学术英语 社科
Academic English for
Social Sciences
10
The Study of Politics
as a Science
Why is the study of politics not called
“politics” but “political science”? What
renders the study of political science?
This unit may help us find the answers by
providing insight into the nature of
political science and the kind of work
political scientists do.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Unit Contents
Lead-in
Text A
Text B
Text C
Listening
Speaking
Writing
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Lead-in
– Lead-in task
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Lead-in
Task 1 Listen to a short talk on classical federalism
(联邦主义) and fill in the blanks according to what
you have heard.
functions each
Firstly, there is a constitutional division of (1) governmental
____________________,
level being autonomous in at least one sphere of action. So an obvious sort
of division, under a federal system, would be (2) _____________________
defence responsibilities
in the hands of the central government or federal government, with
education being a state or local responsibility. Secondly, each government is
final and supreme in its constitutionally assigned area. Thirdly, both
(3) ________________
the citizens Fourthly, both levels derive their
levels act directly (4) on
_____________.
powers from the sovereign, from the people or the (5) constitution
__________, rather
than from one another. Fifthly, therefore, neither can change the relationship
unilaterally, and finally, such systems normally have (6) ________________.
regional divisions
The states exist as of their own right.
Task 2 Listen again and check your answers.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Text A
– Critical reading and thinking
– English language for
academic purpose
• Specialized vocabulary
• Signpost language
• Formal English
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
Definition of political science:
the study of the struggles, both small and large, of
who gets what, when, how, in an effort to develop
general principles or theories about the way the world
of politics works.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
Major sub-fields (Para 1)
eight major sub-fields
To find out the sub-headings in Text A which
demonstrates a more detailed sketch of the work
political scientists do.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
Science
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
1. Investigating relationships
2. Building theories
1) What is hypothesis?
Statements that researchers construct for the
purpose of testing whether or not a certain
relationship exists between two phenomena
2) How to build theories?
By developing and testing hypothesis.
e.g. We want to know whether presidential
elections are affected by economic conditions.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
Hypothesis:
When the national unemployment rate is greater
than seven percent at the time of the election,
presidential incumbents are not reelected.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
3. Collecting data
1) the dependent variable of the hypothesis:
the reelection of incumbent presidents
2) the independent variable:
the national unemployment rate
3) the finding:
In most cases the incumbent lost when the national
unemployment rate was greater than 7 percent at
the time of a presidential election.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
5. Clear, consistent, objective writing
→avoid the use of impressionistic or metaphorical
language;
→persuade through their command of the facts and
their ability to relate those facts to theories;
→clarity and concision (e.g. clearly define
terms/concepts)
→operationalize key terms
→operationalization: the process of specifying the
extension of a concept – describing what is and is not
a part of that concept
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
e.g. anger
It is difficult to measure “anger” in empirical
research. We need to have more precise criteria
with which to measure or assess it. Such criteria
in this case can include facial expression, choice
of vocabulary, loudness and tone of voice.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Specialized vocabulary
Translate the following terms into Chinese:
1 political science
2 comparative politics
3 international relations
4 political methodology
5 public policy
6 public administration
Do Task 2 on page 204
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Signpost language
There are two kinds of signpost language:
1) Linking words and phrases that we have
discussed in previous units.
2) Major signposts that signal key aspects of your
work, such as structure, main points, conclusion etc.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Signpost language
Here are some examples highly useful in academic writing:
→To remind the reader of the purpose or focus of the study
The present study investigates…
The aim of this study was to…
This study set out to assess the impact of…
→To summarize the findings of the study
This study has shown that…
The main finding of this thesis is that…
This study demonstrates that…
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Signpost language
→To indicate the importance of the findings
This is the first study, to our knowledge, to examine…
These results describe for the first time…
Only one other study, to our knowledge, has examined…
→To point out the limitations of the study
The study has a number of possible limitations.
The main limitation of this study is that…
The above analysis does not enable us to determine…
→To recommend further research
Future studies with statistical analyses… would be of interest.
Several questions remain to be resolved; in particular…
More research in this area is necessary before…
Further studies are required to establish…
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Signpost language
After class, find a published paper in your
discipline, scan the paper and highlight the
major signposts. Check if you find the above
expressions in the paper.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text A
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Formal English
2
Go over the tips on how to make your
writing appropriate for academic writing.
Then do Task 3 on page 206.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
1 Translate the following terms into Chinese.
1 political science
2 comparative politics
3 international relations
4 political methodology
5 public policy
6 public administration
政治学
__________
比较政治
__________
国际关系
__________
政治学方法论
___________
公共政策
__________
公共行政管理
___________
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
2 Translate the following sentences into English using the above
terms.
1. Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study
of the state, government and politics.
2. Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by
an empirical approach based on the comparative method.
3. International relations research covers international politics, current
affairs, diplomacy, and global cultures.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
2 Translate the following sentences into English using the above
terms.
4. Political methodology is a subfield of Political Science that studies the
quantitative methods used to study politics.
5. Public policy is a governmental attempt to address a public issue.
6. One of the oldest professions, public administration has long involved
logistical issues of government.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 3 Formal English
1. generalized use of “you”
Corrected Version: Evidence of abuse is frequently found as
soon as the public administration issues are studied carefully.
2. use of contractions like couldn't, can't, isn't
Corrected Version: The panel could not establish the cause
of the disaster and in the end no blame was attached to the
company.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 3 Formal English
3. inappropriately informal language like great
Corrected Version: The results of the government study
were highly useful because they enabled the university to
fund the new department.
