This week's classes

On Monday I had you do a written test without the support of Internet, dictionaries etc. since I need to assess your free writing in English as well as the more planned writing you are doing in your blogs. I hope to give you some feedback next week.
Then we started looking at how you can dissect a text by looking at participants and processes. Here is the powerpoint presentation that I used.

Participants and processes from Francesca Helm

Then we looked at this text about Conditions in the Niger Delta, but when we looked at it you were not aware that it came directly from Shell's website. If you analyse the text and look at just the participants and the processes involved, this is the picture you get and it makes it quite clear who are the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys'.

PARTICIPANTS	PROCESSES
Shell companies/SPDC/its operations	Operate, produce, reactivate, pay, is, have, launched, build trust, give, works with communities, builds trust, gives control over development
Local people/Communities/most of the 30 million people living there/The rapidly growing population/Only very few/civil unrest	Demand, remain, is putting pressure on resources, have access, have become increasingly frustrated,
Heavily-armed and well-organised Gangs/militant groups/	Shut down operations kidnapped staff, sabotaged pipelines, have emerged, are financed by theft, cause massive pollution, damage wellheads and other facilities
Security	Has deteriorated, has improved
The Niger  Delta/Nigeria	Is, is, is,
The government	(is paid tax), declared an amnesty
Crude oil theft and illegal refining	Finance operations of militant groups, cause major environmental problems

Finally we watched this video

You can read the tapescript here. A listening comprehension exercise, but also an exercise in critically analysing language. It was produced by the actor/activists, the Yes Men, who engage in what they define as 'identity correction'. They very cleverly adopt the language that multinationals use and the methods they employ to engage with the media to present themselves in a positive light. The Yes Men manage to create very negative publicity for these companies by obliging them to deny that what the Yes Men have said is true, so in this case Shell was obliged to say (in not so many words) that they were NOT sorry for what they have done!

Thursday 6th December - Global Voices

On Thursday 6th December, at 16.30 in aula P, there will be a talk with Italian representatives from Global Voices. This will be a great opportunity for you to get to know more about this international blogging project and also about blog writing in general. Davide Galati from Global Voices Italy will be here, and Bernardo Parrella who will join us via Skype from New York. We will also discuss the possibility of doing a work placement with Global Voices if any of you are interested.  

Global Studies, conference and winter school

Here's some information about two events which may be of interest to you.
First of all, as Angela mentioned in a comment to a previous post, there will be a 2-day event in December, the future of Political and Social Sciences, organized by our department and with some excellent international speakers. I highly recommend this event which is open to all of you.
In February 2013, there will be a 5-day winter school on the Spaces and Times of Globalization, again with a very interesting group of international professors. There are only 25 places available, and some of these will go to international students, so apart from the round table on the first day, you will not be guaranteed a place. However if you are interested in applying to participate, here is a link with some information for applicants.

Lessons on speeches

Hi there
I'm very sorry, before leaving for Grenoble I didn't manage to post the slides from the lesson and the language work we did on Monday and Tuesday. Here is the powerpoint from the lesson.

Political speeches bush_obama from Francesca Helm

If you want to read and listen to the speeches,
here's a link to Bush's speech to congress 20/09/2011
Obama, A New Beginning 4/06/2009
 What we looked at in particular was the part of Obama's speech which regarded the Palestine-Israel issue, and an issue which we will look at more during lessons as we look at CDA and accusations of bias in the media.
For next week I asked you to look for and analyse a speech which somehow relates to the topic of your blog, and try to analyse it looking out for the aims of the speech, the audience, how the speech is organized and how it seeks to accomplish the aim, lexical choice, rhetorical devices ... there's plenty for you to look for. In your groups you can either each choose one speech or each look at one or two aspects of the same speech. Up to you!

Francesca

This week's lessons

This week, aside from having updates on your blogging activity,  we did some vocabulary exercises looking at words expressing attitude and opinion (IELTS Language Practice p.220 and p.222) and I asked you to use some of these expressions as you comment on each other's blogs and also as you write your blog posts for this week.
We also began looking at Critical Discourse Analysis, which we will explore further in the weeks to come. Here is the ppt from Tuesday's lesson.

Introduction cda pid2012 from Francesca Helm

You also should start reading the photocopies I left for you about making speeches.

Congratulations

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say that I was impressed with your group blogs, how you have managed to organize yourselves, set up and post on your blogs and then also present them to the class. Keep up the good work, and remember this week to also post AT LEAST one comment on another group's blog.

Francesca

Monday 5th November cancelled

Hi everyone,
Due to unforeseen problems I have to cancel Monday's lesson, I will explain on Tuesday. Be prepared to present your blogs on Tuesday! Apologies, and I will make up the lesson of course!
Francesca