ПОСОБИЕ ВИДЕО

2016

GETTING READY FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

ESP COURSEBOOK FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

A news discourse -based text book for studying oral professional communication

Vladimir Smirnov, Anna Uspenskaya, Tatyana Dobrova, Olga Ossipova,

Mariia Kopylovskaia

Saint –Petersburg State University

01.01.2016

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Module 1

TERRORISM AND GLOBAL CONFLICTS

UNIT1. BBCNews Interview with Bashar Al –Assad, the President of Syria, , General Secretary of the ruling Ba'ath Party

Introduction: GLOBAL CONFLICTS AND TERRORISM

1)Give definition to terrorism.

2)Outline the history of terrorism in the 19-th and the 20-th centuries.

3)Characterise international terrorism today.

4)What are the ways to struggle against terrorism in different countries?

5)What should be done to cope with the problem of international terrorism?

Home Task1

Prepare to speak in class on one of the topics below. Be brief and substantive. Your talk should not be more than a minute long:

1)The current political regime in Syria.

2)Historical background of the conflict.

3)Landmark events of the conflict starting from the year 2011.

4)Bashar Al-Assad’s family, education, religious preferences and early career.

5)Legal methods that led Bashar Al-Assad to presidency and have enabled him to retain the post .

6)Main parties that oppose Bashar Al-Assad’s government in the conflict, their background, aspirations and demands.

7)An overview of the international involvement in the Syrian conflict, including Russia’s involvement.

2)Watch the video: BBC exclusive interview with President Bashar al-Assad

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Lead-In

1.What is going on in Syria today?

2.Do you see Bashar al-Assad as a successful leader of his country? Why/why not?

3.In your opinion, if there a party that could rule Syria successfully?

4.From your point of view, whether the international involvement contributes to the conflict settlement?

WORK IN PROGRESS

1a

What is the first question the TV-journalist addressed to Mr. Bashar Al-Assad?

1b

Watch the program and answer the following questions

1)Does President Assad admit that Syria is a failed state? What arguments does he provide?

2)What’s the difference between the interviewer’s and Assad’s interpretation of the events of 2011 in Syria?

3)How does Bashar al-Assad describe the Syrian government’s policy in the conflict?

4)What inference about the host’s attitude to Assad’s policy in the conflict can be made from the interview? What questions/ phrases/facts mentioned can you use as a clue to understand his attitude?

5)How do you see the role Bashar al-Assad has been playing in the conflict?

Home Task 2

Watch the video again and write out all vocabulary needed for your professional communication.

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GAINING THE LANGUAGE

2a

Watch again and make a list of topical vocabulary phrases. Then put the phrases under the following headings in your exercise book.

Group A

Noun + Noun

Verb + Noun /Noun+Verb

Group B

Adjective/Participle + Noun

Adverb + Adjective

Group C

Adverb + Verb

Other / mixed

2b

Use the words combination within the context of the program.

Language Practice 1

3 a

Match parts to build combinations from the text.

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1) belligerents	a) bombs
2) civilian	b) damage
3) indiscriminate	c)	of the world
4) barrel	d) one’s standing
5) accommodate	e) responsibility
6) command	f)	effect
7) commons	g) casualties
8) improve	h) conditions
9) devastating	i)	weapons
10)collateral	j)	on both sides

3 b

Fill in the gaps with words or phrases from the box.

1)Some clauses of the agreement contain ______________________ that can’t be ___________________________ by every state-party and, therefore, have to be either altered or removed from the draft.

2)Global __________________ include natural resources shared by all countries, such as the high oceans, the atmosphere, outer space and the Antarctic.

3)In order to _____________________ its ____________________ in the world, this country should stop trying to trumpet over the international law and restore relations with its neighbours.

4)__________________ bombs and chlorine gas notoriously used by one of the ________________________ must be disposed of as soon as possible to prevent further _________________damage.

5)The commander-in-chief of the army is the one who bears

________________ ______________________ for war crimes committed by his soldiers in the latest internal armed conflict.

6)Heavy bombings and the use of ________________________ weapons cause unavoidable civilian _______________________.

