Outcomes Advanced p 121. THE MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION. Extra Speaking

1. Conversation: Talk about the following questions with your partner for about 3 minutes. The pictures are there to help you.

1. Do you think the majority of languages around the world will eventually die out?
2. Do you think that governments should have programmes to protect minority languages, or should we accept that they will die out? Do you like the way your mother tongue is changing? What do you think the future of your mother tongue is?

3. Can you think of any advantages and disadvantages of using English as a lingua franca? Is Globish the Future of English?

4. Why do you think the use of emojis in written communication is witnessing such a huge growth? Is an emoji worth a thousand words? To what extent do you think technology influences how people communicate with each other?

5. What images spring to mind when you hear the word ‘media’? Do you think the media have too much power? Is the media of your country biased?

6.  Do you try to keep abreast of the latest developments in the world? How do you usually get the news? Has your way of keeping up to date changed over the years? How reliable are newspapers, television news and the Internet as news sources, do you think?

7. Which would you prefer (a) TV channels without advertising paid for by a licence fee (b) Free TV channels paid for by advertising or (c) Pay-as-you-view TV where you only pay for what you watch?

8. In Britain, there are restrictions on what can be screened on TV before 9 p.m. Do you think that TV programme content should be censored? How much freedom should the press/media be allowed by law?

2. Partner A/B: Below there are some issues related to the topic. You must talk about at least two of them for 3 minutes. You may be asked further questions about the topic when you have finished.  

1. In Britain, tabloid newspapers, which contain mostly gossip and pin-ups of good-looking women and men, sell many more copies than serious newspapers. Do readers in your country have the same interests?

2. How has technology affected the way we communicate? Has it changed? How?

3. What criteria do you think that newspapers and television use to decide on what news to present: what is really important or what sells newspapers? Explain your answer.

4. Film and music celebrities are accused of using the media to advance their careers until they become famous, and afterwards complain about media intrusion. What is your opinion?

5.  Have you ever used the Internet? What did you use it for? Should governments act to control the Internet or should it be uncensored?

6. Are you satisfied with the way languages are taught in your country? "Every child should learn to speak a second language." Do you agree?

VOCABULARY

post-truth: /ˌpəʊst ˈtruːθ/ relating to circumstances in which people respond more to feelings and beliefs than to facts. Relating to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts. E.g. In this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and reach any conclusion you like. The referendum was the first major vote in the era of post-truth politics. He dubs the current administration a " post-truth" White House. In this post-truth era, science is needed more than ever. The world has entered an era of post-truth politics. His lecture was entitled "Fake News in a Post-truth World".
spoon-feed: /ˈspuːn fiːd/  to teach people something in a way that gives them too much help and does not make them think for themselves. E.g. spoon-feed somebody (with something) The students here do not expect to be spoon-fed. spoon-feed something to somebody They had information spoon-fed to them.

die out: to stop existint. This species has nearly died out because its habitat is being destroyed.

minority language: is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.

endangered language: An endangered language, or moribund language, is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or shift to speaking another language. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead language".

mother tongue: A first language, native language or mother/father/parent tongue (also known as arterial language or L1), is a language that a person has been exposed to from birth[1] or within the critical period.

second language: A person’s second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later (usually as a foreign language, but it can be another language used in the speaker's home country).

global language: A world language is spoken internationally and is learned and spoken by a large number of people as a second language. A world language is characterized not only by the total number of speakers (native and second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, as well as use in international organizations and diplomatic relations. One of the most widely spoken and fastest spreading world languages today is English, which has over 1.1 billion first- and second-language users worldwide.

lingua franca: shared language of communication used between people whose main languages are different.

Globish: Globish is a simplified version of Anglo-American English used as a worldwide lingua franca. (See Panglish.) The trademarked term Globish, a blend of the words global and English, was coined by French businessman Jean-Paul Nerrière in the mid-1990s.

emojis: /ɪˈməʊdʒi/ a small digital image used to express an idea or emotion in emails, on the Internet, etc.
witness: [transitive] witness something to be the place, period, organization, etc. in which particular events take place. [transitive] witness something to see something happen (typically a crime or an accident).

growth: (of people, animals or plants) the process of growing physically, mentally or emotionally.

a picture is worth a thousand words: It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture, this picture conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.

spring to mind: if something comes/springs to mind, you suddenly remember or think of it. When discussing influential modern artists, three names immediately come to mind.

biased: biased (toward(s)/against/in favour of somebody/something) having a tendency to show favour towards or against one group of people or one opinion for personal reasons; making unfair judgements

keep abreast of something: to make sure that you know all the most recent facts about a subject. It is almost impossible to keep abreast of all the latest developments in computing.

up to date: having or including the most recent information.

reliable: /rɪˈlaɪəbl/ that can be trusted to do something well; that you can rely on, that is likely to be correct or true.

source: a place, person or thing that you get something from.

fee: an amount of money that you pay for professional advice or services.

pay-as-you-view: is a system in which a person or organization pays for the costs of something when they occur rather than before or afterwards.

screen: [usually passive] screen something to show a film/movie, etc. in a cinema/movie theater or on television

censored: censor something to remove the parts of a book, film/movie, etc. that are considered to be offensive, immoral or a political threat.

tabloid: /ˈtæblɔɪd/ (sometimes disapproving) tabloid newspapers have small pages and short articles with a lot of pictures and stories about famous people, and are often thought of as less serious than other newspapers

gossip: [uncountable] (disapproving) informal talk or stories about other people’s private lives, that may be unkind or not true

pin-ups: a picture of an attractive person, especially one who is not wearing many clothes, that is put on a wall for people to look at.

celebrity: (also informal celeb, informal sleb) [countable] a famous person.

intrusion: something that affects a situation or people’s lives in a way that they do not want.

meme: /miːm/ n image, a video, a piece of text, etc. that is passed very quickly from one Internet user to another, often with slight changes that make it humorous

social media: interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

viral: used to describe a piece of information, a video, an image, etc. that is sent rapidly over the Internet from one person to another.

face-to-face: involving people who are close together and looking at each other.

interfere: get involved in/try to influence a situation that doesn’t concern you, in a way that annoys others

fake news: news or pseudo-news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.