Level I

Chapter 7
Reading

English | Vietnamese Section

English | Vietnamese
IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
Self- and Teacher Evaluation

Topic:Regional and Global Trade Thương mại khu vực và toàn cầu

Guiding Question

What assets does your country bring to regional and global trade,
and what benefits does it expect from this trade?

Câu hỏi hướng dẫn:
Những năng lực nào mà nước bạn có để tham gia thương mại khu vực và toàn cầu?
Những lợi gì nước bạn mong đợi từ việc tham gia thương mại này?

Skills:  In this chapter you will do these things:

 English Language Skills:

• Vocabulary for Vietnam’s products, produce, natural resources and services for export.
• Identifying the Reading Skill Style to Use—Skimming, Scanning, Extensive Reading, Intensive Reading.
• Skim for Main Ideas
• Scan for Details
• To Skim and Scan a Reading Online

Vietnamese Language Skills:

• Reading a Letter
• Business Vocabulary
• Making Comparisons

English Language Lesson

Back to Top

Introductory Motivation and Focus: Reading and/or activity for motivation:

As Vietnam opens up to world markets, there is money to be made with exporting Vietnamese products. But to try to meet world standards comes at a cost, too. Read the following article and take note of the advantages and disadvantages to exporting dragon fruit. Following this article is a chart you can fill with your notetaking.

Farmers of Binh Thuan profit from exporting dragon fruit
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01AGR011005
(01-10-2005)

BINH THUAN — Farmers in the southern Binh Thuan Province, who subsist mainly from growing rice, have thrived after planting thanh long (dragon fruit or pitahaya) in their farms in recent years.

The districts of Ham Thuan Nam and Ham Thuan Bac have reduced poverty and farmers have prospered after growing this fruit, making dragon fruit a speciality of Binh Thuan Province.

According to a farmer in Ham Thuan Nam District, the family earned VND80 million as net profit annually after they shifted from cultivating rice to growing dragon fruit. Yet another farmer, Nguyen Thuan, earns over VND300 million as net profit each year from growing the fruit.

But few are as famous as Tran Ngoc Hiep from Hoang Hau Farm, who started growing the fruit in three sao (one sao is equivalent to 360sqm) of land eight years ago. He has since expanded the area to 70ha, and produces VND8 billion worth of fruits every year.

Hiep also exports after procuring the fruit from other farmers, and now plans to expand the fruit growing area to 300ha and use organic fertilizers. Following Hiep’s footsteps, six others from the province have also started exporting the fruit to mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand.

Following success, the province has now set up a dragon fruit association and is implementing a project to grow the fruit for the more demanding European markets.

Electrical shortages

Many farmers, meanwhile, are facing shortage of power while growing the fruit during the off season. Electrical lamps have to be lit, at a cost of between VND3,500 and VND6,000 per kilogram of the fruit, for 15 consecutive days during this period, when the price of the fruit fluctuates between VND6,000 and VND10,000 per kilogram.

But farmers fail to profit during this period as the province lacks electricity. The problem is compounded by poor infrastructure, pushing the prices up because of higher transportation costs.

Farmers who also depend on indigenous seeds for growing the fruit may face problems of productivity in the future, warns Tran Ngoc Hiep, chairman of dragon fruit association, pointing to the necessity of applying modern science and technology to increase production, and during various stages of processing and preserving the fruit for exports.

According to experts, market expansion and trade promotion were a must to help the country’s produce access lucrative international markets. At present, the association has established trade relations with different countries and set up transaction outlets in big markets such as mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, the US and Japan. — VNS

Advantages/Benefits from Exporting Produce	Disadvantages/Obstacles from Exporting Produce

 

Discussion: In small groups, talk about the advantages and disadvantages of export not mentioned in the article. From your own experience or from what you see in newspapers and news broadcasts, can you add items to the chart above? What are the advantages and benefits of a country like Vietnam exporting products around the globe? What are the disadvantages and obstacles?

