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Education in The Digital Age
Education in The Digital Age
1) Read the text and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap:
2) a) Read the text2 below and extract advantages and disadvantages of dropping cursive
handwriting from schools.
1
Exercise taken from: Proficiency GOLD Coursebook, by Jacky Newbrrok and Judith Wilson, Pearson Longman
Publishing House (2009)
2
Article by David Blair, published in February 2015, available at: https://tinyurl.com/npzxkr5
trial in Florida in 2013 for shooting the black teenager Trayvon Martin, a key witness was
Trayvon's 19-year-old friend, Rachel Jeantel. Her school no longer troubled its pupils with
traditional writing skills. In court, Ms Jeantel was forced to admit her inability to read a
handwritten document that was passed to her by a lawyer.
In addition, experts believe that learning cursive handwriting helps young children to
memorize letters, learn the alphabet and develop their hand-eye-brain coordination. This exercise
in digital precision may also help to bring out the skills of those who have the talent to be
surgeons or artists. Dropping cursive handwriting would also require the abandonment of
traditional handwritten exams. In America, exam scripts have often been replaced by multiple
choice tests, which hinder creativity.
These concerns have caused a reaction against the fading away of cursive writing. Last
year, Tennessee decided that all schools in the state will go back to teaching traditional writing
skills from this autumn onwards. Learning cursive will be compulsory in Tennessee for at least
two years of schooling.
Advantages Disadvantages
Hinders creativity
c) All arguments considered, what is your personal opinion about this measure?
Find at least ONE other benefit by looking at this infographic: The Benefits of Handwriting
vs. Typing
● problem solving
● sharpened critical thinking
4) Open cloze. Provide the words that are missing from the gaps:
The digital age has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate and even how we a)
_______read___ and write. But if we’re thoughtful in how we use devices, we can reap the
benefits they offer while avoiding their dangers. For example, Indiana University psychologist
Karin James argues that practice in handwriting is still b) _essential___ for children to become
effective readers. She gives two reasons to support this assertion. First, learning-by-doing is far
more effective than learning-by-seeing. Procedural learning always involves making c)
connections/pathways______ between the sensory (visual) and motor (hand) areas of the brain
that are recruited for the task. And d) ____secondly_____, handwriting practice is an essential
component of learning to read because writing out letters helps young children learn how to
recognize them.
To test the e) __hypothesis______ that handwriting letters creates links between sensory
and motor regions of the brain, James conducted an fMRI study using four-year olds. The
children were split into two groups. Both underwent letter recognition training, but half used the
see-and-say method while the other half copied letters as well. After four weeks, the children’s
brains were scanned once more. Connections f) __between_______ visual and hand areas were
already forming in those who’d learned by handwriting, whereas none could be detected in the
see-and-say group.
Finally, in another brain-scanning study looking at the learning of cursive, children who
were asked to g) ______copy/handwrite____ examples developed vision-hand connections in
their brains, but those who just watched adults writing in cursive did not. Likewise, children who
were taught to recognize letters by typing them on a keyboard didn’t develop vision-hand
connections, even h) ____though______ the motor task of typing was involved. In short,
learning letters by handwriting not only helps kids extract the essential features of letters, it’s
also the only method that establishes the brain connections necessary for full literacy.3
5) Learning disorders or disabilities. Match the terms (1-7) with their definitions (a-g):
1. Dyscalculia c. a) Speech (not learning) disorder in which the muscles of the
mouth, face, or respiratory system have difficulty moving.
3
Adapted from https://tinyurl.com/ychf6crb
3. Dyslexia b c) Affects a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn
math facts.
6) Put the following words back in the fragment below: learning, abstraction, sequencing,
organization, roadblock
Resources
Master penman (video)
Teaching Kids Handwriting to Help Them Read
An Intelligent New Way to Teach Cursive
5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach Handwriting in School
The Importance of Handwriting Instruction
Speech disorders
Types of Learning Disabilities
Learning Disabilities and Disorders