TASKS Hate speech
Society and ideas ... arguably, society cannot properly exist without language, without the ability to communicate ideas. The problem is that ideas can also be profoundly disruptive of society. Should everybody be allowed to speak and write whatever they want? If not, where are the limits?
Defending free speech
The material for this page is all drawn from a fascinating website called Free speech debate. Promoted by the eminent academic and commentator, Timothy Garton Ash, it is run by a team based at St Antony's College in the University of Oxford. As the title suggests, it is a discussion site setting out to debate the concept of global free expression – and such an issue must surely be of fundamental importance for an IB course, both in terms of English B and in terms of Theory of Knowledge.
The material consists of an interview between Timothy Garton Ash and the human rights scholar Susan Benesch, intended to explore her view that the general category of 'hate speech' contains a sub-category of what she calls 'dangerous speech'.
Stimulus material
The link given below is an audio recording, so you just need a sound system.
Task #A - Cloze listening
> Print out the worksheet below - you will need to be able to write in the answers conveniently.
> Play the recording, and fill in the gaps as you go (the cloze exercise finishes at 3min. 30 secs). This is good ear-training for the kind of task you may have to do in the Listening exam.
> If you fail to fill all the gaps on the first play-through, then play the recording again - but it is worthwhile for you to reflect on why you missed the sounds the first time around.
Worksheet
Dangerous speech CLOZE.
Task #B - Cloze notes
** This second task uses a technique that I have called 'cloze notes'. This is a kind of 'guided summary' exercise, so that you can practice your skills of summarising accurately. You have a framework for notes that accurately summarise the key ideas of the discussion - but there are several blank sections, so that you will have to listen carefully in order to fill in the gaps and complete the notes.
** Note that the various gaps require slightly different skills :
- some gaps require copying down phrases exactly, but most can be filled by you using your own words
- the section 'Five criteria' makes use of the sequence marker that the speaker uses ("There are five ...") - it is worth stressing that such sequence markers are very helpful for making an accurate summary.
- the notes very largely follow the sequence of the recorded words - but not always: the two 'Important examples' occur in different parts of the recording
> Print out the worksheet - you will need it to write in the answers
> Play the recording right through once, but just to listen and get some idea of what is being said - don't attempt to fill in the cloze gaps on this play-through
> Play the recording through again, this time aiming to fill in the gaps. Stop the recording to think if you want to, or re-play - what's important is that you really do understand the text
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Worksheet
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