Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5: Unit 5 Listening 2: What Your Stuff Says About You p.127-130

(Supplementary Materials for Specific Textbooks--Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5)

Google drive HERE
90 Second Listening: docs, pub Slideshow: slides, pub
Vocabulary Discussion Questions: docs, pub
Say What You Think Discussion Questions: docs, pub

1. What is special about the New York Times Crossword puzzle that Neal Conan keeps on his desk?

2. Is the baseball signed by anyone famous?

3. Where are the toys located?

4. What three things are on the corkboard?

5. According to Sam Gosling, what are three areas where we can find information about people?

6. Besides knowing what the personal items are, how else can these items give us information?

7. In order to get information about a person based on their personal items, it is crucial to combine which two factors?

Neal Conan, Host: This is Talk of the Nation. I’m Neal Conan in Washington. The framed items on the wall of my office include my FCC third-class radio telephone operator’s license from 1973 and the New York Times crossword puzzle from the day my name was used as a clue. There’s a baseball on my desk, not signed or anything, just a baseball. Some toys sit on top of the speaker: a beach chair with a life preserver, a double-decker London bus, and a cork board has family pictures, John F. Kennedy behind the wheel of a PT-109, and a postcard of Giants Stadium in New Jersey. Sam Gosling, are those few things enough to tell you anything about what kind of person I am? 

Sam Gosling: Yeah, they certainly could tell us a lot. There’s a lot of information, a lot of it not so obvious, but there’s a lot of information in places like people’s personal spaces, their offices or their living spaces. 

Conan: Mhm. And not just what they are, but the way they’re arranged. For example, if the family pictures look out to the guest in the office or, um, or inward to, uh, to the person who occupies it. 

Gosling: Yeah. It’s really crucial to combine not only what they are, but how they’ve been placed

Match the words to the blank.  You may have to change the form. Some words will be used more than once.

clarify, clue, crucial, domain, extrovert, framework, introvert, modify, profile, propose, tentatively, trait

1. What are your personality _____________?  What are the personality _____________of the people in your group?

2. Are you an _____________or an _____________?  What about the other people in your group?

3. Can you think of any famous characters who are in the public _____________?

4. Is there any place that you consider your _____________?

5. Make a brief _____________of someone in your group.  Ask them if they agree with it.

6. When was the last time you had to _____________your plans?

7. How did you _____________ your last assignment?

8. Think of something you’ve had _____________for you on this course.  What was it?

9. What was a _____________decision that you have made?

10. Think of a tangible object in this classroom.  Don’t say the name.  Give _____________ to your classmates until they can guess it.

11. If you forget your student ID card, what is the _____________for resolving the situation?

12. What changes would you like to _____________for the university?

13. Think of something that you did _____________.  What was it? 

1. What are your personality traits?  What are the personality traits of the people in your group?

2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?  What about the other people in your group?

3. Can you think of any famous characters who are in the public domain?

4. Is there any place that you consider your domain?

5. Make a brief profile of someone in your group.  Ask them if they agree with it?

6. When was the last time you had to modify your plans?

7. How did you modify your last assignment?

8. Think of something you’ve had clarified for you on this course.  What was it?

9. What was a crucial decision that you have made?

10. Think of a tangible object in this classroom.  Don’t say the name.  Give clues to your classmates until they can guess it.

11. If you forget your student ID card, what is the framework for resolving the situation?

12. What changes would you like to propose for the university?

13. Think of something that you did tentatively.  What was it?  

Discussion Questions for Listening 2

1. Do you agree with Dr. Gosling that we are all natural-born snoops? Why or why not?  Use examples from your own life to support your opinion.

2. Look around your classroom.  What conclusions might Dr. Gosling draw from what he could see there?

3. Think about your space at home. What things do you have around them? What does this stuff say about you?

4. What about your virtual space (e.g. social media profile).  What things do you have on your social media profiles?  What can these things tell other people about you?

5. When talking about pictures of family and loved ones, Dr. Gosling says: “ it’s what you might call a social snack, something we can snack on to make ourselves feel better over the day.”  What are some of your social snacks?

6.  Look at the stuff of the person next to you (e.g. bags, phone, pencil case, et cetera).  What kind of things do you think this tells you about that person?  Make some guesses, and then ask them if these guesses are correct.

7.  Do you believe that you can learn a lot about someone from their handshake?  Shake hands with the person next to you, and then tell them what you have learned about them from their handshake.

8. What is something that you own that has sentimental value to you?

Discussion Questions for Listening 1, 2 and the Unit Video

9. What different answers might Dr. Gosling and Dr. Craig (from Listening 1) have to this question that was sent in to Talk of the Nation: “What would you say about people who do not include personal items in their offices or cars?”

10. What do you think Dr. Gosling would have to say about Gehry’s buildings?

11. In what fields might the findings of psychologists about personal space, privacy, possessions, and personalities be of interest?