Title: The language of popular science

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

The language of popular science.

Target group:

2nd‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1. processes and prioritizes information from texts such as journalistic, popular science and scientific;

3) recognises the specificity of journalistic texts (article, column, reportage), rhetoric (speech, laudation, homily), popular science and scientific (dissertation); it distinguishes between message and commentary among press texts; recognizes linguistic means and their functions used in texts; reads information and explicit and hidden messages; distinguishes between correct and avoidant responses.

II. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

2) distinguishes functional styles of the Polish language and understands the rules of their application;

7) recognises the valuing vocabulary; distinguishes neutral vocabulary from the vocabulary with an emotional color, official from colloquial.

3. Language communication and language culture. Student:

4) recognises phenomena causing ambiguity of statements (homonyms, anacolutes, ellipses, paradoxes), cares for the clarity and precision of the message;

5) uses different varieties of Polish depending on the communication situation;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

2) develops the ability of independent work, inter alia, by preparing various forms of presenting their own position;

3) organises the information into a problematic whole by valuing it; synthesizes the learned content around the problem, topic, issue and uses it in your statements;

4) uses scientific or popular science literature;

5) makes a critical selection of sources;

11) uses multimedia resources, eg from: libraries, on‑line dictionaries, e‑book publications, original websites; selects web sources, taking into account the criterion of material correctness and critically evaluates their content.

General aim of education

Students learn the features of popular science style, they can recognize and point them, they also talk about contemporary ways of popularizing

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• characterises popular science style and recognises it in texts;

• processes and hierarchises information from popular science texts;

• indicates and names linguistic means in the text.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher asks students to bring or brings several popular science magazines to classes.

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the classes and sets criteria for success together with the students.

2. Definition of the term „popular science”. The teacher asks students what it means to „popularize science” and whether they know projects or events that promote science. Students can indicate events such as Noc Muzeów, Festiwal Nauki or Uniwersytet Dziecięcy.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students who is the sender and who is the recipient of popular science texts. Then, together with students, he tries to determine what features a popular science style can have. Students will probably pay attention to the presence of elements of the scientific, journalistic and colloquial style. Saving the applications in notebooks.

2. Students get acquainted with the content of the interactive schema (exercise 3) and then exercise 1.

3. Work in pairs (exercise 2). Students talk about their experiences related to the popularization of science (from where they get knowledge, whether they watch popular science programs, read specialist press, etc.).

4. The teacher divides the class into groups of 4. Each receives one copy of a popular science magazine. The task of the groups will be to select three articles and analyze them in terms of the features of the popular science style. The aim of the students' work will be to prove that the magazine is popular science. After the appointed time, students present the results of their work and discuss the conclusions together. Note, the task is an alternative to exercise 6 in the abstract.

5. Performing exercises 4 and 5 in abstract.

6. Students choose one of the proposed scientific channels available on the YouTube website (interactive exercise No. 7) and share insights regarding this form of popularizing knowledge (advantages, advantages, self‑presentation of the sender, effectiveness). The teacher introduces the concept of „edutainment”, the students discuss the usefulness of knowledge acquired from quiz shows.

Summary

1. Students choose the three most difficult words appearing in the abstract and prepare English‑language definitions for them.

2. The teacher asks students to prepare questions for the quiz that can be carried out after the lesson. He gathers suggestions from students and reads out a few aloud. The class tries to answer questions. The collected questions can be passed to the students before the test as a form of repetition of the message.

Homework

1. Read and then summarize (using up to 150 words) one 2‑3-page popular science article in your chosen journal.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The language of popular science

The popularisation of science refers to all activities which make the results of scientific work accessible to a wide audience. The best known forms of popularised knowledge are popular science books and magazines. These ventures are also characteristic for the media and a variety of institutions such as museums, zoos and libraries. Festivals and science centres are also becoming increasingly popular.

Popular science style is a variation on scientific style. The writer is a specialist in some field, usually a scientist or science journalist. The reader – is usually a person with a slight background in some field of science, who wants to expand or deepen their knowledge of a certain topic. Popular science style contains elements that are characteristic of academic, journalistic, artistic and even colloquial styles.

All features typical of journalistic, artistic and colloquial styles, such as the use of metaphors, phraseology and expressive vocabulary, can be used in the acquisition of knowledge. Therefore, popular science texts can be seen as a bridge linking the professional communication of scientists with everyday means of sharing knowledge.