Monday, February 8, 2010

SESSION 15: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK

SESSION 15: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 FAMILIES TODAY: compare what families in your country do now with your idea of a perfect family considering the following topics:
  • eating together
  • domestic violence
  • parental role models
  • parents being at home
  • sharing housework
  • number of children

2.2 RIGHT FOR TV? Should the following topics be discussed on TV? Why?

  • abortion
  • death
  • AIDS
  • gay dating services
  • domestic violence
  • drugs
  • teenage pregnancy
  • religion
  • childcare

2.3 FAMILY: Spend one minute writing down all the words and expressions you associate with the word 'family' and how the meaning of this word has evolved in the last years.

2.4 ABORTION DISCUSSION: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:

a) What springs to mind when you hear the word 'abortion'?

b) What do you think of an anti-abortion TV ad in the middle of a sporting event?

c) Can the topic of abortion cause your temper to flare?

d) Is it good the topic of abortion is receiving nearly as much attention as the Super Bowl game itself?

e) Is Tim Tebow´s story a good reason to ban abortion?

f) Is abortion a difficult topic to discuss in Spain?

g) When is abortion banned in Spain? Do you agree with the law in Spain?

h) Is it right that doctors encourage women to have an abortion?

i) Should school teach children about abortion?

j) Many people believe abortion is the same as murder. What do you think?

k) What do you think of people who attack doctors who perform abortions?

l) Do you agree with the women´s groups about TV channels and dictating morality?

m) Is CBS guilty of double standards by rejecting the gay dating ad?

n) Do we have similar ads on the TV in Spain?

PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:


THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:

FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.

SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.

THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.


FINAL TASK:

HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.


Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 15, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions.

Choose one of the following topics:

  • Fatherhood is as important as motherhood. Express your opinion.
  • Types of families nowadays. What are the causes of the changes in the traditional family system?

1 comment:

  1. If we look at our ancestor’s behaviour, we can observe both, female and male, acted as animals in a basic way having very different responsibilities inside family and children care was particularly assigned to women.

    Evolution has changed step by step that behaviour and each day those male and female roles are mixing, maybe not enough to be in the same level. This change breaks the old balance and creates new relationships between parents and children and lets fatherhood in some cases be as important as motherhood for them.

    Apart from that there are other elements as liberal societies, acceptance of homosexuality or more longevity of mankind which have multiplied the kind of families and it is near impossible to say how male and female behaviour is nowadays.

    People are, not women or men, what must worry us, because I am sure both of them play a leading role in the children life.

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