SESSION 11: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION
2.1 PROTESTS: What would you protest about? What would you do and why?
- Cuts in Education
- Going to War
- Loss of Religious Freedom
- Tax Increases
- Nuclear Power Plant in you Town
- Immigration Policy
- Education
- Public Transport
- School Meals
- Museums
- Hospitals
- Dentists
- Water
- Internet
a) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘university’?
b) Have you been to University? If so, were the fees very expensive? Did the government help with grants?
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 11, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
c) How important are universities to a nation?
d) What would society be like without universities?
e) Do you think universities should be free?
f) Are private universities better quality than those which are public?
g) Should a crisis like the one we have now affect students and universities?
h) Where are the world’s best universities?
i) Are the years students spend at college the best years of their lives?
j) What do you think of the cuts to education in the U.K.?
k) Is it OK for students to protest in the streets against education cuts?
l) Did you find this article interesting?
m) What do education cuts say about a government?
n)What image does your country have of British universities?
o) What are universities like in your country?
p) What do you think of politicians who break their promises? Do you think this happens much too frequently?
q) Should governments provide students from low-income families with free university education?
r) Most countries make students take out loans. Do you think the U.K. should also do this?
s) Will taking away living allowances kill education opportunities for the poor?
t) What do you think of the banner “R.I.P. My Degree”?
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 11, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- 'The crisis of a country should never affect Education'. Express your opinion.
- 'Protesting or striking is totally useless'. Express your opinion.
From one extreme to the other, this is the way society usually behaves. After a period of injustice, during the second half of 20th century many laws tried to give opportunities to those people who had less money, in areas as education, health and social benefits in general.
ReplyDeleteAs consequence of this, some people think these benefits, which have been free or nearly free until now, are a right they have and use them with no responsibility, they do not event value the economic effort society makes in other to offer them these opportunities.
Because of crisis, the movement has changed its direction and runs quickly to the other extreme. Every day you can read in the newspapers that some of those benefits usually free or very cheap are going to raise their prices.
Great Britain has started with education benefits and Spain will probably do the same with our system of universal health in a short period of time. The victims of this are those poor people who really want to study or need expensive medicines.
A good balance would be to give everybody the same rights provided these people did good use of those benefits.
Today, education is changing a lot, especially due to the important crisis we are suffering. Government are cutting investment in several areas, and one of them is education.
ReplyDeleteMany governments, which have a great deficit, have to save money to avoid problems afterwards, and they are cutting in different areas, for example, Spain government is cutting on retired people, English government are increasing tuition fees to university students, and many other examples. All kind of cuts, in addition to the increase of taxes are very unpopular, but maybe they are necessary. Consequently, government should study conscientiously which economy area can be cut, so in my opinion education should be the last one.
One of the most important value a country has is population’s education. The more cultured a country is, the more creative it will be. So it makes a country to have people able to create new companies, new business. Definitely, people who are able to make an important country thanks their own ideas. A great help to achieve it is education, firstly at school and secondary school, and later, at university, where student become well formed citizens.
In conclusion, education should not be cut in any way. There are many other areas which can be cut, so education must be treated as one of the most invaluable which a country can have and it must be ensured over all things.