Learning English through Social Issues

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Learning English through Social Issues
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What are social issues?

• matters which directly or indirectly affect many
  or all members of a society
• often considered to be problems
• arouses public interests and concerns
• controversial
• involves (moral) values

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Examples of social issues

• Poverty
• Pollution
• Drug abuse
• Abortion
• Violence

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Why take this course?

• develop skills in researching
• more positive personal values and attitudes
• better organization and coherence in writing
• more critical in analyzing gathered information
• more confidence in presenting views in public

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Why take this course?

• better skills in interpreting ideas, information,
  fact, opinions and arguments
• improved rhetoric skills in argumentative writing
• better use of different genres to present ideas

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Content

• Part 1
• Identifying, examining and presenting social
  issues
• Part 2
• Researching and gathering information on social
  issues
• Part 3
• Final presentation

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Part 1 Identifying, examing and presenting
social issues

• Presents the idea of social issues
• Definition of the social issue
• Causes and effects of a social problem
• Solutions for a social problem
• Gives learners the opportunity to consider
  various ways social issues may affect them
  personally, their society and the world around
  them

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Part 1 Identifying, examining and presenting
social issues

• Learners practise reading, identifying and
  writing definitions, causes and effects, and
  solutions to social problems

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Part 2 Researching and gathering information
on social issues

• 1) Learners learn how to follow an argument and
  research a social issue (e.g. conducting
  observations, interviews and surveys)
• 2) Learners develop strategies for evaluating
  information from different sources, and
  techniques for citing and acknowledging sources

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Part 3 Final presentation

• Learners identify a social problem they are
  interested in, and carry out research on it.
• Learners present their work (written and spoken)

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Learning activities

• READING essays, journals, pamphlets, editorials,
  newspaper reports
• WRITING paragraphs to define different social
  issues, the causes and effects, and solutions
• DISCUSSIONS, ORAL PRESENTATIONS, ROLE-PLAYS
• PROJECT

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Assessment

• Assessment will focus on learners demonstration
  of their ability to
• understand and interpret ideas and information in
  texts on social issues
• follow and evaluate argument
• write about a social issue
• analyse and evaluate information from various
  sources
• carry out simple research using methods such as
  surveys and interviews
• summarise a passage
• present a written or spoken text that
  incorporates a definition of a social problem,
  its causes and effects, and offers solutions to it

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Assessment

• Oral and written activities in the course will be
  used for assessing learner performance
• Quizzes
• Paragraphs written on definitions, causes,
  effects and solutions
• Evaluation of information
• Questionnaires and interviews
• Written or spoken presentations