasing task. Look at the bolded words in each sentence to help you guess the missing word for each gap and which form (e.g. noun, verb etc.) it should be in.

1. a. His contributions to the conversation are always really valuable.b. He always really valuable ideas to the conversation.

2. a. Tasks with increasing complexity were given to the group. b. The group were made to do increasingly tasks.

3.

a. The team is set to win the championship because they’ve been playing consistently all season.

b. The team’s performance all season means they are likely to win the championship.

4. a. At the start, the group didn’t fully appreciate how complex the project was. b. The of the project was not fully appreciated by the group

at the start.

5.

a. Teams in which members have equal participation are usually the most successful.

b. The most successful teams are usually those in which members equally.

6.

a. The factor that contributed most to collective intelligence was emotion-reading ability.

b. The main factor to collective intelligence was emotion-reading ability.

7.

a. In the research, teams varied greatly in their size, gender distribution and level of expertise.

b. In the research, there was a great deal of in the size, gender distribution and level of expertise of teams.

8.

a. The definition of Theory of Mind is the ability to understand the mental states - beliefs, desires, and intentions- of others.

b. Theory of Mind can be as the ability to understand the mental states - beliefs, desires, and intentions - of others.


http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm

Grammar

19. What is the name that describes the common grammatical pattern bolded in sentences a-c? Write it in the box below. Discuss with your partner what you know, and what you are not sure about, regarding this grammar structure.

R c s

a. Everyone who has ever been part of team has likely experienced these and other problems that can occur when people try to work together in groups.

b. In our first study, which was published in 2010 in the journal Science, we randomly assigned 697 volunteer participants into teams of two to five members.

c. Emotion-reading mattered just as much for the online teams whose members could not see one another as for the teams that worked face to face.

20. Answer these questions with your partner.

1. Why are there commas around the relative clause in example b but not the other examples?

2. Why is who used in example a? 3. Why is which used in example b? 4. Why is whose used in example c? 5. Why is that used in example a and c?

21. Go back through the article to find and highlight at least 5 other examples of relative clauses. Compare with a partner.

22. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. You can use: who / which / that / whose / nothing. If more than one word is possible, write both possibilities.

When working toward individual goals, we often surround ourselves with other people 1. are trying to achieve the same things. Collaborating with people 2. outcomes are the same as yours – whether that’s in a study group, at work, or something more personal, like trying to achieve a fitness goal – can be motivating. But have you ever had one of these collaborative relationships turn competitive? If so, it’s human nature.

Toward the beginning of pursuing a goal 3. is shared, people often help each other, knowing how hard it is to stick to a workout schedule or face the challenges of studying. But, at some point, this collective focus has another impact on participants - individuals 4. are pursuing similar goals start comparing themselves to each other. These comparisons can create competitive feelings 5. create a sense of “pseudo-competition.” As the “competition” increases, people start to perceive their counterparts as a threat to their goal performance, at which point, teamwork turns nasty.

go to Language Bank

Extensive reading: Making groups work – University students’ perceptionsIn this week’s extensive reading task, you’ll read about how some students at an Australian university feel about doing group work. You’ll also learn about how to better deal with long academic texts and you’ll also watch a short clip with tips for reading journal articles


Read the following text and answer the questions that follow.

The surprising problem of too much talent

A new finding from sports could have implications in business and elsewhere

By Cindi May on October 14, 2014

Whether it’s the owner of the Lakers NBA Basketball team, or the captain of the school football club, the goal in picking players is the same: Get the top talent. Hearts have been broken, allegiances tested, and budgets busted as teams contend for the best athletes. The motivation for recruiting peak performers is obvious — exceptional players are the key to team success — and this belief is shared not only by coaches and sports fans, but also by a wide variety of organisations, whole industries and even entire societies. While it’s pretty clear that everyone wants a team of stars, Roderick Swaab and colleagues conducted research in order to find out if bringing together the most talented individuals always produces the best performance.

The researchers looked at three sports: basketball, soccer, and baseball. In each sport, they calculated both the percentage of top talent on each team and the teams’ success over several years. For example, they identified top NBA talent using each player’s Estimated Wins Added (EWA), a statistic commonly employed to capture a player’s overall contribution to his team, along with the number of times players were selected to play in an All-star tournament. Once the researchers determined who the elite players were, they calculated top-talent percentage at the team level by dividing the number of star players on the team by the total number of players on that team. Finally, team performance was measured by the team’s win-loss record over 10 seasons of games.

For both basketball and soccer, they found that top talent did in fact predict team success, but only up to a point. Furthermore, there was a point at which the relationship between talent and performance eventually turned negative. Basketball and soccer teams with the greatest proportion of elite athletes performed worse

than those with more moderate proportions of top-level players.’

To understand why too much talent is a bad thing, we need to think in terms of teamwork. In many endeavours, success requires collaborative, cooperative work towards a goal that is beyond the capability of any one individual. When a team roster is flooded with individual talent, pursuit of personal star status may prevent the attainment of team goals. The basketball player aiming to boost their own points record, for example, may cost the team by taking risky shots instead of passing to a teammate who is open and ready to score.