Vocabulary Words & Exercises:

In Small Groups: Make a list of products, produce, natural resources and services that Vietnam has to export. This may be done in the Vietnamese language. Then divide the list of words among the members of your small group and find English translations for all the products, produce and services. Dictionaries, books, the internet and all means of resources may be used to add to your list and find the English words. Then share your findings with the group. The group can share their list of words with the rest of the class.

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Explanation of Reading Study Skill A (Academic Reading Skill):

Identifying the Reading Skill Style to Use

There are four reading skill styles that students learn for academic purposes:

• Skimming—Reading quickly for the main points.
• Scanning—Reading quickly through a text to find specific information
• Extensive—Reading longer texts, often for pleasure and for an overall understanding
• Intensive— Reading shorter texts for detailed information with an emphasis on precise understanding

When students read in their native language, these skills are often used. But when learning another, language, students tend to use only “intensive” style reading skills. Students seem to think that they must understand every word. But for many kinds of reading, “intensive” style reading is not necessary.

How do you know what skill style to Use?

Analyze the Structure of a Text

Do you read all texts the same? Do you read a textbook in the same way that you read a novel or short story? Do you read a newspaper article in the same way that you read a recipe or the dictionary? The answer is obviously, “no.” See Exercise #1 below.

But even among academic texts for reading, there are differences in how you go about reading them. Understanding the structure of a text helps you to get an idea for what the text is about, its specific contents, how it is organized, and whether it is relevant to your needs and suitable to your abilities. In this chapter, we will focus on understanding the structure of shorter pieces of text—not textbooks, which will come in the last chapter of Level 1.

Understand the structure of the article: To understand the structure of an article or other reading, look at the reading’s sections—is the reading divided in any way with headings and sub-headings? Are there charts, graphs or illustrations? Are there pictures? Captions? Bars with information? Does the article have an abstract summary? Reading all these parts will give you clues to structure and an outline to the article.

Is it relevant? Ask these questions to decide if the text contains relevant information:

• What do I know about this topic?
• What do I need to know about this topic?
• Where in the article would I most likely find the topic information I need?

Skim for main ideas: Skim the text for structure and relevance. Skimming, you remember, is reading a text very quickly in order to get the general idea of main points. Skim the text to save time by not reading unnecessary information:

• Read for main ideas only
• Read the introductory paragraph and find the thesis statement.
• Read the headings, sub-headings, graphs and illustrations.
• Read the topic sentences of each paragraph.
• Read the conclusion.

*If you can write on the text, mark the main ideas and topic sentences with a highlighter or pencil, so that you can easily find these later. If you do not want to mark up the text, you may take notes on paper or in a notebook.

Another way to skim and take notes would be to fill in a standard academic essay form similar to the outlines used for writing essays:

Five –Paragraph Outline For Your Essay Essay Title: __________________________________________________________ I. Introduction A. Introductory statement ___________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ B. Thesis statement _____________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ II. Body A. First Supporting Idea: (Topic Sentence): ___________________________ 1. ______________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________ B. Second Supporting Idea: (Topic Sentence): _________________________ 1. ______________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________ C. Third Supporting Idea: (Topic Sentence): __________________________ 1. ______________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________ III. Conclusion A. Closing statement ________________________________________________

Scan for details: Scanning is used to locate specific information quickly. We scan to find detail and to fill gaps in your knowledge:

• Look for key words and words that are repeated
• Look for definitions
• Look for words that are highlighted by quotation marks or words that are in bold or italicized print.
• Look for numbers—dates, statistics
• Look for examples—diagrams and illustrations

Remember: Sometimes reading intensively is not appropriate and not necessary to get the information that you want. To make the most of your text reading remember to:

• Look at the structure of the text
• Skim for the important information
• Scan for details

After you have done these things, then you are ready to identify those areas of the text that need more intensive reading.

Exercises and Activities for Skill A:

Exercise #1: Which Reading Style Skill Do You Use?

