UNDERSTANDING THE ARTICLE

GET READY !

Read the title and identify the topic .Then take a quick look at the text and check!

What type of text is it ? Tick the correct answer(s). ❐ an extract/excerpt from a novel ❐ a newspaper article ❐ a magazine article ❐ an online article ❐ informative ❐ argumentative ❐ a narrative Identify: the author’s name : ………………………..………………………………. the release date : ………………………..………………………………..…

Focus on the repetitions and highlight 6 keywords which will help you make sense of the article ………………………………………………….…………..………………………………. Making use of the words above , identify the problem the journalist refers to. ………………………………………………….…………..……………………………….………………………………………………….…………..…….…………………………….

SCAN the TEXT!

Now, find basic information about the issue being raised that has become a matter of great concern? Quote elements from the text and fill in the grid.

People Place Key moment actions

Say What or Who the following numbers refer to . a- 350,000 :

b- 12,000 :

Student’s Worksheet

Date :

c- 50:

d- 30:

e- 18:

f- 4:

g- 2:

Pick out elements from the article to give a definition of “ baccalaureate ”. …………………………………………………….…………..………………………………. ………………………………………………….…………..………………………………….

Tick the main “skill “ being referred to in the article regarding the issue. Quote the text to justify your answer.

❐ speaking ❐ reading ❐ writing ❐ listening

………………………………………………….…………..……………………………….

Match them up ! Turner ❐

« Le Crépuscule » ❐

Carol ❐

a novel ❐

Ian McEwan ❐

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem ❐

Change.org ❐

Alissa J.Rubin ❐

Nenad Djokic ❐

❐ a journalist

❐ a defender

❐ a novelist

❐ EF Education First manager

❐ a main character

❐ “ Atonement”

❐ a social media site

❐ a poem

❐ the Education minister

❐ Engish teacher

Quote the 2 “questions ” ………………………………………………….…………..………………………………. ? ………………………………………………….…………..……………………………….?

Pick out 5 adjectives that best describe the “ questions ” which were asked in the exam.

………………………………………………….…………..……………………………….

Test your English language skills ! Complete the WORDSEARCH :

a- Find in the article an equivalent for :

a complaint : to make someone feel worried or upset : confusing or difficult to understand : to deal successfully with a difficult situation: an urgent or emotional request for something : someone who supports someone else’s point of view : to be baffled by :

to be able to speak a foreign language very well / spoken well and without difficulty :

to say that you are not satisfied with something :

b- Find in the article the opposite of : to pass (an exam) :

unexperienced :

c- Complete the chart below with a word from the article :NOUN VERB

------------------------------------------------------------------complaintconcernblame---------------------------------insult---------------------------------

to be fluentlearn---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

question---------------------------------

train

d- Use the context and infer the meaning of : ( “on average” / “cope” /” concerns”)

BUILD MEANING ! What solution has been found ? Identify what the students did “to cope” with the situation.

………………………………………………….…………..………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

About the petition :a- Who was it addressed to ?b- What for ? c- How successful were they?

Arguments for / against the petition . Complete :

COMPLAINANTS & DEFENDERS OPPONENTSArguments For Arguments against

Who should be held responsible for this lack of fluency at foreign languages ? Who is to blame according to the defenders?

………………………………………………….…………..……………………………………………….

………………………………………………….…………..……………………………………………….…………………………………………………….…………..…………..………………………………

.…………………………………………………….…………..……………………………………………………………………………………………….…………..……………………………………………….…………………………………………………….…………..…………..………………………………

According to you, which adjective(s) best describe French students in the article ?

❐ lazy ❐ strong-willed ❐ hard-working ❐ foolish ❐ determined ❐ polemical ❐ bold ❐ critical ❐ provocative

Comment on the journalist’s point of view and on the tone of the article.

Use the below.

The tone / the journalist is : ❐ neutral ❐ sarcastic ❐ serious ❐ controversial ❐ amused ❐ skeptical ❐ irritated ❐ critical ❐ sympathetic ❐ approving ❐ annoyed

FOR AGAINST NEUTRALHe/she approves of … =He/she sides with… = se ranger du côté de… / prendre parti pourHe /she stands for … = être pour / défendreHe/ she advocates… = préconiser / prôner / recommander

He/she criticizes/ blames / reproaches GN for Ving = reprocher à quelqu’un de faire quelque choseHe/she objects to + V-ingHe/she disapproves of…He/she warns us against … = mettre en garde contre…He/she denounces / condemns /exposes…

He/she doesn’t side with …He/she is unbiased (impartial) =/= biasedHe/she analyses / comments on / reveals / informs us that…

WRITE ! Choose one of the 2 subjects (250 words)

a- Imagine the interview between the New York Times journalist Alissa Rubin and the French student responsible for the petition.

b- Write the petition to the Education minister in which you will voice concern over the questions asked in the English reading comprehension section of this year’s General Exam. Feel free to raise concerns about the level of proficiency required.

Coping? Students in France Just Aren’t. By ALISSA J. RUBIN JUNE 23, 2015

PARIS — There is no easy translation or even a firm concept of the word “coping” in French, so when it turned up last week in a question on the national exam to earn a high school degree, it set off a fracas among the 350,000 or so students who took the test.

So far, about 12,000 of them have signed a petition posted four days ago on a social media site, change.org, arguing that the question was “too difficult.”

The word appeared in the English reading comprehension section of this year’s baccalaureate general exam, which requires an intermediate level of proficiency in two foreign languages.

If you had taken the general exam last June, would you have signed the petition online? Why? Why not? Do you think you would have “coped” with the questions/situation yourself ?

The students said they were baffled by a passage from the best-selling novel “Atonement,” by Ian McEwan, in which the word “cope” appeared. Then came two questions about a character named Turner: “What concerns him about the situation?” and “How is Turner coping with the situation?”

Also puzzling for some was the word “concern.”

Students described the questions as “incomprehensible” and “impossible to answer,” and asked to meet with senior figures in the Education Ministry.

“Was the question grammatically correct?” asked a student named Théo. Another wrote: “Were there some words missing? If not, I didn’t understand it at all.”

Many other students, however, including even some who were flummoxed by the same questions, dismissed the complaints, saying the petition made French students look foolish.

“I didn’t get the question, but it happens,” said Clémence Siouffi, an 18-year-old at Lycée Jean-Pierre Vernant, near Paris.

“This petition is bothering me. We had already insulted Victor Hugo last year during the French baccalaureate, so it bothers me to be part of this generation that is only complaining and looking like idiots,” she said, referring to a controversy last year when students complained that a section asking them to analyze a Hugo poem, “Le Crépuscule,” was far too difficult.

The education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, quickly rejected the students’ pleas, saying: “In truth, I was quite surprised by the petition. Because ‘to cope with’ is part of the things one learns — and I am not fluent.”

But the students have their defenders. “This word ‘to cope’ is unusually hard to translate into French,” wrote Carol Just, a teacher of English in France, on the change.org website, “and the English notion is difficult to understand even for experienced adult learners because there is no real equivalent in the French language and in the French mind.”

Nenad Djokic, the country manager in France for EF Education First, an international language company that has schools teaching English in 50 countries, blamed the French educational system, which he said failed to give people enough of a chance to develop fluency. “Language training in France is done in classes of 30 students on average for 50 minutes three times a week,” he said.

“The teacher has to cover the grammar, the vocabulary and some speaking,” he added, “but how can you speak with 30 students one by one? You can’t, so the methodology is that the teacher does the speaking.”