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=__Knowing What's Going On__= ====Knowing What's Going On is a course designed to encourage debate and discussion of international topics which are current in the news today. The aim of this course is to improve English skills through the lens of current affairs. The course is for your benefit and your interest, so be sure to come prepared with areas of discussion you would like to delve into!====

This wikispace... I s an important tool for the course. Each of you will need to become a member of this space so that you can post weekly discussion topics on this page. You are expected to contribute questions in advance, and to read other posts in order to be ready for the following week's class. The more prepared and involved you are, the more stimulating the classes will be!

At times, homework will be posted on this page. This could include links to listening activities or articles. The instructions will be clear and you simply have to follow the link and do the activity.

Assessment 33% Class participation. You will be assessed on your personal involvement in the class- enthusiasm and interaction go a long way! This includes carrying out the tasks assigned as homework and coming to class prepared! 33% Presentations. You will be expected to give one individual presentation during the course on a topic of your choice. This should be on something that interests you. You should make use of visual aids as well as prepare an extension class activity which involves all of your colleagues. 33% Written summaries. You are required to write some summaries of written or spoken news items. These will be either done as homework or in the class.

fbussell@univ-catholyon.fr

Homework for 10 May Please do this news lesson taken from the Guardian newspaper



As I mentioned in class, here is the webpage for the BBC world service. Click on it to open the webpage and then click on the icon entitled Hourly News Bulletin which can be found on the right hand side of the page. These listening activities are current summaries and are updated each hour, so you can get plenty of listening training in English! They contain a lot of information, so to help your comprehension when listening to these bulletins I suggest you take structured notes- take a sheet of paper and number it with the number of different news items you hear. Then, fill in the main info that you hear- location, subject, names, numbers. You could then read up on the news items in English by visiting an English news website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/

Homework for 3 May 1. Do this Guardian self-study news lesson



2. Listen to this news bulletin (5 mins) taken from the BBC world service webpage. Note the main news items covered- location, event, any statistics, main players- for example politicians, companies.....

**__Homework for Monday 26th April__**

1. Please bring the quiz to today's class.

2. Mohamed and either Baptiste or Natalie to give their presentation- you must decide between yourselves.

__//To keep you busy and studying English over the holidays, please do the following.........//__

3. Self-study news lesson



4. Follow this link to a self-study quiz on 'holidays' the UK []

5. If you have time, listen to this extract and try to note down as much information as you can. Then you can check what you have understood by reading the script.

media type="file" key="100401_6min_marathons_for_web_au_bb.mp3" width="240" height="20"



PS. There was a problem with my email address- please see the corrected address above.

Have a great Easter holiday!

**__Homework for Monday 29 th March__**

In pairs, write a news quiz and bring 2 copies of it to class. This must consist of 12 questions based on news items of the past two weeks. The questions should not be basic facts or general knowledge. They should be on news stories.

example, Obama will sign policies to overhaul what in the US? a. Foreign policy b. Economic policy c. Healthcare

if you have any questions then send me an email. All assignments are graded.

Homework for Monday 22nd Write a summary of a presented news article you heard in class, along with a summary of the discussion that followed. If you were absent, then you need to write a summary of a news article of your choice and discuss some questions that the article raised.

Homework for Monday 15th

1. This week's homework will have a more international feel. You will prepare for mini presentations which will be carried out in small groups. You will not be using multimedia for this so please don't prepare multimedia materials. In pairs, research and present a news story from one of the regions listed below. You must

-Chose the region you will cover and //**write your names next to it below**//. Only one pair per region. -Research some background info on your region and the context (political, social, economic, environmental...) - Summarize the news story - Justify your choice of article This should take 5 minutes maximum, then.... - Propose 4 discussion questions

Bring your article and summary to present in small groups in next week's class. In this class (on the 15th) you must listen carefully to each other- for homework to be handed in the week of the 29th you will have to submit a summary of someone else's news article as well as the results of the discussion that followed.

__Regions__ Africa Florent & Audric Asia Laure and Jean Central Europe: Séverine, Mélina and Nathalie (B) Europe Mohamed & William ( Group B) Central America Middle East Walid and Baptiste( B) North America Oceania: Audrey and Sarah (B) South America Pauline and Vivian (A)

Homework for Monday 8th 1. Read this information on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

2. Choose the top 5 rights which you think are the most important. Choose the least relevant rights to your life today. Be prepared to discuss these points in next week's lesson.

3. Listen to this file

http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2010/02/100211_nw_human_rights_audio_au_bb.mp3

and read this document

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newswords/100211_nw_human_rights_text.pdf

4. Find a current news article which deals with some type of 'right'. This could be animal rights, women's rights, children's rights, smoker's rights etcetc...... Write a summary of this article and some discussion questions to raise in next week's class.

Homework for Monday March 1st 1.Please bring an article of your choice in to class. Write a summary of it and propose some discussion questions. 2. In contrast to the work we did last lesson on the birth rate, your homework assignments deal with the issue of retirement.

Listen to this audio and make notes on what you hear media type="file" key="pensioners audio.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Then read this text and study any new vocabulary- we will go through this together in class. Think of some discussion questions on the subject.

3.Listen to this audio and note down as much information as you can before the reading the script. media type="file" key="retirement audio.mp3" width="240" height="20"



__**Presentations**__- sign up below. Maximum of 2 presentations per class Presentations are marked on your level of English, your presentation skills and the follow-up group activity that you organise. Remember: the initial talk is 2-3 minutes followed by a group activity related to the subject that __involves all of your classmates__

29/3 Vivian and Pauline
__Group B 1450-1620__ 1/3 Walid 8/3 Sarah and Audrey 15/3 Séverine and Mélina 22/3 Iulen Antoine 29/3 William and Mohamed 26/4 Nathalie and Baptist

Homework for Monday 8th February
Listen to this link and prepare a short written summary of its content, noting down any new vocabulary. Prepare 4 discussion questions related to the topic in preparation for small group discussions in class.



Read these short comments related to the topic above.....

Group B 1. About South Korea: Do you think that the korean problem of the education cost is also a french problem ? About an article: Do you think that each country could have the right to have a nuclar program ? And do you think that Iran and the western powers will succeed in finding a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear problem ? (Sarah) 2. About forensic sciences : do you think that science may have the answer for all criminal cases? Or can we trust the science in all circumstances ? (William) 3. The failure of African countries is the result of local problems such as hunger, war, polygamy or a consequence of monopolization of technology for developed countries? (Mohamed) 4.Waht do you think about the debate on the national identity in France? (Audrey) 5. Death sentence: for or against? (Mélina) 6.What do you think about facebook, twitter, where we can know a lot of things about your private life? 7. 8. . . ..