Identify the reading style skill required in following situations by labeling them as follows*:

• SK=Skim
• SC=Scan
• EX=Extensive
• IN=Intensive

	1. The TV schedule for Friday
	2. An English Grammar Book
	3. An English/Vietnamese Dictionary
	4. An article in National Geographic magazine about Egyptian mummies.
	5. The weather report in local newspaper
	6. A novel
	7. A poem
	8. A bus timetable
	9. An email or letter from your best friend
	10. A recipe
	11. A short story by your favorite author
	12. A comic book
	13. An advertisement on the computer
	14. The list of data found on a computer search engine such as Google

* some items may have more than one answer because of reading purpose.

(source: http://esl.about. Com/library/lessons/nblreadtypes.htm)

Exercise #2: Discussion

Answer the following questions in class or in a small group:

1. What types of reading do you do in your native language? Make a list of all kinds of reading including newspaper, novels, schedules, road signs, advertisements, etc.
2. How do you read each kind of reading material in your native language? Do you read every word? How much time do you spend reading it? For what reasons do you read it? Do you make any assumptions?
3. What kind of reading material do you read in English? Do you read every word? How much time do spend reading it? For what reasons do you read it? Do you make any assumptions?
4. Are there some native language reading skills that you can adapt to your English reading skills?

Exercise #3: Scan for Information:

Scan “ASEAN at a Glance” to identify the following information:

1. What does ASEAN Stand for?
2. When was ASEAN established?
3. Who are the five original members?
4. When did Vietnam become a member?
5. Who are the four other members of the ten member countries?
6. What are the three main objectives?

ASEAN at a Glance

http://www.aseanyouth.org/

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by the five original member countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined the Association on 8 January 1984. Vietnam became the seventh member on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar the eighth and ninth member of ASEAN in 1997 respectively. Cambodia joined as the tenth member of ASEAN on 30 April 1999.

The Bangkok Declaration united the ASEAN member countries in a joint effort to promote economic and social co-operation towards the welfare of the people in the region. The Bangkok Declaration sets out the guidelines for ASEAN's activities and defines three main objectives :

(a)To accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavors in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of South-East Asian Nations;

(b)To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter;

(c)To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields.

In later years, ASEAN also developed dialogue partnerships with other regional bodies and non-regional member countries to serve as a forum to enhance inter-regional understanding and co-operation.

Scan “ ASEAN Becomes China's Fourth Largest Partner: Official” and identify these numbers:

• 25 percent
• 59.76 billion dollars
• 2002
• 200 billion dollars by 2010
• 2013

ASEAN Becomes China's Fourth Largest Partner: Official

http://www.aseansec.org/afp/131.htm

BEIJING , Sept 15 (AFP) - Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grew 25 percent in the first half of this year, making it China's fourth largest trade partner, an official said Thursday. Trade volume between the two sides reached 59.76 billion dollars in the first six months, the Xinhua news agency quoted Fu Ziying, assistant to the Minister of Commerce, as saying. Fu made the remarks at a press conference on preparations for the second China-ASEAN Expo to be held from October 19-22 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi region. China-ASEAN trade has increased by 50 billion dollars since the two sides initiated steps towards a free trade zone in 2002, making ASEAN the fifth largest export market for China and the fourth largest source for imports, Fu said. Bilateral trade registered an annual growth of 38.9 percent in the 2002-2004 period, reaching 105.9 billion dollars in 2004, Fu said. President Hu Jintao set the goal for China-ASEAN trade to reach 200 billion dollars by 2010 when he visited ASEAN countries in April. Due to deepening economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, Fu said, the pace of building the China-ASEAN free trade zone has been accelerated. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in August that China and ASEAN were on track to signing the free trade agreement by 2013. He said the initial common tariff reduction would be finished by 2006. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. cs/sm

 

Exercise #4: Skim the Article that Follows

Skim the article below, “VN Fruit to Face Competition.” You may wish to mark the text with a highlighter, pen, or pencil, or you may skim to take notes using the standard essay outline form. This is not a 5-paragraph essay, so make adaptations for your needs.

Reading :

VN Fruit to Face Competition
http://www.vneconomy.com.vn/eng/index.php?param=article&catid=08&id=050420105416VNECONOMY
updated: 20/04/2005

The new ASEAN regulation eliminating import and export tariffs on vegetables and fruits is fast approaching, and the Viet Nam fruit industry is working to ensure its products will be competitive with others in the region.

