Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
You have a five-page paper due tomorrow, and you haven’t even started it yet. What should you do? It would be so easy to look online for an essay related to your topic. You could buy somebody else’s paper, or just copy down some information from Wikipedia. But you’d better think twice before you cut corners like this. Plagiarism can get you into some serious trouble.
Plagiarism is copying someone else’s words or ideas without giving them proper credit in your essay. In most schools in the US, if you get caught plagiarizing, you’ll automatically get an F on the paper and might fail the course as well. Some students have even gotten kicked out of school for plagiarizing. Hear two teachers, Marni and Amy, talk about plagiarism.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
![]() Amy |
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Amy: You’re a teacher, Marni, have you ever had to deal with plagiarism from one of your students?
Marni: Yeah, somewhat. I think the hardest thing is, or what I struggle with, is letting kids know how serious it is. It’s like, you know, with the onset of the internet and how readily available all this information is, that idea of, you know, you need to put your thoughts into your own words versus copying what you get off the internet, I think it’s harder and harder for them.
Amy: Definitely. And it almost seems to them like not cheating, or not plagiarizing, if they’re doing it off the internet. Like I think a book is somehow more sacred than something you just find on some random website. But it’s definitely a big problem among my students. And I think it is really serious, but I also think it’s particularly taken really seriously here, in this country.
Marni: Just in the United States?
Amy: I think a little more so here. We have such strict rules about how you have to quote things, and you have to cite them, and you have to use a very particular citation style and format. But what do you think is an appropriate punishment for plagiarizing? Should a student be kicked out of school, or should they just fail the assignment or fail the class?
Marni: You know, failing the assignment seems to me like an appropriate reaction. Also, if that’s a recurring problem, then we need to figure out a way to teach kids to take information, and then how are they going to put it in their own words.
Amy: It’s definitely a lot more work not to plagiarize.
Marni: It’s true, it really is.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Marni and Amy are both teachers. Amy asks Marni if she’s ever had a problem with one of her students plagiarizing. Students of Marni’s have plagiarized before. Marni thinks it’s important to teach kids why they shouldn’t plagiarize and help them understand how to avoid it.
Marni says that it can be difficult not to plagiarize, when so much information is so readily available to us on the internet. Some students don’t realize it when they’re using someone else’s ideas, or don’t know how to put someone else’s ideas in their own words.
Is plagiarism taken very seriously in your country? How can students avoid plagiarizing?
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