4. rhetorical questions should be avoided
Corrected Version: It is questionable whether the "Design
School Model" provides a practical solution to the problem
of strategy formulation.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Text B
– Critical reading and thinking
– Difficult sentences
– English language for academic
purpose
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Critical reading and thinking
Science
Text Analysis
The two sub-headings indicate the structure of the
text:
1. The primary task of the major in political science
2. The context of political study
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
Compare traditional political science education and the author’s suggestions
about it.
Traditional political- science
Education
Goal
civic education,
political socialization
education for citizenship,
Content
education for public service,
international relations
End Products political scientists, good
citizens
Context
U.S.-centered
The author’s suggestions
maximizing students' capacity to
analyze, and even shape political
events and governmental
processes
knowledge of political science
and related disciplines
Politically-literate college graduates
the whole world, including nonWestern cultures
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Critical reading and thinking
Science
Text Analysis
Do Task 2 on page 211.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Difficult sentences
Science
•
It should aim at turning politically interested and
concerned students, whatever their career plans or
their other interests, into politically literate college
graduates. (Para. 4)
→ It should try to educate any college students (even
if they are not political science students) who are
interested in or concerned with political issues to
have the basic working knowledge of political
science.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Difficult sentences
Science
•
It should equip them intellectually to comprehend
and deal with their political world after graduation, in
ways appropriate to their individual inclinations, be it
“merely” as intelligent citizens, as journalists, as
active participants in business or in electoral politics,
as candidates for office or as public officials, or even
as academic political scientists. (Para. 4)
→ It should help them after graduation from college to
understand and handle political issues in ways that
satisfy their personal goals which can vary from just
being an intelligent citizen, to being a journalist, an
active participant of business or politics, or even
being a political science academian.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Difficult sentences
Science
•
We do not believe we are abandoning or shortchanging them. (Para. 4)
→ We do not think we are giving up on students or
just not doing our best to educate them.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Difficult sentences
Science
•
It is incumbent on political science to communicate
not just the fact of ethnic and cultural pluralism, but
some sense of the rapidly growing, intricate global
interdependence of the lives and activities of all the
world’s nations and people. (Para.5)
→ It is the duty of political science to not just tell
students that there are many ethnic groups and
different cultures in the world, but also to develop
their awareness of how these groups and cultures
are increasingly becoming interdependent of each
other.
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
Difficult sentences
Science
•
…political power realities of a bygone era… (Para. 6)
→ … the past political power realities that is no longer
the reality…
•
how specific cultural biases color their own outlooks
as well as those of “others” (Para. 9)
→ …how specific cultural biases blind them to their
own point of views and those of people who they
see as others
Unit 10
The Study of
Text B
Politics as a
English language for academic purpose
Science
Specialized vocabulary and Collocations
civic education
political socialization
governmental actions
electoral politics
public officials
population explosion
bygone era
minority groups
acquaint sb. with
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Text C
– Suggested answers
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Text C
Suggested answers
Task Write the full names of the following acronyms(首字母缩写
词) with the help of the text or dictionaries.
UN: ________________________________________
United Nations
UNCED:_________________________________________
UN Conference on Environment and Development
NGO:________________________________________
non-Government Organization
WSSD:_______________________________________
World Summit on Sustainable Development
Economically developed country
EDC:_________________________________________
Least Developed Country
LDC:_________________________________________
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Listening
–Listening tasks
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Listening
Academic activities
integrated practice
Review what academic listening strategies
we have covered in the previous units.
Do Task 1 and Task 2 on pages 214-215.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Listening
Listening tasks
Task 1 Why are people poor?
Task 2 Listen to the lecture again and complete the notes according to
what you have heard.
Why people are poor: explanations of different historical eras
Before the 19th century:
people
were poor because it was their fate.
__________________________________
In the later 19th century:
people
were poor because they were not working hard.
___________________________________________
The present:
1 _____________________
the culture of poverty view
2 ______________
Neo-Marxist view
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Listening
Listening tasks
Task 3 Listen to the lecture for a third time and complete the
sentences according to what you have heard.
1. The poverty line is the level of income below which people
cannot afford to purchase the resources they require to live.
2. People were poor because they were supposed to be poor.
That’s how they were born.
3. The poor seemed to be thriftless, lazy , undisciplined,
and lacked initiative , and morals.
4. So the first view seems to be that people are poor because
of their culture whereas the second view seems to suggest
that they have the particular way of life because of their
poverty.
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Speaking
–Speaking skills
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Speaking
Improve your delivery
→eye contact
→posture
→movements
→gesture
→note-cards
→volume
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Speaking
Presentation checklist
Have I practiced several times?
Did I get feedback from a peer?
Have I timed the presentation?
Do I introduce myself?
Do I maintain eye contact?
Do I explain my visuals?
Do I pause sometimes and check for understanding?
Do I use correct pronunciation?
Am I using appropriate volume so that everyone can hear?
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
• Writing
– Abstract
– Acknowledgements
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Writing
Abstract
An abstract includes the following components
in a brief way:
a topic
research questions
methods
results
and conclusions
Unit 10
The Study of
Politics as a
Science
Writing
Acknowledgements
Give thanks to those who have helped you at any
stage in the research or writing-up process.
Use a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary to
make the acknowledgements more interesting.