Text a. Email Technology and Human Communication

Ever since email became widely adopted in the corporate world, several irreversible shifts in the way people communicate have taken place. Those shifts include, among others:

(1) The control over who communicates with whom has shifted a bit from strictly following communication channels to more unexpected communication patterns. (2) The burden of deciding on the importance of any given piece of email, has shifted from sender to receiver.

As more people embraced email communication, another technological transformation took place. People began to use distribution lists and online bulletin boards to form groups to share information with about subjects that mattered to them. Forums were the beginning of collaborative tools that satisfied another human need: the need for community.

Online bulletin boards and forums were one of the precursors to today’s online social networks and collaboration tools.

(The text is retrieved from the Internet at http://www.com.ua/meansofcommunication /as of 12 December 2011 and modified as compared with the original)

Text b. Making Phone Calls

Telephoning has clear advantages it is a better medium for the discussion of sensitive or complex issues, and it allows you to agree to take immediate action. Also, talking provides more opportunities for creating a positive working relationship with your colleagues.

As is true for internal e-mails, internal telephone calls tend to be less formal, less prepared and therefore less professional than external communication. However, there is a danger of forgetting the “telephone basics” and of not respecting your colleague sufficiently.

Improve your English by using it on the telephone at least once a day rather than sending e-mail. Telephoning is a great way to improve your fluency and build vocabulary.

(The text is retrieved from the Internet at http://www.com.ua/meansofcommunication /as of 12 December 2011 and modified as compared with the original)

Text c. Social Networking

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services.

Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.

(The text is retrieved from the Internet at http://mashable.com/follow/topics/social-networking/

as of 12 December 2011 and modified as compared with the original)

2. Оn the basis of the text (A, B or C) you have already chosen in exercise 1 make up the summary to the text you have just read. After the group discussion, one student from each of the group will be requested to make a short presentation of the summary made (your utterance should include not more than three sentences; not more that three minutes for every presentation; not more that 12 minutes for all the presentations).

3. Role-play (10 minutes). Every small group should be divided into two pairs. One student in a pair is an interviewer; the other is a person interviewed for a TV program. The subject matter of the interview is embodied in the text read. For instance, in the interviews based on the text A (p. 71) the e-mail technology is being discussed. In the interviews based on the text B (p. 71) both positive and negative sides of telephoning are being discussed while in the interviews based on the text C (p.72) the social networking is under consideration. The interviewer is supposed to ask the interviewee 3-4 questions on the basis of the text read.