Reflections

These student activities encourage students to explore the effects of change on communities as shown by the personal expression of observers and participants.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• discuss themes and issues in texts with challenging structures and ideas
• construct responses interpreting the themes, recognising that texts are constructed for particular purposes and to appeal to different groups
• identify the effect of context, audience and purpose on spoken texts
• control linguistic structures necessary to communicate ideas and information clearly in written and spoken texts of some length and complexity
• discuss and experiment with linguistic structures and features that enable speakers to influence audiences.

Suggested Approach

This student worksheet could be combined with studies of Chapter 3 or Chapter 6 of Reflections

Students should form groups and do either activity 1 or 2 on the worksheet.

In preparation for activities 1 and 2, discuss the issue of change in the community with the class and its implications for traditional beliefs and customary practices, socially and in the world of business and technology. The class should consider why people change and why they may be reluctant to do so. Ask students to think about the ways that technology and global pressures may affect social practices and attitudes in the community.

Support the class with reading, interpretation and discussion of the texts indicated. Students will need to aquire some skill in interpretation as preparation for the script writing.

Discuss typical human responses to the situations in these texts so that students are able to understand and identify with the characters, settings and topics of conversation.

1. Cultural Change in a Community

   Write a short script of an interview about cultural or technological change in your community or in some other setting and perform it in class. What have people chosen to change and what have they chosen to keep with the passing of time?

   What To Do

   Develop a script of an interview with three members of a community (perhaps from different generations) talking about -- or arguing about -- the kinds of changes that have happened in the community.

2. 2 Demands for Change in a Community (External or Internal)

   Write a short script about cultural or technological change in your community or in some other setting. What have people chosen to change and what have they chosen to keep with the passing of time?

   What To Do

   Stimulus material: reactions to the International Monetary Fund's demands for changes in Asian countries.

   Develop a script of a discussion among a group of Asian business people, or a dialogue between an elderly teacher of traditional ways and medicine and a group of young people.

3. Searching the Internet for Asian Culture and Literature Information

   Develop a website guide to inform people about the availability of Asian culture and literature websites.

   What to Do

   This is an exercise in search technique development. Students could be introduced to the Boolean search technique to locate literature from a specific country. A number of search engines explain aspects of Boolean search through the Help function. This technique is best learned through practice, however an explanation of how this approach selects texts is very helpful for remembering the best search techniques. Teachers should check with students once the search is begun, as students may need assistance to refine their searches once they have sampled some sites.

   Refer to the AnthologiesSearch engines page for a list of search engines and guidelines for using search engines effectively.

Student activities