Two related findings by Swaab and colleagues indicate that there is in fact a trade-off between top talent and teamwork. First, Swaab and colleagues found that the percentage of top talent on a team affects *intrateam coordination. For the basketball study, teams with the highest levels of top performers had fewer assists. Too many dominant individuals produced disputes over within-group authority and status which led to failures in strategic, collaborative play that undermined the team’s effectiveness. The second revealing finding is that extreme levels of top talent did not have the same negative effect in baseball, which experts have argued involves much less interdependence. In the baseball study, increasing numbers of stars on a team never hindered overall performance. Together these findings suggest that high levels of top talent will be harmful in arenas that require coordinated, strategic efforts, as the quest for the spotlight may trump the teamwork needed to get the job done.

The lessons here extend beyond the sports field to any group or endeavour that must balance competitive and collaborative efforts, including corporate teams, financial research groups, and

Test practice


brainstorming exercises. Indeed, the impact of too much talent is even evident in other animals: When hen colonies have too many dominant, high-producing chickens, conflict and hen mortality rise while egg production drops. So before breaking the bank to recruit superstars, team owners and industry experts might want to consider whether the goal they

are trying to achieve relies on individual talent alone, or a cooperative synergy from the team. If the latter, it would be wise to rein in the talent and focus on teamwork.

*intrateam co-ordination: the coordination that is needed within a team to achieve success in a game.

Adapted from scientificamerican.com/article/ the-surprising-problem-of-too-much-talent/

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information in the text?

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. Conflict sometimes occurs when there is competition to get the best players. Y / N / NG2. Swaab’s research was sponsored by a sports organisation. Y / N / NG3. Basketball teams win more games when they are full of talented players. Y / N / NG4. Some elite players make selfish choices during a game. Y / N / NG5. The sport of baseball requires more teamwork than baseball and soccer. Y / N / NG6. Studies of hen colonies showed similar results to basketball teams. Y / N / NG

Questions 7-13

Complete the notes using no more than two words and/or a number from the text in each gap.

Research by Swaab et al.

Aim: to find out if talented people improve team performance by looking at 3 types of sports teams

Method (NBA):1. Decide which players are 7. by using their EWA + the number of

8. competitions they played in2. Calculate the percentage of top talent on each team

3. Assess the team’s success using their results from 9.

Findings• Having a lot of talented players had a 10. effect on team

success and their performance (e.g. in basketball there were not as many 11. during a game)

• When players focus on personal success, it creates 12. about who has more status and power

• 13. was the only sport that showed different results


https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-surprising-problem-of-too-much-talent/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-surprising-problem-of-too-much-talent/

Vocabulary

1. Think about the meaning of the word talent in the article and follow the instructions below.

a. Complete the word family table for the word talent.

Noun Verb Adjective Adverb

b. Circle the word/phrase that does NOT collocate with talent. Use just-the-word.com to help you.

1. have show recognize make TALENT

2. large great considerable natural TALENT

3. a pool of a group of a wealth of a lack of TALENT

4. TALENT for sth in sth on sth to do sth

c. Quickly scan the text to find two more collocations with talent.• (adj) talent• (verb) in the talent

2. In the article, the writer frequently uses the collocation ‘top talent’ because it’s an important key phrase, but she also uses a range of synonymous phrases so that the article links well, flows smoothly, and doesn’t sound too repetitive. Complete the list of synonymous phrases below without looking back at the text. When you’ve finished or can’t do any more, check the text for your answers.

1. the b a 2. p p 3. e p 4. s 5. the m t

i

6. e p 7. s p 8. e a 9. t - l p 10. t p 11. s

Reading to writing: Lexical cohesion

3. This week you may write an essay about teamwork. To prepare, brainstorm possible synonymous phrases in the box below. Use the articles from this unit, or a classmate to help generate ideas.

Teamwork:

Cohesion

Using repetition, synonymy and collocation all help build lexical cohesion. In academic writing, lexical cohesion is an important factor contributing to the overall cohesion of your writing.


www.just-the-word.com

Speaking

Remember the statements you discussed with a partner at the beginning of the unit? Let’s talk about them again. But this time, try to use all the information and vocabulary you’ve learnt about group and team work to improve the way you discuss the statements.

1. First, think about whether your opinions about the statements have changed at all. Spend a minute to add a new , , ½ to the statements below. Then turn back to p2, ex. 2. Have you changed your mind?

Statement My opinion ½

My partner’s opinion ½

1. A team’s goals are more important than the goals of the individual members.

2. The intelligence of a group is equal to the intelligence of its members added together.

3. Group members can communicate just as effectively using technology (IM, email, Zoom) as they can when face to face

4. People who have similar interests and backgrounds work together better than people who are very different.

5. Teamwork is a more effective way to complete different tasks and projects than working individually.

Changing your mind or standing your ground

In academic discussions, you are usually expected to have an opinion on a topic which you can strongly support. However, it’s not uncommon to change your position after hearing opposing arguments or learning more information about the topic. Thus, it’s a good idea to know how to show if you’ve changed your mind or if you are standing firm on your opinion.

2. Look at the expressions below and add them to the relevant section of the table.

1. Actually, now I think about it …2. I still tend to think that …3. I definitely still think that …4. I had thought that … but now I’m

not so sure.5. At first, I thought … But now I think …

6. From the beginning I thought… and I still do.

7. … is what I’ve always thought. 8. You know what? I’ve changed my

mind about …9. I stand firm in my belief that …

Maintaining your position Changing your position

3. Now find a partner and discuss the statements with them. Choose one or two of the expressions from each column of the table above to use in your discussion. Tick the expression when you use it.


unit 2 contents • graduate attributes • teamwork and

Documents