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Students Worksheet

Date :

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 authors 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

Say What or Who the following numbers refer to .


a- 350,000 :
b- 12,000 :

actions

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 !
a journalist

Turner

Le Crpuscule

Carol

a novel

Ian McEwan

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem

Change.org

Alissa J.Rubin

Nenad Djokic

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 elses 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
--------------------------------to be fluent
--------------------------------learn
complaint
--------------------------------concern
--------------------------------blame
----------------------------------------------------------------question
insult
----------------------------------------------------------------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
Arguments For

OPPONENTS
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 journalists 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

NEUTRAL

He/she approves of =
He/she sides with = se ranger
du ct de / prendre parti pour
He /she stands for = tre
pour / dfendre
He/ she advocates =
prconiser / prner / recommander

He/she criticizes/ blames /


reproaches GN for Ving =
reprocher quelquun de faire
quelque chose
He/she objects to + V-ing
He/she disapproves of
He/she warns us against =
mettre en garde contre
He/she denounces / condemns
/exposes

He/she doesnt side with


He/she is unbiased (impartial) =/=
biased
He/she analyses / comments on /
reveals / informs us that

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 ?

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 years General Exam. Feel free to raise concerns about the
level of proficiency required.

Coping? Students in France Just Arent.

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 years baccalaureate
general exam, which requires an intermediate level of proficiency in two foreign languages.
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 Tho. Another wrote:
Were there some words missing? If not, I didnt 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 didnt get the question, but it happens, said Clmence Siouffi, an 18-year-old at Lyce
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 Crpuscule, 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 cant, so the methodology is that the
teacher does the speaking.

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