Tuesday 3 February 2015

Advanced lessons: The middle east

Objective: that they are able to learn new language, understand more vocabulary related to this issue and debate it. 

Student gives a sort of presentation on the issue as she has a fair amount of knowledge on it
Discuss.
Visual support of 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/23/weekinreview/20060723_MIDEAST_GRAPHIC.jpg 
and  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/middle-east-explained_n_6056786.html

Discuss, click on various countries, look at vocabulary, review pronunciation of countries and nationalities,etc. 

5 Reasons why Middle East in crisis video. Bbc Newsnight
elicit potential ideas. Ask them to focus on the key idea of each of the reasons presented. Warn about complexitiy of issue and language.
watch video one time
discuss
watch a second time, with cues (phrases), pause and play, check understanding, replay, etc. Help them learn. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjgfnS7qKCI  

Follow up after discussion, writing the ideas of the video in their own words, transcribing bits of it using the phrases as cues, listing collocations, etc. 

Phrases (in a Word doc):




- The 5 reasons explaining why the Middle East is in Crisis are listed clearly. Can you give a brief summary of each of them?
-Pause and play, discuss meaning with others.
- What countries seem to be involved?

Design                                   sat on the foundations                Ottoman empire    ministries      that did provide        be in turmoil                        is in crisis                                         chaos caused by mutation in political Islam (0:40)                    first point in understanding this.
Arab regimes... failed         on the security front        prosperity     absent of some form of channel get involved            Islamism as the only gateway               ideologies embodied        caliphate sweep                        new wave  is a threat to elites and states across the region       
There’s-..... Drop another western construct   liberal democracy       in the current caldron                                this so-called Arab springs is going nowhere
......Be trumped by the politics of identity                old authoritarian ottoman model   ruled by ....            resilience in             the strong men swept away        fragmentation has followed              borders coming into question               erasure of border   by Isis          proclaims its new        Kurds go in the act too pushing forward                   historic quest for statehood                  Libya in danger of fragmentation            ancient ....  largely separate                   are states contrived...doomed                        leaders who aspire to control   some rump state               state as a prime of identity            state survived    hangover of British rule       100-year argument about its existence and borders         conflict can inflame the whole region           
New alliances                    forces come into play                  outsiders are happy to    power brokers                         regional players are key              made itself the guardian of the shear forming a power block             the rump state of Iraq     SA champions...pouring resources into         cash ??   cash a client of the Arab              fighting over control over the middle east    the US disengaging                       binary conflict        Qatar                       

...Makes its own rules too          Take sides    ally with the Saudi block             steer well clear                   deeply worried       turmoil                     likely to stay that way for foreseeable     future            trouble of turning        leading to the birth of Al-Qaeda    transnational jihadi                      a charter flight                      bite Europe specially hard                      going chaos in Libya         could raise energy prices                                                         hit economic recovery                refugees in Syria flee to                        airspaces becoming unsafe        in big chunks of the region         ungoverned space that is also opening up in         potential home for piracy, extremism and perhaps even the next       9/11
 

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