Questões de Inglês - Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension para Concurso

Read Text II and answer the question that follows.

Text II

      June 15, 2023 - Debates over Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts are currently thriving, including debates over the degree to which corporate diversity efforts are valuable, whether chief diversity officers can succeed, and whether corporate diversity commitments can produce lasting change.

      Over the past year, at least a dozen U.S. state legislatures have proposed or passed laws targeting DEI efforts, including laws aimed at limiting DEI roles and efforts in businesses and higher education and laws eliminating DEI spending, trainings, and statements at public institutions. Moreover, with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to address affirmative action in two cases involving the consideration of race in higher education admissions this summer, debates in the U.S. regarding DEI initiatives are likely far from over.

      At the same time, DEI-related legal requirements continue to grow in other jurisdictions, and with global financial institutions facing expanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG)- related trends and regulations in the EU and other jurisdictions, as well as global expectations regarding their role in ESG, including DEI-related corporate developments and initiatives, these matters are likely to continue to work their way into capital allocations and the costs of doing business, as well as into the expectations of certain stakeholders.

      This widening gap between global expectations and regulation regarding DEI-related matters and the concerns of some constituents in the U.S. over the role of DEI in corporate decision-making is likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future, putting companies between the proverbial rock and hard place.

      What these developments make clear is that corporate DEI efforts are, and likely have been for some time, riskier than many companies may initially appreciate. And the risks associated with DEI initiatives are only positioned to grow and expand as companies look to thread the DEI needle and make a broader and potentially more divergent set of stakeholders happy, or at least less annoyed, with their DEI-related commitments and initiatives. In this article, we discuss the top four legal risks that companies often fail to address in their DEI efforts.

[…]

(From https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/diversity-matters-four-scarylegal-risks-hiding-your-dei-program-2023-06-15/)

(Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/03/its-

dangerous-work-new-generation-of-indigenous-activists-battle-to-save-the-amazon)

Read the text to answer question

The Use of Emerging Technologies in Teaching English as an Applied Language

       Today’s digital age and its emerging technologies, with the latest achievements of artificial intelligence and big data processing, have unprecedently affected education processes and pedagogy, including the strategies and approaches related to foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. Present day graduates belong to Generation Z, who are known for being digitally literate, technologically savvy, and having grown up with digital tools. In addition, they are going to be soon followed by Generation Alpha, whose members are characterized as permanently connected and who are able to make their own decisions based on the use of technologies and also being able to manage their digital identities or visuals. Thus, the present day foreign language education should be technology-based since technology has become an integral part of the life of the current generation, and also, today’s language learning environment which is no longer solely constricted to the traditional or formal school learning environment. In this respect, foreign language teachers face a serious challenge in integrating different kinds of technologies into their teaching realities as they have to satisfy the learning needs of the two generations. However, in order to keep up with their digitally informed students and engage them in learning a foreign language, they must use recent technologies, such as chatbots or virtual reality. They also have to evaluate which of these technologies could generate some impact in their classes, analyze their potential, and utilize all of the benefits they bring. Moreover, they ought to assess the potential risks these technologies could pose.

          In addition, the teachers must always consider the added value of the selected tools for the students’ learning and their learning outcomes, which is not an easy task as the research into the practical utilizations of digital technologies with clear pedagogical outcomes is, surprisingly, scarce. It must not be forgotten that FL teachers should also promote not only the students’ knowledge acquisition in various learning contexts, but they should also enhance the skills that appear to be crucial for the 21st century, such as critical thinking, creativity, communication, or collaboration skills. Moreover, to be able to motivate their students to use these technologies in FL learning, they themselves must have a positive attitude to their use in FL classrooms, as well as possess the relevant subject, technological, and pedagogical knowledge.

(Available on: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/11/1/42. Adapted.)