Immigration Oral TEST + Letter

24.09.2009

Hey,

congratulations on your oral test! you did a good job! All the volunteers have obtained good grades. And as you know, the oral mark is very important in the English class... nearly half the points! keep it up!

Warm up: G.20 is a meeting of important economic nations to talk about economy.
They are gathering (having meeting) today in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
The main problems:
- The environment and global warming.
- The economic crisis.

Here is what the 1st group wrote in the lesson copy book last time about immigration:

"Nowadays, both war refugees and Third World immigrants go to the US.
Before, immigrants had to go through Ellis Island.
They had to take a physical/medical and literacy test.
Either they passed the test or they returned to their country.

= They were sent back to their country.
= They were forced to go back."

Focus on Grammar: Attention ici, la forme passive "be sent back / be forced to go back" est plus pertinente que la voix active. En effet, les immigrants ne choisissaient pas de retourner dans leur pays. Ils y étaient forcés. On utilise cette forme lorsque le sujet dont on parle subit l'action. Le sujet grammatical du verbe "sent back" est bien "the immigrants" mais ce n'est pas le sujet lexical (celui qui fait l'action, l'agent). Ici, cette forme ajoute une impression de victimisation des immigrants.

Deux articles à lire pour approfondir ce point de grammaire:

In the second half of the hour, we started a written expression exercise. You'll have to write a letter from Jacob to his aunt. Here is the subject: "After the events in his village, Jacob decides to write a letter to his aunt Mary who lives in England. Insist on his feelings and project." (200 words).
I gave you a worksheet on "how to write a letter". You can download it again here:

You were also given a vocabulary list of words expressing "sadness, anger, fear, and surprise".Try to use it wisely in your letter. You can download it here:

HW: For tomorrow, learn the words of the "sadness" section (two columns). For the next module, finish writing the letter.

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