Lectures given in particular subject areas are likely to contain examples of
specialist language from that subject area. They may also contain examples of
general language that reflects the speaker's attitude towards what they are
saying.
In these activities you will practise your listening skills using an extract
from an economics lecture and focus on some of the language used by the lecturer.
You will consider how the lecturer expresses doubt or criticism.
Activity 1: Preparing to listen
You are going to listen to part of a presentation on assessing economic development
given by a lecturer in a university school of management. Before you listen,
it may help to look up the meanings of some of the words used by the speaker.
Use a dictionary to check the meanings of the following
words. Make notes of these in each box below:
sustainable (adj)
indicator (n)
gain (n)
index (n)
inequality (n)
valid (adj)
undermine (v)
Activity 2: Listening practice
As you listen to the lecture you are going to answer some questions to check
your understanding. Read the questions below before you listen. Identify the key words in each question and the kind of information you need to listen for.
Now listen to the lecture extract and make notes in the boxes
provided. Answer all the questions fully before you check your answers. You
may wish to check the tapescript when you have answered the questions.
The criticism is that GDP assumes growth has only beneficial
effects and ignores or treats as gains the side-effects such as environmental
damage: '[GDP] assumes that all economic development is good, and only measures
economic growth, but...the side-effects of economic growth...are ignored'
3. What do critics say needs to be measured in addition to the amount
of growth in order to give a more accurate picture?
Critics say that the quality of growth should
also be measured: 'what is needed in order to give a more realistic picture of economic
progress is an indicator of the quality as well as the quantity of growth'
4. In your own words, how does the ISEW differ from GDP?
Factors mentioned in the lecture are: (1) income inequality,
(2) environmental damage, (3) unpaid household labour, (4) climate change,
(5) health and (6) education.
Now an alternative to using GDP as an indicator of economic welfare
is using what is known as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare. The
argument for this is that the standard indicator for assessing economic
development, in other words GDP, assumes that all economic development is
good, and only measures economic growth, but that the side-effects of economic
growth - by which I mean, environmental damage, damage to health, the increasing
inequality between rich and poor - all of these are ignored, or even treated
as economic gains. So, the argument goes, what is needed in order to give
a more realistic picture of economic progress is an indicator of the quality
as well as the quantity of growth.
This is where the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, or ISEW,
comes in. Basically, the way this indicator works is that it awards social
and environmental factors a financial cost. So, for example, if air pollution
in a country is very high, this counts negatively against the overall indicator
of progress. The other factors that are taken into account are income inequality,
environmental damage, unpaid household labour, climate change, health and
education.
But the ISEW has been criticised by those who say that it is not valid
to put a financial cost on something like air pollution. These critics say
that this undermines the usefulness of the ISEW.
Activity 3: Listening for language that indicates doubt or criticism
Now you are going to hear short extracts from the same lecture again. Can
you pick out any words or phrases which contain expressions of doubt or criticism?
Listen and answer the questions in the boxes provided. Then
check your answers.
1. Which word tells you that GDP does not question whether economic development
is good or not?
Now an alternative to using GDP as an indicator of economic welfare
is using what is known as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare. The
argument for this is that the standard indicator for assessing economic
development, in other words GDP, assumes that all economic
development is good, and only measures economic growth, but that the side-effects
of economic growth - by which I mean, environmental damage, damage to health,
the increasing inequality between rich and poor - all of these are ignored,
or even treated as economic gains. So, the argument goes, what
is needed in order to give a more realistic picture of
economic progress is an indicator of the quality as well as the quantity
of growth.
This is where the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, or ISEW, comes
in. Basically, the way this indicator works is that it awards social and
environmental factors a financial cost. So, for example, if air pollution
in a country is very high, this counts negatively against the overall indicator
of progress. The other factors that are taken into account are income inequality,
environmental damage, unpaid household labour, climate change, health and
education.
But the ISEW has been criticised by those who say that it
is not valid to put a financial cost on something like air pollution.
These critics say that this undermines the usefulness of
the ISEW.
Produced for the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics
and Area Studies Materials Bank www.llas.ac.uk/mb
Author: Julie Watson, eLanguages, University of Southampton