In less than a year, the tariffs will be dropped and new, tougher safety standards and quarantine measures will be imposed.

These changes will increase the competition for domestic producers, and put them at risk of having their fruits and vegetables replaced in Viet Nam’s kitchens with cheaper, higher quality foreign goods.

The problem for the domestic producers is that Vietnamese fruits are generally unstable in quality, and more expensive compared to fruits from other regional countries, particularly Thailand, according to the chairman of the Viet Nam Fruit Association (Vinafruit), Dr Vo Mai.

Viet Nam now has 700,000ha of fruit trees with an annual output of 6 million tons, but export revenues from the fruits has declined from US$330 million in 2001 to $182.5 in 2004.

Mai attributed the drop to unorganized production, which leads to poor quality, inconsistent shapes and discoloration. In addition to these problems, the absence of advanced harvesting techniques and storage technology have caused 25-30 per cent losses before and after the harvests. These losses have contributed to make Vietnamese fruits the most expensive in the region.

To overcome these setbacks, the State has set up the Tien River Good Agricultural Practice Alliance (Tien River GAP Alliance) to co-ordinate the efforts of several fruit and vegetable producers in an attempt to raise the quality of the goods.

"The only solution to improve the competitive edge of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables is to establish a loop from production to consumption," said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Bui Ba Bong.

The Tien River GAP Alliance comprises six provinces and cities, including HCM City, Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces, which will amass some 283,790 ha of farm area.

The main objective of the Alliance will be to co-ordinate the efforts of scientists, farmers and enterprises to produce fruits and vegetables capable of competing both internationally and domestically. According to Bong, his ministry has asked the Alliance to initiate measures to promote domestic consumption while accelerating the export of 11 types of fruits that have strong competitive advantages.

These fruits include thanh long (dragon fruit), vu sua (milky fruit), mang cut (mangosteens), xoai (mangoes),sau rieng (durians), dua (pineapples), vai (litchi), nhan (longans), dua (coconuts), Du Du (papaya) and others.

Fly in the ointment

Japan , the USA, Australia and New Zealand are potential markets for Vietnamese fruits, but to enter these markets Viet Nam must be able to protect its products from insect infestations without using harmful pesticides.

Recently, the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent a list of 16 types of fruits that are often attacked by insects to the US for advice on how to protect these products safely.

In early May, two Vietnamese experts will go to the US to gather the results from the tests.

Similarly, the Plant Protection Department has also sent a list of fruits to Japan and New Zealand for examination, and the two countries have agreed to examine the thanh long and xoai fruits.

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Exercises and Activities for Skill A:

Exercise #5: Scan the Text

Now that you have skimmed the article, “VN Fruit to Face Competition,” scan the article for details. At the beginning of this chapter, you filled out a form that listed the advantages and benefits from exporting produce and the disadvantages/obstacles from exporting produce. Scan this article to add to your lists.

Explanation of Reading Study Skill B:  

Reading online

To skim a reading online:

• look for main ideas and points included in the introduction and conclusion paragraphs, in addition to topic sentences provided in body paragraphs.
• Next, copy the introduction and conclusion paragraphs and paste them on a word document on your PC.
• then, copy each topic sentence /supporting point in a body paragraph, and paste them on the same word document.

To scan a reading online:

• we need to find the specific information sentences / details that support each main/supporting point.
• Then, copy and paste these details on the same word document.
• Put the details under each main point they support.
• Finally, use the standard academic essay outline form or template to outline or display your notes, including shortened form of words and phrases.  

Exercises and Activities for Reading Study Skill B (comprehension):

Exercise #6: Google, Skim and Scan

Use Google or another search engine on the internet. Search for the words VIETNAM –FRUIT-- EXPORT. When you find an article similar to the article on Dragon Fruit or “VN Fruit to Face Competition,” skim the article as instructed in the “Reading Online” section. Then scan the article to continue filling in the advantages/benefits and disadvantages/obstacles to exporting produce.

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