7)Both parties to the conflict might resort to modern weapons that explode with the most _________________________ effect.

3c

Paraphrase using words and phrases from the box in 3a.

1) Parties to the conflict agreed to comply with the conditions they have previously objected to, and have finally been reconciled due to third-party intervention.

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2)Weapons that can’t target militants without affecting ordinary citizens always lead to destructive consequences and cause heavy losses among the peaceful population.

3)In order for his country to get access to shared resources, the president has to do his best to raise his international prestige.

4)Those military officers who are responsible for military actions will have to appear before the International War Crimes Tribunal as their decisions have led to a huge number of deaths among ordinary citizens.

Language Practice 2

4a

Watch again and make a list of the means of expressing attitude towards what is being said. Highlight the ones you have come across in the interview as many times as they appear.

combinations with modal verbs

adverbs expressing attitude towards facts and events

impersonal constructions

emotionally coloured vocabulary

metaphors expressing opinion

euphemisms

4b

Provide examples Watch the episode from the interview and fill the corresponding column in the chart below

Group A. Scan for the means of expressing attitude used by the host Group B. Scan for the means of expressing attitude used by the guest

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4c

Look through your lists of the means of expressing attitude and analyse them:

What attitude to the issue do they express?

What attitude to the partner’s words do they express?

What are they probably meant to conceal or emphasise?

4d

Paraphrase these statements using grammar and vocabulary means from the program to show your attitude towards the fact, opinion or event.

Analyse the first 8 minutes of the program to do this.

1)As long as the government and the state institutions are fulfilling their duties towards the Syrian people, it’s not a failed state. (Bashar al-Assad)

2)Some states talk about that period as peaceful demonstrations period. And I will tell you that during the first weeks many policemen were killed. So, those states are mistaken. Facts are important. (Bashar al-Assad)

3)You tried to offer Syrians a choice between you and the likes of AlQaeda and Islamic State by trying to eliminate the middle ground. (Presenter)

4)I think it was an effective political tactic. (Presenter)

5)The moderate opposition evaporated. You can say that the government and the president are doing harm to themselves. We ask ISIS to attack us in order to eliminate the moderate opposition. It’s nonsense.(Bashar al-Assad)

6)I’ve talked to people who say they have suffered badly at the hands of the Syrian soldiers. I’m sure they are telling the truth. (Presenter)

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Language Practice 3

5a

Focus on interviewer’s turns. Choose some to analyse. Consider the following:

1)How many sentences are there in it?

2)Are they questions or side notes?

3)What phrases are used by the host to exercise smooth transition from one discussed issue to another?

4)What is the question itself?

5b

Now focus on the guest’s answers. Choose some and practice in summarizing them giving the main idea of the guest’s turn.

For example:

Bashar al-Assad:

This is childish, sorry. And this keeps repeating. Childish, why? Again, if somebody who’s against his people and against the regional power, and the great powers, and the West …and survive? How? If you kill the Syrian people, will they support you or will they become against you? As long as you have the public support, it means you are defending the people. If you kill the people, they are against you. That’s common logic, common sense.

Bashar al-Assad:

The common sense goes that if the military forces of the West kill people in Syria they will never enjoy local popular support.

5c

Watch the programme in full and schematize it using the flowchart below. Remember that the flowchart may be extended so that to fit this particular program.

Interviewing

Host __________________________________________ Guest________________________________

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Presentation ( summarise)

Host’s turn(Q1)

Guest’s answer(A1)

Q2

A2

Q3

A3 ( you may continue when necessary)

Host conclusion

Home Task 3

1)fill in the flowchart from 5c.

2)prepare to participate in the event from PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION task.

GETTING READY FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

Processing Discourse Features

6a

Analyse the interview -specific means of turn-taking and steering the discourse. Highlight those means of turn-taking and steering the discourse you observe in the interview. Focus on topic changes and put a tick in the appropriate box.

TOPIC CHANGES

reformulations

discourse planning

stressing

hedging

backchanneling

6b

Consider some 2-3 examples

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