SESSION 11: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS WHICH YOU CAN THINK ABOUT AND TRY ASKING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COME TO OUR DISCUSSION ON WEDNESDAY:
a) Had you heard about the Tottenham Riots in London before reading the text? Did these riots worry you at that time?
b) After reading the text, do you have a clearer idea of these riots?
c) Are the London Riots similar to the ones that took place in Paris some years ago?
d) From your point of view, what are the causes of the London Riots?
e) Do you think violence is common to the human race, and specially when we are adolescents or young adults?
f) Do we have similar cases of riots in Spain?
g) Is the 'indignados' movement in Spain similar in any way to the London Riots? What are the differences?
h) The author compares the London Riots with scenes of violence he has seen on TV in Africa, The Middle East and the Balkans. In what way are they similar? In what way are they different?
i) The author talks about reports about the social consequences of multi-generational urban poverty and the sociology of gang membership on UK estates. Do you think these two issues are common to all big cities in the world?
j) Think of the different groups of people who participated in the Tottenham riots and try to ask yourself in what way were they involved in the riots.
k) Do you think these riots set a bad example for adolescents in the neighbourhood?
Read this newspaper editorial for an overview of what happened in the UK riots:
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:
- Violence is in Society, specially among adolescents. Express your opinion.
- London Riots and their consequences. Express your opinion.
Recently, there have been some unfortunate events which have caused embarrassed and disappointed behaviours in developed countries such as the UK. The violence these people have used against properties and police has not been seen for a long time. Notwithstanding the crisis, we should study these behaviours deeply so we can wonder what problems our society is having and what we can do to solve them.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, lots of people feel down in the dumps due to the current crisis all Europe is suffering, besides the corruption many politicians are involved, the astronomic profits bankers have, and the lack of solutions to fix these problems, make people feel hopelessness each day. One of the main points here is the current crisis we are still suffering. Therefore, the economy of Europe’s countries cannot help to create jobs but on the contrary the number of unemployed is mostly rising each month. Another point is the fact that corruption in politicians is not punished how it should be. It is known that when politicians are sentenced to prison by whatever crime, such as, blackmail, fraud, etc, they spend a few period of time in prison but in the end, they do not return the money they have stolen or they have got illegally. Finally, banks play a great role in the problems which are affecting our society, because they were the beginning of the problems. Banks lent money everybody without asking for guaranties in order to pay the money back, so now lots of mortgages cannot be paid and a lot of people are becoming homeless too, meanwhile managers of the banks get incredibly profits in their current accounts.
Personally, I think that these problems cannot be solved easily, because of the lack of trust people have in our political leaders. On the contrary, it helps to show how disappointed people feel, and what is worse, the youth do not actually understand this situation, so I think we have to get used to living with those riots which have happened in the UK recently because the youth do not have anything to loose. Governments should give solutions to these behaviours, and encourage teenagers to become in good professional and they should also be self-confidence to make a living by themselves as well, but without the idea of passing their lives without any effort. Even though I know it is difficult to manage, it is the only option we have to keep our life style and no convert Europe in an insecure place how has happened several times along our history.
On balance, Europe has a great opportunity to become a great community whether we manage to solve our problems, but if we do not achieve them, the future will be really complicated for next generations, a future full of riots and everything which is related to them.
Miguel Ruano.
Lately, it is easy to find a lot of violent situations in which young people from rich countries destroy whatever they can and loot shops, stores, etc.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, these outcries are based on a more o less fair cause but other times there are no apparent reasons, so for example violent actions usually happen in sporting celebrations or after a pacific protest march and what it is more strange is that people who are behind them have not to do with the celebration or protest.
For years of evolution, human being has tried to control violence in our societies through rules and laws which penalized all kind of violent actions and as a consequence of this little by little most of us have understood that you can defend your ideas and your rights using just the word.
But violence is part of us and although it can stay hidden, moments exist in which a savage feeling take control of us and it makes us have a deplorable behaviour. Added to this, the frequency of acts of violence we can watch on TV, the Internet, etc is making more familiar this kind of situations to us causing that they seem to us closer and easier to carry out.
Session 11: Violence is in society, especially among adolescents. Express your opinion.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, violence is spread all over the world, in fact it is said that it is in society, especially among young people or adolescents (teenagers and children). From my point of view, I agree with that and I think the causes of the escalation of violence are different.
Firstly, more and more people own guns and use them in any case without any remorse. This might be the main o key ingredient in the increase of violence around the word. Thus, I do not think people should be allowed to use arms, so the first step of a long process leading to change society in order to solve the violence ought to be the prohibition of personal weapons.
Secondly, there is more violence on TV, video and in crime novels than ever before. Many children are used to spending a lot of their time in front of the TV set, and their parents do not care what they watch. In addition, parent do not even take the time to explain things or talk about violent scenes, so the children have to handle their developing feelings on their own which is not always easy. Therefore, it could be a stroke of genius that government spent more money on education, for example to develop more social education at school and at home by involving parents in school activities and even in neighborhoods by creating after school educational activities; in the same way TV should create educational broadcasts.
Finally, poverty and deprivation are believed to be another important factor related with violence. Ideally, everyone should have a job and have all the rights as a human being. Consequently, we had better stimulate social actions that can help to modify attitudes and stop the increase of violence, such as to shorten the work week which could help to slow down unemployment and make parents get more time to spend with their children.
In conclusion, I believe the violence in the world can be solved if we all together (parents, governments, mediums or media) take the right measures.