MISSION
MAKE A PRESENTATION ON THE EVOLUTION
OF THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN OUR SOCIETY
SEANCE 1
Anticipation: Document iconographique
1)What are we going to talk about? Justify.
2)Is this picture linked to the notion of democracy? What is democracy?
Lexique: Speaker/Platform/Audience/Be standing/Around/ surrounding/A tie/ to tie/Preacher/Unionist/A cause/ fight for a cause/join
WORKSHOP 1: SPEAKERS AT SPEAKERS’ CORNER
Objectif: LISTENING (Oral comprehension)
Listen to the file
Voice over: It is for some just a sideshow for tourists…
Man1: I say no to the war, yo, I say no to the war, yo, I say no to the war…
Voice over: … for others it remains a global symbol of democracy.
Man2: It is my human right to speak on the issues which face my community.
Journalist: This part of London’s been associated with free speech for almost a thousand years it was the site of the first public executions and massive crowds would gather to hear the condemned man’s final words.
Voice over: Speakers’ Corner has seen famous orators like Marx, Orwell, Bernard Shaw. This is Tony Benn in 1987 reading extracts of the then banned Spycatcher:
Tony Benn: (to prevent Ministers) and Judges from destroying our inherent, inalienable, and ancient democratic rights.
Voice over: But anyone can get up and speak: anarchists, comedians, religious zealots.
Reinhard Wentz: You can say nearly everything. (You can even make slightly nasty remarks about the Royal Family.)
Voice over: Richard Wentz has been coming here for more than fifty years.
- Wentz: It is particularly important in 2014 when most exchange of opinions take place on the Internet, on Facebook, Speaker’s Corner is still a live exchange of opinions. If you insult somebody, somebody in the audience might either shout you down or punch you on the nose.
Journalist: Does that feel like an important sort of British institution to you, did you say?
Woman: Yes, most of definitely. Yes. I think everybody should have the right to voice their opinion but not impose it.
BBC
A) Elaborate on the following questions.
1.The identity of Man 1
2.The identity of Man 2
3.Speakers’Corner (history of the place, names of famous people, symbol (what does it represent?)
4.Connection with the modern society
WORKSHOP 2: SPEAKERS’ CORNER TODAY
Objective: READING (Written comprehension)
It was the passion, irreverence and air of apparent anarchy that immediately attracted me on my first visit to Speakers’ Corner in 1977.
A little over 30 years earlier George Orwell had described the place as « one of the minor wonders of the world », writing that in Hyde Park he had listened to « Indian nationalists, temperance reformers, Communists, Trotskyists, the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), the Catholic Evidence Society, freethinkers, vegetarians, Mormons, the Salvation Army, the Church Army, and a large variety of plain lunatics ».
By 1977, the Indian nationalists had long since won their struggle, but many of the rest of the religious and fringe political groupings were still there, still preaching, arguing and debating.
The subjects under discussion were then, and still are, almost entirely unrelated to day-to-day news headlines.
At least half the speakers are preachers. Issues of race, religion and nationality are discussed obsessively. The place has changed over the years: the Sunday afternoon crowds are smaller; there are fewer platforms belonging to organised groups, a narrower range of speakers, and the proportion of religious meetings has increased.
Mr Blagrove was one of a new generation of young, black British speakers who came to talk, heckle and debate on issues of racism, imperialism and black identity in the 1980s and 1990s – sometimes in anger, often with great humour – and others with similar interests also still make occasional visits.
Intense political discussions conducted in Arabic are a new feature of recent years: frustrating for non-Arabic speakers, but a reflection of the demographic changes in London as a whole and particularly of the area neighbouring Hyde Park.
Even some of the religious debates can become intriguingly philosophical. This is what genuine, unmediated, public debate looks and sounds like.
In both style and content, it’s quite different from the frequently abusive, often anonymous exchanges on Twitter and other online social media platforms. And it’s nothing like the carefully controlled exchanges of sound bites and unquestioned assumptions that now pass for debate on our front pages and TV screens.
Phil Coomes, Picture editor of the BBC
Elaborate on the following questions.
1.What George Orwell thought about the place. (Who is orwell?)
2.Write about the connection of the indians nationalists and India.
3.The topics discussed at Speakers’corner (the evolution)
4.The differences between Speakers’corner and social media debates
5.The writers’ position on social media
WORKSHOP 3: TWEETERERS’ CORNER
Objective: READING (Written comprehension)
Click HERE for the text
Elaborate on the following questions.
Expression to use : To help people do something, To allow people to do
1.Social media main advantages, uses ( 4 points)
2.The main caracteristic of the real world compared to the social media world.
3.Social media and restrictions and control
4.Social media and face-to-face conversation
5.the impact of social media on people.
6.The cartoonist’s messages about Tweeterer’s corner.
SEANCE 2
OBJECTIVE : Prise de parole en continu à partir des documents et synthèse
A) WORKSHOP 1
Compte rendu
WORKSHOP 2
Compte rendu
WORKSHOP 3
Compte rendu
B)TACHE FINALE:
Make a presentation on the evolution of the Freedom of speech in our society
Use the following lay-out as an example.
Introduction: Link between democracy and freedom of speech.
Development
Speakers’corner and orators (name and
Social media (advantages and drawbacks)
Conclusion
Your opinion
Freedom of speech and social change.
The link between the topic and the notion of power
