Monday 22 November 2010

Class Work and Homework SPI Group 7 Module C1.1

Lesson 6 - Monday 22nd November 2010 2pm - 5pm

Class Work

Correction and Feedback on Academic Writing Task
http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/32702969/Academic-Writing-Paper-One

Giving a presentation - listening
http://seansenglishclassroom.pbworks.com/w/page/32233573/Presentations

For presentation structure see: http://www.englishranch.com/FrontEndResources/Presentations%20-%20Signposting%20Language%20CO.htm

For signposting language see: http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/presentations-lang.htm

The Spirit Level - listening and notetaking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2009/mar/05/the-spirit-level

Homework:
Start preparing and researching your presentation for next week (29th November)

In groups of 3 prepare a 10 minute presentation on The Spirit Level

Include - An overview of the theory and your views on it.

See http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ for background information
See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/26/response-spirit-level-bad-social-science
for a critical view.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear, Sean. We are Antonino and Margherita of the SPI group 7. We are working on our presentation, and reading the article about the spirit level, we didn't understand the point about the possible remedies using japanese example.Can you give us any explanations? Thanks a lot, bye!

S.B. said...

Dear Antonino,

Thanks for you message. The point that the authors are making is that achieving equality is important and that different countries do this in different ways. For example, Japan is a much fairer society because there is not a great difference between the amount that people get paid for doing different jobs. However, in Scandanavia equality is achieved by greater taxation of the rich. In Japan it's the jobs that are more equal to begin with, in Denmark, taxing the rich and giving more social to the poor through social welfare achieves equality.

With this example, the authors argue that their theory is not a "left wing" idea but also compatible with capitalist structures.

I hope this helps.

Sean

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for the explanations, now the examples are clearer. See you on monday!