Intermediate word of the day: embrace
Embrace literally means to put your arms around someone, but in conversation we more often use the word hug – he gave me a hug / she hugged him, etc. Embrace is more commonly used to mean that you accept something or someone and you include them – which I suppose is basically what you are doing when you hug someone!
To do well at work these days, it seems that you have to embrace change or embrace new technology. When people are reluctant to embrace change, they are often seen as being awkward and preventing progress; they may be told they are stuck in their ways or that they are dinosaurs. Companies may try to get rid of these members of staff.
Of course, sometimes people can be too keen to embrace new ideas or theories so that they start to employ them before they have been properly tested or proven. As a result they can invest a lot of money or time and effort in the idea and abandon the previous way of doing things. Unfortunately, they later realise that the new policy is failing. I guess the people who refused to accept the idea are proved right and can say ‘I told you so’ – if they are still employed!
Organisations are often encouraged to embrace diversity these days. In other words, they are told they should try and employ a variety of people from different backgrounds and encourage them to contribute. If they don’t, they may miss talented people and ideas that could help build their business and secure its future.
Cover the text. What do you remember?
- Say three things you can embrace.
- Why might someone be reluctant to embrace change?
- Why might someone say I told you so!
- What might happen if a company fails to embrace diversity?
Related stories in the news
In education, teachers are always being told they need to fully embrace technology. Usually this call is led by tech companies trying to sell their various products and services, but there are also many teachers who suggest that educational technology is here to stay and, therefore, we should embrace it as a tool in the classroom. At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I think this is nonsense. From time to time, I use the Internet to show a picture of word which may be otherwise difficult to explain – like avocado. I have also used the Internet to find an interesting text to read in class. And I can also see the value of the Internet and of some apps for self study. However, for me, the most important part of any class – especially a language class – is interaction and communication. That’s me, the teacher, talking with the students, and them talking with each other. Technology gets in the way of chat; we have been so keen to embrace our smartphones and Google that we are constantly looking at them instead of at each other – we all know that, right? And the evidence seems to suggest that the same happens in the classroom. And my bigger concern is the cost. No sooner does new technology come out than it seems to be out-of-date or requires extra training. Is that a cost worth paying?
Discuss.
- What do you think? Should we embrace technology more in education? Why? / Why not?
Want to study English with Lexical Lab? Take one of our online courses.
For me, technology has been of great help. I had to use the internet to adapt most of the coursebook material provided by the ministry of education. I would use the internet to show pictures of words I think students may find difficult to get through explanation (or may be I’m just bad at explaning things). However, I think teacher should not be completely dependent on it. I had to print 20 pictures of words to illustrate meaning for one grammar task. That’s too many for one task! I think I just got into the habit of using pictures instead of trying to find simpler ways to convey meaning for students.
Hi Ameenah –
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment.
We’d obviously agree that the Internet can be helpful, and if you’re doing things like sourcing images to clarify the basic meanings of words, then that’s obviously very sensible. It’s interesting that you worry it may mean you’re not great yet at explaining things, though. Maybe sometimes taking the easy way means we don’t get better at doing hard things that are still useful and necessary to be able to do. Maybe sometimes it’s better to try things the hard way, think about how we could’ve done better and work on that the next time? Or try a mixture of approaches – pictures sometimes, translations and explanations at other times.
Well, as for me the most precious opportunity which the Internet provide us with is an ability to communicate with collegues, to share our experiencies, materials. I know teachers who live in small towns, the only chance for them to be aware of new trends in methodology is to use the Internet. Should you use ut in the classroom? It has already become a part of our life so we can’t avoid it. However, quite often I can see that students are not aware of the opportunities that online dictionaries, for example, provide them with
Hi Irina –
Yes, I’d agree that the Internet has been great for connecting people and helping people in more remote places stay in touch with what’s going on elsewhere. Obviously, the decisions about if and when to use it in class lie with individual teachers in the end, but as you’ll see from the link here, there are good arguments to suggest that just because things are commonplace it doesn’t mean they’re useful or better than what preceded them. http://www.businessinsider.com/students-learning-education-print-textbooks-screens-study-2017-10?IR=T