英语单词大师：Moving Beyond 'It's This or It's

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more of our conversation with Kelly Maxwell, co-director of the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan.

The program centers on a class called "Intergroup Dialogues." Kelly Maxwell says peer¹ facilitators help students learn to discuss controversial subjects like race, gender² or religion with members of different social groups. RS: "What do you hope the students leave this class with?"KELLY MAXWELL: "I hope that they learn a technique of communicating with one another that they could use in many, many different settings; so, dialogue as a tool for communicating with other people that are different from them in the future. I hope they also have a better sense of what they believe themselves about issues because they've talked about them. And, instead of just kind of having an internal conversation about a particular hot topic issue, they've actually talked with other people who are similar and dissimilar to them, and kind of have really formulated³ why they believe what they believe."AA: "Now I'm guessing that over the last twenty years you've probably heard people say 'Oh, this is thought police or political correctness gone crazy' or something. What sorts of criticisms do you hear and how do you respond to those?"KELLY MAXWELL: "Well, I have heard that one. And for me dialogue is about more communication not less. So I don't think any of us want to stop people from talking with one another. In fact, dialogue is about allowing for that space to challenge each other around a variety of issues and really, together, deciding how an individual feels, but then how various groups feel about particular issues.

"So rather than controlling what people think, for me dialogue is about expanding the conversation and the ways that we communicate together, rather than kind of shrinking it to a simple 'It's this or it's this.'"RS: "Just one last question: Our audience is speakers of English as a foreign language. How would something like this work in a classroom in other countries?"KELLY MAXWELL: "We actually have an international and U.S. student dialogue -- actually several of them. And that's a really interesting question because even though dialogue sounds like a way of communicating that everyone might be interested in, the ways that we communicate across cultures are something very different.

"So I talked about deep listening before. Sometimes in cultures other than U.S., actually the listening is the sign of respect or a recognition⁴ of understanding, whereas⁵ in the United States speaking or acknowledging⁶ our understanding is sometimes used. So we've really had to be intentional⁷ about paying attention to communication patterns in particularly the international and U.S. dialogues.

"All the dialogues, even the international-U.S. dialogues are in English. So that's another issue.

RS: "Are these cross-cultural dialogues held on the university campus, are they held on the Internet, are they held at other universities? How could our listeners engage in these cross-cultural dialogues?"KELLY MAXWELL: "You mean the international and U.S. ones?"RS: "The international ones."KELLY MAXWELL: "Those are still affiliated⁸ with our course, so it's university students right here at the campus here. We are also working with a global scholars program here on campus that's part of Intergroup Relations and developing what's called a "Global Understandings" course. It's similar to a dialogue, not exactly the same, but it's using video technology to link students that are here at the University of Michigan campus with students somewhere else in the world. So, for example, this semester they are linking with students at the University of British Columbia as well as Seoul National University."AA: Kelly Maxwell is co-director of the Intergroup Relations program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor⁹. The first part of our interview can be found at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 

1 peer   

n.同辈，同等地位的人，伙伴，贵族；vi.仔细看，费力地看

参考例句：

• Children are easily influenced by their peer.孩子很容易受同辈影响。
• He is a peer.他是一个贵族。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 formulated   

v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示

参考例句：

• He claims that the writer never consciously formulated his own theoretical position. 他声称该作家从未有意识地阐明他自己的理论见解。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This idea can be formulated in two different ways. 这个意思可以有两种说法。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 recognition   

n.承认，认可，认出，认识

参考例句：

• The place has changed beyond recognition.这地方变得认不出来了。
• A sudden smile of recognition flashed across his face.他脸上掠过一丝笑意，表示认识对方。

5 whereas   

conj.而，却，反之

参考例句：

• They want a house,whereas we would rather live in a flat.他们想要一座房子，而我们宁愿住在一套房间里。
• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。

6 acknowledging   

v.承认( acknowledge的现在分词 )；鸣谢；对…打招呼；告知已收到

参考例句：

• That would be acknowledging the Railroad's ownership right away-forfeiting their rights for good. 这一来不是就等于干脆承认铁路公司的所有权-永久放弃他们自己的主权吗？ 来自辞典例句
• It is a great relief to allow us ourselves the luxury of acknowledging our human frailties. 让我们自己享受承认人类的弱点的快乐是一大慰藉。 来自辞典例句

7 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

8 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

9 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。